Beyond the Hype: Cloud Technology & the Lindy Effect

The Lindy Effect is a mental model popularized Antifragile by Nassim Taleb. It's the idea that the future life expectancy of a technology or idea is proportional to its current age.

In other words, if something has been around for a while--it'll probably stick around for a similar amount of time.

If you want to get better at building and maintaining things in the cloud, learn and use the technologies that have remained (relatively) stable over the past 20 years.

This makes sense for a number of reasons.

1. These technologies form the bulk of the current cloud ecosystem.
2. They will likely continue to form the majority of the cloud space in the future.
3. They are likely out-competing alternate technologies, because they just work better.
4. These technologies are the basis of interoperability.

Below is a list of evergreen technologies. It's not a complete list, but it is a pretty good one.

Linux

Linux, especially in its many server distributions, has been a dominant OS in the cloud computing space. While there have been many updates, improvements, and new distributions, the fundamental Linux OS concepts and its significance in cloud computing have been consistent.

• How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know by Brian Ward
• Linux Bible by Christopher Negus
• The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction by William Shotts
• Learning the bash Shell: Unix Shell Programming by Cameron Newham
• bash Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for bash Users by Carl Albing and JP Vossen

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

IaC is the practice of managing and provisioning IT infrastructure using code and automation tools, rather than manual processes. It allows infrastructure to be versioned, reused, and consistently deployed across different environments.

• Infrastructure as Code. Dynamic Systems for the Cloud Age by Kief Morris
• Ansible Up and Running: Automating Configuration Management and Deployment the Easy Way by Bas Meijer, Lorin Hochstein and Rene Moser
• Terraform: Up and Running: Writing Infrastructure as Code by Yevgenly Brikman

Containers & Orchestration

Containers are lightweight, standalone units used to package software, its dependencies, and configurations, ensuring consistent execution across environments. Orchestration automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, often using tools like Kubernetes.

• Kubernetes: Up and Running; Dive into the Future of Infrastructure by Brendan Burns, Joe Beda, Kelsey Hightower, and Lachlan Evenson
• Docker Deep Dive by Nigel Poulton

Databases

Relational databases (RDBMS) like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle have been around for decades. Even in the cloud era, while there's a surge in NoSQL and other database architectures, the RDBMS remains a steadfast option for many applications.

• Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems by Martin Kleppmann
• SQL Performance Explained by Markus Winand
• Seven Databases in Seven Weeks: A Guide to Modern Databases and the NoSQL Movement by Luc Perkins, Eric Redmond, and Jim Wilson

Networking Fundamentals

Core networking concepts like IP addressing, subnetting, and basic protocols (e.g., TCP/IP) remain foundational in cloud environments, even as new networking products and services emerge.

• Networking All-in-One For Dummies by Doug Lowe
• TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols by W. Richard Stevens
• Cloud Native Data Center Networking: Architecture, Protocols, and Tools by Dinesh G. Dutt

Security Principles

Core security principles, such as the importance of encryption, authentication, and authorization, remain critical, even as new security challenges and solutions emerge in the cloud environment.

• Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems by Ross J. Anderson
• CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide by Fernando Maymi and Shon Harris

APIs

The idea of using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to interact with and manage cloud resources is foundational and has persisted even as the specific APIs and standards have evolved.

• Designing Web APIs: Building APIs That Developers Love by Brenda Jin, Saurabh Sahni, and Amir Shevat
• API Design Patterns by JJ Geewax

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Continuous learning is a fact of working with Cloud technology. Don't make it an unreasonable endeavor. Focus on the mature and proven building blocks of the Cloud.