About Cliff Smith and Cliffable

I’m Cliff Smith, the creator of Cliffable, where I document my transition from music and education into cloud architecture through hands-on AWS projects.

This website serves as a record of that journey, showcasing the systems I design and build, the architectural decisions behind them, and the technical skills I am developing through real-world implementation.

I’ve spent more than 25 years working as a music educator and performer, running my own teaching practice and helping students develop complex skills through structured learning.

That experience shapes how I approach cloud engineering today — breaking systems down, understanding how services fit together, and communicating technical ideas clearly.

I am an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and currently preparing for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification.

Every project on Cliffable is designed, built and documented by me, with a focus on architecture, implementation decisions, trade-offs and lessons learned.

How I work

I learn by building. Each project starts with a clear idea, then gets designed and implemented step by step.

I focus on understanding how services fit together, making deliberate design decisions, and keeping the architecture as simple as possible.

Everything is written up as I go — diagrams, decisions, and trade-offs — so the work is clear and repeatable.