To Be A Sponge

There is never an end to learning, it’s an amazing and wondrous thing. It takes lots of time and focus, and it can be draining. Lately, I finish days of work tired, but not unfulfilled! When I am able to wrap my head around something, remember a lesson I’ve learned (after messing something up or starting from nothing) and apply it to something else, when I don’t have to ask for help—that is truly rewarding.

Hosting websites gives users so much freedom to have their own space on the web. Blog? Of course! Portfolio? Sure! Digital collections site for a niche historical site? You betcha!
But some things don’t fit the bounds of cPanel, or maybe traffic varies wildly and you quickly need more resources but don’t have the budget for your own virtual private server contract, or many other reasons you don’t fit in the standardized shared hosting environment. 

DOES RECLAIM HAVE THE THING FOR YOU!

Welcome to Reclaim Cloud

I’m not the first to mention that Reclaim Hosting has been rolling out the cloud-native container-based platform (and certainly not the best at describing it). For much more detailed information about Reclaim Cloud, check out Tim’s The Evolution of the Cloud, Jim’s bava in the cloud with clusters, and Lauren’s Reclaim Cloud: Setting Up An Environment & Topology Wizard Overview.

As we have been slowly rolling out Reclaim Cloud, I’ve been studying up on how Jelastic works and trying to wrap my head around all the new terminology. It is quite confusing for me (and I thought DNS was confusing…), but I’m sure over time it will start to make more and more sense. 

Before training started, I was ready for the challenge. I climbed the mountain of web hosting as a whole in January, in May I began sifting through the archeological site that is Sales, but Reclaim Cloud and all it’s new intricacies? This is a American Ninja Warrior course. 

And then I got stuck on the salmon ladder. 

a wooden statue of a fish with human legs and arms climbing a ladder
not the gif I was searching for, but apparently what the internet thought I needed

By that I mean it was hard. The first time I immersed myself in the terminology and tried to understand this entirely new platform, I felt incredibly lost. I would love to say I was standing at my kitchen sink, cleaning dishes with a sponge, when I suddenly realized I had to become the sponge. Something magical and wondrous, like Al Zolynas’ “The Zen of Housework.” But it was a slow burn, instead.

Even though I just graduated in May, I feel I have gone back to my school days of studying and quizing myself. Taking notes, reading and rereading, watching tutorial videos, explaining things out loud to myself (my roommates quickly learned to not actually listen since they weren’t able to grasp what the hell I was talking about). I strived for exposure. Just get familiar with the terms at least. The understanding should (hopefully) come later. Be a sponge and soak up the water first, then reflect on what that water is. Maybe not the best strategy for everything, but certainly works here!

The training is certainly not over yet (we just finished what I think of as Phase One), but at least I try to be compassionate with myself, allowing myself the time to figure everything out. Sponges can only hold so much water, but I’ll keep going to learn as much as I can! Okay, time to retire that metaphor. 

Yours,

Horizontal and Vertical Scaling Ladders. 

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