AWS Cloud Practitioner Study Guide Notes

Introduction

• Host: Derek
• Purpose: To guide through AWS Cloud Practitioner exam preparation.
• Focus on AWS due to user-friendly platform.
• Certification objectives include understanding cloud computing and AWS services.

Instructor Background

• Derek: 3X AWS Certified (Cloud Practitioner, Solutions Architect, SysOps Admin).
• Experience: IT Support Engineer with ERP applications.
• Content is verified for accuracy.

Exam Objectives

• Understand the value of AWS Cloud.
• AWS Shared Responsibility Model.
• AWS Well-Architected Framework (5 pillars, plus sustainability).
• Familiarity with commonly used AWS services.
• Identify appropriate AWS services for common use cases.

What Will Not Be Tested On

• Coding, designing, troubleshooting, migrating workloads, and load testing.

Exam Tips

• Rule out 1-2 irrelevant answers after reading questions.
• Focus on keywords in questions (e.g., most cost-optimized, secure).
• Avoid strong absolutes like "always" or "never."
• Understand the pillars of cloud computing: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization.

Exam Score Breakdown

• Cloud Concepts: 26%
• Security and Compliance: 25%
• Technology: 33%
• Billing and Pricing: 16%

Cloud Computing Overview

• Definition: On-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.
• Key components: Compute, Storage, Database, Networking.
• Two parties involved: Provider (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and Consumer (end-users/businesses).
• CapEx vs OpEx: Transitioning from capital expenditures to operating expenditures.

Shared Responsibility Model

• AWS Responsibilities: Hardware, global infrastructure, software for compute/storage/networking.
• Customer Responsibilities: Securing data, configuring virtual infrastructure, managing third-party software.

Benefits of Using Cloud

• Increased agility and scalability.
• Pay-as-you-go pricing model.
• Economies of scale, global reach, security, reliability, and availability.

AWS Well-Architected Framework

• Pillars of Architecture:
  1. Operational Excellence
  2. Security
  3. Reliability
  4. Performance Efficiency
  5. Cost Optimization
• Focus on key business value and best practices.

AWS Global Infrastructure

• Regions: Geographical locations with data center clusters.
• Availability Zones: Physical data centers within a region for high availability and fault tolerance.
• Edge Locations: Data centers for caching content closer to users.

Major AWS Services

Compute Services

• EC2: Virtual machines/instances for compute needs.
• Lambda: Serverless compute service.

Storage Services

• S3: Object storage with virtually unlimited capacity.
• EBS: Block storage for EC2 instances.
• EFS: Scalable file storage.

Database Services

• RDS: Relational database service.
• DynamoDB: NoSQL database service.

Networking Services

• VPC: Virtual Private Cloud for deploying resources.
• Route 53: DNS service for routing.

Security Services

• IAM: Identity and Access Management.
• GuardDuty: Threat detection service.
• KMS: Key Management Service for encryption.

Pricing and Billing

• TCO: Total Cost of Ownership.
• Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate costs.
• AWS Budgets: Set budgets to manage spending.

AWS Support Plans

1. Basic: Free email support for billing/account questions.
2. Developer: Tech support via email.
3. Business: 24/7 support via email, chat, and phone.
4. Enterprise: Dedicated manager and 24/7 support.

Closing Notes

• Ensure to use Hands-On labs and practice exams.
• Key themes: Overprepare for the exam, focus on understanding AWS services, and maintain a calm mindset before the test.
• Contact information for questions is available.

Note: This guide is comprehensive, covering major AWS services and exam strategies necessary for passing the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam.