Cloud workshop

During the AWS workshop, I gained an introduction to cloud computing and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The major concepts covered were:
SESSION - 1:
AWS Pay-As-You-Go: Learned how AWS follows a usage-based pricing model, where users pay for the cloud resources they consume.
Cloud Service Models: Learned the basic concepts of IaaS, CaaS, PaaS, FaaS, SaaS, and AIaaS and their different levels of service and management.
AWS Cloud Quest: Explored AWS services through interactive, scenario-based cloud learning.
AWS Regions: Understood that AWS services and features can vary across Regions, and that selecting an appropriate Region is important for service availability, pricing, and resource deployment.
Billing: Learned the basics of AWS billing and the importance of monitoring resource usage.
Hands-on Activity: Portfolio Deployment Using Amazon S3 and CloudFront

1. Amazon S3

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is an object storage service used to store and retrieve files in the cloud. In the workshop, S3 was used to host a static portfolio website.

Steps Performed

Step 1: Create an S3 Bucket

An S3 bucket was created through the AWS Management Console. The bucket provides the storage location for the portfolio files.

Step 2: Create the Portfolio

A static portfolio webpage was created using HTML. The main webpage was saved as:

index.html

This file contained the portfolio information and served as the entry point of the website.

Step 3: Upload the Website Files

The index.html file and other required portfolio files were uploaded into the S3 bucket as objects.

Step 4: Enable Static Website Hosting

Static website hosting was enabled for the bucket, and index.html was specified as the Index document.

Step 5: Test the Website

The S3 website endpoint was used to access and verify the portfolio in a web browser.

Thus, the portfolio was successfully hosted using Amazon S3.

1. Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront is an AWS Content Delivery Network (CDN) that distributes website content through a network of edge locations.

After hosting the portfolio in S3, CloudFront was used to create a distribution for the portfolio.

Steps Performed

Step 1: Open CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront was opened from the AWS Management Console.

Step 2: Create a Distribution

A new CloudFront distribution was created and the S3-hosted portfolio was configured as the origin.

Step 3: Configure the Distribution

The required CloudFront settings were configured, including the default/root object for the website.

Step 4: Deploy the Distribution

The CloudFront distribution was created and allowed to complete its deployment.

Step 5: Access the Portfolio

CloudFront provided a distribution domain name. This domain was used to access the deployed portfolio.

Deployment Flow
User
↓
CloudFront
↓
Amazon S3
↓
index.html
↓
Portfolio Website
Result

The static portfolio was successfully stored and hosted using Amazon S3 and distributed through Amazon CloudFront. This hands-on activity provided practical experience in AWS-based website hosting and content delivery.

SESSION - 2:
In the second session of my AWS workshop, I got hands-on experience with three important AWS services: Amazon CloudFront, AWS Lambda, and Amazon CloudWatch.

🚀 Amazon CloudFront

I worked with CloudFront, AWS's Content Delivery Network (CDN), to distribute my portfolio website. I learned how CloudFront works with an S3 bucket as an origin and delivers website content through AWS edge locations.

Flow:

User → CloudFront → S3 → Portfolio

This helped me understand how cloud-based websites can be delivered efficiently to users.

⚡ AWS Lambda

I also worked with AWS Lambda and explored serverless computing. Instead of managing a server, Lambda allows code to run automatically in response to events.

As a practical exercise, I created a Lambda function that could receive and process S3 events, such as when a file is uploaded or deleted from an S3 bucket.

Example flow:

S3 Event → Lambda → Process Event

This gave me a basic understanding of event-driven and serverless architecture.

📊 Amazon CloudWatch

I also explored Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring AWS resources and applications. I learned how CloudWatch can collect logs and provide information about what is happening inside AWS services.

For Lambda, CloudWatch helped me view execution logs and function output, making it useful for monitoring and debugging serverless applications.

💡 Key Takeaways

Through this session, I gained practical exposure to:

🌐 CloudFront – Content delivery and CDN
⚡ Lambda – Serverless and event-driven computing
📊 CloudWatch – Monitoring and logging
🔗 Connecting AWS services together
☁️ Understanding basic serverless cloud architecture

This session helped me move from simply learning AWS concepts to understanding how different AWS services can work together to build and monitor cloud-based applications.