Happy Monday, everyone! 💁🏻‍♀️

I have 2 main things for you in this post:

Main Thing 1: I have to tell you about something very cool that happened JUST THIS MORNING, as a matter of fact. 🙊 We (Jon Dion and I) finally released the first couple videos on our new YouTube channel, "What the Cloud?". Plus we tell you the vision for the channel and the story of how this project came about..
Main Thing 2: Brief synopsis and links to those first "What the Cloud?" videos!

📽️What is the purpose of this channel, "What the Cloud?"?

Have you ever asked a question about how the cloud works, only to be left twice as confused? If you know what I'm talking about, then this channel is for you!

☁️"What the Cloud?"☁️ provides a series of instructional content to begin your cloud journey, even if you’re never heard of DevOps. Our goal is to make technical content accessible for anyone, regardless of educational background. We also hope you love drawings, because this series will have a lot of those! ✍🏼🎨

📽️Ready to learn and have fun?

🙊How did you come up with the name, "What the Cloud?"?

We have been getting this question and even Jon told me we should make a video of it. (We both like taking a super personal approach with our audience.) And yes, the name really DOES include the ? at the end. 😅 (branding!)

Ok, I will be 💯% transparent with you.

I couldn't think of a SINGLE thing that sounded catchy or fun for the channel name. I had already committed to my bosses at work to create a YouTube channel content strategy for beginners to DevOps/cloud/AWS. I am, as an individual, passionate about finding ways to explain "scary tech subjects" to people who still feel intimidated by technology. So naturally, I wanted to start this new journey by picking a good YouTube name! 😂

At this point, I hadn't even invited Jon Dion (the other AWS Cloud Advocate in our channel so far) to make content with me on the channel.

So back the story.. I kept banging my head against the wall (no, LITERALLY, I was running out of hope! I'm ok though, you should see what the other wall looks like..), trying to run as many different cloud/aws/devops phrases and word associations I believed most beginners to the cloud would google.

I didn't want to use the word AWS in the channel name and I didn't want to succumb to a boring name such as, "Alejandra's Cloud Basics!" ..you know what I mean? It needed to FEEL CREATIVE.🧐🙌🏽

So mentally, I'm going... "What the **** am I going to call this thing?.. Alejandra's Cloud Basics?.. NO.. Building on the Cloud with Ale.. ugggg NOOOOOOOOOOOO and noooooo... ug, but what the **** am I going to call this thing? no really, I mean.. what the... oh! cloud!!.. what. the. cloud.

That's it.

💡Who came up with the idea to incorporate drawings in "What the Cloud?"?

Jon! ✍🏼

(And now you get to hear how Jon joined this quest⚔️. Drumroll please!🥁)

Some time after first sharing this YouTube channel project to my bosses, Jon happened to mention in a team meeting that he was hoping to team more with other Developer Advocates (DAs) in projects for 2020. (He's our Canada 🇨🇦 based DA.) Something clicked for me and somehow I knew Jon would be the perfect partner to start this quest with. ⚔️🏰

After telling Jon my goals and vision for "What the Cloud?", his responses and growing excitement showed me he "got" what I was trying to do. I asked him to partner with me on it and he said 'yes'.

But then, he added.. "and everyone knows AND likes my drawings.. make no mistake! haha!.. so I already have some drawing examples we can re-use and re-make live on the videos!!"

I had completely forgotten Jon Dion🇨🇦 is KNOWN for his tech drawings✍🏼 in AWS world! (He will literally give tech conference talks while live drawing how a particular AWS thingy works.)

So now you know how Jon joined the "What the Cloud?" quest ⚔️ and who we have to thank for making this YouTube series even more fun.😃

👩🏻‍🏫👨🏼‍🏫Who are the instructors in the channel? Can I reach out to them for questions about AWS and the cloud?

You can always reach out to us, we are here to help customers and beginners to the cloud feel WELCOME. 💕

Alejandra 💁🏻‍♀️🇲🇽

Jon Dion 🇨🇦🐕

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jotdion

👂🏽Will the "What the Cloud?" YouTube channel have Closed Captions?

Yes! I strongly believe that high standards in a YouTube production for our customers means thinking about ALL our customers. I want to commit to making our content accessible by adding Closed Captions (CC) to all of our videos.

⏳Time to check out the TEASER and EP1 of "What the Cloud?" !

Teaser

In this teaser, you get to meet the channel instructors, Alejandra and Jon. (Us!😂) We're both AWS Cloud Developer Advocates that share a passion for teaching and explaining DevOps concepts in a fun and visual way that everyone can understand. We also tell you about how we will translate the content to French and Spanish!
👉🏽Teaser Episode: http://bit.ly/what-the-cloud-teaser

EP 1: Global Infrastructure

In the first episode of the channel, "EP 1: Global Infrastructure," we teach about AWS’s Global Infrastructure from the very beginning! We also review the definitions of data centers, Availability Zones, regions, and edge locations.
👉🏽Episode 1: http://bit.ly/what-the-cloud-EP1

🤷🏻‍♀️What if I want to send you questions?

Yay! We're glad you asked. 😃

Besides being welcome to shoot us your AWS cloud questions to the social media channels mentioned above, you can also start a discussion in the DISCUSSION section of our channel..

👉🏽Add to the discussion: http://bit.ly/what-the-cloud-discussions

🔔 Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE

Besides clicking that good ol' subscribe button on our YouTube channel, don't forget to select to receive "All." Otherwise, you will not receive notifications for individual videos we post!

Remember: The Cloud ☁️ is for everyone!

¡Gracias por tu tiempo!
~Alejandra💁🏻‍♀️ y Canela🐾

🚀 TEASER and EP1 of "What the Cloud?" is out! 🚀