The journey of getting AWS badgeAWS
I started taking the AWS Academy Cloud Foundations course on 8 September 2021 and inside the course have 10 modules. Before taking this course, I knew nothing about what AWS is and what the functions of AWS are, and so on. But now I am clear and understood what AWS is by taking 10 modules included inside the course.
AWS module 1 is talking about the cloud concepts overview and I am able to define different types of cloud computing models, describe 6 advantages of cloud computing, recognize the main service categories and core services and review the AWS Adoption Framework.
In AWS module 2: Cloud economics and billing, I have explored the fundamentals of AWS pricing, reviewed TCO concepts, reviewed an AWS Pricing Calculator, estimated monthly costs, found the available instance types and contracts, and so on, reviewed the billing dashboard, and reviewed Technical Support options and costs.
In AWS module 3 Global Infrastructure Overview, I have learned how to identify the difference between AWS Regions, Availability Zones, and edge locations. Also, I have learned how to identify AWS services and services categories.
AWS module 4 is talking about AWS Cloud Security and I have learned how to recognize the shared responsibility model, responsibility if the customers and AWS, recognize IAM users, groups, and roles, identify different types of security credentials in IAM, know the steps to secure a new AWS account, explore how to secure AWS data, and recognize AWS compliance programs.
For AWS module 5 Network and Content Delivery, I know how to recognize the basics of networking, describe virtual networking in the cloud with Amazon VPC, label a network diagram, design a basic VPC architecture, indicate the steps to build a VPC, know how to build a VPC in the lab, identify security groups, create own VPC and added additional components to produce a customized network, identify the fundamentals of Amazon Route 53 and recognize the benefits of Amazon CloudFront.
AWS module 6 is talking about computing and I have learned how to provide an overview of different AWS services in the cloud, demonstrate why to use Amazon Elastic Compute (Amazon EC2), identify the functionality in the Amazon EC2 Console, perform basic functions in Amazon EC2 to build a virtual computing environment, identify Amazon EC2 cost optimization elements, demonstrate when to use AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS Lambda, and identify how to run containerized applications in a cluster of managed servers.
After talking about AWS module 7: Storage, I am finally able to identify the different types of storage and the functionality in Amazon S3, explain what is Amazon S3 and Amazon EBS, identify the functionality in Amazon EBS, perform functions in Amazon EBS to build an Amazon EC2 storage solution in the lab, explain Amazon EFS, and Amazon Glacier, identify the functionality in Amazon EFS and Amazon S3 Glacier, and differentiate between Amazon EBS, Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, and Amazon S3 Glacier.
In AWS module 8: Databases, I learned how to explain and identify the function of Amazon Relational Databases Service(Amazon RDS), explain and identify Amazon DynamoDB, explain Amazon Redshift and Amazon Aurora, and perform tasks in an RDS database, such as launching, configuring and interacting.
After taking AWS module 9 Cloud Architecture, I am able to describe the AWS Well-Architecture Framework, including the five pillars, identify the design principles of the AWS Well-Architecture Framework, explain the importance of reliability and high availability, identify how AWS Trusted Advisor helps customers, and interpret AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations.
After taking AWS module 10, I have learned how to indicate how to distribute traffic across Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud(Amazon EC2) instances using Elastic Load Balancing, identify how Amazon CloudWatch enables us to monitor AWS resources and applications in real-time, explain how Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling launches and releases servers in response to workload changes, and perform scaling and load balancing tasks to improve an architecture.
Finally, it took me 20 hours to get my AWS badge after watching all the tutorial videos in each module, completing all 10 module knowledge checks, and exploring the labs.
Reflection
In this course, I have learned what is AWS, as known as Amazon Web Service, and the services in AWS like Amazon EC2, Amazon VPC, Amazon Redshift, and so on and their functions. This course has 10 modules which is quite more and sometimes it is frustrating, but I have my motivation to complete this course which is to get an AWS. In my opinion, I think module 6: Compute is the most difficult module that I take because this module has so many things included in Amazon EC2 that I need to learn and the lab I need to do. On the other hand, I think module 3: AWS Global Infrastructure Overview is the easiest module because it only has 2 section videos needed to watch. Overall I think this AWS course is partially difficult for me to learn.
The badge is important because it allows me to have a certification of knowledge in AWS cloud computing that can help me to find a job easily, which is to become a cloud computing engineer. The AWS Academy Cloud Foundations course helped me to gain more knowledge about the importance of cloud computing, and I knew that cloud computing has way more benefits than traditional computing. I have learned how to build Amazon VPC, launch a web server, use AWS IAM and Amazon EC2, and so on.
For me, I think every company should shift to Cloud computing because cloud computing is low cost to maintain the server, it is flexible, can change more quickly, easily, and cost effectively than hardware solutions, and more. Also, I think that all computer science students or every UTM student should get an AWS badge and I would like to advise all my friends to learn Cloud Computing by getting an AWS badge because Cloud Computing has so much potential in the future and it is very useful for some graduate students who want to start a business. I felt that getting the AWS badge have a lot more fun because it has labs and activities we can explore besides watching sections videos and I have gained my knowledge about Cloud Computing from nothing to fulfill.