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AWS: AWS Developer: Optimizing on AWS

AWS experts show how to leverage your developer skills to optimize applications in the AWS Cloud.
AWS Developer: Optimizing on AWS
6 weeks
3–4 hours per week
Self-paced
Progress at your own speed
This course is archived
Future dates to be announced
AWS Developer: Optimizing on AWS

About this course

Skip About this course
This course, part of the AWS Developer Series, will focus on helping you optimize your applications and you work in AWS. We strongly recommend that you complete the first course in the series, "Building on AWS" before starting this course.

You will look at ways to improve utilization by using containers with the Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), caching services such as Amazon CloudFront and Amazon ElastiCache, and monitoring tools such as Amazon CloudWatch. You will look at serverless architectures using Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon API Gateway and, AWS Lambda. You will explore the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and learn how to use the AWS Key Management Service (KMS). You will finish off the class with a deep dive into AWS CloudFormation and a capstone exercise where you will debug a CloudFormation template.

This course has a significant hands-on component. Throughout the class, you will perform exercises using the AWS services covered.

Class discussions will provide an opportunity for you to interact with fellow students as well as AWS training staff.

At a glance

  • Institution: AWS
  • Subject: Computer Science
  • Level: Advanced
  • Prerequisites:
    • 1-3 years of software development experience.
    • Completion of the first class in this series; “AWS Developer: Building on AWS”.

    • Completion of  the second course in this series, "AWS Developer: Deploying on AWS", is strongly recommended
  • Language: English
  • Video Transcript: English
  • Associated skills:Amazon ElastiCache, Amazon Elastic Container Service, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), Command-Line Interface, AWS CloudFormation, Debugging, Amazon DynamoDB, AWS Lambda, AWS CLI (Command Line Interface), Serverless Computing, Identity And Access Management, Amazon Cloudfront, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Web Services, AWS Identity And Access Management (IAM), Key Management

What you'll learn

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  • How to use AWS Container Services
  • How to improve application performance through techniques such as caching
  • How to optimize your applications by using serverless technologies and autoscaling.
  • How to use content distribution to improve the end-user experience
  • How to use the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI)
  • How to encrypt data at rest and in transit using the AWS Key Management Service

Syllabus

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Week 1
Welcome to Optimizing on AWS
  • Meet the instructors
  • Discussion: Introduce yourself
  • Exercise 1.0 Set up an AWS Account (if needed)
Optimizing Containers
  • Introduction to Containers
  • Docker
  • Elastic Container Service (ECS)/Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
  • Exercise 1.1: Your first Docker Container
  • Exercise 1.2 Elastic Container Registry
Weekly Quiz
Weekly Discussion

Week 2
Static Websites using S3
  • Amazon CloudFront
  • Exercise 2.1: Building a static website
Caching
  • Amazon Elasticache
  • Exercise 2.2: Amazon Elasticache
Weekly Quiz
Weekly Discussion

Week 3
What is Serverless?
  • Amazon DynamoDB
  • Exercise 3.1 Create and populate and table in Amazon DynamoDB
Serverless Applications
  • API Gateway
  • Exercise 3.2 – Your first serverless application
Weekly Quiz
Weekly Discussion

Week 4
Scaling Compute
  • Amazon EC2/Amazon ECS Autoscaling
Scaling Storage
  • Scaling Databases
  • Exercise 4.1- Scaling our serverless application
  • Exercise 4.2 – Using metrics to scale
Weekly Quiz
Weekly Discussion

Week 5
Identity and Access Management
  • IAM Policies
  • IAM Roles
AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI)
  • Introduction to the AWS CLI
  • Exercise 5.1 – IAM and CLI
Encryption
  • AWS Key Management Service (KMS)
  • Exercise 5.2 – KMS
Weekly Quiz
Weekly Discussion

Week 6
Optimizing Infrastructure as Code
  • Revisiting AWS CloudFormation
  • • Exercise 6.1-- CloudFormation Template
Course Wrap up
  • Exercise 6.2 – The Recap Challenge
End of Course Assessment
Couse Wrap up
Weekly Discussion

Frequently Asked Questions

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Q. Are there any costs associated with this course?
A. Learners can register for the course in an Audit track or Verified Certificate track. The Audit track is free, but limits the duration of access to 6 weeks from registration. The Verified Certificate track costs $149 and provides full access to course content for the duration. Please visit edx.org for more information.

In addition to course registration costs, this course provides optional hands-on exercises which may have an associated charge in your AWS account. Please familiarize yourself with the AWS Free Tier at aws.amazon.com/free/.

Please note that the AWS Free Tier also has a limit on the amount of resources that you can consume before you begin accruing charges. If you perform these hands-on exercises, there is a chance you may incur charges on your AWS account. Please visit the AWS Free Tier page for more information.

Q. Do I need a credit card to create an AWS Account?
A. Yes, you will need a credit card to activate your AWS account.

Q. How much time will this course require?
A. If following the weekly schedule, learners should plan to spend 2-4 hours per week on this course. However, learners may complete the course at their own pace.

Q. Will I receive a certificate for this course?
A. Learners enrolled in the Verified Certificate path will receive a certificate upon successful completion of the course.

Q. What is the grading policy for this course?
A. All learners may take weekly quizzes, which are not graded and allow unlimited retries.

Learners in the Verified Certificate track are able to take the final course assessment in the course. Passing the final assessment is required to obtain the Verified Certificate.

Learners in the Audit track will not have access to the final assessment, and will not be able to earn a certificate.

Q. How are discussions used in this course?
A. This course has discussion groups aligned to each week of the course. We encourage learners to ask questions or offer suggestions and feedback. AWS Instructors will monitor the discussion groups to answer questions specific to the exercises and topics covered in the course.

Q. Will this course help me prepare for an AWS Certification?
A. Earning an AWS Certification typically requires both knowledge and experience. While this course, if taken in isolation, will provide you with relevant information and skills, it likely will not equip you to earn an AWS Certification. For more information about AWS Certifications, including recommended training and experience requirements, visit aws.amazon.com/certification.

Ways to take this course

Choose your path when you enroll.

Certificate

Free

Price

$149 USD

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Access to course materials

Unlimited

Limited

World-class institutions and universities

edX support

Shareable certificate upon completion

Graded assignments and exams

Read our FAQsin a new tab about frequently asked questions on these tracks.

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