So. Why did I decide to AWS fangirl? And why don't I regret it?
Tags: fangirl, cloud
Published: 2023-03-23 18:23:25

A little background. I'm from Adelaide, and when I left high school, for a million reasons, I went to work not Uni. I am however an OBSESSIVE learner.

Thus, around the late 1990s (yes, old, quiet you), I started the collect em all certificate game. With the whole series of Microsoft Certified Preinstallation Specialist, and highly coveted Cisco exams. Now, these weren't hard, because I am who I am, I did find them frustrating. It wasn't about understanding. It was about memory recall on the Microsoft way.

Many years later, I find myself at a MSP. By this point, I've worked a lot of your usual IT roles, and I've basically settled in the SDLC/Analyst/Change/Transformation space. I'm not a Dev. Or a network admin. My technical experience and background don't totally suck though. I can muddle my way through a fair bit. When you're on staff at a partner, and enjoy working on innovative greenfields goodness, with sick new toys, you're encouraged to certify. It wasn't quite pick a team, but. 

Now, in good old rads, we didn't yet have an AWS office. We did have a Microsoft office. However, it was the AWS reps flying over from Perth so we could co-host diversity friendly days like #she-builds. It was the first rounds of #cloudU that opened eyes to the fact I could go further than foundational certs, and that even I could build cool things. Having ABSOLUTELY been a minority when I entered tech, I adored the active encouragement for people to engage in study, growth, career pivoting etc regardless of where they were at career-wise.

While I'm an AWS fangirl, I'm also a huge Microsoft Teams fan, have extensive experience with and understanding of best practices and guiding organisations through design and implementation of a stack of 365 tools. One of my favourite projects was also a Virtual Assistant for Teams. I believe their organisation collaboration and comms packages can be absolutely transformational. I think the GraphAPI is pretty sick, and the power platforms, and viva lots are cool as.

Because I'm an obsessive leaner, I'm certified in IBM, HPE, Google, Azure, and AWS Cloud platforms. I'm a member of a bunch of innovation programs, engagement programs and champion programs.

AWS, IMO, BY FAR, invest more in community engagement. Now we have an office, we have access to an amazing team of super talented experts. Who, delightfully, are, within reason, just ok educate and engage rather than hard sell constantly.

The range of resources for AWS is insane - between A Cloud Guru, Cloud Academy, and Skills Build, you can cram for free. The Usergroup here is active and fun. The organisation obviously invests in programs like #AWSCommunityBuilders - with everything from tools, staff, merch, free exams, more virtual events than you could wish for, and summits.

They support the #AWSUserGroupADL Usergroup 💯 - we have access to a hardware library, support, they show up, represent, and engage.

From a testing perspective, once you understood the product names etc, and had a clear grasp on core concepts, you can logic through things. It's not two ways to do the same thing, they're both right, now tell me the way we told you to do it.

I'm not a blind fangirl - I'm married to someone who detests Amazon. I'm a pretty big fan of #GCP and there are use cases where #azure is a great fit. 

But none of the other organisations have given me 1/10th of the opportunities that AWS have........ And continue to do, although I'm no longer working for a partner, with a direct line to feed their sales pipeline. Even my Amazon hating husband is shocked on the regular.