AWS Cloud Computing Beginner Course

Lesson 1 • Business Case for Cloud Adoption

Examines CapEx-to-OpEx shift, economies of scale, and agility benefits. Students quantify cloud value to justify adoption decisions.

Lesson 2 • What Cloud Computing Actually Is

Defines cloud computing using NIST characteristics and contrasts it with traditional IT. Anchors all subsequent AWS concepts in a vendor-neutral foundation.

Lesson 3 • Cloud Deployment Models

Covers public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud deployments and their trade-offs. Prepares students to recommend the right model for a given business scenario.

Lesson 4 • Introduction to AWS as a Cloud Provider

Positions AWS within the cloud market and introduces its global infrastructure. Sets context for all service-specific chapters that follow.

Lesson 1 • AWS Regions and Availability Zones

Explains how AWS organizes data centers into fault-isolated zones and geographic regions. Students select regions based on latency, compliance, and service availability.

Lesson 2 • DNS and Traffic Routing with Route 53

Introduces Route 53 as AWS's managed DNS and traffic management service. Students configure hosted zones and routing policies for availability and performance.

Lesson 3 • Virtual Private Cloud Architecture

Introduces VPC as an isolated network environment within AWS. Students configure CIDR blocks, subnets, and route tables from scratch.

Lesson 4 • Connecting VPCs and On-Premises Networks

Covers VPC peering, AWS Transit Gateway, VPN, and Direct Connect for hybrid connectivity. Students choose the right connectivity option for a given architecture.

Lesson 1 • AWS IAM Core Concepts

Covers users, groups, roles, and policies as the building blocks of AWS access control. Students write and attach IAM policies that enforce least privilege.

Lesson 2 • Data Protection with KMS and Secrets Manager

Explains AWS KMS for encryption key management and Secrets Manager for credential storage. Students encrypt resources and rotate secrets without hardcoding credentials.

Lesson 3 • Authentication and Credential Security

Covers MFA, access keys, and IAM Identity Center for secure authentication. Students eliminate long-term credentials and enforce MFA across accounts.

Lesson 4 • Threat Detection and Security Monitoring

Introduces GuardDuty, Security Hub, and AWS Config for continuous security posture management. Students enable automated threat detection and compliance checks.

Lesson 1 • Serverless Compute with AWS Lambda

Introduces event-driven execution, function configuration, and Lambda invocation models. Students deploy a function triggered by an event source without managing servers.

Lesson 2 • Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing

Teaches dynamic scaling policies and load balancer types to build resilient, cost-efficient fleets. Students configure Auto Scaling groups with ALB to handle variable traffic.

Lesson 3 • Choosing the Right Compute Service

Provides a decision framework comparing EC2, Lambda, ECS, and EKS across cost, control, and complexity. Students map workload characteristics to the optimal compute service.

Lesson 4 • Amazon EC2 Essentials

Covers instance types, AMIs, key pairs, and launch configurations for virtual machines. Students launch, connect to, and terminate EC2 instances with correct security settings.

Lesson 1 • Amazon S3 Object Storage

Covers S3 buckets, objects, storage classes, and access controls for scalable object storage. Students configure a bucket with versioning, lifecycle rules, and appropriate permissions.

Lesson 2 • Data Transfer and Migration Services

Covers AWS DataSync, Snow Family, and Transfer Family for moving data into AWS. Students choose the right migration tool based on data volume, speed, and connectivity.

Lesson 3 • Amazon EFS Shared File Storage

Introduces EFS as a managed NFS file system mountable across multiple EC2 instances. Students mount EFS on Linux instances and configure performance and throughput modes.

Lesson 4 • Amazon EBS Block Storage

Explains EBS volume types, snapshots, and attachment to EC2 for persistent block storage. Students select the right volume type and automate snapshots for backup.

Lesson 1 • Relational Databases with Amazon RDS

Covers RDS engine options, Multi-AZ deployments, and read replicas for managed relational databases. Students launch an RDS instance with automated backups and failover enabled.

Lesson 2 • High-Performance Relational with Aurora

Introduces Aurora's distributed storage architecture and its MySQL/PostgreSQL compatibility. Students compare Aurora to standard RDS and configure Aurora Serverless for variable workloads.

Lesson 3 • In-Memory Caching with ElastiCache

Covers Redis and Memcached on ElastiCache to reduce database load and improve response times. Students implement a caching layer in front of an RDS database.

Lesson 4 • NoSQL at Scale with DynamoDB

Teaches DynamoDB data modeling, partition keys, and capacity modes for single-digit millisecond performance. Students design a table schema and configure on-demand scaling.

Lesson 1 • Event-Driven Architecture with EventBridge

Teaches EventBridge event buses, rules, and targets for building event-driven systems. Students route AWS service events to Lambda and SQS targets using custom rules.

Lesson 2 • Workflow Orchestration with Step Functions

Covers Step Functions state machines for orchestrating multi-step serverless workflows. Students build a workflow that coordinates Lambda functions with error handling.

Lesson 3 • Pub/Sub Messaging with Amazon SNS

Introduces SNS topics, subscriptions, and fan-out patterns for broadcast messaging. Students build an SNS-to-SQS fan-out pipeline for parallel processing.

Lesson 4 • API Management with Amazon API Gateway

Introduces REST and HTTP APIs on API Gateway for exposing backend services securely. Students deploy a Lambda-backed API with authentication and throttling configured.

Lesson 1 • Distributed Tracing with AWS X-Ray

Introduces X-Ray for tracing requests across microservices and identifying performance bottlenecks. Students instrument a Lambda function and visualize the service map.

Lesson 2 • Infrastructure as Code with CloudFormation

Teaches CloudFormation templates, stacks, and change sets for repeatable infrastructure provisioning. Students deploy a multi-tier stack and update it safely using a change set.

Lesson 3 • AWS Well-Architected Framework

Applies the six pillars of the Well-Architected Framework to evaluate and improve architectures. Students conduct a Well-Architected Review and prioritize remediation actions.

Lesson 4 • AWS Cost Management Tools

Covers Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, and Cost Allocation Tags for financial governance. Students set budget alerts and identify top cost drivers in a sample account.