Cloud Academy AWS Podcast, AWS CDK Toolkit Challenge and more

Cloud Academy Content Update December 2021

In May, our team of expert certification specialists released a new learning path, 22 courses, and 14 hands-on labs!


Amazon Web Services

LEARNING PATH: Cloud Academy Parking Lot Podcast Series

The Cloud Academy Parking Lot Podcast series covers a huge range of different topics, technologies, principles, vendors, certifications, what’s new, what’s hot, and much more!

HANDS-ON LAB: AWS CDK Toolkit v2 Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to interact with the AWS CDK Toolkit and Python to satisfy a set of requirements in a production-like AWS environment.

HANDS-ON LAB: Defining Cloud Infrastructure with the AWS CDK v2 in Python

In this lab, you will use the AWS CDK Toolkit to create an AWS CloudFormation stack using the Python programming language.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with the AWS CDK v2 Toolkit

In this lab, you will walk through the development process of a sample AWS CDK application in an integrated development environment (IDE) to utilize the AWS CDK Toolkit to learn when and how to use the subcommands.

COURSE: Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow (MWAA)

This course delves into Amazon-managed workflows for Apache Airflow (MWAA). This is a great service for anyone already using Apache Airflow, and wanting to find a better way to deal with setting up the service, scheduling, and managing their workflow.

COURSE: Automating your EBS snapshots with the Data Lifecycle Manager

In this course, you’ll learn about Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager and how to manage EBS snapshots within the AWS console. We’re going to talk about the different types of policies you can create, automate, and monitor using Amazon DLM, along with a demo of how to get started.

COURSE: Authorization Controls in AWS

This course looks at some of the different methods that AWS implements to authorize access within your AWS account, whether this is a user requiring access to an AWS service, or a network packet trying to reach its destination.

COURSE: The difference between Authentication, Authorization and Access control

This course explores the differences between authentication, authorization, and access control in order to control access to your cloud resources effectively and with the appropriate level of security.

COURSE: Podcast – AWS Series ‘Cloud Academy Parking Lot’ Episode #3

In this episode of our Cloud Academy Parking Lot podcast, you will follow along with our AWS team, including Stuart Scott, Danny Jessee, Jorge Negrón, and Will Meadows, as they discuss various AWS certifications. They look at the SAP specialty, the newly announced Solutions Architect Associate, and the Cloud Academy Cloud Practitioner Learning Path.

COURSE: EC2 Instances for SAP Workloads on AWS

This course discusses EC2 instances for SAP workloads on AWS.

COURSE: FinOps – Forecasting Cloud Costs

In this course, you are going to learn about cloud forecasting and how to align forecasting models with the maturity of your FinOps / Cloud Financial Management practice.

COURSE: Networking and VPC for SAP on AWS

This course provides an overview of networking and VPC configuration options for SAP environments running on AWS.

Google Cloud Platform

HANDS-ON LAB: Shortening URLs using Firebase Dynamic Links

In this lab, you will create a URL prefix and shorten an existing URL to a Firebase dynamic link using the URL prefix as the prefixed domain.

HANDS-ON LAB: Creating Outbound Connections using Google Cloud NAT

In this lab, you will walk through the process of setting up Cloud NAT. This includes creating a Cloud Router that acts as a control plane for Cloud NAT by implementing the routes. Finally, you will create a Compute Engine instance without an external IP to verify the ability to connect to the internet.

COURSE: Introduction to Google Cloud NAT

Learn how you can connect your VMs and GKE clusters to the internet without opening them up to outside attack.

COURSE: Configuring GCP Access and Security

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.

Microsoft Azure

HANDS-ON LAB: Interacting with Azure Cosmos DB from NextJS Web App using Application Settings

In this hands-on lab, you will discover how to connect Azure Web App to a CosmosDB Account by leveraging application settings to pass the information as an environment variable.

HANDS-ON LAB: Setting up Azure DevOps Server for On-Premises Development

In this lab, you will install a basic deployment of Azure DevOps Server and add multiple collections to the instance.

HANDS-ON LAB: Upgrading an Azure DevOps Server Deployment Version

In this lab, you will install a new version of Azure DevOps Server, upgrading from Azure DevOps Server 2019 to Azure DevOps Server 2020.

HANDS-ON LAB: Securing Azure Web App Application Settings using KeyVault Secrets

In this hands-on lab, you will learn how to secure the application settings on a web app using Key Vault referenced secrets in the Azure Portal.

COURSE: Understanding Azure Service Level Agreements and Lifecycles

In this course, I’ll start by explaining the purpose of Azure Service Level Agreements (or SLAs) and some of the details they contain. Then I’ll cover some of the actions that impact SLAs. Finally, I’ll go over the lifecycle of Azure services, from public preview to retirement.

COURSE: Configuring User Experience Settings in Azure Virtual Desktop

This course will help you to configure end-user experience settings and allow you to streamline your Azure Virtual Desktop experience.

COURSE: Deploying and Managing Active Directory DS Domain Controllers

In this course, we start by reviewing the Windows AD DS environment including forests and domains. Then we review considerations for deploying domain controllers in a virtualized environment, on-premises, and in Azure. Next, we look at use cases for deploying read-only domain controllers at locations where physical security cannot be guaranteed. Lastly, we examine flexible single master operations roles and how to locate and move them to support troubleshooting efforts.

COURSE: Implementing Azure AD Identity Protection

This course will provide you with an understanding of what Azure Identity Protection is, what it does, and how to implement identity protection policies.

COURSE: Getting Started with Microsoft Defender for Cloud

This course helps you understand what Microsoft Defender for Cloud is, what it offers, and how it can be used to protect resources.

COURSE: Optimizing a Power BI Data Model

This course is intended for anyone who wants to improve the speed and responsiveness of their reports by improving the underlying Power BI data model.

DevOps

HANDS-ON LAB: Practice Effective DevOps with Azure DevOps

This lab demonstrates how Azure Repos, Azure Boards, and Azure Pipelines can work together for a simulated product launch.

Programming

HANDS-ON LAB: Python: Introduction to Mocking

Expand your Python skills by learning to use the built-in unittest.mock module.

HANDS-ON LAB: Python: Introduction to Patching

This lab introduces the unittest.mock.patch callable through hands-on learning.

HANDS-ON LAB: Python: Palindrome

In this lab you’re going to test your knowledge of Python to solve a code challenge.

HANDS-ON LAB: Python: Database API Specification v2.0

This lab introduces some of the primary concepts of DB-API compliant database modules.

COURSE: Introduction to Collections in Python

This course is part of a series of content designed to help you learn to program with the Python programming language.

COURSE: Introduction to Mobile Development with Xamarin

This course introduces you to Xamarin and you’ll learn how to set up a development environment, as well as what’s needed to develop apps for different platforms. We’ll also run through how to create a basic app and deploy it to Android and iOS.

COURSE: Introduction to Nothing in Python

This brief course takes a quick look at the none object in Python, as well as the is and is not operators.

COURSE: Introduction to Node.js – What is a Node Module and Non-blocking I/O

This practical course offers an introduction to what is a Node module and goes into greater detail by working with one of Node’s built-in modules.

COURSE: Introduction to Node.js – Comparing the Browser and Node.js

This practical course explores the fundamental difference between the Browser and Node.js.

COURSE: Introduction to Node.js – What is Node.js?

This short course offers an introduction to what exactly is Node.js.

Webinars

Check out the complete list, including links to sign up for future webinars and watch recordings of past ones, on our Webinars page.

Upcoming — click to register

Recent — click to view recording

Ongoing — click to register

Technical Bulletin

Upcoming changes that may affect your automations appear in the Cloud Academy Technical Bulletins page.

Starting from June 13, you will see the following changes to reports:

  • The scope of the Active Team Members report will be expanded to include all invited users regardless of whether they have accepted their invitation. The name of the report will change to Team Members report, and the filename you download will be
    team_members_YYYY-MM-DD--HH-MM-SS.zip
  • For consistency, the name of the Active and Invited Members report will change to Members report. The filename you download will be
    Members_YYYY-MM-DD--HH-MM-SS.zip
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