For many moons, importing existing infrastructure (that is to say, infrastructure running outside of Terraform state), has not been a trivial task. Historically, Terraform did not generate any configuration. You would have to write the infrastructure-as-code in a manner that reflects how it was deployed. Then, to make matters not easier, you would fetch the ‘ol shovel and dig out the unique resource identifiers to feed through the command line. Handling a single resource in this manner is pretty simple.

What fits somewhere in between re:Invent and Community Day events? That would be the AWS Summits! This year, I got to experience a double dose of fun by representing Alkira at our booth and presenting at the AWS Community Developer Lounge. I may be biased, but I believe the Alkira team is the best in the world. It was a blast getting to talk about cloud networking with event attendees while getting a glimpse of how the public sector is adapting to change.

I recently wrote a blog about generating Terraform with ChatGPT. In that experiment, I was using GPT-3.5. It didn’t take much to trip up the galactic AI in many of the experiments I did with Terraform and beyond. According to OpenAI GPT-4 soars past its predecessor in its advanced reasoning capabilities. Let’s use this model to build code in Python and Go. How will the super titan fair in the Sysadmin arena?

Usually, when it comes to technology, my grandmother doesn’t know much because she doesn’t care. What is the cloud? How to install a new browser on her laptop? What is 2FA? I might be speaking French to her as I discuss these things. Yet, she knows what ChatGPT is. This shows the vast amount of publicity, hype, and polarization that has ensued since November 2022. I tend to avoid AI fear-mongering and focus more on, how could a tool like this help enhance my daily grind?

In Part 1, we talked about the origins of the Site-to-Site VPN Service in AWS. As consumers began to scale in the early days, they faced tunnel sprawl, performance constraints, and the need for a simplified design. AWS responded with Transit Gateway. How did Transit Gateway simplify architecture leading to smoother operations, better network performance, and a scalable blueprint for the future network? Intro Pre Transit Gateway Security teams in the early days would often balk at the idea of using VPC peering without having a centralized transit hub (where the hybrid connectivity was landed).

At the end of each year, I take some time for self-reflection. Looking back through 2022 gave me a colossal reminder of how vital teams, communities, and leaders are. Take hockey for instance. You have certain athletes, often referred to as generational players that carry unmatched individual talent and get selected first overall in the NHL Draft. These players are weekly highlight reels, yet, without the right system, coaches, and team, they will never lift the Stanley Cup.