Module 1: Cloud Concepts Overview Notes
Section 1: Introduction to cloud computing
What is cloud computing?- Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.
Cloud computing defined: the on-demand delivery of compute power, database, storage, applications, and other IT resources via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.
Infrastructure as software- Cloud computing enables you to stop thinking of your infrastructure as hardware, and instead think of (and use) it as software.
Traditional computing model- Infrastructure as hardware
Hardware solutions require space, staff, physical security, planning, capital expenditure
Long hardware procurement cycle
Capacity provisioning by guessing theoretical maximum peaks
Cloud computing model- Infrastructure as software
Software solutions are flexible
Can change more quickly, easily, and cost-effectively than hardware solutions
Eliminate undifferentiated heavy-lifting tasks
Cloud service models- Three cloud service models: ext{IaaS}, ext{PaaS}, ext{SaaS}
Cloud deployment models- Cloud (public cloud), Hybrid, On-premises (private cloud)
Similarities between AWS and traditional IT- Traditional on-premises IT vs AWS: mapping elements include Firewalls, ACLs, Administrators, IAM, Router, Network pipeline, Switch, Elastic Load Balancing, VPC, Security groups, DAS, SAN, NAS, etc.
On-premises equivalents: servers, AMI, EC2 instances, RDBMS, Networking, Compute, Storage, Database, Security groups, etc.
Section 1 key takeaways- Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.
Cloud computing enables you to think of (and use) your infrastructure as software.
There are 3 cloud service models: ext{IaaS}, ext{PaaS}, ext{SaaS}.
There are 3 cloud deployment models: cloud (public), hybrid, and on-premises or private cloud.
Almost anything you can implement with traditional IT can also be implemented as an AWS cloud computing service.
Section 2: Advantages of cloud computing
Trade capital expense for variable expense- Capital data center investment based on forecast
Pay only for the amount you consume
Massive economies of scale- Due to aggregate usage from all customers, AWS can achieve higher economies of scale and pass savings to customers.
Stop guessing capacity- Overestimated server capacity
Increase speed and agility- Weeks between wanting resources and having resources
Launch in minutes between wanting resources and having resources.
Stop spending money on running and maintaining data centers- Running data centers is costly; cloud shifts this cost to operations and usage-based pricing.
Go global in minutes- Ability to deploy resources in multiple regions quickly (e.g., US East N. Virginia, US East Ohio, US West N. California, etc.).
Section 2 key takeaways- Trade capital expense for variable expense
Benefit from massive economies of scale
Stop guessing capacity
Increase speed and agility
Stop spending money on running and maintaining data centers
Go global in minutes
Section 3: Introduction to Amazon Web Services (AWS)
What are web services?- A web service is any piece of software that makes itself available over the internet and uses a standardized format—such as XML or JSON—for the request and the response of an application programming interface (API) interaction.
Diagram (conceptual): Client --request--> Web service --response--> Client
What is AWS?- AWS is a secure cloud platform that offers a broad set of global cloud-based products.
Provides on-demand access to compute, storage, network, database, and other IT resources and management tools.
Offers flexibility; you pay only for the individual services you need, for as long as you use them.
AWS services work together like building blocks.
Categories of AWS services- Developer Tools
Security, Identity, and Compliance
Blockchain
Media Services
Storage
Business Applications
End User Computing
Migration and Transfer
Mobile
Compute
Game Tech
Management and Governance
Database
AR and VR
Networking and Satellite
Content Delivery
Internet of Things (IoT)
Analytics
Cost Management
Machine Learning
Application Integration
Customer Engagement
Robotics
Simple solution example- Networking: VPC
Compute: Amazon EC2
Database: Amazon DynamoDB
Storage: Amazon S3
Users: IAM entities
Choosing a service- Service options include: Amazon Lightsail, AWS Batch, AWS Outposts, VMware Cloud on AWS, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, AWS Fargate, Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Services covered in this course- Cost Management: AWS Cost & Usage Report, AWS Budgets, AWS Cost Explorer
Management and Governance: AWS Trusted Advisor, AWS CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, AWS Well-Architected Tool, AWS Auto Scaling, AWS Command Line Interface, AWS Config, AWS Management Console, AWS Organizations
Compute: Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, Amazon ECR, AWS Fargate
Networking and Content Delivery: Amazon VPC, Amazon Route 53, Amazon CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancing
Storage: Amazon S3, Amazon S3 Glacier, Amazon EFS, Amazon EBS
Database: Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Aurora
Security, Identity, and Compliance: AWS IAM, Amazon Cognito, AWS Shield, AWS Artifact, AWS KMS
Three ways to interact with AWS- AWS Management Console: Easy-to-use graphical interface
AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI): Access to services by discrete commands or scripts
Software Development Kits (SDKs): Access services directly from your code (e.g., Java, Python, and others)
Section 3 key takeaways- AWS is a secure cloud platform with a broad set of global products that work together.
Many categories of AWS services; each category has many services.
Choose a service based on business goals and technology requirements.
There are three ways to interact with AWS services.
Section 4: AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF)
AWS CAF overview
Provides guidance and best practices to help organizations build a comprehensive approach to cloud computing across the organization and IT lifecycle to accelerate successful cloud adoption.
Organized into 6 perspectives; Perspectives consist of sets of capabilities.
Six core perspectives
Focus on business capabilities
Focus on technical capabilities
Business perspective
Capabilities: We must ensure that IT is aligned with business needs, and that IT investments can be traced to demonstrable business results.
Stakeholders: Business managers, finance managers, budget owners, strategy stakeholders
People perspective
Capabilities: We must prioritize training, staffing, and organizational changes to build an agile organization.
Stakeholders: Human resources, staffing, and people managers
Governance perspective
Capabilities: We must ensure that skills and processes align IT strategy and goals with business strategy and goals so the organization can maximize business value and minimize risks.
Stakeholders: CIO, program managers, enterprise architects, business analysts, portfolio managers
Platform perspective
Capabilities: Compute provisioning, Network provisioning, Storage provisioning, Database provisioning, Systems and solution architecture
Stakeholders: CTO, IT managers, solutions architects
Description: We must understand and communicate the nature of IT systems and their relationships; describe the architecture of the target state in detail.
Security perspective
Capabilities: Identity and access management; Detective control; Infrastructure security; Data protection; Incident response
Stakeholders: CISO, IT security managers, IT security analysts
Operations perspective
Capabilities: Service monitoring; Application performance monitoring; Resource inventory management; Release management/change management; Reporting and analytics; Business continuity/Disaster recovery; IT service catalog
Stakeholders: IT operations managers and IT support managers
Section 4 key takeaways
Cloud adoption is not instantaneous; requires thoughtful, deliberate strategy and organizational alignment.
The AWS CAF helps organizations develop efficient and effective plans for cloud adoption.
The AWS CAF is organized into six perspectives.
Perspectives consist of sets of business or technology capabilities the responsibility of key stakeholders.
Module wrap-up
Module summary- Defined different cloud computing models
Described six advantages of cloud computing
Recognized main AWS service categories and core services
Reviewed the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF)
Sample exam question
Question: Why is AWS more economical than traditional data centers for applications with varying compute workloads?- A. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) costs are billed on a monthly basis.
B. Customers retain full administrative access to their Amazon EC2 instances.
C. Amazon EC2 instances can be launched on-demand when needed.
D. Customers can permanently run enough instances to handle peak workloads.
Additional resources
What is AWS? YouTube video
Cloud computing with AWS website
Overview of Amazon Web Services whitepaper
An Overview of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework whitepaper
6 Strategies for Migrating Applications to the Cloud (AWS Cloud Enterprise Strategy blog post)
Quick reference notes
On-demand delivery of IT resources via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing
Infrastructure as software vs hardware
Cloud service models: ext{IaaS}, ext{PaaS}, ext{SaaS}
Deployment models: public cloud, hybrid, on-premises/private cloud
AWS CAF comprises 6 perspectives with specific capabilities and stakeholder roles
Interaction with AWS: Console, CLI, SDKs
AWS service categories cover a wide range from compute to security to management and more