Course PreviewAmazon Web Services Fundamentals
Amazon Web Services is a cloud computing platform offering on-demand infrastructure, storage, networking, databases, and higher-level services. It lets organizations provision and scale resources programmatically instead of buying and maintaining physical hardware.
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Intro
Amazon Web Services Fundamentals
Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is a cloud platform. It provides infrastructure and managed services through APIs. You use those services to run applications, store data, connect networks, process events, manage identities, and observe systems.
The useful mental model is not a shopping catalog of service names. AWS is an operating environment with boundaries. An AWS account owns resources and receives charges. A Region places most resources in a geographic area. An Availability Zone is an isolated location inside a Region. An identity makes an API request. A policy decides whether that request is allowed.
This course gives you that map. It does not make you an expert in every AWS service. It helps you ask the right questions before you create the first resource.
What AWS changes
With AWS, you can provision resources through the Management Console, command line tools, SDKs, and service APIs. That speed is useful, but it removes the natural pause that a procurement process once imposed. A small experiment can become an exposed endpoint, a privileged identity, or a recurring charge very quickly.
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Where this skill leads
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Sources
- https://aws.amazon.com/what-is-aws/
Supports
- AWS provides cloud capabilities including compute, storage, databases, networking, and managed services
- AWS global infrastructure supports workloads in cloud, on premises, and edge settings
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/global-infrastructure/latest/regions/aws-regions-availability-zones.html
Supports
- Regions are separate geographic areas and Availability Zones are isolated locations within Regions
- Most AWS resources are regional and some resources are zonal
- Multi-Availability-Zone deployment supports availability through an Availability Zone failure
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/global-infrastructure/latest/regions/aws-regions.html
Supports
- Region selection should consider required services and features, user proximity, and regulatory or operational requirements
- Some resources can be replicated across Regions but AWS does not automatically replicate them
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/getting-started-account-iam.html
Supports
- Root credentials are created during AWS account sign-up
- AWS recommends federation through IAM Identity Center for resource access
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/root-user-best-practices.html
Supports
- Root credentials have complete account access and should be used only when required
- Root user multi-factor authentication and avoiding root access keys are AWS recommendations
- Roles provide temporary credentials while IAM users have long-term credentials
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles.html
Supports
- IAM roles are assumable identities with permissions
- Assuming a role provides temporary security credentials for a role session
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html
Supports
- IAM policies define permissions and are evaluated when a principal makes a request
- Policy elements include effect, principal where applicable, action, resource, and optional condition
- Least privilege is an AWS IAM recommendation
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_introduction.html
Supports
- AWS accounts are boundaries for permissions, security, costs, and workloads
- AWS Organizations centrally manages multiple accounts, account groups, policies, and consolidated billing
- Multi-account environments support isolation and governance as workloads scale
- https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/
Supports
- AWS secures cloud infrastructure while customers secure their use of AWS services
- Customer responsibilities vary with the selected AWS services and their configurations
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html
Supports
- CloudTrail records AWS API calls
- Recorded API information includes identity, time, source IP, request parameters, and response elements
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/servicequotas/latest/userguide/intro.html
Supports
- Service quotas are maximum values for service resources, actions, and items
- Quotas can apply to an account or Region and Service Quotas can request supported increases
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cost-management/latest/userguide/what-is-costmanagement.html
Supports
- AWS Billing and Cost Management supports billing, invoices, cost analysis, organization, planning, and optimization
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/2025-02-25/framework/the-pillars-of-the-framework.html
Supports
- The Well-Architected Framework uses six pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and sustainability