AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02

AWS Roadmap

AWS Service Regions and Global Services

AWS has Global Services:

• Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Route 53 (DNS service)
• CloudFront (Content Delivery Network)
• WAF (Web Application Firewall)

Most AWS services are Region-scoped:

• Amazon EC2 (Infrastructure as a Service)
• Elastic Beanstalk (Platform as a Service)
• Lambda (Function as a Service)
• Rekognition (Software as a Service)

IAM Policies Structure

Consists of

• Version: policy language version, always include “2012-10-17”
• id: an identifier for the policy (optional)
• Statement: one or more individual statements (required)

Statements consists of

• Sid: an identifier for the statement (optional)
• Effect: whether the statement allows or denies access (Allow, Deny)
• Principal: account/user/role to which this policy applied to
• Action: list of actions this policy allows or denies
• Resource: list of resources to which the actions applied to
• Condition: conditions for when this policy is in effect (optional)

Example:

Classic Ports to know

• 22 = SSH (Secure Shell) - log into a Linux instance
• 21 = FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - upload files into a file share
• 22 = SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) - upload files using SSH
• 80 = HTTP - access unsecured websites
• 443 = HTTPS - access secured websites
• 3389 = RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) - log into a Windows instance.

Shared Responsibility Model

Root user privileges

• Lock away your AWS account root user access keys!
• Actions that can be performed only by the root user:
  • Change account settings (account name, email address, root user password, root user access keys).
  • Close your AWS account.
  • Change or cancel your AWS Support plan Register as a seller in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

Architecture Diagram:

Disaster recovery strategies:

Total Cost of Ownership

What is TCO?

• TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) represents the total cost of using and maintaining a system over its entire lifecycle.
• It includes direct costs (hardware, software, operational) and indirect costs (training, downtime, inefficiencies).

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Key Components of TCO

1. Direct Costs

• Infrastructure costs:
  • Servers, storage, networking equipment.
• Software licenses:
  • Operating systems, databases, middleware.
• Operational costs:
  • Power, cooling, physical space.

2. Indirect Costs

• Maintenance and support:
  • Updates, patching, vendor support contracts.
• Downtime costs:
  • Loss of productivity or revenue due to outages.
• Training and staffing:
  • Onboarding and upskilling IT teams.

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AWS TCO Benefits

AWS provides several benefits that lower TCO compared to traditional on-premises IT:

1. Pay-as-You-Go Pricing

• No upfront capital expenses.
• Pay only for what you use (compute, storage, etc.).

2. Reduced Hardware and Maintenance

• No need to buy physical servers, storage, or networking equipment.
• AWS handles maintenance and updates.

3. Scalability

• Scale up or down based on demand, reducing wasted capacity.
• Avoid overprovisioning.

4. Managed Services

• AWS services (like RDS, Lambda, or DynamoDB) reduce operational overhead.
• Focus on applications, not infrastructure.

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Tools for Calculating AWS TCO

AWS provides tools to estimate TCO and compare costs with on-premises setups:

1. AWS TCO Calculator:
   • Compares AWS costs with on-premises infrastructure.
   • Consider storage, compute, network, and labor costs.
2. AWS Pricing Calculator:
   • Estimates the costs of AWS services for specific workloads.

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TCO Optimization Strategies

1. Right-sizing resources:
   • Match resource types and sizes to workload needs.
2. Use Reserved Instances or Savings Plans:
   • Commit to a 1- or 3-year term to get discounted rates.
3. Leverage Spot Instances:
   • Use spare capacity for non-critical or flexible workloads.
4. Enable Auto Scaling:
   • Automatically adjust resources based on demand.
5. Migrate to Managed Services:
   • Use services like Amazon RDS or Lambda to reduce operational costs.

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Exam Tips:

• Focus on how AWS reduces TCO compared to traditional on-premises environments.
• Be familiar with AWS services and their cost-saving features (e.g., Auto Scaling, Spot Instances).
• Know how to use the AWS TCO Calculator for comparison.