Cloud Technology and Services
What you will learn
In this domain, you will learn the key AWS services across compute (EC2, Lambda), storage (S3, EBS, EFS), databases (RDS, DynamoDB), networking (VPC, Route 53), and operations (CloudWatch, CloudTrail). As the largest domain at 34% of the CLF-C02 exam, learning the correct mapping between service names and their purposes is the key to passing.
Key points
- Compute - the differences between EC2 (virtual servers), Lambda (serverless functions), and ECS / EKS (containers)
- Storage - choosing among S3 (object), EBS (block storage for EC2), and EFS (shared file)
- Databases - RDS (relational), DynamoDB (NoSQL), Aurora, and ElastiCache (in-memory)
- Networking - VPC is a virtual network, Route 53 is DNS, CloudFront is a CDN, and Direct Connect is a dedicated line
- Operations and monitoring - CloudWatch (metrics and logs), CloudTrail (API operation auditing), and Config (configuration change tracking)
- Deployment automation - CloudFormation (IaC) and Elastic Beanstalk (PaaS)
- Analytics - Athena (SQL queries against S3), Redshift (data warehouse), and QuickSight (BI)
Terms and concepts
Amazon EC2 and AWS Lambda
EC2 is a virtual server that you can configure freely from the OS level up and that suits long-running workloads. Lambda is an event-driven serverless function for which you only write code, with no infrastructure to manage. As a general rule, EC2 suits always-on workloads while Lambda suits intermittent processing.
→ Fundamentals of Lambda Serverless ・ → How to Use EC2 Instances
Amazon S3 and Amazon EBS
S3 is object storage accessible over the internet and is well suited to images, videos, and backups. EBS is block storage that you attach to EC2 and use for the OS disk or a database data area. S3 trades looser access for high durability, while EBS is fast but tied to a specific EC2 instance.
→ Designing S3 Storage Classes ・ → Designing and Optimizing EBS
Amazon RDS and Amazon DynamoDB
RDS is a managed service for relational databases (RDBs) such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle, and it suits transactions and complex joins. DynamoDB is a NoSQL key-value store characterized by millisecond-level latency and virtually unlimited scaling.
Amazon VPC and Related Networking Services
A VPC is a virtual network you create within AWS, composed of subnets, route tables, and security groups. Route 53 is DNS, CloudFront is a CDN, Direct Connect is a dedicated line connecting AWS to on-premises, and VPN is an encrypted connection over the internet.
CloudWatch and CloudTrail
The two have similar names but serve different purposes. CloudWatch is a monitoring service that handles metrics, logs, and alarms. CloudTrail is an auditing service that records who called which API and when.
→ Monitoring with CloudWatch ・ → Audit Logging with CloudTrail
Check your understanding
Check what you have learned with 5 questions