AWS Cloud Computing ☁️
Engaging in cloud infrastructure, serverless architecture, identity and access management, compute services, and prod deployment strategies.
🚀 Leveling Up Every Day 📈
Publicly sharing my journey learning AWS, DevOps Practices, & Full Stack Web Development.
View My ProgressTopics I'm Exploring
DevOps Practices ⚙️
Implementing the SDLC phases, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Ansible, automation, and monitoring solutions.
Full Stack Software 💻
Building dynamic web applications with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, PHP, and MySQL (MariaDB) databases for backend integration.
Current Learning Updates
AWS: Global Infrastructure
Explored how AWS delivers global cloud services through its worldwide regions, Availability Zones, and large-scale presence.
DevOps: GitHub Repo
Initialize a GitHub repository to host my initial AWS project files and track changes.
Full Stack: Layout + Hero
Built the responsive grid and reusable cards, and designed the hero section with a CTA that anchors the updates feed.
AWS: IAM Basics
Learned Identity and Access Management (IAM) fundamentals and best practices for managing users, permissions, and access securely.
DevOps: Final-Round Interview Prep
Reviewed common DevOps interview questions to prepare for both upcoming final-round interviews.
Full Stack: Semantic + A11y
Added semantic tags, time elements, ARIA labels, and focus-visible styles to improve accessibility and keyboard navigation.
AWS: IAM Group + User Assignment
Created an IAM group and assigned my user to it to avoid using the root account, following best practices.
DevOps: Final-Round Interview (1)
Completed a final-round interview for a DevOps Engineer position at a Fortune 500 tech company.
Full Stack: Mobile Nav Prep
Wired markup and icons for a future hamburger menu and styled the dropdown panel for small screens.
AWS: Zero-Spend Budget
Created my first AWS budget to monitor and control costs, ensuring no unexpected charges. For temporary reasons, I set the limit to $1.
DevOps: Final-Round Interview (2)
Completed a separate, final-round interview for a DevOps Engineer position at a Fortune 500 tech company.
Full Stack: Design System
Centralized colors with CSS variables and added a modern gradient using color-mix with safe fallbacks.
AWS: S3 Bucket with IP Whitelist
Created an S3 bucket with all public access blocked and allowed only my IP via a bucket policy (IP whitelist) for controlled access.
DevOps: Cloud Practitioner Review
Reviewed AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner study materials and practice exams in preparation for the certification exam.
Full Stack: Topic Accents
Introduced branded accent borders and color blocks for AWS, DevOps, and Full Stack topics.
AWS: Lightsail Hosting
Configured my own host using AWS Lightsail to serve content and experiment with deployment options.
DevOps: Rest Day
No new updates for DevOps today.
Full Stack: Rest Day
No new updates for Full Stack today.
AWS: Route 53 Configuration
Paid the $15 to initialize the domain name transfer from GoDaddy to AWS Route 53 for better management and integration with other AWS services.
DevOps: Rest Day
No new updates for DevOps today.
Full Stack: Rest Day
No new updates for Full Stack today.
AWS: Pricing Calculator - EC2
Used the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate costs for an EC2 instance running Amazon Linux 2023 (x86) in the US-West-1 (N. California) region, closer to my current location.
DevOps: Cloud Practitioner Review
Reviewed AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner study materials and practice exams in preparation for the certification exam.
Full Stack: Sticky Header Polish
Refined sticky header styling, shadows, and link hover states for a crisp top bar.
AWS: GoDaddy → AWS Migration
Launched an EC2 instance running Amazon Linux 2023 (x86) to support my GoDaddy to AWS migration plan.
DevOps: Ansible
Review Ansible documentation to better assist me with my current infrastructure as code (IaC) Ansible playbook used for provisioning my EC2 instance.
Full Stack: Multi-topic Card
Built the learning-card component with a responsive subtopic grid for daily updates.
AWS: S3 Configuration
Continued with my current S3 bucket project, copying files from my local dev environment to the S3 bucket that I configured for this current project.
DevOps: Ansible EC2 Playbook
Updated my existing Ansible playbook to include additional tasks for configuring my EC2 instance upon launch.
Full Stack: Card Micro-interactions
Added hover lift, balanced spacing, and typography across update cards to improve readability.
AWS: Cloud Practitioner Review
Reviewed AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner study materials and practice exams in preparation for the certification exam.
DevOps: GitLab Research
Started researching GitLab as a potential alternative to GitHub for CI/CD and industry standard practices using the SDLC model.
Full Stack: Templates Scaffold
Started templates.html to prototype topic pages and consolidate reusable snippets for faster iteration.
AWS: Certified Cloud Practitioner
Officially received the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification today after the highly anticipated passing status.
DevOps: GitLab
Created my GitLab account and imported 3 existing GitHub repositories to explore GitLab's CI/CD capabilities.
Full Stack: Content QA
Configured cspell.json and cleaned copy; unified headings and descriptions for consistent tone.
AWS: Budget Reconfiguration
Reconfigured my AWS Budget from a $15 limit to a $25 limit to better monitor my spending as I continue to explore AWS services.
DevOps: Rest Day
No new updates for DevOps today.
Full Stack: Rest Day
No new updates for Full Stack today.
AWS: Certificate Manager (SSL/TLS)
Configured an AWS SSL/TLS Certificate to establish a secure SSL/TLS connection for this website using AWS Certificate Manager.
DevOps: Rest Day
No new updates for DevOps today.
Full Stack: Rest Day
No new updates for Full Stack today.
AWS: CloudFront
Configured CloudFront distribution to serve website content securely and efficiently via CDN.
DevOps: Branch Design
Designed a version control hierarchy chart for the current version control branch structure.
Full Stack: Performance + Fit
Standardized box-sizing, constrained grids with minmax, and fixed horizontal overflow on small screens.
AWS: CloudFront Invalidation
Create a CloudFront Invalidation to refresh cached content after updates to the origin S3 bucket.
DevOps: Branch Implementing
Implemented the version control branch structure as per the designed hierarchy chart.
Full Stack: Holiday Cards
Added Christmas Eve/Day entries and a festive ID-based styling for the 24th.
Christmas Eve!!
Merry Christmas
&
Happy Holidays!
AWS: Begin Cloud Resume Challenge
Initialize a new front-end and back-end Github repo to store my front and back-end code for the Cloud Resume Challenge project.
DevOps: See AWS
Full Stack: Rest Day
No new updates for Full Stack today.
AWS: Solutions Architect
Launch AWS EC2 instances with baseline and peak load configurations to simulate real-world usage patterns. Configure auto-scaling groups to manage traffic spikes effectively.
DevOps: Rest Day
No new updates for DevOps today.
Full Stack: Rest Day
No new updates for Full Stack today.
AWS: Solutions Architect
Create and configure VPCs with public and private subnets, NAT gateways, security groups, and network ACLs to ensure secure and efficient network architecture.
DevOps: Rest Day
No new updates for DevOps today.
Full Stack: Rest Day
No new updates for Full Stack today.
AWS: Cloud Resume Challenge
Establish the requirements and initial project plan for the Cloud Resume Challenge, outlining the necessary AWS services and architecture needed to complete the challenge.
DevOps: See AWS
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
Create the initial front-end design and layout for the Cloud Resume Challenge website, focusing on responsive design and user experience.
AWS: Cloud Resume Challenge
Transfer requirements to a requirements template and begin setting up the necessary AWS services, including S3 for static website hosting.
DevOps: GitLab & GitHub Mirroring
Initialized mirroring between GitLab and GitHub repositories to ensure synchronization and backup of codebases. Create different tasks in GitLab for the corresponding requirements per the Cloud Resume Challenge.
Full Stack: See AWS
AWS: Migration
Migrate this update website from an AWS S3 bucket object to my EC2 reserved instance server for improved performance, control, and ability to run server-side scripts.
DevOps: Configure Certbot
Create a play within my current Ansible playbook to automate the installation and renewal of SSL certificates using Certbot.
Full Stack: See AWS
AWS: Migration (Cont)
Configure new security groups and update DNS settings to point to the new AWS S3 bucket as per the Cloud Resume Challenge.
DevOps: See AWS
Full Stack: See AWS
AWS: Cloud Resume Challenge
Reconfigure CloudFront distribution settings that were affecting an issue with the SSL/TLS certificate after migration.
DevOps: CRC GitLab/GitHub Repo
Renamed the GitLab and GitHub repositories for the Cloud Resume Challenge to ensure proper CI/CD integration. A single push to the GitLab origin pushes to the mirrored GitHub repo as well. This project requires separate front & back-end repositories.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
Created the initial html / css file for the Cloud Resume Challenge static website, using AWS S3 and CloudFront to host and distribute the content geographically.
AWS: Cloud Resume Challenge / Budget
Review the previous month's cost and usage reports to monitor AWS service consumption.
DevOps: Create Front-End Pipeline
Create a pipeline for the front-end deployment as part of the Cloud Resume Challenge.On push to origin main, local dev files sync to my AWS S3 bucket object hosting the CRC.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
Continued using HTML + CSS to create my digital resume. Completed the resume header, professional summary, education, and certification sections.
AWS: Rest Day
Rest day / See Full Stack
DevOps: Maintain Front-End Pipeline
Diagnose and resolve issues in the front-end deployment pipeline as part of the Cloud Resume Challenge. Ensure that on push to origin main, local dev files sync correctly to the AWS S3 bucket hosting the CRC.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
Finish building the digital resume by completing the remaining HTML/CSS sections. A few more HTML/CSS tweaks and adjustments to finalize the layout and design are needed.
AWS: Rest Day
Rest day / See Full Stack
DevOps: Rest Day
No new updates for DevOps today.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
Fixed a few minor CSS issues related to the digital resume layout and design for mobile screens.
AWS: SAM / SAM CLI
Conduct research on AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) and SAM CLI to understand how to build and deploy serverless applications as part of the Cloud Resume Challenge.
DevOps: Reconfigured CRC Backend Repo
After some misconfigurations in the backend repository, I created a new backend repo and reconfigured Git settings to ensure proper version control and deployment workflows.Upon pushing to origin (GitLab), commits will also be synchronized to GitHub.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
Started integrating AWS SAM for the backend services to streamline deployment and management of serverless resources.
AWS: Serverless Application Model (SAM)
Initialized the .aws-sam package using AWS SAM CLI to prepare for building and deploying serverless applications as part of the Cloud Resume Challenge.
DevOps: Reviewing Architectural Solutions
Review the plan to ensure the architecture meets the project requirements and follows best practices. Ensure scalability, security, and maintainability are addressed.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
Integrated AWS SAM for the backend services to streamline deployment and management of serverless resources used in the Cloud Resume Challenge.
AWS: Serverless Application Model (SAM)
I was struggling today with some configuration issues in the AWS SAM template.yaml file, specifically with using Docker, the SAM template, and the build process. Spent more of the day troubleshooting and researching solutions to get the build process working correctly.
DevOps: Docker
Started to learn Docker and explored its use in containerization for mimicking a DynamoDB environment locally.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
See AWS + DevOps
AWS: Serverless Application Model (SAM)
Review the AWS SAM documentation and troubleshoot issues with the build process to successfully deploy serverless applications as part of the Cloud Resume Challenge.
DevOps: API + Lambda + Docker
Continue testing my Python Lambda function locally using SAM CLI and Docker to ensure it interacts correctly with the DynamoDB table as part of the Cloud Resume Challenge.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
Create a simple visitor count container using HTML + CSS that tracks visits to resume.michael-burbank.com/
AWS: Deploy SAM template
Configured the last remaining settings and resolved build issues to successfully deploy the AWS SAM template for the Cloud Resume Challenge. This includes setting up the necessary IAM roles, policies, and environment variables for the Lambda function to interact with the on demand DynamoDB table.
DevOps: API + Lambda + Docker
Continue working on the RESTful API integration with Lambda and Docker to enhance the Cloud Resume Challenge project.
Full Stack: Cloud Resume Challenge
See AWS + DevOps
AWS: Rest Day
No new updates for AWS today.
DevOps: Rest Day
No new updates for DevOps today.
Full Stack: Rest Day
No new updates for Full Stack today.
AWS: Rest Day
See Full Stack.
DevOps: Rest Day
See Full Stack.
Full Stack: Rest Api
Fix a bug in the REST API integration that was causing incorrect data retrieval.
AWS: CRC Backend
Troubleshot and resolved issues with the backend deployment of the Cloud Resume Challenge, ensuring that the Lambda function and DynamoDB table are functioning correctly, while ensuring front-end and back-end integration is seamless.
DevOps: Git Branch Management
Cleaned up old branches and organized the repository for better collaboration.
Full Stack: Rest Api
Debugged the REST API integration to resolve data API endpoint issues. Solved the problem by identifying and fixing incorrect endpoint URLs and improving error handling.
AWS: CRC
See Full Stack.
DevOps: CRC
See Full Stack.
Full Stack: Fix Mobile Responsiveness
Improved the mobile responsiveness of the application by adjusting CSS media queries and layout components to ensure a better user experience on various devices.