cloud watch
Posted on AWS Tour

AWS Cloud Watch – Monitor Your Environment

When you start using some AWS resources, it will become useful to monitor them as well.  Thus, Amazon has provided the Cloud Watch service to efficiently accomplish this task.  It follows the pattern of being a low entry cost tool that can grow to a valuable enterprise solution. What Does Cloud Watch Do? In the world of odd names for Amazon services, this one ignores the trend.  The name sums up the service very well.  This one helps you watch your cloud services on Amazon.  The tool works in a fashion similar to other monitoring options on the market.  It provides a way to build dashboards, watches, and send notifications.  The tool makes it easy to select from a list of... Read more

aws snowball
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon Snowball Solves Your Big Data Problem

One of the problems with using a cloud solution is getting started.  You have massive amounts of data that are not in the cloud.  However, you want to provide access to that data anywhere.  The AWS snowball service provides a practical solution without requiring weeks of uploading. Snowball is an Appliance The Snowball service Amazon provides is an appliance, not a software service.  In this case, Amazon ships you a device for loading your data.  Then you send that device to Amazon so that they can load the data onto their cloud.  This may seem like a lot of overhead. However, when you are moving massive amounts of data (multiple TB or more), this is a cheaper and more reliable... Read more

increased bill rate
Posted on Become a Better Developer

Increased Bill Rate: Give Yourself a Raise

One of the keys to signing up a customer is to get a signed contract.  When we start out the goal is often to get a long-term deal and lock that customer in.  This approach is great for stability.  However, it can make it hard to get an increased bill rate later.  Here are a few actions that can help open that door to conversation. Increased Bill Rate For A New Project A new project is one of the best ways to talk about a better rate.  The work you bill for is almost always going to change in some way from project to project.  A new project may require a different role or focus.  This should be part of the emphasis... Read more

estimating
Posted on AWS Tour

Cost Explorer – Find Your AWS Budget

The complexities of an enterprise AWS configuration can be staggering.  In fact, the ability to determine your required budget can be a blocking factor in moving to AWS.  Thus, Amazon has provided the Cost Explorer tool to help us figure out what our environment is likely to cost. Getting Started With Cost Explorer The first thing you need to do is enable Cost Explorer.  This is done by logging into your AWS dashboard and then clicking on the billing menu item.  This step should take you to the billing summary page for your account.  In the Spend Summary Title bar towards the top left will be a Cost Explorer button.  Click on this to enable cost explorer.  Unfortunately, it can take up... Read more