It\u2019s that time of year to make promises to yourself you\u2019ll never keep. Perhaps these cloud-related improvements will be different.<\/b>
\nTypical New Year\u2019s resolutions focus on personal and professional development\u2014ways to improve. Although I certainly have personal goals of no interest to anyone but myself, I also have some related to the cloud computing profession. I\u2019ll share them in hopes that a few of you will adopt these efforts as well. It\u2019s one thing for leadership to complain about the lack of cloud talent out there (which is the biggest hindrance to cloud computing success right now). It\u2019s another to actively solve the problem by funding cloud skills development, or better yet, providing informal or formal instruction pro bono. I\u2019ll make more time for this: either on-demand video training, formal lectures, or one-to-one mentorship. What is bad architecture? I know it when I see it, but the people who are actually deciding how to configure their cloud computing solutions effectively need better and consistent guidance. It\u2019s time to start creating and documenting these patterns so they can be matched with specific problem domains. This year I\u2019ll try to do better and not keep everything to myself, and make sure to accept constructive criticism to further improve and expand those patterns. Still, any system can be an attack vector, and your security is defined by the systems that are most vulnerable. The rise in edge-based and IoT (Internet of Things) systems that are connected to cloud and non-cloud systems may serve as a convenient entry point for hackers. Moreover, as multicloud deployments become more complex, they are also more difficult to defend. What’s needed is not another round of security tools to toss at the problem, but a rethinking of how security is done in the first place. This means tossing out accepted notions of security best practices and technologies and defining new and more effective models. Looks like a busy year.<\/p>\n