10 Steps To a Read Only AWS User
Amazon has released many features in the last two years, but likely no feature more important to my personal peace of mind than Identity & Access Management (IAM). Before IAM, we had two types of access to our AWS infrastructure: none and administrator. It’s amazing I was able to sleep in those pre-IAM days, with an entire team walking around with global credentials. It’s sort of like the President of the United States granting access to the nuclear weapons codes to his cabinet, the congressional leadership, the First Family, and… hey, why not… the First Dog. Below is the 10 steps to creating a read-only user that can view all infrastructure, including monthly bills. Step 1: Login to AWS Console Login...
A Cloud Is a Terrible Thing To Waste
We all know at least one Cloud Dropout: companies that started with cloud computing, successfully grew their infrastructure, and then hit The Wall. The Wall varies based on the specific case, but is in order of likelihood: costs, performance and/or availability. Sometimes these companies make very public blog posts about how they simply outgrew the cloud. Some even use it as an opportunity to grandstand their thought leadership (e.g. cloud bursting, hybrid cloud). More often than not, they quietly transition into a co-lo and leave the cloud in the rear view mirror. I like to think there are two kinds of Cloud Dropouts: those that are right, and those that are wrong. In the right category are companies that use cloud computing to...
Programmatic Access To Your AWS Bill
With the pace of new service and feature announcements from Amazon, it sometimes takes me a few weeks to check out their latest and greatest changes. I just finished playing with a feature they released in June to allow programmatic access to an AWS bill. I can’t quite figure out if my expectations were too high, or maybe I am just not their target audience. But I sort of had this crazy idea that… well, I’d make a REST API call and get my bill back. Instead here is what you have to do to configure and use this feature: Enable the CSV Report on your Billing Preferences Enable S3 service, if not already on Create an S3 bucket Attach a policy to your bucket to grant Amazon permissions to put CSV files in this...
Take Survey For Chance to Win $50 Amazon Gift Certificate
Over the last couple weeks I’ve been exploring the challenges companies encounter in managing public cloud infrastructure. I’ve met with about a dozen technology companies to date, talking primarily to operations and engineering professionals. I’ve spoken to both large and small users (largest was running 4K instances, smallest 20), across multiple different cloud providers. My goal has been to identify the areas in which we as a community are struggling the most with systems management. For those of you who have or will be taking the time to meet with me, your insights are much appreciated. For those of you who want to participate but are not in my direct network, please drop me an email and/or take this...
Cheslock’s Hierarchy of DevOps Needs
In the 1940s Abraham Maslow published a paper proposing a new theory of psychology known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The theory postulated the stages of human growth, from people’s physical needs (food, water), up through higher intellectual development (creativity, morality). According to Maslow, each successively higher phase of development could only be attained by first satisfying the lower level needs. For example, humans lacking food, water and safety are unlikely to be capable of achieving self-actualization. Inspired by Maslow, I am proposing a new theory: Cheslock’s Hierarchy of DevOps Needs. The pyramid has five phases of growth, each reflecting the different stages of maturity in a development operations...
Joe Kinsella is a high-tech VPE and startup junkie in the Boston area.