Amazon AWS Skills and Learning Guide

Storage and Database Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a variety of storage and database services that can be used to create, store, and access data.

AWS Storage Services include Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), which is designed for storing large amounts of unstructured data; Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), which is designed for persistent block-level storage; and Amazon Glacier, which is designed for long-term archival.

AWS Database Services include Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), which provides access to MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft SQL Server databases; Amazon DynamoDB, a non-relational database that provides fast performance; and Amazon Redshift, an enterprise data warehouse designed to handle large-scale analytic workloads. AWS also provides data migration services that help customers quickly and securely move their data into and out of the cloud, allowing them to take advantage of all of the benefits that AWS Storage and Database Services have to offer.

With its comprehensive suite of storage and database services, AWS enables customers to store, analyze, and access their data quickly, securely, and cost-effectively.

Compute and Network Services

AWS compute and network services are a set of tools provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that enable customers to create, deploy, manage, and scale their applications in the cloud. These services provide the underlying infrastructure for the delivery of computing resources such as virtual machines, storage, and networks. AWS compute and network services enable customers to create custom architectures for their applications, and scale these services as needed. With these services, AWS customers can also customize their network security settings and control access to their data and applications.

These services provide the ability to monitor performance of resources in real-time and make adjustments accordingly. This helps customers ensure that their applications remain available even during times of high demand. AWS compute and network services are an essential part of any cloud strategy, providing customers with the flexibility and scalability they need to build and maintain applications in the cloud.

Management Tools

AWS Management Tools provide an easy way to manage resources on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. With AWS Management Tools, users can automate and simplify common tasks such as provisioning, configuring, deploying, and monitoring their applications and services. These tools enable users to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility offered by the cloud while providing visibility into resource utilization, costs, and performance. By using AWS Management Tools, users can create cost-efficient and reliable cloud architectures that help reduce operational overhead. These tools also provide access to a variety of services and features such as network configuration, security management, analytics, automation, and orchestration capabilities.

With AWS Management Tools, users can quickly and easily manage their cloud environment, allowing them to focus on building business applications and ensuring customer success. AWS Management Tools simplifies the process of migrating existing workloads to the cloud, helping users save time and money when moving from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud. By using these tools, users benefit from improved scalability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. With AWS Management Tools, users can unlock the full potential of their cloud environment and get the most out of their cloud investments.

Deployment Security Features

AWS provides a variety of security features to help ensure the safety and security of your deployments. These features include:

Secure Access Management

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) enables you to manage user access to resources on the AWS platform, including granting secure access to specific operations with fine-grained policy controls.

Granular Network Controls

Security groups and network access control lists (ACLs) enable you to create sophisticated rules for controlling traffic inbound and outbound from your deployments.

Data Encryption

AWS provides support for data encryption as a service, allowing you to encrypt sensitive data at rest or while it is being transmitted.

Security Logging & Auditing

AWS provides a comprehensive set of logging and auditing features, allowing you to monitor events and activities on the platform. These features can be used to detect potential security issues or compliance violations.

Vulnerability Scanning

AWS offers automated vulnerability scanning services to help identify potential software vulnerabilities in your applications.

These security features are part of the AWS core infrastructure and can be used to secure your deployments and help protect against malicious threats. By leveraging these features, you can reduce the risk of a data breach or other security-related incident.

CloudWatch, Organizations, Config and CloudTrail

AWS CloudWatch is a monitoring tool that enables customers to monitor their AWS resources and applications. It collects operational and performance data in real time, providing customers with an up-to-date view of their environments and enabling them to act quickly on any issues or opportunities.

AWS Organizations is a service that allows customers to centrally manage and govern their AWS accounts. It enables customers to create groups of accounts, apply policies to those groups, and ensure that all accounts comply with the same set of guidelines.

AWS Config is a service that records changes made to an AWS resource and maintains a history of configuration changes. With Amazon CloudWatch Events, customers can also set up notifications for any changes made to their environment.

Finally, AWS CloudTrail is a service that tracks user activity within the AWS console and provides customers with detailed auditing capabilities. This allows customers to monitor which users are accessing their resources and what actions those users are taking. With this information, customers can ensure secure access to their resources and quickly identify any unauthorized access.

High Availability: Relational Databases and Auto Scaling

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers high availability features such as Relational Database Service (RDS) and Auto Scaling that can help keep your business running smoothly. RDS is a managed database service that allows you to quickly set up, scale, and manage relational databases in the cloud. It also provides built-in replication capabilities so you can maintain a high availability and minimize downtime in the event of an outage. Auto Scaling allows you to scale your EC2 resources based on changing load, ensuring that your application has the computing power it needs when it needs it.

With these features, AWS helps businesses achieve increased uptime and reliability for their applications. By leveraging high availability features such as RDS and Auto Scaling, businesses can reap the benefits of cloud computing without sacrificing reliability.

Deployment and Provisioning: Hubs, Spokes, Bastion Hosts and Systems Manager

AWS deployment and provisioning features make it easier for organizations to securely deploy, manage, and scale their applications in a cloud environment. These features include:

Hubs

Hubs are a centralized management point for multiple AWS accounts. They provide a single-sign-on for users, allowing them to access all of their accounts from one place. They also enable organizations to centrally manage resources, policies, and users across their entire cloud infrastructure.

Spokes

Spokes are a set of AWS accounts that link back to the Hub. This allows organizations to easily distribute access for different applications or teams without having to manage multiple separate AWS accounts. It also enables them to securely isolate resources and applications within their infrastructures.

Bastion Hosts

Bastion hosts are dedicated servers that are used to access AWS accounts. They provide an extra layer of security, as they do not allow direct access from the Internet and require users to first authenticate using a secure connection before being able to access AWS systems.

Systems Manager

Systems Manager is an AWS service that allows organizations to centrally manage, update, and patch their applications. This helps simplify the process of provisioning new systems and provides automated workflow capabilities for managing updates, backups, and other maintenance tasks.

By using these features together, organizations can easily deploy, manage and scale their applications in a secure and reliable environment. With these features, organizations can quickly deploy new systems and manage them efficiently, reducing the time it takes to get them up and running. Additionally, they can easily configure access policies and secure their resources while maintaining flexibility within their infrastructures.

Data Management: SE, EBS and AMI

Amazon's suite of storage and data management services, including Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Elastic Block Store (EBS), and Amazon Machine Image (AMI), offer a variety of solutions to help organizations manage their data.

Amazon S3 provides cloud storage capabilities for businesses needing to store vast amounts of data with scalability and high availability. S3 provides secure, flexible, cost-effective access to data from anywhere in the world. With S3’s versioning capability, businesses never have to worry about losing important data.

Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a component of Amazon's cloud infrastructure for providing persistent storage for applications and databases running on AWS. EBS volumes are virtual disk drives that can be attached to a single Amazon EC2 instance allowing customers to configure and store data as needed.

Amazon Machine Image (AMI) enables businesses to package their applications, operating systems, and associated files into a single unit for deployment onto an Amazon EC2 instance. In addition, AMI provides the ability to launch multiple instances that use the same configuration.

Overall, AWS Storage and Data Management feature provides robust solutions for businesses seeking to securely store, manage and access data in a scalable environment. With advanced tools such as S3, EBS, and AMI, businesses can rest assured knowing their data is safe and accessible when needed.

Security: IAM, Reporting and Logging

AWS Security and Compliance features offer a comprehensive set of tools to help protect your data, applications, and infrastructure. These features include IAM (Identity and Access Management) for controlling user access; Reporting to provide visibility into security-related events; and Logging to track system activity.

IAM enables you to securely manage user access to cloud resources. It allows you to define and manage user accounts, set up roles for different users, and control access based on a wide range of factors. Reporting helps you keep track of security-related events across your entire AWS environment. You can generate reports with detailed insights into potential threats, suspicious activity, and more. Logging helps you stay on top of system activity and identify any unusual behavior. It offers visibility into what users are doing with your resources, allowing you to quickly detect and respond to any malicious activity.

By leveraging these AWS Security and Compliance features, you can ensure that your data is secure and compliant with regulatory requirements. With the right combination of tools in place, you can maintain a safe and secure cloud environment.

Networking: Virtual Private Cloud and Route 53

AWS has a variety of powerful networking features designed to facilitate the secure and reliable transfer of information between web applications and their users. Two of the most commonly used networking features are Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and Amazon Route 53.

Amazon VPC allows users to create a virtual network in the cloud, which provides customers with complete control over their virtual networking environment. This feature allows users to define network architectures, including IP address ranges, subnets, route tables, and network gateways. Additionally, customers can create Network Access Control Lists (ACLs) that limit access to certain resources or ports on the virtual private cloud.

Amazon Route 53 is a highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service. This feature helps customers connect user requests to the infrastructure that runs their applications, such as Amazon EC2 instances, Elastic Load Balancing load balancers, or Amazon S3 buckets. Additionally, customers can use Route 53 to manage their public DNS records and route end users to infrastructure around the world.

By leveraging the networking features of AWS, customers can rest assured that their applications will be securely and reliably accessible to users, no matter where they are located. With VPC and Route 53, businesses have the flexibility to create networks tailored to their own specific needs. These features provide scalability and reliability, so customers can be sure that their applications will be available and perform optimally, even during surge periods.

Automation and Optimization: CloudFormation and Elastic Beanstalk

AWS CloudFormation is an automated resource provisioning service that helps developers and system administrators manage to compute resources efficiently. CloudFormation enables users to create and maintain templates for applications and their associated infrastructure, including databases, storage containers, networking components, and more. Through the use of templates, AWS CloudFormation allows users to quickly deploy complex cloud architectures with minimal manual effort.

Elastic Beanstalk is a service that allows developers to quickly deploy and manage applications in the AWS cloud. It is designed to make it easier for developers to launch, scale, and operate applications on top of AWS services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, and Amazon RDS. Elastic Beanstalk is integrated with AWS tools such as CloudFormation, allowing users to quickly deploy applications that use multiple services in a short amount of time. Elastic Beanstalk also provides features such as monitoring, logging, health checks, and more, helping developers manage their application's performance and scaling requirements more effectively.

Together, these two services provide powerful automation and optimization features to help users manage their AWS infrastructure more efficiently and effectively. CloudFormation automates the provisioning of resources, while Elastic Beanstalk makes it easier to deploy, monitor, and scale applications. Both services allow developers to quickly build out complex architectures with little manual effort, helping them achieve their goals more quickly and efficiently.