Sitting back on a Friday evening, reminiscing about my five-year adventure in the cloud world, fills me with nostalgia and excitement. Let me take you through this journey, skipping the part about how I landed here (that's a story for another day) and jumping straight to the professional milestones that began in September 2019.
Year 1: Diving into the Cloud
In September 2019, I officially took my first plunge into the cloud with a freelance project on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). My client wanted to host their WordPress-based CMS on the cloud, and I, armed with GCP's $300 credit for new customers, was more than eager to help. It was a win-win!
That first year was a whirlwind. I landed four more clients, each bringing new challenges—static website hosting, three-tier web application hosting, deployment management, cloud finops, and small-scale networking and security tasks. These projects built my confidence and gave me a solid foundation in servers, networking, OS, and infrastructure concepts. The best part? Seeing my clients happy with the results.
Year 2: Discovering the Power of DevOps
The second year saw me diving deeper. I tackled two major client projects and a couple of smaller ones. This was when I unknowingly stepped into the world of DevOps, using Docker containers, CI/CD pipelines, and Git, without even knowing what DevOps meant! (More on this in my upcoming DevOps journey blog.)
One client's project pushed me to explore AWS. With my GCP experience as a foundation, picking up AWS wasn't too challenging. Thanks to Stephane Maarek's Udemy course, I quickly got up to speed with core AWS services. Juggling between GCP and AWS, I learned a ton and made good money. By the end of the year, I was wrapping up my freelance projects, ready to step into the corporate world.
Year 3: Corporate Adventures Begin
Joining one of India's top BFSI enterprises in my third year was a game-changer. The environment was buzzing with innovation, and the leadership was incredibly supportive. I got to witness and contribute to on-premise data center to cloud migrations, complex network and security architectures, and navigating stringent compliance regulations.
Working with a big cross-functional team, I sharpened my AWS skills and initiated some cool projects. Plus, I began delving into DevOps initiatives, setting the stage for future endeavors. The corporate world was challenging but filled with incredible learnings.
Year 4: Leading the Charge
Year four was all about driving change. I led cloud cost-saving initiatives and steered application and database modernization projects. These efforts aimed to make our architectures cloud-native, fault-tolerant, scalable, and cost-efficient.
Mid-year, I got a thrilling opportunity: leading a disaster recovery project from scratch in another AWS region. This project was a massive learning experience. I spent nights poring over best practices, enterprise standards, AWS blogs, and Udemy courses. By day, I planned, hosted meetings, and navigated the enterprise's processes. After several iterations and expert consultations, we successfully built the landing zone, got core infra and security tools in place, cleared security audits and performed DR drills for a few apps. This project was a game-changer, deepening my understanding of technology and processes from multiple angles.
Year 5: A New Beginning in Cybersecurity
The fifth year brought a major shift. I bid farewell to my previous organization and joined a cybersecurity company, bringing my AWS and DevOps expertise to the table. The visionary CEO and the exciting challenges ahead were too good to pass up.
I was tasked with building a parallel cloud environment with the best AWS services and rearchitecting the product for Kubernetes, focusing on high scale, performance, and stability. My past experiences were invaluable in designing this solution from scratch. Overseeing cloud operations, managing app upgrades, security posture, vulnerabilities, monitoring controls, and stability—most of which we automated—was both challenging and exhilarating. As I write this, I’m thrilled by our progress and excited for what's next.
And with that, I sign off. How would you describe your journey in the cloud? Share your thoughts in the comments — I’d love to hear your stories.
Stay tuned for my upcoming post where I dive deeper into my DevOps journey!
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