New on Cloud Academy: AWS Solution Architect Lab Challenge, Azure Hands-on Labs, Foundation Certificate in Cyber Security, and Much More

Now that Thanksgiving is over and the craziness of Black Friday has died down, it’s now time for the busiest season of the year. Whether you’re a last-minute shopper or you already have your shopping done, the holidays bring so much more excitement than any other time of year. Since our goal is to help you stay on track, here are just a few tips (aka: our helpful reminders) to keep you on track during the holiday season:

  1. Download the app: I know you’ve heard this once or twice already, but we really do think it’s the #1 way to keep your continuous improvement moving in the right direction. Not only can you study in offline mode while flying home for the holidays, but you can also cast to Chromecast to study from your TV while cuddled up on your couch.
  2. Set study reminders: Create recurring events to remind yourself to study. You can also quickly create these from your Cloud Academy dashboard. Just click “Add a Training Reminder” and voilà — you’ll immediately get reminders to help you from slacking off.
  3. Set a deadline: You are 10x more likely to hit your goal if you actually set a date to complete it. Whether you want to get an AWS, Azure, or Google certification, or you want to master creating Pythonic code, set a date to hit that goal and stick to it. If you want to go even just an extra step beyond that, schedule the exam and make yourself commit to that date.

New on Cloud Academy

At any time, you can find all of our new releases by going to our Training Library and finding the section titled “New this month in our library.” You can also keep track of what new training is coming for the next 4-6 weeks with our Content Roadmap.


AWS

Course: Using Amazon EFS to Create Elastic File Systems for Linux-Based Workloads

This course dives into the AWS Elastic File Service — commonly known as EFS — and explains the service, its components, when it should be used, and how to configure it. EFS is considered file-level storage, supporting access by multiple EC2 instances at once, and is also optimized for low latency access.

Lab Challenge: AWS Solutions Architect – Associate Certification

In this lab challenge, you will be provided with a real AWS environment. This environment will emulate a real-world scenario, where you will be asked to perform the kind of tasks commonly done by those with the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate Certification. This lab challenge does not include multiple choice answers, but rather includes real-world work in a cloud environment.


Microsoft

Preview Exam: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-203)

This preview exam focuses on many of the machine learning, data engineering, and modeling skills you will need to pass the AZ-203 exam.

Hands-on Lab: Back Up Files and Folders with the Azure Backup Agent

Azure Backup is a service for backing up your data in Azure. You can back up files, folders, and system state of Windows machines running on-premises or in the cloud. You’ll be able to quickly practice all of this in a real environment.

Hands-on Lab: Understanding Core Azure Storage Products

In this lab, you will navigate the Microsoft Azure Portal and receive an introduction to core storage products provided by Azure. Each lab step will focus on a different Azure storage product. By the end of this lab, you will have a basic grasp of core Azure storage products and understand what each is and when to use them.

Hands-on Lab: Developing with the Cosmos DB Core (SQL) API and Change Feed

Azure Cosmos DB is a fully-managed, globally-distributed, multi-model database. Databases in Cosmos DB are enterprise-ready and highly-available, offering up to a 99.999% availability SLA. In this lab, you will learn how to manage Cosmos DB using the Azure Portal and Azure CLI as you integrate Azure Functions with Cosmos DB change feed triggers to buy and sell fictitious stocks. This lab uses the SQL API in Cosmos DB to work with a document database model.


DevOps

Hands-on Lab: Using Git for Version Control – Commits

Git is a version control system for tracking changes in code. In this lab, you’ll practice using Git to clone a repository, make a change to a file, and commit that change using Git. You’ll also learn more about the basics of version control with Git.


Google Cloud Platform

Course: Configuring GCP Access and Security

Google Cloud Platform offers tools with a single dashboard and simple interfaces to implement security policies. Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) provides an easy way to manage GCP users and the permissions assigned to them. To help you get the most out of the security tools offered in Google Cloud, this course covers how to properly manage IAM, service accounts, and audit logs.

Course: Deploying Applications on GCP – Compute

This course is intended to help prepare individuals seeking to pass the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Developer Certification Exam. The Cloud Developer Certification requires a working knowledge of building cloud-native systems on GCP. The certification exam covers a wide variety of topics, from designing distributed systems to debugging apps with Stackdriver, and focuses on deploying applications using GCP compute services.

Hands-on Lab: Run SQL Queries and Analyze the DB with Google Cloud SQL

Google Cloud SQL is an easy-to-use, fully managed service that allows you to configure and maintain SQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. In this lab, you will create two tables in a provided Cloud SQL PostgreSQL database. You will also perform operations on it, monitor the resources usage, and test that the atomicity property is respected by the database.

Hands-on Lab: Define and Deploy Resources with Google Cloud Deployment Manager

Google Cloud Deployment Manager is a service that allows you to define and deploy resources in your GCP environment, as well as create templates and configurations. In this lab, you will set up two templates using Jinja: the first one will be for defining a VPC and the second will be for defining a storage bucket that you will then deploy. You will define a configuration file that will import the two templates, before finally moving on to deploying the configuration.


Security

Learning Path: Cyber Primer

The QA Cyber Primer program aims to introduce you to the world of Information and Cyber Security. The course takes you through the eyes of an adversary and showcases some real-world examples of the chain in action.

Learning Path: Foundation Certificate in Cyber Security

The QA Foundation Certificate in Cyber Security (FCCS) provides a comprehensive overview of industry-standard technologies and platforms. The course takes you back to computer basics to build an understanding of common technology platforms through to the network layer and on, via virtualization technologies, cloud systems, telecoms, and modern communications.


Programming

Lab Challenge: Introduction to Java Challenge

Java is one of the most popular programming languages among enterprise organizations. Your effort invested in learning Java can take your career to many places. This lab challenge will help you confirm your knowledge in topics covered in the Introduction to Java learning path.

Lab Challenge: Advanced Java Programming Challenge

This lab challenge will help you confirm your knowledge of topics covered in the Advanced Java Programming learning path. you will be provided with a web browser-based integrated development environment (IDE) with several incomplete code files pre-loaded. Each code file describes what you must do to complete it before time runs out.


Process Improvement

Learning Path: AgileSHIFT Certification

The AgileSHIFT course follows the latest  AXELOS syllabus and will prepare you for the AgileSHIFT examination. This qualification provides you with the required knowledge to adopt the ethos which underpins AgileSHIFT, demonstrate why transformation is important, recognize ways of working that could be incorporated into any transformation, and be empowered to make small incremental improvements.


Platform Features Reminders

New Search Engine

Our new search engine allows you to easily find the exact piece of content you need — as quickly as possible. We wanted to give you a different way to find search results with smaller, “bite-sized” pieces of content. Not only can you find what you’re looking for faster, but you can now quickly filter down to find individual quiz or exam questions and even blogs and whitepapers! With this new search engine, you’ll now be able to easily find all of our content. 

Check out all of the content types that we added to our search results. 

Cloud Academy Search Engine

Stay updated

As always, we use Cloud Academy Blog to keep you up-to-date on the latest technology and best practices. All of our new blogs, reports, and updates go directly to our Cloud Academy social media accounts. For the latest updates, follow and like us on the following social media platforms:

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  • AZ-203

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  • Foundation Certificate in Cyber Security

  • Google Cloud Platform

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