The challenges and benefits of a developer migrating to cloud-based technology.

Martín Valencia Flores, Platform Engineer at anynines, was hired after graduating from the Autonomous University of Baja California. Part of his duties includes interacting with the automation and the brokering of services, which are a part of the backbone of a Cloud system with a focus on self-service.

Right out of the gate, Flores’ outlook changed, mostly because, “…The major change for me was…the deployment process because I was used to just creating some quality control and, if needed, I would join and go machine by machine and dealing with: I hope this is the correct image, I hope this doesn’t have some weird hardware that we weren’t made aware of.” Flores continues, “But then I got to the cloud ecosystem where everything is continuous, where I cannot say I’m just responsible for this and bye bye.” As Platform Engineer with anynines, Flores was met with a whole new process that had him in awe of how straightforward and involved he could be.

Another thing that changed Flores’ outlook, during his onboarding, was the introduction to the 12-Factor App Manifesto. To this, Flores says, “At the first glance, it was quite impressive how it just made sense. And the more I kept reading, the more it resonated with some of the best practices that I already either had acquired working before in other environments or, as I said, they just simply made sense.”

Flores offers some sound advice to developers wanting to migrate to cloud technologies. One of the biggest challenges to comprehend was the topic of data security and compliance. To that, he says, “…The cloud system takes [security] to a whole new level where you get freedom and responsibilities that go hand in hand, which are, quite frankly, a bit intimidating at first, but also welcoming in the fact that it’s something that is clearly defined.”

Flores talks highly of the healthy and diverse community within cloud development and says, “wherever you look, there is someone that perhaps ran into the same issue, and oh, well, you can use my solution with this.”

His last piece of advice: “…It’s not only a growing experience for the newcomer, but for the senior mentor itself, from the interpersonal abilities to think outside of what you already molded for yourself, like looking beyond your own nose for a change.”