Welcome to a different kind of tech blog

Welcome to Tutorial Works! This is a website about programming, cloud computing, and I.T.

The tech scene is vast and overwhelming. We’re here to make that easier, with guides, tutorials, explainers and round-ups. 🍌

We’re different

The state of tech blogs is approaching an absolute mess.

Instead of being a boundless resource for engineers, the internet is a bit of a dung-heap of low quality blogs, some of them sharing outright wrong information.

I (Tom) started this website to counteract this nonsense.

This site isn’t like other tech blogs. You can actually trust it. You can actually see who’s behind it.

Our editorial values

  • Our articles are written by real authors (all the content is currently written by me, Tom)

  • I don’t take payment for articles or links

  • I don’t accept guest posts

  • I only recommend products which I think are worth your time and money.

I work in technology, so I think I’m best positioned to write about it.

If you ever find any article that doesn’t hold up to these values, contact us.

How this site is funded

Revenue is important, because it allows me to continue creating new content, and updating old articles.

So this site is funded primarily through display ads.

I think that this is the fairest way to bring you unbiased, helpful content, for free.

It also means I can be completely independent – free from influence by sponsors or partners.

I’d rather you didn’t use an ad blocker, but you’re free to do so, if you want.

Balancing revenue with user experience

Compared to our competitors, I try not to overload the site with ads (although the ads are delivered programmatically and on some occasions you might see more ads.)

It’s a tough call to balance user experience with revenue but I’m always trying to improve.

Mission statement

To provide authoritative, factual content to help engineers and IT leaders solve problems.

I have tried to define a mission statement for this site. If you don’t have a mission statement, how will you know where you’re going?

Here’s how it looks:

Tutorial Works exists to simplify DevOps and cloud-native technologies, helping you to grow your career, and be more confident at work.

So this is a website dedicated to helping you go do stuff, and feel empowered in your job.

We publish tutorials and articles to help you understand the how and why of technology. We try to distill the information that you really need, and explain things in a simple way.

My favourite topics to write about are DevOps, cloud and Linux. Almost all the articles here are focused around open source technologies (which is where the most exciting things tend to happen.)

Why do I write? To teach everything I know. I write about anything from architecture and design patterns, to development and troubleshooting.

I publish guides to help you make technical decisions and do stuff; whether you’re a first-time engineer, or a seasoned architect.

We’re a team of… 1

Hello, I’m Tom Donohue! (That’s me on the right). I’m the founder, blogger and general editor around this place.

I started this website at the end of 2020 (during the global pandemic), because I wanted a new online home, where I can write and share knowledge on the topics I work with every day, as a cloud, DevOps and Linux specialist.

Who are you to talk about this stuff?

For many years I worked as a Java developer, starting out in the early days of Spring Framework, and then moving into integration and APIs, using tools like Apache Camel and Hibernate.

I’ve been in this industry long enough to remember when deployment instructions were written in Word documents, and performed by hand. (Good luck if you’re the one performing the deployment! Is it a Friday? Better hope it’s been tested by the developers….)

Around the early to mid-2010s, there was a noticeable shift in how software was going. Containers and automation were emerging. This was the beginning of DevOps becoming mainstream.

About 5 years ago, I started working in a DevOps/cloud native consulting position, and that’s still what I do every day. I help teams adopt DevOps tools and methodologies, and build and deploy using modern tools.

Having taught myself many skills from reading blogs and books, now I want to repay that favour, and publish the kind of content that I would have appreciated, when I was just getting started.

If this resonates with you, then welcome aboard, and don’t forget to join my humble newsletter.

And, if you want to get in touch….

Get in touch

I welcome your comments and feedback! Feel free to get in touch with:

  • Suggestions and complaints

  • Partnership opportunities

  • Anything else you like????

To get in touch, please use the contact form 📨, or you can find us on Twitter @tutorialworks.

Acknowledgements

This web site wouldn’t be possible thanks to the following designers and providers, to whom I’m hugely grateful: