Topic
Beginner
28 articles on beginner.
- Providers
Moving to DigitalOcean: a business owner's guide
What DigitalOcean does well, the six services you'll actually use, honest pricing with worked numbers, and the point where teams outgrow it.
- Providers
How to choose a cloud provider
A vendor-neutral framework for picking between AWS, Azure, GCP, DigitalOcean, and OCI: five factors, a decision table, and why multi-cloud can wait.
- Guides
Cloud backup and disaster recovery, explained
Backup vs DR, what RPO and RTO really mean, the four strategy tiers from backup-restore to hot standby, honest cost tradeoffs, and how to test any of it.
- Guides
How to set up a VPC (cloud networking basics)
CIDR planning, public and private subnets across availability zones, route tables, NAT, and security groups. The network layout that works on AWS, Azure, and GCP.
- Security
Cloud compliance: SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR, explained
What SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR each require, what your cloud provider covers versus what you own, data residency, BAAs, and a realistic path to compliance.
- Security
Cloud IAM best practices: least privilege that actually holds
How to set up cloud IAM properly: least-privilege roles, MFA, SSO, no long-lived keys, service accounts for workloads, and a quarterly audit habit.
- Glossary
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A CDN caches your content on servers near your users so it loads fast worldwide. Plain-terms definition, provider names, and why it matters in a migration.
- Glossary
Containers & Docker
A container packages an app with everything it needs to run anywhere; Docker made it standard. What that means and why it matters for cloud migration.
- Glossary
High availability
High availability means a system keeps serving users when components fail. What the nines mean, how clouds deliver HA, and what it costs in a migration.
- Glossary
IAM (Identity and Access Management)
IAM is the cloud service that controls who can do what in your account. Plain-terms definition, provider names, and why it matters when you migrate.
- Glossary
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
IaC means defining cloud infrastructure in version-controlled files a tool applies automatically. What it is, the main tools, and why migrations rely on it.
- Glossary
Managed database
A managed database is one the cloud provider runs for you: patching, backups, failover. What it covers, what it costs, and why it matters when you migrate.
- Providers
Moving to AWS: a business owner's guide
What AWS is actually good at, the five services you'll really use, the pricing gotchas, and when AWS is the right pick, from engineers who migrate for a living.
- Providers
Moving to Microsoft Azure: a business owner's guide
When Azure is the right cloud, especially for Microsoft shops, the core services you'll use, hybrid licensing savings, real pricing gotchas, and how the migration goes.
- Providers
Moving to Google Cloud: a business owner's guide
When Google Cloud is the right pick, data, AI, and Kubernetes-first teams, the core services you'll use, pricing behavior, and how a GCP migration actually goes.
- Playbooks
Cloud Migration Strategy: The 6 Rs, and How to Pick One per Application
Rehost, replatform, repurchase, refactor, retire, retain, what each migration strategy costs, when it applies, and how to assign one to every app.
- Playbooks
A Step-by-Step Cloud Migration Roadmap (with Checklists)
A phase-by-phase cloud migration roadmap, assess, plan, pilot, migrate, optimize, with a checklist for each phase and realistic timelines.
- Cost
9 ways to avoid cloud bill shock
Nine concrete ways to stop surprise cloud bills: budgets and alerts, egress traps, idle resources, rightsizing, commitments, and dev environments left on.
- Security
The shared responsibility model: which half of cloud security is yours
Who secures what in the cloud: the provider secures the platform, you secure everything you put on it. The IaaS/PaaS/SaaS split, and the misconfigurations behind most breaches.
- Security
Secure your first cloud account in an afternoon: the 10-point checklist
Ten controls to set before anything ships in a new AWS, Azure, or GCP account: root lockdown, MFA, least-privilege access, audit logging, blocked public storage, billing alerts.
- Glossary
Autoscaling
Autoscaling adds compute capacity when demand rises and removes it when demand falls, automatically. What it is, how it works, and what it changes when you migrate.
- Glossary
Cloud migration
Cloud migration is moving your applications and data from your own servers onto a cloud provider. Plain-terms definition, a real example, and what decides success.
- Glossary
IaaS, PaaS & SaaS
IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS defined in plain terms: what you manage vs. what the provider manages at each level, with real examples and why it matters for migration.
- Glossary
Region & Availability Zone
A region is a geographic cluster of cloud data centres; an availability zone is one isolated data centre inside it. What each means and how to choose when you migrate.
- Glossary
Object storage
Object storage holds files as objects in buckets, accessed over HTTP, cheap, durable, effectively unlimited. Plain definition, a real example, and migration relevance.
- Glossary
Serverless
Serverless runs your code without any servers to manage, the provider handles capacity and you pay per use. Plain definition, a real example, and migration fit.
- Glossary
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
A VPC is your logically isolated private network inside a public cloud. Plain-terms definition, a real example, and why it matters when you migrate.
- Glossary
Load balancer
A load balancer spreads incoming traffic across multiple servers so one failure never takes you down. Plain definition, a real example, and why it anchors a migration.