I’m glad someone or something did a good job architecting cloud 9 because I’m floating on it today. Speaking of well architected cloud solutions, I am also now certified to develop cloud applications on Azure! I passed the MS 070-583 exam – PRO: Designing and Developing Windows Azure Applications. I am one Microsoft certification away from becoming an MCPD!
Passing this exam brings me one step closer to fulfilling a long term professional goal as well. I am on a path to position myself as an expert in secure software development with a focus on cloud computing. Security has always been a primary passion of mine. So, one of the next steps in my longer term goal is to validate my knowledge of secure software development practices by taking on the (ISC)^2 CSSLP certification. The CSSLP certification exam is not to be taken lightly, so I’m hoping to be prepared to take it in about 3-4 months.
It all comes together for me when I consider the trend of small and medium sized companies finally willing seriously consider cloud platforms as a solution to their IT needs. Large companies have been doing it out of necessity, but smaller companies should be doing it for economic and reliability reasons. I believe that many companies want to leverage the power and cost effectiveness of cloud platforms, but they are afraid to do so because of privacy and security concerns. On top of that, some people were concerned about the maturity of the cloud platforms and their ability to provide solutions in some fundamental development areas. Those were some pretty valid fears that – until they were addressed at the cloud platform level – made it difficult for small teams to get development efforts started on cloud platforms.
But, the cloud platform offerings have finally matured and grown enough to be taken seriously. Smaller companies are taking note as well and the focus is shifting to the security aspects of these solutions. The core services are there, but are they secure? How do companies evaluate the risks of development environments they don’t keep in house? How do we ensure the deployment process is secure? I see the writing on the wall. My goal is to help development teams address these concerns by incorporating security best practices into the development lifecycle itself, and then educating them on cloud specific security issues.
I believe that once the security concerns are addressed, many companies will see an explosion of development efforts that were previously considered not cost effective become feasible when leveraging cloud environments. I hope to be in the thick of it when that happens.
