Pluralsight Spotlight: Steve Buchanan on Upskilling, Hybrid and Multi-Cloud, & Impostor Syndrome

I recently had the honor to film an episode of Spotlight at the Pluralsight headquarters.

It was an awesome experience and fun talking with Adam Gunn.

In the episode, we talked about:

Tech skills you need to master for the future, including hybrid and multi-cloud, Kubernetes, AI, and more. We also touched on how I landed in tech and how to overcome impostor syndrome to become a successful professional.

You can check out the episode here:

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20th Pluralsight Course Published – “Getting Started with Drupal”

Last week I published a new course on Pluralsight. This one is a milestone as it marks my 20th course! This course is titled “Getting Started with Drupal“. Startups, enterprises and more continue to adopt content management systems at a fast rate with Drupal being one of the top Content Management Systems used.

Drupal is one of the top choices for startups and enterprises. It is used for many uses from web apps, marketing tools, e-commerce, and even a company’s main website.

I have been working with Drupal and other content management systems in various aspects for over sixteen years. I have used Drupal for my own websites, hosted it for businesses, administered Drupal sites for customers, Drupal development for customers, and even managed the development of Drupal modules. With all of my history with Drupal, I was excited when the opportunity came up to build a course about it.

This course is ideal for bloggers, entrepreneurs, Product Managers, Marketing managers, Marketing executives, Marketing consultants, Marketing employees, web developers, project managers, business analysts, web designers, graphic designers, UX/UI, designers, and anyone interested in content management systems specifically Drupal.

This course will take you from little to no knowledge of Drupal to a place where you can be confident enough to get started. Whether you want to create a personal blog, a business website, or an online store, Drupal is a skill you should have and this course has you covered.

In this course, Getting Started with Drupal, you’ll learn its many uses, features, tech stack, and you’ll also explore hosting it. Next, you’ll learn how to install it. Finally, you’ll discover its user interface and general configuration.

Some of the major topics that are covered in this course include:

  1. Core Drupal knowledge.
  2. About its tech stack such as web servers like Apache, language PHP, Composer, Drush, & databases like MySQL & how these work with Drupal.
  3. How to acquire a domain & hosting for Drupal.
  4. & Finally, how to install and configure Drupal.

By the end of this course, you will have a better understanding of content management systems, & Drupal itself, its uses, features, & tech stack. As well as knowledge of how to get a domain name, hosting, and install Drupal along with a tour of its interface and general configuration.

This course is the 1st in a Drupal Path named “Drupal Fundamentals” on Pluralsight. The 2nd course in the path is “Drupal 10 Site Administration”. You can check out the full path here:

https://www.pluralsight.com/paths/drupal-fundamentals

Check out the “Getting Started with Drupal“ course here:

https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/drupal-getting-started

I hope you find value in this new Getting Started with Drupal course. Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses

Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow me:

https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/steve-buchanan

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Pluralsight Author Talk – Intro to Python: The Basics of the Programmer’s Swiss Army Knife

Coming up soon I will be giving my second Pluralsight Author Talk. This live session will be an Intro to Python. I will cover the fundamentals of the Python language and its syntax. In addition, I will give an overview of the Python ecosystem and its libraries. I also plan to touch on how it is used in automation, DevOps, data science, machine learning, web development, app development, administration, and more.

For more information and to check it out go here:

https://www.pluralsight.com/events/2023/fedex-python-author-talk

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19th Pluralsight Course Published – “Getting Started with WordPress”

This week I published a second course on Pluralsight this year. This marks my 19th course! This course is titled “Getting Started with WordPress“. Startups, enterprises and more continue to adopt content management systems at a fast rate with WordPress owning a 60% market share. WordPress is the number one choice from startups to enterprises. It is being used for many uses from web apps, a marketing tool, e-commerce, or even a company’s main website.

I have been working with WordPress in various aspects for over sixteen years. I use WordPress for this blog, have used it for websites, hosted it for businesses, administered WordPress sites for customers, WordPress development for customers, and even managed the development of WordPress plugins. With all of my history with WordPress, I was excited when the opportunity came up to build a course about it.

This course is ideal for bloggers, entrepreneurs, Product Managers, Marketing managers, Marketing executives, Marketing consultants, Marketing employees, web developers, project managers, business analysts, web designers, graphic designers, UX/UI, designers, and anyone interested in content management systems specifically WordPress.

This course will take you from little to no knowledge of WordPress to a place where you can be confident enough to get started. Whether you want to create a personal blog, a business website, or an online store, WordPress is a skill you should have and this course has you covered.

In this course, Getting Started with WordPress, you’ll learn its many uses, features, tech stack, and you’ll also explore hosting it. Next, you’ll learn how to install it. Finally, you’ll discover its user interface and general configuration.

By the end of this course, you will have a better understanding of content management systems, & WordPress itself, its uses, features, & tech stack. As well as knowledge of how to get a domain name, hosting, and install WordPress along with a tour of its interface and general configuration.

Check out the “Getting Started with WordPress“ course here:

https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/wordpress-getting-started

I hope you find value in this new Getting Started with WordPress course. Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses

Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow me:

https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/steve-buchanan

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“Building a REST API in JavaScript with Express” – my 18th Pluralsight Course Published

Another exciting announcement for the new year. I have published my 18th course with Pluralsight. This one is a JavaScript course. It is titled “Building a REST API in JavaScript with Express“. This is my first course in 2023. This course will teach you how to utilize JavaScript and Express to build a REST API for your web app.

Most business apps need to communicate with other internal or external apps and APIs are the most common way to do this. Knowing how to build a REST API is a much-needed skill. And JavaScript is typically in the top 5 programming languages year after year according to StatisticsTimes Top Computer Languages report, so it makes sense that knowing how to build a REST API in JavaScript is even better. This course is suitable for Web Developers, Developers, Project Managers, DevOps Engineers, programming students, cloud professionals, and anyone who needs to build a REST API or learn more about JavaScript.

In this course, Building a REST API in JavaScript with Express, you’ll learn to build a REST API. First, exploring REST APIs, JavaScript, and Express. Next, you’ll learn about JavaScript-based REST API project structures. Finally, you’ll learn how to build REST APIs with JavaScript and Express and test with Postman/curl.

Some of the major topics that are covered in this course include:

  1. A journey into the REST API Tech Stack.
  2. How to set up a REST API Project including how to plan, design, & structure your REST API in JavaScript.
  3. A walk-through on building the REST API, including the REST API code so you can practice.
  4. Guidance and demos on how to test your REST API using Postman and Curl.

When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have a better understanding of REST APIs, JavaScript, Express, REST API project structures, and how to actually build the REST API with JavaScript and test it using CRUD operations.

Check out the “REST API JavaScript“ course here:

https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/javascript-express-building-rest-api

This will be my 1st JavaScript course in a new JavaScript path on Pluralsight. The JavaScript path will be full of additional courses taking you from zero knowledge in JavaScript to an expert. This path has a variety of Pluralsight authors building courses with some of the most well-known authors. I will post a link to the path when it is live. In addition to this REST API course, I will also be authoring a course on how to build a web app with JavaScript and enhance the performance of your JavaScript web app. Keep an eye out for those in the new future.

Also keep an eye out for me utilizing JavaScript and Python apps in my work with Kubernetes and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in the form of talks, demos, blogs, articles, and more.

I hope you find value in this new Building a REST API in JavaScript with Express course. Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses

Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow me:

https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/steve-buchanan

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Selected for the 2023 Pluralsight Author Advisory Board

I am happy to announce I have been selected for the 2023 Pluralsight Author Advisory Board! I am honored to serve among 10 fellow authors.

As a member of this board, we will advocate for authors and help to foster the relationship between Pluralsight and the authors. Serving on this board, serving the authors, and Pluralsight will be an exciting part of 2023’s journey. I am looking forward to it!

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End of Year (2021) Review

This year was another abnormal year with ups and downs for many. Salute to everyone that kept pushing through any and all hardships you experienced. For me, my focus continued to be family and seizing all presented opportunities while blocking out as much unnecessary noise as possible.

Highlights:

I consider 2021 a spectacular year with several milestones and firsts for me. This year kicked off with me being featured in the Star Tribune (the 5th largest newspaper in the United States) in Superbowl Sunday’s paper! Other major highlights included being renewed as a Microsoft MVP for the 10th year, being promoted to an Azure Platform Offering Lead at work, developing 6 new courses for Pluralsight, publishing my 7th and 8th book one of them being my 1st book with O’Reilly, appearing on 5 podcasts/webinars, & speaking at 7 conferences/user groups of them being DevOpsDays MPLS! I also continued my virtual world tour speaking at events in Africa and even Jamaica!

Here is the full list of activities from 2021:

February 2021: Featured as a technology leader in Minnesota’s largest newspaper Star Tribune. Was a full page story. Bonus this was the super bowl Sunday newspaper.  https://m.startribune.com/twin-cities-technologist-steve-buchanan-sees-a-more-inclusive-expanding-future-for-young-minorities/600019839

February 2021: Published GitOps course on Pluralsight showcasing knowledge in AKS, Azure Arc, Kubernetes and GitOps.

February 2021: Presented at Omaha Azure User group on Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes & GitOps. 

February 2021: Presented on Containers in Azure for Lago’s (Nigeria) LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY (LASU) TECHX CONFERENCE. 

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Argo CD Course Published on Pluralsight

Yesterday my 12th course on Pluralsight was published! This course is “Getting Started with Argo CD“. In this course, you’ll learn the ins and outs of Argo CD a GitOps Operator tool, its core concepts, architecture, and how to use it with Kubernetes clusters so you can get started using it.

I am really excited about this course because it gave me a chance to continue sharing my GitOps and Kubernetes knowledge. You can view this course as a continuation of my “GitOps: The Big Picture” course. My GitOps course educates you on what GitOps is. This Argo CD course shows GitOps and a GitOps Operator in action!

Many organizations today have adopted cloud & Kubernetes. Organizations multiple production Kubernetes clusters online often across multiple clouds the complexity of management increases. GitOps has risen as a pattern used to reduce the complexity of managing Kubernetes clusters and cloud-native applications. Argo CD is a GitOps Operator that can help with the management of Kubernetes and deployment of applications to it. Some of the major topics that I covered in the Argo CD course include:

  1. Argo CD’s core concepts and architecture.
  2. An overview of Containers, Kubernetes, Helm, Kustomize, GitOps, and how these work with Argo CD.
  3. What it takes to deploy and operate Argo CD including areas such as user management, secrets, webhooks, monitoring and more, as well as how to use the Argo CD API server, Web UI, and use its command line interface.
  4. How to deploying and manage Applications with Argo CD.

Check out the course here: https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/argo-cd-getting-started

This is my 1st course in the Kubernetes Tooling and Techniques path on Pluralsight. I am working on another course for this path. This path focuses on the additional tools and techniques that you can integrate with your Kubernetes operations to improve efficiency, scalability, and a whole host of other factors. There are some other great courses in the Kubernetes Tooling and Techniques path.

Check the Kubernetes Tooling and Techniques path here: https://app.pluralsight.com/paths/skills/kubernetes-tooling-and-techniques

I hope you find value in this new Getting Started with Argo CD course. Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses including more GitOps related courses and a Rancher course in the Kubernetes Tooling and Techniques path! 

Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow mehttps://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/steve-buchanan

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Pluralsight Author Talk – GitOps: The Big Picture

Coming up soon I will be giving my first Pluralsight Author Talk. This live session will be on GitOps. I will cover a fundamental understanding of GitOps, the need for GitOps, GitOps architecture, GitOps workflow, GitOps principles, practices, & tooling such as Flux, Argo CD, AND Jenkins X.

More information here: https://www.pluralsight.com/events/2021/delta-author-talk-q4

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GitOps: The Big Picture

There is another wave coming. This wave is GitOps. GitOps is a technology pattern and operational framework. It is often used for Kubernetes however is really for cloud-native applications in general. Being that a large amount of cloud-native applications these days are designed and built to run on Kubernetes it is no surprise that GitOps is commonly adopted in Kubernetes environments. If you are running Kubernetes or looking at it chances are you may have heard of GitOps. This is how I define GitOps:

GitOps is an operating model pattern for cloud native applications storing application & declarative infrastructure code in Git as the source of truth used for automated continuous delivery.”  

Well, that sums up with GitOps is but it still is a mouthful and can take a bit to wrap ones head around it. In a nutshell GitOps is shifting everything to code, storing everything in Git, making Git the source of truth, and using an operator deploy what is described in Git in your environment including the application and the configuration. With GitOps you describe the desired state of your entire system and GitOps makes it so. It simplifies operations and makes the experience for developers much better allowing them to work out of a tool they are familiar with (Git). Here is a basic sample diagram to give you a visual idea about what GitOps is and how it works:

So in the case of Kubernetes you would have your app code in Git, your container images in Git, and your Kubernetes manifest files. Now there is more to it and how it works but we will not get into all of that in this blog post. This is a good Segway to purpose of this blog post.

The purpose of this blog post is that I just dropped my 7th Pluralsight course GitOps: The Big Picture! This was a fun course to build as I am passionate about and like working with Containers, Kubernetes, and cloud.

A quick shoutout to both Fellow Microsoft MVP/Pluralsight Author Tim Warner and Jason Alba for amplifying my new course!

This course teaches the fundamentals of GitOps, the need for GitOps, GitOps architecture, GitOps workflow, GitOps principles, practices, & tooling such as Flux, Argo CD, AND Jenkins X. Also in this course, GitOps: The Big Picture, you’ll learn what it takes to adopt GitOps. First, you’ll explore what GitOps is and its benefits. Next, you’ll discover GitOps Tooling NS Architecture. Finally, you’ll learn how to use GitOps Workflows. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills & knowledge of the GitOps framework needed to take the next steps with GitOps.

In the course I give a couple of demos so you can see GitOps in action. The first demo is on “deploying an application using Argo CD” and the second demo is on “GitOps in Action with Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes using Flux”. Another interesting fact about GitOps is we are starting to see the major cloud providers bring GitOps into their offerings such as Azure Arc and or couple GitOps with their services like with GCP GKE as well as create content on using GitOps with their managed Kubernetes services like with AWS EKS.

GitOps is going to continue to grow right along with the continued growth of Containers, Kubernetes, and Cloud. I am all in and you will see blogs, books, courses, speaking at events, and more from me around GitOps as I continue on my personal journey with it.

Check out the “GitOps: The Big Picture” course here: https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/gitops-the-big-picture

Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses! I will be releasing more courses soon on topics around Azure, GitOps, SAP on Azure, & Kubernetes courses soon!

Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow mehttps://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/steve-buchanan

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