About

Welcome! Like the banner above says, this is an independent website dedicated to providing educational content about serverless and native cloud technologies. I created it specifically for those who, like me, have a background in developing software rather than setting up and running servers and infrastructure.

If you're new to serverless then a good starting point is the Beginner's Overview series. This series explains what serverless is, what you can build with it, and what the benefits to adopting it are. After that, take a look at the Learning AWS Serverless course, which covers everything you need to get started, step-by-step, with serverless on AWS, and doesn't assume any prior knowledge.

If you're interested in how serverless and native cloud technologies fit into broader industry trends, what strategies they enable, and what adoption roadmaps look like, I'd invite you to take a look at the Big Picture Viewpoint series.

Your questions and feedback are always welcome. You can email me directly at [email protected].

If you're interested, read on for more information about me and this site.

John Grantham

Backstory & Mission

Some technology transitions are easy to master, from a practitioner's point of view, because they're a clear progression from what came before. Moving from a language like C++ to Java, back in the day, for example, was reasonably easy. You had the same syntax; you just had to learn new libraries and get adapt to not having pointers and not managing memory. Similarly, I think containers have been widely adopted because the scope of change is limited to how code is deployed, not how it’s written.

Other technology transitions are more challenging because they are a bigger leap involving multiple changes to how you do things. The shift from client server applications to n-tier internet services is one example, where you had to more-or-less change architectures, platforms, and languages all at once. Similarly, anyone who has previously worked only on standalone applications will have a steep learning curve to climb when finding themselves in a multi-system enterprise environment.

I was fortunate some years ago to have the opportunity to dive into serverless and native cloud technologies. I think anybody else who does so will arrive at the same conclusion that I did, which is that these technologies are central to the future of software development. But one has to acknowledge that realistically, learning serverless and the collection of supporting tools and services you need to make it work, falls into the big leap category.

This brings us to the mission for this website. When I was learning serverless five years ago, I found that there was almost too much information. Whenever I got stuck and didn't know how to do something, I would find myself falling down internet rabbit holes full of partial or conflicting answers.

So, what I've tried to do with this website is create what I wish had existed back then. My goal is to provide coherent information that fills in the big picture and builds a reader’s knowledge in manageable chunks. Instead of finding five different ways to do something and having to try each, on this site you'll find one, proven way to do something, it will be fully explained, and you can see it demonstrated in runnable sample code.

This will be the formula going forward as I add content to this site. This will never be an encyclopedia of serverless or native cloud. It will, instead, be a focused collection of learning materials for beginners, along with notes on architecture and strategy for more advanced practitioners. As the work of a single author, this content will of necessity be narrow in scope, but hopefully it will make up for this by being well-crafted and cohesive.

Independence

This site is not affiliated with any of the cloud vendors, beyond my having accounts for their services and maintaining professional certifications. Trademarks are the property of their respective companies, as are the copyrights for any product screenshots shown here.

Fairness & Ethics

Like many people these days, I may indirectly own shares through index funds in the companies whose products and services are covered on this site. I do not, however, have active investments in any of these companies. If I receive a benefit of any kind, it will be fully disclosed. This site will always endeavour to be fair and transparent when reviewing products or services.

Site Experience

It feels to me like a lot of today's content sites are actively trying to drive away readers with their intrusive advertising, or popup dialog boxes that harass you for an email address five seconds after you land on a page. I think a good user experience really enhances the value of content. So, on this site you'll find a clean, uncluttered design, with no obtrusive ads or popups. In line with its educational mission, this site is also designed to be easily discovered and shared. So all the content here is free, and there are no paywalls or registration required to access any part of it.

About Me

I am a Vancouver-based software and IT industry veteran with 25 years of experience building large systems and integrations from the ground up. The work I've done ranges from independent consulting, working with small, innovative clients, to enterprise architecture for programs that support multi-billion-dollar lines of business. My experience with cloud technologies goes back nearly 15 years, with a primary focus on serverless for the past five years.