TechEX 24 Cloud Curious

[Bob Flynn <>]

Welcome!

 

I am Bob Flynn, program manager for cloud infrastructure & platform services at Internet2. TechEx 2024 is underway and I am your guide for the Cloud Technology track. 

 

During TechEx I’ll be writing with updates on the Cloud Track. I’ll highlight a session or two each day. It will be hard to choose only a couple to highlight because we have so many amazing topics in store for you (and me).

 

If you don’t think you can handle three days of my shameless enthusiasm for the work you and your peers in the community are doing with hyper-scale technologies, write to me at and I’ll drop you off the list. No judgment.

 

Join the Conversation

I’ve set up the #tx24-cloud channel over on Internet2 Slack and added most of you to it. We’ll use the channel during TechEx week for discussion about the sessions, questions for your peers, general cloud curiosity, and pretty much anything else except sales pitches. The channel is not a place for business. That’s what hallways and the vendor area are for. Thanks for respecting that and thanks most of all for being a part of the cloud conversation! If you did not get an invitation or cannot find it, drop me a note at or catch up with me between sessions. (If you were added to the Slack channel and don’t want to be on it, feel free to remove yourself or ask me and I’ll do it for you.)

 

Monday Cloud Tutorials

I looked back at my notes from TechEX 23 and we had two Cloud tutorials last year in Minneapolis. This year there were six! I attended two of them and heard great things from people who attended some of the others. It was amazing to see not only the number of quality workshops, but the number of people attending them! I hope to see that grow again next year.

 

TechEx Week

Each morning (because I stay up way too late writing these) I try to write up a preview of the day ahead and a little recap of the day before. When you attend the Cloud sessions at TechEx don’t just take in the information, but reach out and connect with cloud colleagues, new and old, from around the world. We all have a lot to learn from each other, and not all the knowledge will be up on the screen.

 

Tuesday in the Cloud Track

Thought for Food

The first full day of TechEX features the Newcomers Breakfast. This is where we put out table signs to indicate tracks or themes so we can sit with others who share an interest and talk with our mouths full. It’s a time-honored tradition you don’t want to miss. Look for me at the Cloud tables. I hope to be joined by my Cloud track chairs, all, of course, except for the one flying in from the West Coast for whom it will still be yesterday. 

 

Cloud Call-outs

I guess it should come as no surprise that themes seem to form in the cloud track topics. Sometimes we are just going through the same thing at the same time. It will shock absolutely no one that AI is on the menu, but not until Wednesday. On Tuesday the daily special appears to be migration. 

 

Firing us out of the starting gate is Rocking the Cloud Migration to AWS with at least one member of the team that tied for first place in Monday’s AWS GameDay. You won’t need that morning cup of coffee when the LMU team turns it up to 11 as they describe both what drove them out of their data center and how they did it.

 

It’s not all migration all day though, there is automated application deployment, VPC management, and the succinctly titled How we intentionally (mostly) wound up building a large cloud team, without ever hiring or creating a cloud engineer. with Virginia’s Damian Doyle talking about another school. 

 

Full Tuesday Schedule

 All sessions are held in Salon E (4th Fl) unless otherwise indicated.

 

9:00-9:50	Rocking the Cloud Migration to AWS
9:50-10:20	REFRESHMENT BREAK
10:20-11:10	Migrating Cloud-resistant workloads
11:20-12:10	Rapid and Automated Application Deployment
12:10-1:40	LUNCH
1:40-2:30	How we intentionally (mostly) wound up building a large cloud team, without every hiring or creating a cloud engineer.
2:40-3:30	Navigating the Cloud: Aligning Essential Roles for Successful Data Center Exit at UCOP
3:30-4:00	REFRESHMENT BREAK
4:00-4:25	Scalable Management of AWS VPCs (Salon G 4th Fl)

 

Final Words

If you are a TechEx first-timer and you missed the TX101 session Monday afternoon, here’s the key take-away. There is a LOT of great information and there are a lot of great conversations in store for you. You can go to any track and any session and you will learn something. But if you want to have some fun while doing it, you will find the Cloud Track a feast for your mind and for your heart.

 

I talk to so many of you over the course of the year on Zoom, Meet, or email. Please take a moment to stop me and say hello help me cement a name to a face for next time.

 

I look forward to sharing a great week with you!

 

Bob Flynn (he/him/his)

Program Manager

Cloud Infrastructure & Platform Services

Internet2 NET+ Services

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