Category: College Passout Series
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Cloud IAM Explained: Identity and Access Management for Beginners (Cloud for Beginners, Part 10)
Cloud IAM decides who can do what to which resource. Learn users versus roles, least privilege, and why an explicit deny always wins, across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
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AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: How to Choose (Cloud for Beginners, Part 9)
AWS, Azure and Google Cloud sell the same core services with different names. A fresher-friendly comparison of strengths, free tiers and which one to learn first.
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Cloud Regions and Availability Zones Explained Simply (Cloud for Beginners, Part 8)
Regions and Availability Zones in plain English: what they are, how to spread an app across AZs to survive a failure, how to pick the right Region, and the cross-AZ data cost that surprises freshers.
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Cloud Networking Basics: VPC, Subnets and Gateways (Cloud for Beginners, Part 7)
A VPC is your private slice of the cloud network. Here is how subnets, route tables and gateways actually fit together, explained for freshers with no networking background.
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Cloud Storage Explained: Object, Block and File (Cloud for Beginners, Part 6)
Object, block and file storage explained for freshers, with real prices, a worked cost example, and the tier traps that quietly inflate cloud bills.
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Cloud Compute: VMs and Instances Explained (Cloud for Beginners, Part 5)
A plain-English guide to cloud compute for freshers: what a VM instance is, vCPU and memory, burstable CPU credits, the launch-stop-terminate lifecycle, and what a small instance really costs across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
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IaaS, PaaS and SaaS Explained in Plain English (Cloud for Beginners, Part 4)
IaaS, PaaS and SaaS are three points on one line: how much of the cloud stack you manage versus the provider. A fresher-friendly guide with AWS, Azure and Google Cloud examples you can try on a free tier.
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On-Premises vs Cloud: What Actually Changes (Cloud for Beginners, Part 3)
On-prem means you own and run the servers; cloud means you rent them. Here is what actually changes, with real cost numbers, the egress trap, and when on-prem still wins.
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How to break into a VMware career: certs, interviews and your first job (VMware for Beginners, Part 18)
A practical, no-fluff guide for freshers on breaking into a VMware career in 2026: which certification to start with, the interview questions that trip people up, and what actually gets you hired.
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Build a free VMware home lab: ESXi, vCenter and nested labs (VMware for Beginners, Part 17)
The tools are free again. Here is how a fresher builds a real VMware home lab on one laptop, what hardware actually matters, and a first lab you can finish this weekend.
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Why Companies Moved to the Cloud (Cloud for Beginners, Part 2)
Speed, elasticity and paying only for what you use are the real reasons companies moved to the cloud, plus the honest part: when it is cheaper to buy your own servers.
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Where VMware fits in 2026: still everywhere, now subscription-only (VMware for Beginners, Part 16)
VMware in 2026 under Broadcom: the same technology, a shorter product list, subscription and per-core pricing, and an honest look at where it still beats Proxmox, Nutanix and Hyper-V for freshers.
Architect’s Toolkit
PJ’s Tools
VMware Cloud Foundation
- VCF Documentation
- VCF 9 Planning & Preparation Workbook
- VCF Bill of Materials (BoM)
- VMware Compatibility Guide
- VMware Interoperability Matrix
- VMware Configuration Maximums
- VMware Ports & Protocols
- VMware Hands-on Labs
- RVTools Download
Nutanix
AI & Cloud-Native Platform
- NVIDIA Build (Model Catalog)
- NVIDIA AI Enterprise Reference Architecture
- NVIDIA NIM Performance Benchmarking
- NVIDIA NGC Catalog
- NeMo Microservices Helm Chart
- Helm Charts Repository
- Hugging Face Models
Architecture & Design
About the Author
Dr Pranay Jha
Dr. Pranay Jha is a Cloud and AI Consultant with 18+ years of experience in hybrid cloud, virtualization, and enterprise infrastructure transformation. He specializes in VMware technologies, multi-cloud strategy, and Generative AI solutions. He holds a PhD in Computer Applications with research focused on Cloud and AI, has published multiple research papers, and has been a VMware vExpert since 2016 and a VMUG Community Leader.
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