Table of Contents
- Introduction to Cloud Computing
- AWS Global Infrastructure
- Security and Compliance
- AWS Identity & Access Management (IAM)
- Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
- EC2 Instance Storage
- Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) and Auto Scaling
- Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
- Databases and Analytics
- Other Compute Services
- Global Infrastructure and Application Architecture
- Cloud Integration
- Cloud Monitoring
- Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
- Account Management, Billing and Support
- AWS Well-Architected Framework
1. Introduction to Cloud Computing
Definition
Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of compute, storage, databases, and other IT services through the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.
Traditional Server Components
- CPU (Compute): Processing power
- RAM (Memory): Memory for operations
- Storage (Data): Data storage
- Database (Structured Data): Structured databases
- Network: Routers, switches, DNS servers
Cloud Computing Examples in Practice
- Gmail: Cloud-based email service
- Dropbox: Cloud storage service
- Netflix: Built on AWS
Deployment Models
- Private Cloud: Private cloud for an organization
- Public Cloud: Publicly available services
- Hybrid Cloud: Combination of both
2. AWS Global Infrastructure
AWS Regions
- Definition: Clusters of data centers distributed globally
- Naming: us-east-1, eu-west-3, etc.
- Characteristic: Most services are "region-scoped"
Criteria for Choosing a Region
1. Compliance
- Adherence to legal and governance requirements
- Key principle: "Data never leaves a region without your explicit permission"
2. Proximity to Customers
- Reduces latency for end users
- Improves user experience
3. Available Services
- New features may not be available in all regions
- Verify availability of required services
4. Pricing
- Costs vary between regions
- Consider cost optimization
Availability Zones (AZs)
- Quantity per region: Generally 3-6 AZs per region
- Definition: One or more discrete data centers with redundant power, networking, and connectivity
- Isolation: Separated for disaster isolation
- Connectivity: High bandwidth, ultra-low latency networks
Points of Presence (Edge Locations)
- Quantity: Over 400 points of presence
- Location: Over 90 cities in 40+ countries
- Purpose: Deliver content to end users with lower latency
AWS Global Services
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Route 53 (DNS Service)
- CloudFront (Content Delivery Network)
- WAF (Web Application Firewall)
3. Security and Compliance
Shared Responsibility Model
Fundamental principle: "CUSTOMER = RESPONSIBILITY FOR SECURITY IN THE CLOUD"
AWS Responsibilities
- Security OF the cloud
- Physical infrastructure
- Managed services
Customer Responsibilities
- Security IN the cloud
- Customer data
- Security configuration
AWS Acceptable Use Policy
Prohibited activities:
- Illegal, harmful, or offensive use
- Security violations
- Network abuse
- Email/message abuse
Penetration Testing
Permitted Services (without prior approval)
- Amazon EC2
- Amazon RDS
- Amazon CloudFront
- Amazon Aurora
- API Gateways
- AWS Lambda
- Amazon Lightsail
- AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Prohibited Activities
- DNS zone walking
- DoS/DDoS attacks
- Port flooding
- Protocol flooding
AWS Abuse Team
Contact to report:
- Prohibited activities
- Abusive behavior
- Security violations
4. AWS Identity & Access Management (IAM)
Main Characteristics
- Global service: Not limited to regions
- Identity management: Users, groups, roles
- Access control: Policies and permissions
Key Components
Root Account
- Created by default
- Golden rule: Should not be used or shared
- Only for initial account setup
Users and Groups
- Users: People within the organization
- Groups: Contain only users (not other groups)
- Flexibility: Users can belong to multiple groups
IAM Policies
- Format: JSON documents
- Function: Define permissions for users or groups
- Principle: Least privilege - don't give more permissions than necessary
IAM Policy Structure
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Id": "optional-identifier",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "optional-statement-identifier",
"Effect": "Allow/Deny",
"Action": "action-to-allow-or-deny",
"Resource": "affected-resource"
}
]
}
Security Configurations
Password Policies
- Complexity requirements
- Password expiration
- Prevention of reuse
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Concept: "Password you know + security device you own"
- Importance: Essential for root accounts and IAM users
- Supported devices: Mobile apps, hardware tokens
Access Keys
- Use: Programmatic access (CLI/SDK)
- Security: Secret, like passwords
- Rule: Never share
IAM Roles
- Purpose: Allow AWS services to perform actions
- Function: Assign temporary permissions
- Use cases: Services that need to access other services
IAM Best Practices
- Don't use root account except for initial setup
- One physical user = One AWS user
- Assign users to groups and permissions to groups
- Create strong password policy and use MFA
- Use roles for AWS service permissions
- Use Access Keys for programmatic access
- Audit permissions regularly
Audit Tools
- IAM Credentials Report: Credentials report
- IAM Access Analyzer: Finds resources shared externally
5. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
Definition
EC2 provides scalable computing capacity in the AWS cloud.
Configuration Options
Operating System
- Linux
- Windows
- Mac OS
Compute Resources
- CPU: Compute Power & Cores
- RAM: System memory
-
Storage:
- Network-attached: EBS & EFS
- Hardware: EC2 Instance Store
Network and Security
- Network Card: Speed and public IP
- Firewall: Security Groups
- Bootstrap Script: EC2 User Data
Instance Types
- Variations: vCPU, Memory, Storage, Network Performance
- Free tier: t2.micro
Security Groups
Characteristics
- Function: Virtual firewall for EC2 instances
- Scope: Attached to multiple instances
- Scope: Bound to region/VPC
- Location: Operate "outside" of EC2
Default Rules
- Inbound traffic: Blocked by default
- Outbound traffic: Authorized by default
Advanced Features
- Can reference other security groups
- Dynamic rules based on other groups
Important Ports
- 22: SSH (Linux), SFTP
- 21: FTP
- 80: HTTP (unsecured websites)
- 443: HTTPS (secured websites)
- 3389: RDP (Windows)
EC2 Purchasing Options
1. On-Demand
- Payment: Per second (Linux/Windows) or per hour
- Minimum: 60 seconds
- Use: Unpredictable workloads
2. Spot Instances
- Characteristics: For flexible workloads
- Risk: Can be terminated by AWS
- Price: Variable based on demand
- Savings: Up to 90% discount
3. Reserved Instances (RI)
- Commitment: 1 or 3 years
- Discount: Up to 75%
- Types: Standard, Convertible, Scheduled
4. Savings Plans
- Base: Usage commitment (e.g., $10/hour)
- Flexibility: Instance size, OS, tenancy
- Duration: 1 or 3 years
5. Dedicated Hosts
- Characteristic: Dedicated physical servers
- Control: Instance placement
- Use: Existing software licenses
6. Dedicated Instances
- Isolation: Dedicated hardware
- Sharing: Only with instances from same account
7. Capacity Reservations
- Function: Reserve On-Demand capacity
- Location: Specific AZ
- Flexibility: No time commitment
6. EC2 Instance Storage
Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)
Main Characteristics
- Definition: "Network drive" that attaches to running instances
- Persistence: Allows instances to persist data
- Attachment: Mounted to one instance at a time (CCP level)
- Limitation: Bound to specific availability zone
Important Configurations
-
Delete on Termination:
- Root volume: Deleted by default
- Additional volumes: Not deleted by default
EBS Snapshots
- Function: Point-in-time backups
- Mobility: Can be copied across AZs or regions
- Use cases: Backup, migration, replication
EC2 Instance Store
- Type: High IOPS local storage
- Persistence: Data does NOT persist after termination
- Use: High-performance temporary storage
Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)
- Type: Managed network file system (NFS)
- Capacity: Can mount on hundreds of EC2 instances
- Compatibility: Linux instances only
- Availability: Multi-AZ
- Characteristics: Highly available, scalable, expensive (3x gp2)
- Payment: Pay per use, no capacity planning
Amazon FSx
Third-party high-performance file system services:
FSx for Windows File Server
- Purpose: Network file system for Windows
- Protocol: SMB
- Integration: Active Directory
FSx for Lustre
- Use: HPC (High Performance Computing)
- Applications: Machine Learning, data analytics
- Performance: Scalable, high-performance storage
7. Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) and Auto Scaling
Scalability Concepts
Vertical Scaling (Scale Up)
- Definition: Increase instance capacity
- Example: t2.micro → t2.large
- Limitation: Hardware limits
Horizontal Scaling (Scale Out)
- Definition: Increase number of instances
- Implication: Distributed systems
- Common in: Modern web applications
High Availability
- Concept: Run instances in multiple AZs
- Objective: Resistance to zone failures
Elasticity
- Definition: Auto-scaling based on load
- Benefit: "Cloud-friendly" - pay for use
- Advantages: Match demand, optimize costs
Agility
- Characteristic: New resources at the click
- Benefit: Reduce time to availability
Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)
Types of Load Balancers
- Application Load Balancer (ALB): Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS)
- Network Load Balancer (NLB): Layer 4 (TCP/UDP)
- Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB): Layer 3 (IP)
- Classic Load Balancer: Previous generation
Auto Scaling Groups (ASG)
Benefits
- Automatic scaling based on demand
- Replace unhealthy instances
- ELB integration
- Cost optimization
8. Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
Main Characteristics
- Scalability: "Infinitely scaling storage"
- Durability: 99.999999999% (11 9's)
- Availability: Varies by storage class
Fundamental Concepts
Buckets
- Definition: Containers for objects
- Names: Must be globally unique
- Structure: Defined at region level
Objects
- Definition: Files stored in S3
- Maximum size: 5TB per object
- Components: Key, data, metadata
Advanced Features
Object Versioning
- Function: Maintain multiple versions of same object
- Benefit: Protection against accidental deletion
- Recovery: Facilitates data restoration
Encryption
- Types: In transit and at rest
- Methods: SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C
- Control: Configuration per bucket or object
S3 Security
Access Control Methods
- Bucket Policies: Bucket-level control
- IAM Policies: User-based control
- ACLs: Access Control Lists
- Block Public Access: Prevention of data leaks
S3 Storage Classes
Standard
- Use: Frequently accessed data
- Availability: 99.99%
- Durability: 11 9's
Intelligent-Tiering
- Function: Automatic movement between tiers
- Benefit: Automatic cost optimization
Standard-IA (Infrequent Access)
- Use: Less frequently accessed data
- Cost: Lower storage, higher retrieval
One Zone-IA
- Location: Single AZ
- Cost: Lower than Standard-IA
- Risk: Lower resilience
Glacier (Archive)
Glacier Instant Retrieval
- Retrieval: Milliseconds
- Use: Archive with occasional immediate access
Glacier Flexible Retrieval
- Retrieval: Minutes to hours
- Use: Backup and archive
Glacier Deep Archive
- Retrieval: 12+ hours
- Use: Long-term archive
- Cost: Most economical
AWS Snow Family
Snowball
- Purpose: Transfer large amounts of data
- Method: Physical devices
- Cases: Data migration, backup
Snowball Edge
- Additional function: Edge computing
- Capacity: Local processing
- Use: Locations with limited internet
9. Databases and Analytics
Database Types
Relational Databases (SQL)
- Structure: Like spreadsheets with links
- Language: SQL for queries
- Examples: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server
NoSQL Databases
- Structure: Specific data models
- Schemas: Flexible
- Benefits: Flexibility, scalability, high performance
- Examples: DynamoDB, DocumentDB, ElastiCache
Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service)
Main Characteristics
- Type: Managed relational database service
- Language: Uses SQL
- Management: AWS handles administration
Supported Engines
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- Oracle
- MariaDB
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Amazon Aurora
Advantages over EC2
- Automatic patching: AWS manages updates
- Backups: Automatic backup
- High availability: Multi-AZ configuration
- Scaling: Auto storage scaling
RDS Deployments
Read Replicas
- Function: Scale read load
- Quantity: Up to 15 replicas
- Benefit: Improve query performance
Multi-AZ
- Purpose: High availability
- Function: Automatic failover
- Benefit: Resistance to AZ failures
Multi-Region
- Scope: Replicas in multiple regions
- Use: Disaster recovery
- Benefit: Global local performance
Amazon Aurora
Characteristics
- Compatibility: MySQL and PostgreSQL
- Performance: 5x MySQL, 3x PostgreSQL
- Storage: Automatic growth
- Availability: 99.99%
Aurora Serverless
- Scaling: Automatic based on demand
- Payment: Per second of use
- Ideal for: Unpredictable workloads
Amazon DynamoDB
Characteristics
- Type: NoSQL key/value database
- Management: Fully managed
- Scaling: Automatic
- Performance: Millisecond latency
DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
- Function: In-memory cache
- Improvement: 10x performance
- Latency: Microseconds
Amazon Redshift
Purpose
- Type: Data warehouse
- Use: OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)
- Base: PostgreSQL (not for OLTP)
Characteristics
- Storage: Columnar
- Processing: Massively parallel (MPP)
- Scaling: Petabytes of data
Amazon ElastiCache
Function
- Type: In-memory caching service
- Purpose: Accelerate applications
- Engines: Redis, Memcached
10. Other Compute Services
Containers
Docker
- Definition: Platform for container-based development
- Benefits: Consistency, fast scalability
- Use: Portable application deployment
Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry)
- Function: Private Docker registry
- Purpose: Store Docker images
- Integration: With other AWS services
Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service)
- Type: Managed orchestration service
- Function: Run Docker containers
- Scaling: Automatic
AWS Fargate
- Characteristic: Serverless for containers
- Benefit: No server management
- Payment: Per resources used
Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)
- Type: Managed Kubernetes
- Function: Container orchestration
- Compatibility: Kubernetes standard
Serverless Computing
AWS Lambda
Main Characteristics
- Definition: "Virtual functions - no servers to manage"
- Model: Serverless
- Payment: Per request and compute time
- Scaling: Automatic
Limitations
- Maximum time: 15 minutes per invocation
- Memory: 128 MB - 10,240 MB
- Temporary storage: 512 MB - 10,240 MB
Other Compute Services
AWS Batch
- Function: Run batch jobs at scale
- Time: No execution limit
- Compatibility: Any runtime packaged as Docker
AWS Lightsail
- Purpose: Launch simple virtual servers
- Characteristics: Pre-configured and easy to use
- Includes: Databases and networking
AWS App Runner
- Function: Deploy web applications and APIs
- Type: Fully managed
- Base: Containers
Development and Deployment
CI/CD Services
- AWS CodeCommit: Version control
- AWS CodeBuild: Build and test
- AWS CodeDeploy: Automated deployment
- AWS CodePipeline: CI/CD pipeline
Infrastructure as Code
AWS CloudFormation
- Function: Model and provision resources
- Format: JSON/YAML templates
- Benefit: Reproducible infrastructure
AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit)
- Function: Define infrastructure in code
- Languages: TypeScript, Python, Java, C#
- Compilation: Generates CloudFormation templates
11. Global Infrastructure and Application Architecture
Objectives
- Latency: Decrease latency for users
- Compliance: Meet data governance requirements
- Availability: Improve global availability
Amazon CloudFront
Definition
- Type: Content Delivery Network (CDN)
- Function: Deliver content with low latency
- Network: Global network of edge locations
Characteristics
- Cache: Content at nearby locations
- Content types: Static and dynamic
- Integration: With other AWS services
- Security: WAF integration
AWS Global Accelerator
- Function: Improve availability and performance
- Method: Routing through AWS global network
- Difference from CloudFront: Optimizes TCP/UDP connections
Edge Computing Services
AWS Outposts
- Definition: AWS server rack
- Location: Customer on-premises facilities
- Function: Extends AWS infrastructure
AWS Wavelength
- Purpose: AWS services at the edge of 5G networks
- Objective: Ultra-low latency applications
- Use cases: IoT, augmented reality
AWS Local Zones
- Function: Extends VPC close to users
- Purpose: Latency-sensitive applications
- Location: Near population centers
12. Cloud Integration
Messaging Services
Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service)
- Type: Message queue service
- Function: Decouple application components
- Characteristics: Fully managed, scalable
- Types: Standard and FIFO queues
Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service)
- Pattern: Publish/subscribe
- Function: Send notifications
- Destinations: Email, SMS, HTTP, Lambda, SQS
Streaming Services
Amazon Kinesis
- Function: Real-time data streaming
-
Services:
- Kinesis Data Streams: Capture and store streams
- Kinesis Data Firehose: Deliver data to destinations
- Kinesis Data Analytics: Real-time analysis
Integration Services
AWS Glue
- Type: Serverless data preparation service
- Function: ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)
- Characteristics: Data catalog, crawlers
AWS Step Functions
- Function: Workflow orchestration
- Type: Serverless
- Use: Coordinate AWS services
Amazon MQ
- Function: Managed message broker
- Protocols: AMQP, MQTT, OpenWire, STOMP
- Engines: ActiveMQ, RabbitMQ
13. Cloud Monitoring
Amazon CloudWatch
Main Function
- Purpose: Provide metrics for every AWS service
- Scope: Monitoring and observability
Key Components
Metrics
- Definition: Variables to monitor
- Examples: CPUUtilization, NetworkIn, DiskReadOps
- Frequency: Every 5 minutes by default (1 minute with detailed monitoring)
Alarms
- Function: Trigger actions based on metrics
- Actions: Scale EC2 instances, send SNS notifications
- States: OK, ALARM, INSUFFICIENT_DATA
Logs
- CloudWatch Logs: Centralize application logs
- Log Groups: Organize related logs
- Retention: Configure log retention
CloudWatch Dashboards
- Function: Custom metric visualization
- Characteristics: Real-time, multiple regions
AWS CloudTrail
Main Function
- Purpose: Record API calls and events
- Scope: Entire AWS account
- Use: Auditing, governance, compliance
Characteristics
- Events: Management events, Data events, Insight events
- Storage: S3, CloudWatch Logs
- Analysis: CloudTrail Insights for unusual patterns
AWS X-Ray
Purpose
- Function: Visual application analysis
-
Objectives:
- Troubleshoot performance issues
- Identify bottlenecks
- Understand microservice dependencies
- Find errors and exceptions
Characteristics
- Tracing: Request tracking
- Service Map: Architecture visualization
- Performance insights: Latency analysis
AWS Trusted Advisor
Function
- Purpose: Analyze AWS accounts and provide recommendations
- Model: Automated consulting service
Recommendation Categories
- Cost optimization: Reduce expenses
- Performance: Improve performance
- Security: Strengthen security posture
- Fault tolerance: Increase resilience
- Service limits: Monitor quotas
- Operational excellence: Best practices
14. Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
Definition
VPC allows you to provision a logically isolated section of the AWS cloud.
Fundamental Concepts
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
- Function: Private network for deploying resources
- Scope: Regional resource
- Isolation: Logical separation of resources
Subnets
- Function: Divide the network within the VPC
- Scope: Availability zone resource
- Types: Public (Internet access) and private (no direct access)
Connectivity Components
Internet Gateway (IGW)
- Function: Allows Internet connection
- Requirement: Public subnets need route to IGW
- Scaling: Automatic and redundant
NAT Gateway
- Purpose: Internet for private subnets
- Function: Allows outbound Internet without direct inbound
- Location: Deployed in public subnet
Network Security
Network ACL (NACL) vs Security Groups
Network ACL
- Level: Subnet-level firewall
- Rules: Can have ALLOW and DENY rules
- Content: Only IP addresses
- Evaluation: Process rules in numerical order
- State: Stateless (must allow return traffic)
Security Groups
- Level: EC2 instance-level firewall
- Rules: Only ALLOW rules
- Content: IPs and other security groups
- State: Stateful (allows responses automatically)
Advanced Features
VPC Flow Logs
- Function: Capture IP traffic information
- Destinations: CloudWatch Logs, S3, Kinesis Data Firehose
- Use: Monitoring and connectivity troubleshooting
VPC Peering
- Function: Connect two VPCs
- Behavior: As if they were on the same network
- Limitations: Not transitive, no overlapping CIDR
VPC Endpoints
- Purpose: Connect to AWS services via private network
- Types: Gateway endpoints (S3, DynamoDB) and Interface endpoints
- Benefits: Better security, lower latency
15. Account Management, Billing and Support
AWS Organizations
Consolidated Billing
- Function: Consolidate billing from multiple accounts
- Structure: Master account and member accounts
- Benefits: Volume discounts, centralized management
Organizational Units (OUs)
- Purpose: Group accounts for management
- Hierarchy: Tree structure
- Use cases: Departments, projects, environments
Service Control Policies (SCPs)
- Function: Control IAM actions
- Level: OU or account
- Effect: Affects all users and roles
- Exception: Does not affect master account or service-linked roles
AWS Pricing Principles
Pricing Model
- Pay only for what you use: No upfront costs
- Pay less when you use more: Volume discounts
- Pay less as AWS grows: Economies of scale
- Save when you reserve: Long-term commitments
Free Services
Always Free
- IAM: Identity and Access Management
- VPC: Virtual Private Cloud
- Consolidated Billing: Consolidated billing
- Elastic Beanstalk: Application platform
- CloudFormation: Infrastructure as code
- Auto Scaling Groups: Auto scaling groups
Free Tier (12 months)
- EC2: 750 hours of t2.micro per month
- S3: 5 GB of standard storage
- EBS: 30 GB of volumes
- ELB: 750 hours per month
- Data transfer: 15 GB per month
Cost and Billing Tools
AWS Pricing Calculator
- Function: Estimate architecture costs
- Characteristics: Multiple services, regions, configurations
- Use: Budget planning
Billing Dashboard
- Function: Billing overview
- Information: Current costs, trends, projections
- Access: AWS management console
Cost Allocation Tags
- Purpose: Organize resources and create detailed reports
- Types: AWS generated tags, user-defined tags
- Use: Chargeback, showback, optimization
Cost and Usage Reports (CUR)
- Function: Most comprehensive billing dataset
- Format: CSV, Parquet
- Destination: S3 bucket
- Granularity: Hourly, daily, monthly
AWS Cost Explorer
- Function: View current usage and forecast costs
- Characteristics: Filters, grouping, forecasting
- Period: Up to 12 months of historical data
Billing Alarms
- Function: CloudWatch alarms for billing
- Configuration: Customizable thresholds
- Notifications: SNS, email
AWS Budgets
- Function: Track usage, costs, RI
- Types: Cost, Usage, Savings Plans, Reservation budgets
- Alerts: Configurable by percentage or amount
Savings Plans
- Function: Long-term usage-based savings
- Types: Compute Savings Plans, EC2 Instance Savings Plans
- Discounts: Up to 72%
Cost Anomaly Detection
- Function: Detect unusual spending using ML
- Alerts: Automatic based on patterns
- Integration: Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets
Service Quotas
- Function: Notify when approaching limits
- Monitoring: Current usage vs. quotas
- Requests: Limit increase requests
AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool
- Function: Track and forecast carbon emissions
- Information: Environmental impact of AWS usage
- Reports: Trends, projections, benchmarks
16. AWS Well-Architected Framework
Purpose
Provide guidance for building secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient architectures.
The 6 Pillars
1. Operational Excellence
- Definition: Run and monitor systems to deliver business value
-
Principles:
- Perform operations as code
- Make frequent, small, reversible changes
- Refine operations procedures frequently
- Anticipate failure
- Learn from all operational failures
2. Security
- Definition: Protect information, systems, and assets
-
Principles:
- Implement strong identity foundation
- Apply security at all layers
- Automate security best practices
- Protect data in transit and at rest
- Keep people away from data
- Prepare for security events
3. Reliability
- Definition: Recover from failures, scale according to demand, mitigate disruptions
-
Principles:
- Automatically recover from failure
- Test recovery procedures
- Scale horizontally to increase availability
- Stop guessing capacity
- Manage change in automation
4. Performance Efficiency
- Definition: Use computing resources efficiently
-
Principles:
- Democratize advanced technologies
- Go global in minutes
- Use serverless architectures
- Experiment more often
- Consider mechanical sympathy
5. Cost Optimization
- Definition: Avoid unnecessary costs
-
Principles:
- Implement Cloud Financial Management
- Adopt consumption model
- Measure overall efficiency
- Stop spending money on heavy lifting differentiation
- Analyze and attribute expenditure
6. Sustainability
- Definition: Minimize environmental impacts of workloads
-
Principles:
- Understand your impact
- Establish sustainability goals
- Maximize utilization
- Anticipate and adopt new, more efficient offerings
- Use managed services
- Reduce downstream impact of workloads
Framework Tools
AWS Well-Architected Tool
- Function: Review architectures against the 6 pillars
- Process: Questionnaires, recommendations, action plans
- Access: AWS console, APIs
AWS Well-Architected Labs
- Purpose: Hands-on experience with best practices
- Content: Hands-on labs, code samples
- Topics: All framework pillars
Study Strategies for the Exam
CLF-C02 Exam Distribution
Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (24%)
- Define AWS Cloud and its value proposition
- Identify aspects of cloud economics
- Explain different cloud architecture design principles
Domain 2: Security and Compliance (30%)
- Define the shared responsibility model
- Define cloud security and compliance concepts
- Identify access management capabilities
Domain 3: Technology (34%)
- Define methods of deploying and operating
- Define AWS global infrastructure
- Identify core AWS services
Domain 4: Billing and Pricing (12%)
- Compare and contrast various pricing models
- Recognize various account structures
- Identify billing support resources
Study Tips
Practical Preparation
- Create an AWS account: Use the free tier
- Hands-on practice: Try basic services
- Documentation: Read FAQs for core services
- Whitepapers: Study official AWS documents
Exam Strategies
- Read carefully: Understand what is being asked
- Eliminate options: Discard obviously incorrect answers
- Look for keywords: Identify key terms in questions
- Time management: Manage 90 minutes for 65 questions
Additional Resources
- AWS Training: Free official courses
- Practice exams: Practice tests
- Community: Forums and study groups
- Videos: Tutorials and explanations
Key Terms and Definitions
AWS Terminology Glossary
AZ (Availability Zone): Physically separated data center within a region
CDN (Content Delivery Network): Distributed network of servers to deliver content
CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing): Method for assigning IP addresses
DNS (Domain Name System): System that translates domain names to IP addresses
EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): AWS cloud computing service
ELB (Elastic Load Balancer): Load balancer service
IAM (Identity and Access Management): Identity and access management service
IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second): Storage performance measurement
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation): Data interchange format
NFS (Network File System): Distributed file system protocol
OLAP (Online Analytical Processing): Online analytical processing
OLTP (Online Transaction Processing): Online transactional processing
RDS (Relational Database Service): Relational database service
S3 (Simple Storage Service): Object storage service
SQL (Structured Query Language): Structured query language
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): Virtual private network in AWS
Here are the most frequent use cases that usually appear on the AWS CLF-C02 exam:
Cloud Migration
- Lift and shift: Migrating existing applications without significant modifications
- Re-architecting: Redesigning applications to leverage cloud-native services
- Database migration using AWS Database Migration Service
Scalability and High Availability
- Auto Scaling: Automatically adjusting capacity based on demand
- Load Balancing: Distributing traffic across multiple instances
- Multi-AZ deployments: Deploying resources in multiple availability zones
Backup and Disaster Recovery
- Automated backups with Amazon EBS snapshots
- Cross-region replication for geographic redundancy
- Point-in-time recovery for databases
Development and Testing
- Temporary development environments that are created and destroyed as needed
- CI/CD pipelines using CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy
- Scaled testing leveraging elastic capacity
Data Analysis
- Data lakes with Amazon S3 for storing large volumes of data
- Real-time analytics with Amazon Kinesis
- Business intelligence using Amazon QuickSight
Web and Mobile Applications
- Static website hosting with S3 and CloudFront
- Serverless APIs using Lambda and API Gateway
- Mobile applications with AWS Amplify
Cost-Optimization Cases
- Reserved Instances for predictable workloads
- Spot Instances for fault-tolerant workloads
- S3 Intelligent-Tiering for optimizing storage costs
These scenarios frequently appear in questions about when to use which service and how to design cost-effective and resilient architectures.
Conclusion
This guide covers all the fundamental aspects necessary to pass the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam. Remember, the key to success lies in:
- Understanding fundamental concepts rather than memorizing technical details
- Practicing with real services using the AWS Free Tier
- Focusing on use cases and when to use each service
- Regularly reviewing security and billing concepts
- Taking practice exams to familiarize yourself with the format
Good luck with your AWS Cloud Practitioner certification exam!
Top comments (1)
Great post @franciscojeg78 , keep rocking with AWS!