Thursday, October 5, 2017

'Back in the day' we didn't scale and WE LIKED IT.

 I've been in web hosting since '95.  Back in the day I was the Tech Lead for IRS.gov (1998-2000). We had BIG IRON (hand me down HP K Class servers) from another failed IRS project.  They were big, literally 1 server per rack, and we had to build to support all traffic on Tax Day (April 15th). No cloud, few MSPs, Akamai was in it's infancy.  We had Cisco Local Director load balancers and grew to geographic load balancers (Alteons).  I personally had to forecast peak traffic and we built for peak load. 

Tax Day was always like that scene in Das Boot (1981) where the the U boat is sinking and the hull is being crushed by the pressure. That stress peaked on the 15th. For reference:  

Months of work and worry all come down to a single day.  No way to add more capacity, no way to slow the onslaught of late taxpayers.  To make it even more fun, numerous firms (Red Alert, Intuit, etc.) were tracking and reporting our response times throughout the day. There was no escape.  Just prayer that you made it through without crashing and burning.

Now we scale automatically, by default.  Yes, it's better, but not nearly as exciting.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

AWS re:Invent 2017 - Guide of Guides - Updated

 I'm headed to AWS re:Invent this year.  Hooray!!

This is my first time and I've been reading everything I can to get a feel for the event.  I've been to some large conferences before (RSA, HIMSS, Atlassian Summit, etc.) but re:Invent looks to be a very different event.

Below are the the things I am reading to get prepped.  I'll update as I find more.

Leave a comment if you find it helpful. 
Let me know if you have others to add.
Thanks! 
--David

AWS re:Invent 2017 - Guide of Guides

Guide Source Date
A guide to AWS re:Invent 2017 Vault Solutions 12/19/16
AWS re:Invent review: Las Vegas 2016 and what to expect in 2017 Raygun 12/22/16
AWS re:Invent 2017 Guide – An Alternative Look GorillaStack 06/29/17
AWS re:Invent 2017 insider tips for getting the most out of your week in Las Vegas A Cloud Guru  07/11/17
Start planning now for AWS re:Invent 2017 A Cloud Guru 07/23/17
Get Ready for AWS re:Invent 2017 AWS Blog 08/08/17
How to get the most out of your time at AWS re:Invent Cloud Assessments 9/20/17
* The ultimate guide to your first AWS re:Invent conference A Cloud Guru 10/02/17
From Previous Years Source Date
AWS re:Invent 2016 Survival Guide VividCortex 11/28/16
A Survival Guide for AWS reInvent 2016 -  -  Sumo Logic 11/15/16
The Top 5 Things to Avoid at AWS re:Invent 2016 -  -  2nd Watch 11/9/17


Updates:

  • 10/02/17, A Cloud Guru Blog