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What is GameDay?
GameDay is an interactive team-based learning exercise designed to give players a chance to put their AWS skills to the test in a real-world, gamified, risk-free environment. Most importantly, it is an extremely fun way to learn collaboratively. We step outside the boundaries of typical workshops through open-endedness & ambiguity.
What can I expect?
Players are broken up into teams, & given a starting architecture that they will then need to evolve throughout the day in response to internal & external events. There is no one right answer; the path that GameDay participants take is up to them, based on the AWS resources at their disposal in pre-packaged AWS accounts provided to you. This is a completely hands-on opportunity to learn about AWS best practices, new AWS services, & AWS architecture patterns.
"Chaotic Commencement" Overview
In this game we introduce players to the Legendary Animal Rental Market (LARM) as part of one if its most well know Silicon Valley start-ups: Unicorn.Rentals. Players are asked to support a sub-optimal application architecture, built & maintained by a team that recently (and abruptly) departed the company. Through the game's narrative, players learn that there is minimal information regarding previous design decisions, & in fact, the current leadership is almost totally unaware of how their services function. To top things off, the only documentation left behind is a run-book that doesn't appear to reflect any semblance of reality, & seems to be filled with half-truths & lies (to be honest, it's made to reflect the kind of documentation that many of us have become all too familiar with in our careers!). It's up to each team to understand what's really happening in their AWS Account, & decide on a path forward to ensure they have a robust & scalable application.
Who should attend
The Chaotic Commencement version of GameDay is focused on participants debugging & operating EC2 infrastructure, so it's more directed at operations teams or people that are newer to AWS. It was designed for participants to play without having any coding or development experience, though developers or more recently formed DevOps teams will likely find it a challenge & useful. Teams are also not limited to EC2, so more advanced players can flex their muscles, & have been know to find some creative solutions (including containerisation, DDoSing other teams, & disassembly of binaries!)
Prerequisites
Just show up with a laptop & charger, no need for AWS accounts as those will be provided to teams. Pre-formed teams are permitted, but we will form teams day-of before we kick off the day.
Schedule
JULY 1
9:30AM-10:00AM
Check-in & Team Forming
Form teams of 4 based on experience levels or registered skill levels.
10:00AM-10:30AM
Intro Presentations
Learn about Unicorn.Rentals current state from the Head of Sales, CTO, & DevOps Lead (fictitious).
10:30AM-2:30PM
Game On!
Hack through the game's challenges while support roams the room to offer assistance.
Lunch will be served at 12:00PM, courtesy of Amazon. Players can break, or eat at their stations to play through.
2:30PM-2:45PM
Awards Ceremony
Recognition of top teams, & others who did a great job. Top teams will be asked to provide a summary of their strategy to the rest of the participants so everyone can walk away with best practices.
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