AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Module 01 Student Guide

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AWS Training and Certification AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Contents
Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting 4

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud

Architecting
AWS Academy Cloud
Architecting

Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting module. This module provides an overview of the course.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Module This module prepares you to do the

objectives following:
• Recognize the basic elements of the café
business case.
• Describe the role of a cloud architect.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Module overview
Presentation sections
• Course overview
• Café business case introduction
• Roles in cloud computing

The objectives of this module are presented across the sections listed on this slide.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Course overview
Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Course objectives
• Apply Amazon Web Services (AWS) architectural principles and best practices to
make architectural decisions.
• Use appropriate AWS services and features to make infrastructure scalable,
reliable, and highly available.
• Choose AWS managed services to enable greater flexibility and resiliency in an
infrastructure.
• Increase performance and reduce cost of a cloud infrastructure built on AWS.
• Use AWS services and features to secure user, application, and data access.
• Apply best practices from the AWS Well-Architected Framework to improve
architectures that use AWS solutions.

Throughout the course, you will learn about the architectural layers, design principles, and Amazon Web
Services (AWS) services used in three general architecture patterns as follows:
• Three-tier architectures
• Serverless architectures
• Streaming architectures

The objectives of this course are aligned to the knowledge and skills described for taking the AWS Certified
Solutions Architect – Associate certification.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Alignment to AWS Certification

The concepts in this course align to the knowledge and skills described in the
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam (SAA-C03) guide.

The following knowledge and skills are validated by

the AWS Certified Solutions Architect exam:
• Ability to design solutions based on the AWS Well-
Architected Framework
• Ability to perform the following tasks:
• Design solutions that incorporate AWS services to meet
current business requirements and future projected needs.
• Design architectures that are secure, resilient, high-
performing, and cost-optimized.
• Review existing solutions and determine improvements.
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This course is not an exam preparation course. However, the lectures and labs are designed to align with the
knowledge and skills described in the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam (SAA-C03) guide.

This slide summarizes the expected experience and knowledge for a candidate taking the SAA-C03 exam.
Additional details are provided in the Bridging to Certification module, and there are links to exam resources in
the content resources section of your course.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Course outline by module

1. Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud 10. Implementing Monitoring,
Architecting Elasticity, and High Availability
2. Introducing Cloud Architecting
11. Automating Your Architecture
3. Securing Access
12. Caching Content
4. Adding a Storage Layer with
Amazon S3 13. Building Decoupled Architectures
5. Adding a Compute Layer Using 14. Building Serverless Architectures
Amazon EC2
and Microservices
6. Adding a Database Layer
15. Data Engineering Patterns
7. Creating a Networking Environment
8. Connecting Networks 16. Planning for Disaster
9. Securing User, Application, and 17. Bridging to Certification
Data Access
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The course is presented across 17 modules. Modules 2 and 3 provide a review of foundational cloud concepts.
Modules 4 through 8 focus on a particular architectural layer. Modules 9 through 16 focus on design principles
and best practices that apply across layers to build secure, high-performing, resilient, and cost-effective cloud
architectures. The final module presents information about how to prepare for the AWS Certified Solutions
Architect – Associate exam.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Suggested starting point for this course

• You will be most successful in this course if you
have the following:
• Knowledge of AWS Cloud topics equivalent with
completing the AWS Academy Cloud Foundations or a
similar course
• Working knowledge of distributed systems
• Working knowledge of multi-tier architectures
• Familiarity with general networking concepts
• Find self-paced training links for these topics on
the content resources page of your course.

As the previous slide notes, Modules 2 and 3, Introducing Cloud Architecting and Securing Access, should be a
review of concepts you learned previously. You might have learned about these concepts through the AWS
Academy Cloud Foundations course or through your own experience learning about the AWS Cloud. As such,
these modules do not go very deep into the details.

This course seeks to build cloud compute architecture knowledge on top of your general web-based
architecture knowledge. There are no modules or sections focused on general web-based architecture
concepts, like building distributed systems, multi-tier architectures, and internet-based networks.

If you think you need a refresher or want to spend more time on these topics, try one of the self-paced learning
options listed on the content resources page of your course. These options include courses from AWS Educate,
which exists outside of this course.

To access AWS Educate, you need to register for an AWS Educate account. It can take up to a day for your
account to be verified. There is no charge for AWS Educate, and learners as young as 13 years of age can
register. All you need is an email address; you do not need a credit card. With AWS Educate, learners can choose
training content based on their knowledge, goals, and interests. They can find a variety of information on
foundational topics.

For instructions on how to register for an AWS Educate account, refer to the Accessing AWS Educate ructions
PDF included with your course resources.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Course materials
Learning materials Knowledge checks
• Student guides and videos based on the • A 10-question knowledge check for each
instructor presentations for each module module, from Modules 2 through 16
• Hands-on labs include the following: • A sample certification exam question in
• Guided labs (step-by-step instructions)
the student guide for each module, from
Modules 2 through 16
• Challenge labs (based on a business case)
• A 25-question course assessment drawn
• AWS Academy Cloud Architecting Capstone from slides and student guides for all
• Recorded demonstrations modules
• Instructor-led activities

Each module begins with an introduction to the key questions and decisions an architect must consider when
building out the relevant layer of their cloud architecture for these common patterns. There is a student guide
for each lecture module and videos that reinforce the key concepts in each module.

The labs in the course will give you the opportunity to apply your learning in each module through a hands-on
AWS environment. Guided labs provide you with step-by-step instructions to help you gain experience in
creating and configuring AWS resources in the different AWS service areas. The challenge (café ) labs contain
sections that do not provide full click-level guidance or detailed step-by-step instructions. Instead, you are
challenged to apply the skills you gained from the guided labs and the concepts presented in the lectures.

The AWS Academy Cloud Architecting Capstone is an additional lab experience where you can apply your
learning without detailed guidance. The capstone is delivered through the same lab environment as the other
labs, but the environment for the capstone is long lived. This means you can work on the lab over multiple days
and pick up where you left off.

Recorded demonstrations are included in the course to illustrate some topics. These videos are included in your
module materials, and your student guide includes introductory slides to indicate where the demonstrations fit
in the lecture.

Your instructor might include instructor-led activities to complement the lecture. Introductory slides are
included in your student guide. Additional information and materials for each activity will be provided as
needed based on the activity.

Throughout the course, you will have opportunities to check your understanding of the materials presented.
Each module, except the first and last modules, includes a 10-question knowledge check and a sample exam
question for discussion. The course also includes a 25-question assessment that incorporates content from
across the course. You can retry both the knowledge checks and the course assessment as many times as
needed.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Café business case introduction

Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

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The challenge labs in this course are built around a fictional business case. The business case provides a way to
explore cloud computing topics in the context of relatable business needs. This scenario is intended to provide
an example of the real-world applicability of technical concepts that you will learn. This section introduces the
business case.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Café business scenario

• Frank and Martha
opened a café and
bakery in their
retirement.
• Their staff and a few
AWS consultants who
are also customers are
helping them use the
cloud to address the
needs of their growing
business.

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Frank and Martha dreamed of opening a café and bakery in retirement. They were not ready to stop working
entirely. They wanted to do something that incorporated their love of baking and supplemented their income.

To make their dreams a reality, Frank and Martha recently opened a café and bakery at the base of their
building. Since opening the café and bakery, they enjoy interacting with the people in their neighborhood. They
also support community events with their baked goods and coffees.

Frank and Martha have experienced an increase in local business. They also sometimes receive inquiries for
products from business travelers and tourists who pass through the area. Together with their staff and café
visitors (some of whom are AWS consultants), they discover how cloud computing can help their business grow.

In each of the challenge (café) labs, you take on the role of the café staff, and receive advice and assistance from
AWS consultants who occasionally pass through the café. You will architect cloud solutions that help fulfill the
business needs of the café. The next slides introduce the personas involved in the café business scenario.

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Café business owners and staff

Frank Martha Sofía Nikhil

• Co-owner of the café • Co-owner of café • Daughter of Frank • Café employee with
• Retired from the • Retired accountant and Martha visual design skills
navy • Knows how to use • Supply chain • Interested in learning
• Likes to bake spreadsheets but manager for the café cloud computing
• Nontechnical otherwise, • Future business • Might take on more
nontechnical administration responsibilities at the
student café when Sofía starts
• Has technical skills her university studies
that include
programming
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Frank is a great baker, but aside from taking selfies of his creations, he's not very technical. His partner, Martha,
is a retired account and is familiar with using spreadsheets, but otherwise, she does not have a technical
background. Sofía is the daughter of Frank and Martha. She runs the day-to-day operations of the café, which
include managing the supply chain for sourcing ingredients and tracking inventory. She took some programming
classes in secondary school and plans to start working toward a university degree in business administration
later this year.

Nikhil works at the café part time. He works behind the counter, serving customers and doing other tasks under
Sofía’s supervision. He finished secondary school and has some experience with visual design. He wants to learn
more about web development and cloud computing. He plans to get a university degree that builds on his
existing design skills and teaches him cloud computing skills.

Sofía recently learned about AWS. She talked to her parents about how they might use AWS services to
automate some aspects of the café business. She explained how AWS services can help reduce manual
administrative work and improve the customer experience.

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Café visitors who are AWS consultants

Olivia Faythe Mateo

• AWS solutions architect • Developer • Systems administrator and
• Has technical skills that include • Has experience with AWS engineer
a specialty in databases and programming interfaces • Likes to find ways to automate
network technologies • Is knowledgeable about cloud and to create repeatable
security solutions
• Knows the importance of
backups and disaster recovery
in solution design
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Three frequent café visitors who are friends of Sofía and Nikhil are AWS consultants. They often chat about their
interests in technology and the cloud.

Olivia is an AWS solutions architect (SA) who recently moved to the downtown area. Through their
conversations, Sofía learned that Olivia is an expert in AWS and cloud technologies. Olivia previously worked as
a network engineer, and she also has a strong background in database technologies.

Faythe is an AWS developer who recently completed an AWS internship program. She likes to use her
programming skills to apply the appropriate technology to a business problem. She recently achieved the AWS
Certified Security – Specialty and is interested in developing big data solutions. She often stops by the café for
some of Frank's baked goods.

Mateo usually grabs a coffee at the café on his way to work. He is an experienced AWS SysOps engineer. He is
skilled at bringing automation and fault tolerance to the solutions that he builds. Mateo also likes to design for
backup and disaster recovery. He previously worked as a developer and has been mentoring Faythe since she
started as an intern with AWS. Mateo enjoys helping anyone who is interested in learning.

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The evolving café architecture

Version Business Reason for Update Technical Requirements and Architecture Update
V1 Build a static website for a small business. Host the website on Amazon S3.
V2 Update the website to support dynamic Deploy the web application and database on Amazon EC2.
content and online ordering.
V3 Reduce the effort to maintain the database Separate web and database layers. Migrate the database to
and secure its data. Amazon RDS on a private subnet.
V4 Enhance the security of the web application. Use Amazon VPC features to configure and secure public and
private subnets.
V5 Ensure that the website can handle an Add a load balancer, implement auto scaling on the EC2
expected increase in traffic and remain highly instances, and distribute compute and database instances
available and resilient to failure. across two Availability Zones.
V6 Automate deployments so that the café can Build a version-controlled CloudFormation template to deploy
consistently deploy, manage, and update café the network and application layers. Deploy the CloudFormation
resources across Regions. stack to another Region.
V7 Add reporting capabilities while reducing the Deploy Lambda functions that connect to the Amazon RDS
operational and maintenance burden, database and generate a report based on a schedule.
improving performance, and reducing costs.

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Across the challenge labs in the course, you help Frank and Martha evolve their cloud architecture. You take it
from a simple static website in the cloud to a secure, scalable, and resilient cloud-based application that helps
them optimize costs. This table summarizes the updates you make in each challenge lab.

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Roles in cloud computing

Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

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This section introduces a few roles in cloud computing and describes the types of work each role would typically
do.

You might want to start your career in cloud computing or transition your career to a cloud computing role.
Maybe you want to work in an organization where some employees have cloud computing responsibilities. For
any of these reasons, it is helpful to understand the common job titles or roles that individuals, teams, or
departments perform.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

IT professional
Common skills and responsibilities include the following:
• Act as a generalist and might manage an application
• Often manage a production environment
• Highly technical
• Might have significant or limited experience in cloud technologies
• Might specialize in one area (such as security or storage)

Job titles include the following:

• IT administrator
• Systems administrator
• Network administrator

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IT professionals are generalists. They typically have a broad range of skills. For example, they might manage the
infrastructure for an entire application and have a strong understanding of the components that make up the
solution. However, they might not always have detailed knowledge of any one service that is part of the
application. IT professionals are typically highly technical.

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IT leader
Common skills and responsibilities include the following:
• Lead a team of IT professionals
• Responsible for day-to-day operations
• Manage a budget, stay informed about technologies, and choose new
technologies
• Hands on during the early stages of a project, and then delegate the
team to take over

Job titles include the following:

• IT manager
• IT director
• IT supervisor

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IT leaders are managers. They typically lead a team of IT professionals and decide on the type of technology to
use for a project. They might be significantly involved in the implementation details early in the project lifecycle.
Then, they delegate the team to handle the details as the project gets closer to completion.

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Developer
Common skills and responsibilities include the followoing:
• Write, test, and fix code
• Think about projects at the application level
• Work with APIs and SDKs
• Might use sample code
• Might specialize in one area (such as security or storage)

Job titles include the following:

• Software developer
• System architect
• Software development manager

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Another common role in cloud computing is the developer role. Developers work with code. They work on the
details—writing, testing, and fixing the code that makes an application work. Developers build and consume
documentation and code repositories to accelerate projects. They work with APIs and SDKs.

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DevOps engineer
Common skills and responsibilities include the following:
• Build out the infrastructure that applications run on, often in the
cloud
• Follow the guidelines of the cloud architect
• Experiment to improve deployments

Job titles include the following:

• DevOps engineer
• Build engineer
• Reliability engineer

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Development Operations (DevOps) engineers build out the infrastructure that applications run on. They often
create or improve on the code that installs and configures servers and application deployments. DevOps staff
often experiment with the infrastructure and code. Sometimes, they learn by doing. They create repeatable
deployment solutions, and they work to apply engineering skills to the business needs of operations teams.

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Cloud architect
Common skills and responsibilities include the following:
• Stay up to date with new technologies and help decide which ones to
use
• Provide documentation, processes, and tooling to developers
• Give developers freedom to innovate
• Resolve challenges using best practices for cost optimization,
performance, reliability, and security

Job titles include the following:

• Cloud architect
• Systems engineer
• Systems analyst

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Cloud architects spend their time reading and staying up to date with the latest developments and trends in
cloud computing. They are responsible for the design architecture of applications and selecting which
technologies to use to meet the needs of a technical business objective. They should be aware of the
capabilities of the many cloud service options that are available. This will help them decide which ones to adopt
given a specific set of business requirements.

Cloud architects provide guidance to developers through architectural diagrams and documentation. They also
provide tooling, but they give the development team room to innovate if needed to meet the success criteria.

Common challenges for the cloud architect role include resource management, cost optimization, and defining
best practices for performance, reliability, and security.

The responsibilities of cloud architects closely align with the pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework,
which is discussed in detail in this course. The cloud architect role is the perspective you will take as you
progress through this course.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Module wrap-up
Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

21

This section summarizes the topics discussed in this module.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Module summary
This module prepared you to do the following:
• Recognize the basic elements of the café business case.
• Describe the role of a cloud architect.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 1: Welcome to AWS Academy Cloud Architecting

Thank you

Corrections, feedback, or other questions?

Contact us at https://support.aws.amazon.com/#/contacts/aws-academy.

23

That concludes this module. The content resources page of your course includes links to additional resources
that are related to this module.

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