Titan CloudEducation

My Story

From Barista to Cloud Engineering.

No tech background, no mentor, no plan. This is the real version of how I got here, mistakes included, so you can skip the expensive ones.

Jaaziel, founder of Titan Cloud Education
DevSecOps EngineerU.S. government cloud 6 CertificationsAZ-400 · AZ-305 · Sec+ 18 MonthsBarista to cloud Home Lab → AzureBuilt it, then migrated it
Barista to cloud engineer in 18 months, no tech background — video thumbnail

The Short Version

It started with a small spark.

I was making coffee. My manager had a tech problem nobody could figure out, and I fixed it. Soon I was handling scheduling and bookings in Excel and email on the side. That was the first time I realized I was actually good at this.

What I didn't have was a roadmap. I paid for school before I had a plan, took the first IT job I could get, and learned most of it the hard way. Titan Cloud is the roadmap I wish someone had handed me.

Watch the Full Story

The Roadmap

Every step, in order.

Seven stops from the coffee counter to leading cloud work.

  1. 01 · Barista

    The spark

    Fixing one tech problem for my manager turned into managing scheduling and customer bookings. Small, but it pointed me somewhere.

  2. 02 · Tech School

    No roadmap. No mentor. No plan.

    I signed up for school before I knew what I wanted. Debt first, plan later. It was my first big mistake, and it's the one I most want you to skip.

  3. 03 · Help Desk

    The entry point

    A government contract IT help desk job. Tier 1 and Tier 2 hardware, software, and account issues, constantly. It was busy and not glamorous, and it's where I banked the reps.

    Active DirectoryPowerShellGroup PolicyMicrosoft 365Remote Support

  4. 04 · System Administrator

    Moving up, then hitting bottom

    Directory services at enterprise scale: DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, and PowerShell automation. Then came night shift, which wrecked me physically. It was my rock bottom, and it finally forced me to build a real plan.

    DNS / DHCPPowerShell AutomationVMware vSphereServiceNow

  5. 05 · Certs + Home Lab

    The sprint

    Six certifications, plus a multi-OS home lab: a Windows Server domain controller with member servers and clients, Ubuntu, and RHEL. I later migrated the whole lab to Azure. The certs got me through the door. The lab got me noticed.

    Hyper-VVMware WorkstationWindows ServerAzure Migrate

  6. 06 · Cloud Admin

    The breakthrough

    My first cloud-focused role, on a defense-focused cloud project. I was finally doing for real what I'd been practicing at home: infrastructure, deployment, and automation.

  7. 07 · Now

    Leading cloud work

    I didn't slow down once I got the role. Today I'm a DevSecOps engineer co-leading enterprise Azure environments alongside the cloud engineer I started under.

    TerraformAzure DevOpsGitHub ActionsAKSAzure Key VaultAzure Monitor
“The certs get you through the door. The lab gets you the offer.”
What almost nobody tells you

Credentials

Six certifications. Real experience.

Earned while working full-time in IT, then put to work in production cloud environments.

Expert
AZ-400

Azure DevOps Engineer Expert

CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and automating deployments at scale.

Expert
AZ-305

Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Designing secure, resilient, scalable architectures in Azure.

Associate
AZ-104

Azure Administrator Associate

Running identity, networking, storage, and compute day to day.

CompTIA
Security+

CompTIA Security+

The security baseline for government and enterprise IT.

Fundamentals
AZ-900

Azure Fundamentals

Core cloud concepts and the building blocks of Azure.

Fundamentals
MS-900

Microsoft 365 Fundamentals

Microsoft 365 services, security, and compliance.

Verify my certifications

Month-Zero Me

What I'd tell myself on day one.

01

Don't pay for a plan you don't have

Figure out the role you want before you spend on tuition. Most of what you need to start is free.

02

Help desk isn't beneath you

It's where you get your reps. Every unplanned problem makes you a better troubleshooter, even when it doesn't feel like it.

03

Build proof no one can fake

Certs are common. A home lab you built yourself shows initiative, and that's what gets you noticed.

Your Turn

Start where I wish I had started.

Free guides, cert roadmaps, and hands-on labs, all in one place.

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