Marcio Morales is the author of Running Windows containers on AWS, 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)?
Marcio: Microsoft technologies and containers in general.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Marcio: Packt reached out at the beginning of 2022 with a proposal to write a book that covers Containers on AWS. However, working with this technology for a while, there was zero guidance for Windows containers on AWS, which is my specialty. I’ve seen customers successfully implement and manage containers on AWS. Still, when it comes down to Windows containers on AWS, there was a gap in knowledge and understanding. So this was a motivation to give them a complete guide where they could learn from fundamentals to deep techniques on deploying and managing Windows containers on AWS.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Marcio: I’ve been pioneering Windows containers on AWS since its inception in 2017 and have made this my specialty. It has been five years that I have worked with this technology daily.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Marcio: Absolutely yes! The writing process is way more complicated than I was expecting. I had all the knowledge in my head, but organizing it in a way people could follow was challenging. My day one goal when writing this book was to avoid topics that wouldn’t benefit the readers. Instead, my approach was to be very laser-focused on the subject. Time is precious today.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Marcio: Windows Workloads are everywhere, and Microsoft did a great job bringing Windows containers as an option to run .NET applications seamlessly. As a result, customers realize that running Windows containers on AWS can help them cost-optimize compute and storage spending while at the same time reusing their existing DevOps tools.
Q. Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Marcio: This is a good question! Actually, this is the first book being published that covers Windows containers on AWS. You will find that I spent zero time on irrelevant topics in my book, and my primary goal is to be laser-focused. Time is precious today!
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Marcio: Understand that Windows containers are a mature and viable option in their modernization journey while simultaneously helping cost-optimize their EC2 Windows spending on AWS.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Marcio: Containers are the new computing platform and have become first-class citizens to host applications. Kubernetes has already proved to be the most complete container orchestrator out there, so learning containers and Kubernetes is primordial for people who want to accelerate their carrier in cloud technology.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow??
Marcio: Not a dedicated blog, but I usually publish Windows containers on AWS blogs in the AWS Blog Channel.
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Marcio:AWS provides a Windows workshop that customers can learn from: ms-containers.workshop.aws/
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Marcio: The Packt team is fantastic! The process took almost one year to complete, and I had full support from Packet at every step.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Marcio: Kubernetes SIG-Windows
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Marcio: https://aws.amazon.com/new
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Marcio: I reserved two to three hours every day after my kids were sleeping and committed to writing a chapter per week.
Q. What is the one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Marcio: Avoid spending time on topics that don’t matter. Instead, work backward from the reader. Would you enjoy reading your book? Would someone skip pages because you are spending too much time on things already out there on the internet?
Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.
Marcio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcio-morales-b9794354/
You can find Marcio’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
Running Windows containers on AWS– Available on Amazon.com
