Brian Gerrard is the author of Professional Cloud Architect – Google Cloud Certification Guide, Second Edition. We got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Brian: DevOps, Cloud, Automation
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Brian: Myself and colleague Konrad where early achievers of the Google Cloud Architect certification. Packt reached out via LinkedIn to help others achieve this goal
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Brian: I had already studied for the examination, so i had spend around 3 months studying already.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Brian: It can be challenging balancing work, family life, upskilling on other areas for our jobs along with writing a book which has its own deadlines
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Brian: Google is one of the top cloud providers and will continue to take more of the market share. The book also can be used as a reference point even if you are not planning on the exam.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Brian: This is unique as it is the only book currently on the market to focus on the updated version of the exam including Anthos
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Brian: Have the baseline skills to achieve the certification
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Brian: VMware vexpert
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Lars: Other than the dozens of authors publishing on This is Learning and This is Angular, I like to read Nethanel Basal’s publication at https://netbasal.com and Manfred Steyer’s publication at https://www.angulararchitects.io/en/blog/
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Brian: I had a set schedule in the evenings to spend 2-3 hours on the book but this was not a set time. I worked around my families needs but was dedicated to spend that time at some point of the evening.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Brian: Have realistic expectations of delivery – it should not be rushed
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