Author Archives

Lou Bichard

Software Developer

Hey I'm Lou! I'm a Cloud Software Engineer From London. I created Open Up The Cloud to help people get their start and grow their careers in cloud. I edit the monthly Open Up The Cloud Newsletter which I think you'd really like. You can find me on Twitter or LinkedIn , I'm always happy to chat. When I'm not writing you can usually find me picking up heavy things and putting them down, or riding two wheels (sometimes with an engine, sometimes not).

Posted on Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Which Is The Best AWS Region For Your Location? Based on Cost & Latency

There are many factors to consider when choosing an AWS region: latency to end-users, cost, data residency laws, inter-region latency, etc. Which makes it hard to unequivocally say which AWS region best for each unique scenario.

To give you a head start, here is a list of major countries/cities in alphabetical order, with an AWS region(s) that’s optimal, based on cost and latency.

The data for these regions is taken from another article: Which AWS Region Is Cheapest? A Costing Report, and locations have been assessed using methods described in: How To Find Which AWS Region Is Closest To You?.

Posted on Monday, June 28, 2021

Which AWS Region Is Cheapest? A Costing Report

I’ve heard lots of anecdotal over the years about which AWS regions are the cheapest, with both Ireland, and North Virginia coming up frequently. But whilst researching the cheapest AWS region I was amazed to see there was no data about which AWS region is the cheapest—so I crunched my own data.

Which AWS region is the cheapest? The US Regions Ohio, North Virginia and Oregon are the cheapest (based on S3, EC2, RDS and Lambda), followed by EU regions (e.g. Stockholm, Ireland and London), then the Asia Pacific AWS regions (e.g. Tokyo and Seoul), and finally South America (e.g. Sao Paulo) which is the most expensive.

Posted on Monday, June 28, 2021

How To Find Which AWS Region Is Closest To You?

You can’t do anything in AWS without picking a region. You can’t navigate the console, launch a server, or even use the SDK. AWS resources have to exist in some physical location. So where should you pick? And based on what?

Many first-time AWS users pick the region closest to them. This is okay to get started, but you should also understand the implications (such as cost, latency, resilience, and regulations) when choosing an AWS region.

Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2021

Where To Start With Cloud Computing? 5 Quick Tips To Get Hands-On Today.

Do you have 100 tabs open, reading about Linux, DevOps, CISCO, AWS, Azure, and wondering what it all means and where to start?

I spend a lot of time talking to people getting into the cloud industry, so I know how overwhelming it can be. This very article started life as a LinkedIn question, which became a discussion on Twitter, and now it’s this post!

Looking to get into cloud ☁️ and have no idea where to start? 🤔 🤔 🤔 After spending the last months (years!) immersing myself in the get-into-cloud space, here’s a summary of where to start… 👇 pic.twitter.com/tcdJ7uWc5N

— Open Up The Cloud (@openupthecloud) June 9, 2021

What’s the antidote to the feeling stuck like a “rabbit in the headlights”? Roll up your sleeves and get started. That’s what we’ll focus on today.

Where to start with cloud computing? Learn a cloud provider (e.g. AWS), infrastructure as code tool (e.g. Terraform), continuous integration (e.g. Github Actions), and a programming language (e.g. Python). Do a hands-on project, e.g. the Cloud Resume Challenge. Take a certificate, e.g. AWS Cloud Practitioner, and join online cloud communities.

Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Is An AWS Certification Enough To Get You A Job? (Spoiler Alert: No)

If you’re in the space of learning AWS, it takes (roughly 😉) 0.3 seconds before someone recommends you get a certificate, right? But is that AWS certification alone enough to land you a job? And if not, what should you do as well?

If this is what you’ve been pondering recently, you’re in the right place. Today, we’ll go through and answer whether or not an AWS certification is in fact enough to land you a job (spoiler: it’s not) and go through the 4 steps you should be taking to ensure you land a job with your AWS certification.

Is an AWS Certification enough to get you a job? No. On its own, an AWS certification is not a guarantee of a job. Job hunters in the cloud industry will need to have demonstratable hard-skills e.g. programming as well as relevant experience and soft-skills such as communication and teamwork.

Posted on Monday, March 15, 2021

Which AWS Certification Should You Take First? The Definitive Answer.

When it comes to looking for jobs or just improving your career in the cloud industry, you only need 2-3 seconds (roughly 😉) on the internet before it’ll be recommended to you to get certified. I’m guessing that happened to you, because you’re now in the market for an AWS certification—did I guess right?

Well, now comes that first question: where do you start? And if that is your question, you’re in the right place, because today we’ll be talking through the AWS certification that’s right for a beginner.

Which AWS Certification is best for a beginner? The best certificate for a beginner is the AWS cloud practitioner, the foundational AWS certificate, followed by an associate certificate, e.g. the solutions architect associate.