workspaces
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon WorkSpaces – The True Road Warrior Solution

The next stop on our AWS tour is Amazon Workspaces.  This service allows you to launch a virtual desktop you can access anywhere quickly.  Thus, no more lugging around a laptop.  Now you can connect to your desktop from anywhere.  Even better, you can get to work with only an Internet connection. Virtual Windows Workspaces There are some options available via Amazon workspaces.  However, the Microsoft Windows options have the largest appeal.  They offer an opportunity to bring your license for a lower cost or to use one from Amazon.  If you have a few Windows licenses floating around (maybe from old, unused laptops or desktops), then this is an opportunity to make use of them.  The versions include prior Windows... Read more

simple notification service
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)

There is a broad range of services included in Amazon’s AWS.  The offerings include an easy way to subscribe to and send, notifications in a variety of methods.  This product is called the Simple Notification Service (SNS for short) and we will look into it for this stop on the tour. An Overview of Simple Notification Service Amazon provides a nice summary and overview of SNS as they do with all services.  If that seems too lengthy then the summary can be made shorter.  SNS provides a way to subscribe to a channel (called a topic) and then publish data that will be available to all subscribers.  A subscriber can be a cell phone text address, an email address, or an application... Read more

Chalkboard of words like training and development
Posted on Become a Better Developer

How to Create an Effective Clickable Demo

In this second episode of the Creating a Software Solution series we look at the clickable demo.  This tactic is used to help speed software design and becoming very common.  However, an effective clickable demo is much more than a wireframe.  We look at how to avoid spending too much time on details as well as how to keep it flexible. A Fine Line between Throw-away and Beta We started the series by looking at requirements and use cases.  This next step continues a focus on the “why” of the project.  We look at how an effective clickable demo is a first step in solving that core problem.  It is a visual tool for discussing details and even the user... Read more

Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon VPC – Your Virtual Private Cloud

As we continue our tour of Amazon services, we come to the VPC service.  This service is not a part of their free tier, but instead one of the enterprise-focused offerings.  This service allows you to build your private cloud within their network. VPC is a Virtual Private Cloud As with all of their services, there is an excellent overview and summary page.  You may ask what a private cloud is.  We have discussed the Cloud in prior posts, but only briefly.  In general, a Cloud service allows resources pooled in a way that the hardware is not necessary.  This pool might be a powerful cloud server on your desktop that lets you spawn virtual machines of a variety of shapes and sizes.  It may... Read more