Cloud Foundations: Kickstart your Cloud Journey

Course Description:

Course Objectives:

• Understand the fundamental concepts of cloud computing

• Learn about key cloud service models and deployment types

• Explore major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP)

• Gain hands-on experience with basic services on a cloud platform

• Understand pricing models and cloud career pathways

Target Audience:

• Engineering/IT students (2nd or 3rd year)

• Early professionals/new hires

• Non-technical professionals entering IT

Course Curriculum:

* Introduction to Cloud Computing

• What is cloud computing? Evolution from traditional IT

• Characteristics: On-demand, scalability, elasticity

• Cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)

• Deployment models (Public, Private, Hybrid, Community)

• Use cases and real-world examples

* Overview of Cloud Providers & Free Tier Setup

• Introduction to AWS, Azure, GCP

• Hands-on: Creating a free-tier account on AWS (or use AWS Academy/Azure Learn sandbox)

• Navigating the management console

• Introduction to global infrastructure (regions, zones, edge locations)

* Core Services in the Cloud

• Compute: EC2, Azure VM, GCP Compute Engine

• Storage: S3, Azure Blob, GCP Cloud Storage

• Networking Basics: VPC, Subnets, Security Groups

• Hands-on: Launch a virtual server and host a simple website

* Cloud Pricing, Billing, and Best Practices

• Pricing models: Pay-as-you-go, reserved, spot instances

• Free tier limits and avoiding billing surprises

• Cost calculators and budgets

• Security basics: IAM users, roles, MFA

• Hands-on: Set up a billing alert and IAM use

* Cloud in the Real World + Career Paths

• Cloud in startups, enterprises, and government

• Introduction to DevOps and Serverless

• Career paths: Cloud architect, DevOps engineer, cloud security, etc.

• Certification roadmap (AWS Cloud Practitioner, AZ-900, GCP ACE)

• Quiz + mini project showcase