Course Outline

Domain 1: Cloud Concepts

1.1 Define the AWS Cloud and its value proposition

• Define the benefits of the AWS cloud including:
  • Security
  • Reliability
  • High Availability
  • Elasticity
  • Agility
  • Pay-as-you go pricing
  • Scalability
  • Global Reach
  • Economy of scale
• Explain how the AWS cloud allows users to focus on business value
  • Shifting technical resources to revenue-generating activities as opposed to managing infrastructure

1.2 Identify aspects of AWS Cloud economics

• Define items that would be part of a Total Cost of Ownership proposal
  • Understand the role of operational expenses (OpEx)
  • Understand the role of capital expenses (CapEx)
  • Understand labor costs associated with on-premises operations
  • Understand the impact of software licensing costs when moving to the cloud
• Identify which operations will reduce costs by moving to the cloud
  • Right-sized infrastructure
  • Benefits of automation
  • Reduce compliance scope (for example, reporting)
  • Managed services (for example, RDS, ECS, EKS, DynamoDB)
     

1.3 Explain the different cloud architecture design principles

• Explain the design principles
• Design for failure
• Decouple components versus monolithic architecture
• Implement elasticity in the cloud versus on-premises
• Think parallel

Domain 2: Security and Compliance

2.1 Define the AWS shared responsibility model

• Recognize the elements of the Shared Responsibility Model
• Describe the customer’s responsibility on AWS
  • Describe how the customer’s responsibilities may shift depending on the service used (for example with RDS, Lambda, or EC2)
• Describe AWS responsibilities

2.2 Define AWS Cloud security and compliance concepts

• Identify where to find AWS compliance information
  • Locations of lists of recognized available compliance controls (for example, HIPPA, SOCs)
  • Recognize that compliance requirements vary among AWS services
• At a high level, describe how customers achieve compliance on AWS
  • Identify different encryption options on AWS (for example, In transit, At rest)
• Describe who enables encryption on AWS for a given service
• Recognize there are services that will aid in auditing and reporting
  • Recognize that logs exist for auditing and monitoring (do not have to understand the logs)
  • Define Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Config, and AWS CloudTrail
• Explain the concept of least privileged access

2.3 Identify AWS access management capabilities

• Understand the purpose of User and Identity Management
  • Access keys and password policies (rotation, complexity)
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
    • Groups/users
    • Roles
    • Policies managed policies compared to custom policies
  • Tasks that require the use of root accounts
  • Protection of root accounts

2.4 Identify resources for security support

• Recognize there are different network security capabilities
  • Native AWS services (for example, security groups, Network ACLs, AWS WAF)
  • 3rd party security products from the AWS Marketplace
• Recognize there is documentation and where to find it (for example, best practices, whitepapers, official documents)
  • AWS Knowledge Center, Security Center, security forum, and security blogs
  • Partner Systems Integrators
• Know that security checks are a component of AWS Trusted Advisor

Domain 3: Technology

3.1 Define methods of deploying and operating in the AWS Cloud

• Identify at a high-level different ways of provisioning and operating in the AWS cloud
  • Programmatic access, APIs, SDKs, AWS Management Console, CLI, Infrastructure as Code
• Identify different types of cloud deployment models
  • All in with cloud/cloud native
  • Hybrid
  • On-premises
• Identify connectivity options
  • VPN
  • AWS Direct Connect
  • Public internet

3.2 Define the AWS global infrastructure

• Describe the relationships among Regions, Availability Zones, and Edge Locations
• Describe how to achieve high availability through the use of multiple Availability Zones
  • Recall that high availability is achieved by using multiple Availability Zones
  • Recognize that Availability Zones do not share single points of failure
• Describe when to consider the use of multiple AWS Regions
  • Disaster recovery/business continuity
  • Low latency for end-users
  • Data sovereignty
• Describe at a high level the benefits of Edge Locations
  • Amazon CloudFront
  • AWS Global Accelerator

3.3 Identify the core AWS services

• Describe the categories of services on AWS (compute, storage, network, database)
• Identify AWS compute services
  • Recognize there are different compute families
  • Recognize the different services that provide compute (for example, AWS Lambda compared to Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), or Amazon EC2, etc.)
  • Recognize that elasticity is achieved through Auto Scaling
  • Identify the purpose of load balancers
• Identify different AWS storage services
  • Describe Amazon S3
  • Describe Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)
  • Describe Amazon S3 Glacier
  • Describe AWS Snowball
  • Describe Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)
  • Describe AWS Storage Gateway
• Identify AWS networking services
  • Identify VPC
  • Identify security groups
  • Identify the purpose of Amazon Route 53
  • Identify VPN, AWS Direct Connect
• Identify different AWS database services
  • Install databases on Amazon EC2 compared to AWS managed databases
  • Identify Amazon RDS
  • Identify Amazon DynamoDB
  • Identify Amazon Redshift

3.4 Identify resources for technology support

• Recognize there is documentation (best practices, whitepapers, AWS Knowledge Center, forums, blogs)
• Identify the various levels and scope of AWS support
  • AWS Abuse
  • AWS support cases
  • Premium support
  • Technical Account Managers
• Recognize there is a partner network (marketplace, third-party) including Independent Software Vendors and System Integrators
• Identify sources of AWS technical assistance and knowledge including professional services, solution architects, training and certification, and the Amazon Partner Network
• Identify the benefits of using AWS Trusted Advisor

Domain 4: Billing and Pricing

4.1 Compare and contrast the various pricing models for AWS (for example, On-Demand Instances, Reserved Instances, and Spot Instance pricing)

• Identify scenarios/best fit for On-Demand Instance pricing
• Identify scenarios/best fit for Reserved-Instance pricing
  • Describe Reserved-Instances flexibility
  • Describe Reserved-Instances behavior in AWS Organizations
• Identify scenarios/best fit for Spot Instance pricing

4.2 Recognize the various account structures in relation to AWS billing and pricing

• Recognize that consolidated billing is a feature of AWS Organizations
• Identify how multiple accounts aid in allocating costs across departments

4.3 Identify resources available for billing support

• Identify ways to get billing support and information
  • Cost Explorer, AWS Cost and Usage Report, Amazon QuickSight, third-party partners,and AWS Marketplace tools
  • Open a billing support case
  • The role of the Concierge for AWS Enterprise Support Plan customers
• Identify where to find pricing information on AWS services
  • AWS Simple Monthly Calculator
  • AWS Services product pages
  • AWS Pricing API
• Recognize that alarms/alerts exist
• Identify how tags are used in cost allocation