Fundamental Cloud Computing

Concepts, terminology, technologies, benefits, challenges, SLAs and business cost metrics associated with cloud computing are covered, along with SaaS, IaaS, PaaS delivery models, common cloud deployment models, and cloud
characteristics.

This foundational course provides end-to-end coverage of fundamental cloud computing topics as they pertain to both technology and business considerations. The course content is divided into a series of modular sections, each of
which is accompanied by one or more hands-on exercises.

The following primary topics are covered:

• Fundamental Cloud Computing
  Terminology and Concepts
• Basics of Virtualization
• Specific Characteristics that Define a Cloud
• Understanding Elasticity, Resiliency, On-Demand and Measured
  Usage
• Benefits, Challenges and Risks of Contemporary Cloud Computing Platforms and Cloud Services
• Cloud Resource Administrator and Cloud Service Owner Roles
• Cloud Service and Cloud Service Consumer Roles
• Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Cloud Delivery Models
• Combining
  Cloud Delivery Models
• Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud and Community Cloud Deployment Models

This course explores a range of the most important and relevant technology-related topics that pertain to contemporary cloud computing platforms. The course content does not get into implementation or programming details, but
instead keeps coverage at a conceptual level, focusing on topics that address cloud service architecture, cloud security threats and technologies, virtualization and data processing.

Proven technologies are defined and classified as concrete architectural building blocks called “mechanisms”. The purpose of this course is to introduce cloud computing-related technology topics in a manner that is accessible to a
wide range of IT professionals, as well as to empower participants with an understanding of the fundamental mechanics of a cloud platform, how the different “moving parts” can be combined, and how to address common threats and
pitfalls.

The following primary topics are covered:

• Cloud Computing Mechanisms that
  Establish Architectural Building Blocks
• Virtual Servers, Ready-Made Environments, Failover Systems, and Pay-for-Use Monitors
• Cloud Balancing and Cloud Bursting
  Architectures
• Common Risks, Threats and Vulnerabilities of Cloud-based Services and Cloud-hosted Solutions
• Cloud Security Mechanisms Used to Counter Threats and
  Attacks
• Understanding Cloud-Based Security Groups and Hardened Virtual Server Images
• Cloud Service Implementation Mediums (including Web Services and REST Services)
• Cloud Storage Benefits and Challenges
• Cloud Storage Services, Technologies and Approaches
• Non-Relational (NoSQL) Storage Compared to Relational Storage
• Cloud Service Testing Considerations and Testing Types

Introduction to AWS Cloud Computing

Getting started with Amazon Web Services (AWS):

• Creating accounts and analyzing
  the cost breakdown
• Evaluating Service Level Agreements (SLA)
• Console, command–line tools and API

Overview of the architecture:

• EC2
• S3
• EBS
• Beanstalk
• RDS
• VPC
• CloudFront
• SimpleDB
• SQS
• CloudWatch

Achieving Agility with EC2Managing the EC2 infrastructure:

• Browsing Amazon Machine Images (AMI)
• Specifying security groups and key
  pairs

Provisioning resources:

• Evaluating Elastic Block Store (EBS) and instance store
  root devices
• Assigning elastic IP addresses
• Mapping instance types to computing needs

Implementing Durable and Reliable StorageStoring data in the cloud:

• Persisting off – instance storage with EBS volumes
• Creating backups awith
  snapshots
• Achieving high durability with SimpleStorage Service
• Transmitting data in/out of the Amazon cloud

Simplifying the database infrastructure:

• Achieving high availability of nonrelational data with SimpleDB
• Effortlessly implementing a
  relational database with Relational Database Service (RDS)

Creating cost–effective distributed solutions:

• Decoupling applications with Simple Queue Service
• Leveraging CloudFront for high–performance edge cache content delivery
• Delivering static and streaming
  content

Adapting EC2 to Your Business NeedsCustomizing virtual machines:

• Modifying existing images
• Creating new images off of running instances
• Converting an instance store AMI to an EBS AMI

Creating an AWS cloud architecture:

• Applying best practices for a cloud solution
• Selecting a cloud setup for different use case
  scenarios

Handling Dynamic Resource RequirementsMonitoring from inside or outside of the cloud:

• Visualizing utilization metrics with CloudWatch
• Setting alarms to send and receive notifications

Transparently scaling to meet load variations:

• Distributing incoming traffic with elastic load balancing
• Dynamically adding and removing instances with Auto
  Scaling
• Setting capacity thresholds

Hosting Applications with Elastic BeanstalkImproving application delivery with Platform as a Service (PaaS):

• Deploying scalable applications on the AWS cloud
• Selecting and launching an application environment

Managing application environments:

• Customizing and configuring platform
  stacks
• Provisioning application resources with Cloud Formation