AWS Cloud Technical Essentials

Name: AWS Cloud Technical Essentials
Rating: 4.4 (35577 reviews)

Learn from AWS technical instructors about the AWS Platform, global infrastructure, security, and the core services.

Created byAmazon Web Services (AWS)

Last updated 4/2026

English

Bulgarian [Auto],Czech [Auto],

What you'll learn

Recognize terminology and concepts as they relate to the AWS platform and navigate the AWS Management Console.
Understand Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), and Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS).
Learn about the security measures AWS provides and key concepts of AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).
Use AWS database services, including Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Relational Database (RDS).
Understand AWS management tools, including Auto Scaling, Amazon CloudWatch, Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), and AWS Trusted Advisor.

Course content

11 sections • 84 lectures • 7h 2m total length

Welcome to AWS Cloud Technical Essentials2:34
AWS Cloud Technical Essentials is a fundamental-level course. It’s designed to build your competence, confidence, and credibility with practical cloud skills that can help you innovate and advance your professional future. Here’s a quick overview of the skills that you will learn in each week of this first course.
Module 1: Getting Started with AWS Cloud
In this module, you will learn the definition of cloud computing and how to describe the cloud value proposition. You will learn how to differentiate between workloads that run on premises compared to workloads that run in the cloud, and how to create an AWS account. You will also get an overview of AWS, including how to differentiate between AWS Regions and Availability Zones, and the different ways that you can interact with AWS. Finally, you will learn best practices for using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).
Module 2: AWS Compute & Networking
Module 2 is where you will learn how AWS compute services differ from other AWS services. The content for this week covers the basic components of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) architecture, and how to differentiate between a container and a virtual machine. You will also learn about the features and advantages of using serverless technologies, in addition to basic networking concepts and the features of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC).
Module 3: Storage & Databases on AWS
This module, you will learn important concepts for AWS storage services—such as buckets and objects for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and how Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) is used on AWS. You will also explore databases on AWS, and the use cases for each AWS storage service.
Module 4: Monitoring, Optimizing, and Going Serverless on AWS
In Module 4, you will learn about the benefits of monitoring on AWS, and how to optimize solutions on AWS. You will also learn about the function of Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), and how to differentiate between vertical scaling and horizontal scaling.
Now, it’s time to get started!
Meet the Instructors2:03
Meet Morgan and Seph, Cloud Technologist at AWS.

Module 1 Introduction4:46
Reading: What is AWS?3:24
AWS Global Infrastructure6:54
Discover how AWS global infrastructure uses regions, availability zones, and redundant data centers to protect data and reduce latency. Cache content at edge locations with CloudFront to serve users worldwide.
Reading: AWS Global Infrastructure3:11
Interacting with AWS5:36
Reading: Interacting with AWS2:04
Knowledge Check: Module 1

Introduction to Identity and Access Management7:14
Explore how AWS Identity and Access Management handles authentication and authorization across users, groups, and policies, with best practices for root user, MFA, and roles for EC2 to S3 access.
Reading: Introduction to Identity and Access Management5:45
Role Based Access in AWS5:55
Explore how IAM roles provide temporary credentials for AWS services like EC2 to sign requests to S3 and DynamoDB, and how to use federated identities for access.
Reading: Role Based Access in AWS2:59
Demonstration: AWS IAM8:35
Demonstrates creating an IAM role for an EC2-based app, attaching S3 and DynamoDB policies, and configuring trust relationships, plus creating a user with console and programmatic access.
Reading: IAM Roles and the Employee Directory Application1:28
Hosting the Employee Directory Application on AWS5:46
Reading: Default Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for Amazon EC21:33
Knowledge Check: Module 1

Module 2 Introduction2:07
Compute as a Service on AWS2:25
Explore compute as a service on AWS, compare on-premises provisioning with cloud options, and learn EC2 basics alongside containers and serverless compute for flexible architectures.
Reading: Compute as a Service1:33
Introduction to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud4:47
Explore how ec2 instances enable flexible, pay-as-you-go cloud computing with amis and diverse instance types—from compute, memory, to storage-optimized—configurable via api for rapid experimentation and right-sizing.
Reading: Introduction to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud2:50
Amazon EC2 Instance Lifecycle4:30
Learn the Amazon EC2 instance lifecycle, from pending to running, stopping, and terminating, and how on-demand provisioning plus stop/start and termination protection support elastic fleets and cost efficiency.
Reading: Amazon EC2 Instance Lifecycle8:42
Knowledge Check: Module 2
Demonstration: Launching the Employee Directory Application7:15
Container Services on AWS3:18
Explore container services on AWS, including ECS, EKS, and Fargate. Learn how containers enable portable, scalable apps and simplify cluster orchestration.
Reading: Container Services on AWS4:03
Introduction to Serverless3:06
Explore ec2-based compute versus serverless, focusing on patching, scaling, and high availability across azs. Understand the shared responsibility model and how serverless reduces maintenance while you manage encryption and access.
Serverless with AWS Fargate2:44
Discover AWS Fargate as a serverless compute platform for containers, eliminating provisioning and OS management while ECS or EKS handles orchestration and scaling with pay-as-you-go resources.
Introduction to AWS Lambda7:17
Learn how AWS Lambda runs code as functions triggered by events like HTTP requests or S3 uploads, scales automatically, and charges only for active compute time.
Choose the Right Compute Service7:48
Reading: Serverless and AWS Lambda4:55
Knowledge Check: Module 2
Knowledge Check: Module 2

Networking on AWS2:20
Explore how the VPC and its components manage internet traffic for EC2, comparing the default VPC to a custom, more secure network and highlighting key VPC concepts.
Reading: Networking on AWS2:32
Introduction to Amazon VPC8:56
Create a VPC in the Oregon region with CIDR 10.1.0.0/16, split into a public and private subnet in us-west-2a, and attach an internet gateway for internet access.
Reading: Introduction to Amazon VPC2:51
Amazon VPC Routing6:35
Configure route tables in an AWS VPC to give public subnets internet access by routing 0.0.0.0/0 to the internet gateway and associating the public route table with public subnets.
Secure Your Network with Amazon VPC Security4:45
Hybrid Connectivity with AWS3:24
Explore hybrid connectivity options for integrating on-premises data centers with AWS, including site-to-site VPN, client VPN, virtual private gateway, and AWS Direct Connect, with failover and throughput considerations.
Reading: Amazon VPC Routing and Security3:25
Reading: Common network troubleshooting steps for Amazon VPC2:16
Demonstration: Re-launching Employee Directory App9:17
Learn about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), including authorization, access keys ,and groups.
Knowledge Check: Module 2
Knowledge Check: Module 2
Mid-Course Survey0:22

Module 3 Introduction1:13
This video covers the storage and database services offered by AWS, including Amazon S3 for storing employee images and Amazon RDS and DynamoDB for storing employee information.
Storage Types on AWS2:29
This video covers the different types of storage, including block storage and object storage, and how they can be used to store various data in an employee directory application.
Reading: Storage Types on AWS2:38
Amazon EC2 Instance Storage and Amazon Elastic Block Store4:17
This video covers the different storage options available for Amazon EC2 instances, including Instance Store, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), and the use of EBS snapshots for data backup.
Reading: Amazon EC2 Instance Storage and Amazon Elastic Block Store4:56
Object Storage with Amazon S39:03
The video covers the use of Amazon S3 as a scalable storage solution for storing employee photos, including the concepts of S3 buckets, object storage, and access control through IAM policies and bucket policies.
Reading: Object Storage with Amazon S310:14
Choose the Right Storage Service6:35
The video covers the different use cases and recommendations for selecting the appropriate AWS storage service, such as Amazon S3, Amazon EBS, Amazon EC2 instance store, and Amazon EFS, based on factors like cost, durability, speed, and data requirements.
Reading: Choose the Right Storage Service2:38
Demonstration: Creating an Amazon S3 Bucket9:20
This video covers the process of creating an S3 bucket and modifying an EC2 instance to utilize the S3 bucket for an application.
Knowledge Check: Module 3
Knowledge Check: Module 3

Explore Databases on AWS2:38
The video covers the use of Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) to store employee data in a relational database for an employee directory application.
Reading: Explore Databases on AWS4:01
Amazon Relational Database Service4:04
The video covers Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), a service that makes it easier for users to set up, operate, and scale a relational database, including features like easy instance creation, high availability through Multi-AZ deployments, and the use of Amazon Aurora as a high-performance, scalable database option.
Reading: Amazon Relational Database Service5:29
Purpose Built Databases on AWS4:02
The video covers the importance of choosing the right database service from the various database offerings available on AWS based on the specific business requirements, rather than forcing data to fit a particular database choice.
Introduction to Amazon DynamoDB4:41
The video covers the key features and use cases of Amazon DynamoDB, a serverless NoSQL database service, in contrast with traditional relational databases.
Reading: Introduction to Amazon DynamoDB2:01
Reading: Choose the Right AWS Database Service0:57
Demonstration: Creating an Amazon DynamoDB Table10:16
This video covers the process of setting up a DynamoDB database and integrating it with an employee directory application, including launching an EC2 instance, creating a DynamoDB table, and testing the application's functionality by adding an employee record to the database and verifying its presence in both the DynamoDB table and the S3 bucket.
Knowledge Check: Module 3
Knowledge Check: Module 3

Module 4 Introduction0:52
The video covers the implementation of monitoring and auto-scaling features to improve the performance and cost-efficiency of an employee directory application.
Monitoring on AWS3:20
The video covers the importance of monitoring in a cloud-based application environment, discussing the need to collect metrics and logs from different services to proactively identify and address operational issues before end users are impacted.
Reading: Monitoring on AWS4:14
Introduction to Amazon CloudWatch5:56
This video covers how to use Amazon CloudWatch to monitor the CPU utilization of an EC2 instance and set up an alarm to notify when the utilization exceeds a threshold.
Reading: Introduction to Amazon CloudWatch7:24
Knowledge Check: Module 4
Knowledge Check: Module 4

Optimizing Solutions on AWS3:27
This video covers how to automate the management of infrastructure, including setting up redundancy, scaling resources horizontally, using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling to automatically add and remove instances, and leveraging load balancers to distribute traffic across multiple servers.
Reading: Optimizing Solutions on AWS2:40
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling9:36
This video covers how to set up automatic scaling of EC2 instances using AWS Auto Scaling to handle increasing demand on a web application.
Reading: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling8:49
Routing Traffic with Amazon Elastic Load Balancing7:18
The video covers how to use Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) to distribute requests across multiple EC2 instances hosting an application in private subnets.
Reading: Routing Traffic with Amazon Elastic Load Balancing6:53
Demonstration: Making Employee Directory Application24:03
This video covers the process of setting up load balancing and auto-scaling for an application deployment in the AWS cloud environment, including creating an Application Load Balancer, a launch template, and an Auto Scaling group to handle scaling based on CPU utilization.
Knowledge Check: Module 4
Knowledge Check: Module 4
Redesigning the Employee Directory7:20
This video covers a serverless redesign of an employee directory application that separates the presentation layer hosted on Amazon S3 from the application layer hosted on AWS Lambda, with the database on Amazon DynamoDB and images stored in Amazon S3, all integrated using AWS services like Amazon API Gateway and Amazon Route 53.

Requirements

Fundamental understanding of IT, storage, databases, and networking.

Description

Are you in a technical role and want to learn the fundamentals of AWS? Do you aspire to have a job or career as a cloud developer, architect, or in an operations role? If so, AWS Cloud Technical Essentials is an ideal way to start. This course was designed for those at the beginning of their cloud-learning journey - no prior knowledge of cloud computing or AWS products and services required!

Throughout the course, students will build highly available, scalable, and cost effective application step-by-step. Upon course completion, you will be able to make an informed decision about when and how to apply core AWS services for compute, storage, and database to different use cases. You’ll also learn about cloud security with a review of AWS' shared responsibility model and an introduction to AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). And, you’ll know how AWS services can be used to monitor and optimize infrastructure in the cloud.

AWS Cloud Technical Essentials is a fundamental-level course and will build your competence, confidence, and credibility with practical cloud skills that help you innovate and advance your professional future. Enroll in AWS Cloud Technical Essentials and start learning the technical fundamentals of AWS today!

This course is approximately 7.0 hours long in total, and will be delivered through a mix of:

Instructor lectures
Video demonstrations
Knowledge checks

Who this course is for:

Individuals interested in learning how to get started with using AWS.
Cloud administrators, solution architects and developers interested in using AWS services.
Individuals responsible for articulating the technical benefits of AWS services to customers.

AWS Cloud Technical Essentials

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Welcome2 lectures • 5min

Module 1: Getting Started with AWS Cloud6 lectures • 26min

Module 1: Security in the AWS Cloud4 lectures • 16min

Module 1: AWS Identity and Access Management8 lectures • 39min

Module 2: AWS Compute15 lectures • 1hr 7min

Module 2: Networking11 lectures • 47min

Module 3: Storage on AWS10 lectures • 53min

Module 3: AWS Databases9 lectures • 38min

Module 4: Monitoring on AWS5 lectures • 22min

Module 4: Optimization8 lectures • 1hr 10min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: