AWS Cloud Practitioner: Starting with the basics

Basic concepts and random notes about the first AWS Certification you should take:

• Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with a pay-as-you-go consumption model.

• Levels of Abstraction → Physical Machines - Virtual Machines (VMs) - Containerization - Serverless

• Cloud Computing Models:

  • Software as a Service (SaaS)

  • Platform as a Service (PaaS)

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

• Cloud Computing Deployment Models: Cloud, On-premises, Hybrid

• AWS Regions are comprised of multiple Availability Zones

• Commonly used service categories:

  • Compute: EC2

  • Storage

  • Database

  • Security

  • Management

  • Networking

• 6 Key Benefits:

  • Backup and restore → Many customers start simple, with a "storage only" migration, and practically every major backup software vendor integrates directly with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).

  • Archive and compliance

  • Home directories → Amazon FSx provides a fully managed native Windows file system that customers can use to share their user home directories with end users.

  • Data lakes

  • Modern applications

  • Business-critical applications

• Cloud Value Framework: A conceptual structure intended to build a comprehensive business case for cloud adoption and help articulate the value of adopting the cloud. Key Pillars of Value:

  • Cost savings (Infrastructure cost savings/ avoidance from moving to the cloud): Over time, AWS Cloud offers cost reduction through further optimization.

  • Staff Productivity (Efficiency improvement by function on a task-by-task basis): After migration to AWS, organizations see improved staff productivity across many areas of the business including admin management capacity, focus on strategic work, and ability to focus on new feature development.

  • Operational resilience (Benefit of improved availability, security, and compliance): The business value that the cloud generates in the form of resiliency includes increased system availability, reduced latency, higher SLA achievement, and better security.

    Businesses see this through increased availability, improved security, and reduced unplanned outages.

  • Business agility (Deploying new features/ applications faster and reducing errors): The ability to respond quickly and effectively to changes in business conditions or disruptive business events.

  • Sustainability (Minimizing environmental impact of business operations)

• Security Keywords for the exam:

  • AWS Shield → When “DDos”

  • AWS GuardDuty → When “Malicious Activity”

  • AWS Macie → When “PII”

  • AWS Artifact → When “Compliance Reports”

  • AWS Cloudwatch → “Monitor resource performance through metrics”

• With AWS CloudTrail, customers can log, continuously monitor, and retain account activity across their AWS infrastructure. This simplifies security analysis, resource change tracking, and troubleshooting.

• The Amazon Macie security service uses ML to help customers prevent data loss by automatically discovering, classifying, and protecting sensitive data stored with AWS

• Auto scaling vs Elastic Load Balancing

  • Removes unneeded Amazon EC2 instances when demand is low → Auto AS

  • Adds a second Amazon EC2 instance during an online store's popular sale → AS

  • Distributes a workload across several Amazon EC2 instances → ELB

  • Ensures that no single EC2 instance has to carry the full workload on its own → ELB

  • Automatically adjusts the number of Amazon EC2 instances to match demand → AS

  • Provides a single point of contact for traffic into an Auto Scaling group → ELB

• VPC Components

  • Isolate databases containing customers' personal information → Private subnet

  • Create a VPN connection between the VPC and the internal corporate network → Virtual private gateway

  • Support a customer-facing website → Public subnet

  • Establish a dedicated connection between an on-premises data center and the VPC → AWS Direct Connect

• Amazon RDS vs Amazon DynamoDB

  • Storing data in a relational database → RDS

  • Running a serverless database → DynamoDB

  • Storing data in a key-value database → DynamoDB

  • Using SQL to organize data → RDS

  • Scaling up to 10 trillion requests per day → DynamoDB

  • Storing data in an Amazon Aurora database → RDS

• Now, about the exam:

  • Duration: 90’

  • 65 Questions (50 Scored questions)

  • Scored from 100 to 1,000 (700+ to Pass)

  • Multiple Choice questions only (No negative points, and no partial credit)

  • In-Person and Remote options available

  • Live proctor during exam (Nothing on your workspace, don’t read out loud the questions, don’t look down or anywhere that’s not front, be alone in the room).

• There are 4 domains covered in the exam:

  • Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (24% of scored content)

  • Domain 2: Security and Compliance (30% of scored content)

  • Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services (34% of scored content)

  • Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support (12% of scored content)

See you in the next article, notes about Domain 1 specifically!