From Zero to DevOps Hero with AWS: My Hands-On Journey into Cloud Infrastructure & Automation

Not long ago, I set out on a mission: to go from zero to DevOps hero. I didn’t want to just memorize AWS services. I wanted to build with them, learn by doing, break things and fix them. And understand how all the pieces connect in real-world DevOps workflows.

So I jumped into AWS, and it's been an intense, rewarding ride. In this blog, I’ll walk you through everything I’ve learned. From EC2 to VPC, from IAM to CI/CD pipelines and how I’m bringing it all together to automate modern infrastructure.

☁️ Why AWS for DevOps?

As I deepen my DevOps skills, AWS is the cloud platform I’ve chosen to specialize in. Not just because it’s widely used, but because it forces you to think architecturally about scalability, security, automation, and resiliency.

Here’s what I’ve worked with so far:

• Core Compute & Storage: EC2, EBS, S3

• Networking & Security: VPC, NAT Gateway, Load Balancer, Private/Public Subnets

• Automation & Monitoring: IAM, CloudFormation, CloudWatch

• DevOps Tools: AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild (CI/CD)

🔧 Hands-On Learning: What I’ve Built

Here’s how I’ve been tying these services together:

EC2 + EBS

I launched EC2 instances and attached EBS volumes to manage persistent storage for apps and logs. Practiced snapshot backups and volume resizing for DR planning.

IAM

I created secure IAM users, roles, and policies, applying the principle of least privilege throughout. Access control is fundamental especially when you start automating with services like CodeBuild and CloudFormation.

Infrastructure as Code with CloudFormation

I automated entire environments using CloudFormation Templates, provisioning EC2, S3, IAM roles, VPCs, and networking layers all with a few lines of code.

VPC: Where DevOps Meets Architecture

The Virtual Private Cloud became a game-changer in my AWS learning journey. It taught me how enterprise-grade infrastructure is isolated, secured, and scaled. Here’s what I built:

• 🔐 Private & Public Subnets:

  • Web servers in public subnets (with Internet Gateway access)

  • App & DB servers in private subnets, isolated for security

• 🌐 NAT Gateway:

  • Allowed outbound internet access only for private instances not inbound

• 🔄 Auto Scaling Groups:

  • Automatically scaled EC2 instances based on CPU metrics

  • Reduced costs while increasing fault tolerance

• ⚖️ Elastic Load Balancer (ELB):

  • Distributed traffic to healthy EC2 instances across Availability Zones

  • Ensured high availability and fault tolerance

• 🧱 Route Tables & Security Groups:

  • Defined traffic flow clearly and securely between resources

This part of my learning felt like real architecture work not just launching services, but planning infrastructure the right way.

DevOps in Action: CI/CD Pipelines

I built pipelines using:

• CodePipeline to connect GitHub → CodeBuild → EC2 deployment

• CodeBuild to compile, test, and package code

• IAM roles to allow cross-service actions securely

Bonus: I integrated notifications via SNS and monitored build success via CloudWatch Metrics & Alarms.

Challenges I Faced

• 😤 IAM permission denials (the classic "AccessDenied" loop)

• 🧱 Misconfigured security groups blocking load balancer traffic

• ❌ Broken pipelines due to missing buildspec.yml or env variables

• 🧪 Template errors in CloudFormation that taught me YAML indentation really matters

Each mistake made me better.

Key Takeaways

1. You don’t truly know AWS until you work with VPC.

2. CloudFormation is powerful but unforgiving without testing.

3. DevOps = Automation + Security + Monitoring.

4. Failing builds and broken infra teach more than tutorials ever could.

5. Everything’s connected: Networking, Compute, IAM, Monitoring.

What’s Next in My DevOps Journey

🔜 Coming up:

• Dockerizing apps and deploying via ECS

• Introducing Terraform into the mix

• Automating blue/green deployments

• Prepping for the AWS DevOps Engineer Associate certification

Final Thoughts

This journey from zero to DevOps hero is ongoing and I’m sharing it not just for me, but for anyone else navigating this path. Whether you're just getting started or knee-deep in YAML and subnetting, I hope this helps you feel a little less alone in the process.

Let’s connect, share, and grow together.

👉 Read all my posts here: https://dhenz.hashnode.dev