What is cloud computing? History and the shift from on-premise infrastructure · Cloud service models: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and FaaS with real-world examples · Cloud deployment models: public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud · Economics of cloud: CapEx vs OpEx, pay-as-you-go, and total cost of ownership · Major providers: AWS, Azure, GCP — strengths, market share, and use cases · Shared responsibility model: provider vs customer responsibilities · Global infrastructure: regions, availability zones, and edge locations

Compute: EC2 instances, Auto Scaling Groups, and Elastic Load Balancing · Serverless: AWS Lambda — functions, triggers, and event-driven architecture · Managed platforms: Elastic Beanstalk, ECS, and EKS (Kubernetes) · Storage: S3 — buckets, versioning, lifecycle policies, and storage classes · Block and file storage: EBS volumes, EFS, and FSx · Networking: VPC — subnets, route tables, internet gateways, NAT gateways · CDN and DNS: CloudFront content delivery and Route 53 routing · Hands-on lab: launch EC2, configure VPC, host a static website on S3

Relational databases: RDS — MySQL, PostgreSQL, Multi-AZ, read replicas · Amazon Aurora: performance, serverless, and global database features · NoSQL: DynamoDB — tables, partition keys, global secondary indexes · Caching: ElastiCache (Redis and Memcached) · Messaging: SQS queues, SNS pub/sub, and EventBridge routing · Containers: ECS task definitions, ECR registry, Fargate serverless · API management: API Gateway — REST/HTTP APIs, throttling, authentication · Hands-on lab: deploy a web application connected to RDS PostgreSQL

AWS IAM: users, groups, roles, and least-privilege JSON policies · IAM best practices: MFA, access key rotation, and service roles · Encryption: server-side (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS) and client-side · AWS KMS: customer-managed keys and envelope encryption · Security groups vs NACLs: stateful vs stateless filtering · Threat detection: GuardDuty, AWS Config, CloudTrail, Security Hub · DDoS protection: AWS Shield Standard/Advanced and WAF rules · Hands-on lab: implement IAM roles, enable CloudTrail, configure WAF

AWS Well-Architected Framework: all 6 pillars in depth · High availability: multi-AZ, auto-scaling, and fault tolerance · Disaster recovery: RTO, RPO, pilot light, warm standby, multi-site · Infrastructure as Code: AWS CloudFormation and Terraform basics · CI/CD on AWS: CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodePipeline · Monitoring: CloudWatch metrics, alarms, dashboards, and X-Ray tracing · Cost management: Cost Explorer, Budgets, Trusted Advisor, Savings Plans · Azure and GCP overview: key equivalent services comparison · Hands-on lab: build a CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions deploying to AWS

Design: architecture diagram for a three-tier web application on AWS · Build: frontend (S3 + CloudFront), backend (Lambda + API Gateway), database (RDS) · Security: IAM roles, security groups, HTTPS with ACM certificates, WAF · Monitoring: CloudWatch dashboards, alarms, and SNS notifications · Cost analysis: estimate monthly cost with the AWS Pricing Calculator · Documentation: write a technical architecture document with design rationale · Presentation: present architecture to a technical panel with live demo and Q&A

Design and deploy cloud infrastructure on AWS with Azure/GCP equivalents understanding · Implement cloud security using IAM, KMS, and AWS security services · Build CI/CD pipelines and automate deployments with Infrastructure as Code · Optimise cloud costs using AWS Cost Explorer, Savings Plans, and right-sizing · Achieve a credential benchmarked against AWS CLF-C02, Google ACE, and Azure AZ-900

Complete all 6 modules, deploy a real three-tier web application on AWS, and pass a 65-question proctored examination (minimum 75%). All hands-on labs must be completed with screenshot evidence.

Cloud Engineer, Solutions Architect (Junior), DevOps Engineer, Cloud Security Analyst, Platform Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE). Average starting salary: $75,000–$110,000 USD.