About Me

My name is Zach, welcome to my website!

I graduated from Washington State University in 2020 with a Bachelors in Computer Science. I have always loved computers, and anything to do with technology in general. While this is only the beginning of my story in cloud engineering, my quest for knowledge is never-ending!

Recently, I have been interested in cloud computing/development and created this website as part of the AWS Cloud Resume Challenge put on by Forrest Brazeal. You can find out more about the process I went through creating this website in the Blog section below!

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Technical Skills

• AWS
• Windows OS
• Linux
• Bash
• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Git
• Powershell
• Jira/Confluence
• Python
• Visual Foxpro

Education

Washington State University, Pullman, Washington

Bachelor of Science | September 2015 - June 2020
Computer Science Major
Relevant Coursework: Object-Oriented Programming, Software Engineering Principles, Data Mining,
Advanced Data Structures, Web Development, Big Data, Software Design Project, Parallel Computing
Sigma Alpha Epsilon – Web Master, Chaplain, Brotherhood Chair, Herald


Experience

The Coeur d’Alene Window Company, Spokane, WA

Enterprise Resource Planning Programmer
September 2020 - Present
• Service, expand and improve the manufacturing, quoting, inventory control, distribution and scheduling software
• Create data exports for customer service, scheduling, shipping, accounting as needed by request
• Sustain a list of IT projects that clearly defines resources utilized, timelines, etc.
• Assist and advise as required/requested with non-ERP software
• Maintain and service certain shop floor IT equipment including label printers, computers and barcode scanners

WSU Carson College Office of Technology, Pullman, WA

Lead Technician
October 2019 – August 2020
• Delegate technical support requests among office of 7-8 technicians
• Facilitate college’s quadrennial computer upgrade project with budget of over $100,000
• Organize and assign out videoconferencing event requests daily
• Formulate solutions to issues brought up by faculty/staff in a timely manner
• Communicate with supervisors to escalate/deescalate issues

WSU Carson College Office of Technology, Pullman, WA

Technician
March 2018 – October 2019
• Troubleshooted and resolved technical issues for the WSU College of Business staff and faculty
• Managed and supported a range of computers with administrator privileges
• Deployed and setup workstation computers and other technology such as digital displays, NUC’s, and Polycoms
• Assisted with videoconference, meetings, and events ensuring the smooth operation of college functions

Senior Design Project, Pravega, Dell EMC Isilon

August 2019 – May 2020
• Instrument distributed tracing throughout data streaming storage solution for error reports
• Created and updated documentation in conjunction with client requirements
• Communicated with team members to delegate work accordingly

Portfolio

Below are some projects I have created to demonstrate my knowledge and skills

  • Apex Legends Map Tracker

    This is a simple app that tracks which of the 4 rotating maps is currently live in the game Apex Legends. It is written in Python and uses an Apex Legends API to retrieve and display the map/statistics.

Certifications

Blog

Inspiration

The motivation for this website came to me while I was researching alternative solutions for the data storage at my current job. It seemed everything I read mentioned some sort of “Cloud” storage. But did I really know what “Cloud” storage was? Did I know what was happening behind the scenes to make all of this happen? The answer to both at the time was a definite no. So, to get a better understanding of the concepts and practices that go into it, I started looking for easy intro projects to get my hands dirty. One thing led to the next, and I found out about this Cloud Resume Challenge. I figured this was a fantastic way to not only further my knowledge in cloud engineering, but also get some experience working with the actual tools that go into it. And thus, the website was born…

Setting up the Front End

The first thing I did was decide which cloud service provider I wanted to work with. After doing some research, I found that there were three frontrunners- Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). I chose to work with AWS and made my AWS account. After that, I needed HTML code for the website. While I initially thought of coding all of the HTML from scratch, I realized that I could adapt an HTML5 template (shoutout to html5up.net for the amazing template) to fit my needs instead. This not only made my website look much better, but allowed me to focus my time on the more important parts of getting the site running. This was a cloud engineering showcase, not a web development showcase after all. Once I had my website all coded out in HTML, CSS and JS, the fun could commence. The first service I used in AWS was S3. I created a bucket to store my website files, and hosted the frontend content as a static website. Once that was setup, I purchased a domain name using Route 53. Additionally, I used Amazon Certificate Manager and got the necessary certificates to make the site secure. The last step was using CloudFront to secure the site over HTTPS. Once all this was done, the website front end was cookin' with gas.

Setting up the Back End

To get some experience using backend services like DynamoDB and Lambda, I setup a visitor count to track the amount of people who visited my site (It is above, in the About Me section). I created a table using DynamoDB with one table entry that tracked the view count. Next up was to display and update this table entry whenever a new user visited the website. To do this, I created a function in Lambda using Python code that I wrote so that whenever the website was loaded/reloaded, the Lambda function was triggered, and the DynamoDB table entry was updated. I setup both the frontend and backend using the AWS Console rather than the AWS CLI because it was a lot easier for me to work through the process while visually seeing the services I was using. In the future, this will change as I want to start working with CLI’s to make the work I do more efficient. Plus, it makes you feel like a hacker which is a nice bonus.

CI/CD

At this point, the website was fully functional but if I wanted to make any changes to it, I needed to not only change the code of the website, but also reupload it to my S3 bucket so the website would update. To make this process much smoother, it was time to setup some form of continuous integration. To do this I created a workflow using Github Actions. It was my first time using Github Actions for this purpose so it was a great learning experience. I created a YAML file that connects to my S3 bucket using the access key and secret access key. This file uploads my latest changes from Github to the S3 bucket anytime I push new changes my repo. This step was so useful for me, I almost wish I set it up sooner. Being able to quickly edit typos (there are none, my website is totally perfect) or add content without having to touch my S3 bucket is a huge game changer.

Getting Certified

Making this website has taught me so much about AWS and cloud in general, but it is just the starting point. To further my knowledge in cloud, I am currently studying to pass the CLF-C02 AWS Cloud Practitioner exam provided by Amazon. Once that is complete, I will update the certifications section on my website with the corresponding badge. However, as nice as having a certification is, I think it is still really important to use the knowledge I’ve gained on real projects. So expect the portfolio section of my site to be updated with more side projects I’ve completed. I want to implement these to get more hand-on experience with the tools I used here. As for now though, I’m happy with the site I made and am looking forward to working more with cloud technology!