Cloud & Modern IT

A curated reading journey through the rise of cloud computing—from foundational principles to economic strategy and organizational transformation.

Cloud & Modern IT

Cloud computing has revolutionized how organizations build, scale, and deliver technology. But understanding this transformation involves more than just grasping technical architectures. It also requires insight into business models, organizational design, and operational principles.

This Insight Pathway provides a structured journey through five key books that together offer a complete understanding of the cloud era. From culture and operations to financial models and team structure, these summaries will equip you to navigate — or lead — modern IT.

Included Summaries

  1. The Phoenix Project – Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford (DevOps and IT culture in narrative form)
    This book sets the cultural and operational foundation of the cloud era through a compelling story. It highlights bottlenecks, handoffs, and communication failures that DevOps aims to resolve, making it an engaging entry point to understanding IT transformation.

  2. The DevOps Handbook – Kim, Humble, Debois, Willis (practical implementation of DevOps principles)
    Building directly on the lessons of The Phoenix Project, this handbook provides a detailed framework for implementing modern DevOps practices. It shifts the focus from awareness to action, helping organizations operationalize the cultural insights with proven tools and techniques.

  3. Cloudonomics – Joe Weinman (financial and economic analysis of cloud models)
    Cloudonomics introduces the economic models and analytical thinking needed to understand cloud value. It connects technical decisions to business outcomes and builds the case for why cloud strategies must be economically sound to succeed.

  4. Team Topologies – Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais (organizational structure for modern IT delivery)
    As organizations adopt cloud-native models, team design becomes critical. Team Topologies outlines patterns for organizing around flow and reducing cognitive load — a perfect companion to DevOps and cloud scale thinking.

  5. AI Value Creators – IBM (illustrates how cloud and AI co-evolve in enterprise settings)
    This final title bridges cloud with AI, showing how modern organizations build scalable AI capabilities on cloud infrastructure. It illustrates how technology and business strategy converge through practical case studies and patterns.