This course offers an introduction to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. The focus of the course will be on four key services, including: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), AWS Storage Solutions, and Elastic Load Balancers (ELB) integrated with Auto Scaling Groups (ASG). Amazon EC2 is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It allows users to launch virtual machines (VMs) on demand and pay only for the compute resources they use. In this course, we will explore the different types of instances available, as well as how to launch, configure, and manage EC2 instances. In addition to the EC2 service, we also explore AWS storage solutions including Elastic Block Store (EBS), Elastic File System (EFS), Snapshots, and Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). EBS is a block-level storage service for use with EC2 instances. It provides persistent storage for data that needs to be frequently accessed. EFS is a file-level storage service for use with EC2 instances. It allows users to create and configure file systems that can be accessed from multiple instances. Snapshots are point-in-time copies of EBS volumes that can be used for backup and recovery. AMIs are pre-configured virtual machine images that can be used to launch EC2 instances. In this course, we will explore the different storage options available and how to use them to manage data on the AWS platform. Once students have a handle on the foundations, we explore more intermediate topics relevant to workload distribution through the integration of ELBs and ASGs. Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs) are used to distribute incoming traffic across multiple EC2 instances. They automatically scale to handle incoming traffic and can also be used to improve availability and fault tolerance. In this course, we will explore the different types of load balancers available, as well as how to configure and use them to distribute traffic across multiple instances. We will demonstrate how to integrate the ELBs with Auto Scaling Groups (ASGs) to ensure workloads are only distributed to healthy nodes within the EC2 service. ASGs allow users to automatically scale the number of EC2 instances in response to changing demand. They automatically launch and terminate instances based on predefined rules, ensuring that the number of instances is always sufficient to handle incoming traffic. In this course, we will explore how to configure and use ASGs to automatically scale the number of instances on the AWS platform. Throughout the course, we will use hands-on exercises to help students gain practical experience with the AWS platform. Students will have the opportunity to launch and configure EC2 instances, create and manage storage volumes, configure load balancers and auto scaling groups, and work with other AWS services. By the end of the course, students will have a solid understanding of the AWS platform and will be able to use it to build scalable and reliable cloud-based applications.
