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Recently I’ve been intrigued by the potential of cloud computing but admittedly had a very surface-level understanding of the technology and its implementation. Looking to get my company onto the cloud in a smart, strategic way, I picked up Judith S. Hurwitz’s ‘Cloud Computing for Dummies’ hoping it would demystify the topic. And while the book delivers a solid, straightforward overview, I found it to be primarily geared towards larger enterprise IT departments rather than lone trailblazers like myself.
So, if that is what you are looking for check out my full review below.
- Hurwitz, Judith S. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 320 Pages – 08/04/2020 (Publication Date) – For Dummies (Publisher)
A Book That Anyone Can Understand
Right off the bat, I appreciated how Hurwitz drops much of the buzzword-filled jargon that often clouds (no pun intended) discussions of cloud computing. She takes a pragmatic, plain English approach to explaining the different cloud models, services, and underlying technologies. This makes the book quite accessible for those of us who are relatively new to the space.
Where the book shines is in articulating the business cases and advantages of migrating systems and processes to the cloud. Hurwitz outlines the economic benefits of pay-as-you-go pricing models and other potential cost savings. She also highlights increased operational efficiencies, scalability, business agility, and risk mitigation as major drivers for cloud adoption. This helped reinforce my own motivations.
The real meat of the book is its walkthroughs of cloud migration strategies, security best practices, managing cloud spending, and evaluating different vendor platforms and services. These chapters get quite technical and in-the-weeds, providing checklists, diagrams, and specific guidance that a corporate IT manager would find immensely valuable when undertaking an enterprise-wide cloud implementation.
Not the Best for a One Man Show
However, as a solo operator, I have to admit that many of these sections went a bit over my head. The level of detail around compliance protocols, application architectures, and contractual risk assessments assumed a much larger organization with a dedicated team handling these aspects. For my simple use case of getting a few basic services up on the cloud cost-effectively, it felt like drinking from a firehose.
That said, I was able to pull some practical advice from the book to pilot my company’s first few workloads on the cloud. Following Hurwitz’s guidance, I utilized Amazon Web Service’s free tier to experiment with cloud-based storage, computing, and basic analytics capabilities. This hands-on experience helped demystify the cloud and gave me a better sense of the process and potential ahead of a larger migration.
I imagine ‘Cloud Computing for Dummies’ would be an indispensable resource for mid-size companies or enterprises looking to comprehensively transition systems and operations to the cloud. Every aspect is dutifully covered, from upfront virtualization audits to monitoring and optimizing cloud performance over time. Hurwitz also provides solid vendor evaluations for the major players like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and more.
Room for Improvement
What the book lacks, however, is much context around the history, evolution, and paradigm shifts driving the rise of cloud computing. While great for implementing cloud solutions, there is little exploration of how we arrived at this technological juncture or the macro implications of the shift to cloud models. As a relative newcomer to this space, I would have appreciated more background and framing.
The other area ‘Cloud Computing for Dummies’ comes up a bit short is in addressing the nuances and limitations of cloud adoption for smaller businesses and bootstrapped startups. While I could glean some relevant insights, the guidance leans very corporate — understandably so given the author’s pedigree, but limiting for micro-businesses and solo operators. A few more examples, strategies and cost breakdowns tailored to small budgets would have valued.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’d recommend ‘Cloud Computing for Dummies’ to any mid-sized company looking to navigate their journey to the cloud in a systematic, thoroughly planned way. IT directors and managers will find it to be an incredibly comprehensive implementation guide that ensures all bases are properly covered.
For entrepreneurs and small teams like myself, however, the book may feel a bit too deep in the technical weeds and too narrowly focused on corporate concerns. While still quite valuable as a general overview and hands-on starter resource, we may need to look elsewhere for strategies and best practices tailored to our streamlined reality. But any book that helps bring the cloud down to earth for us dummies is certainly a welcome resource.