I finally bit the bullet and built my portfolio site, starting with a Next.js portfolio starter template but ended up deep in DNS configurations. What started as a quick weekend project turned into a crash course in modern web deployment. To set up the domain, I registered the domain via AWS and then:
- Configured Route 53 by setting up a hosted zone, NS, and A records to point to Vercel’s servers
- Configured the domain, build, and deployment in the Vercel dashboard, as well as the CI/CD pipeline (setting auto-deploy on push)
The reason I did this was because I wanted a portfolio or platform to showcase my understanding of energy markets and data analytics, and also because "Deployed production site" sounds better than "tinkered with localhost"! It also helped me understand a modern front-end stack and pretend I’m DevOps-capable. I plan to add more posts after exams so watch this space!