Chapter 1

Welcome to Book 7

The full stack from DNS to cloud — series recap.

In this book

  • Understand IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS — and where Workshop Co. already uses each
  • Compare VPS, dedicated servers, and bare metal for Canadian workloads
  • Explain remote computing, hybrid cloud, and scaling patterns
  • Evaluate Canadian data sovereignty and hosting compliance
  • Build a cost and operations model for cloud decisions
  • Design a hybrid architecture capstone for Workshop Co.

How to use this textbook

Workshop Co. runs Proxmox in an Edmonton basement — that is infrastructure. They also use Google Workspace, Calendly, and Swift Host off-site backups — that is cloud. This book connects the dots so Marcus can explain why each service lives where it does.

Tip

Cloud is not "someone else's computer" as a dismissive joke — it is a billing and responsibility model. You still need DNS, security, and backups; the provider owns different layers.

Meet your lab company

Workshop Co.

Domain
workshopco.ca
Business
Weekend woodworking classes in Edmonton, Alberta
On-prem
Proxmox host — web, database, Nextcloud
Cloud/SaaS
Google Workspace, Calendly, Mailchimp
Hosting partner
Swift Host — Canadian VPS for DR and static marketing mirror
Question
Should booking move to a Montreal VPS or stay local?

What you need

  • Familiarity with Books 5–6 (VMs and SSH) helpful but not required
  • Spreadsheet or notebook for cost exercises
  • Curiosity about Canadian privacy law basics (we introduce PIPEDA)

Try it yourself — Before Chapter 2

List every "cloud" service Workshop Co. uses today (email, booking, payments, backups, DNS). Mark each as something they log into in a browser vs something they SSH into.

Discussion notes
  • Browser/SaaS: Google Workspace, Calendly, Mailchimp, Stripe dashboard, domain registrar
  • SSH/IaaS: Proxmox VMs, Swift Host DR VPS, possibly DNS host admin
  • Most SMB "cloud" is SaaS; own servers are IaaS or on-prem

Key terms introduced

Cloud computing
On-demand IT resources over the network, usually metered and self-service.
Region
Geographic datacenter location (e.g. Montreal, Toronto).
Hybrid cloud
Mix of on-premises and provider-hosted resources.