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In-scope AWS services and features for exam

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These services and features were in-scope when writing this post. please check exam guide for more updated info.

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You can download these notes as pdf from here.

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1. Overview of AWS​

  • Regions and Availability Zones (AZs): Understand the global infrastructure, which includes regions and AZs. Regions are separate geographic areas containing multiple isolated locations known as Availability Zones.
  • AWS Services: Understand various services like compute, storage, database, networking, and security, along with their use cases and integrations.

2. Application Integration​

  • AppSync: Explore how to build scalable applications using GraphQL APIs, enabling real-time data synchronization and offline capabilities for your mobile and web applications.
  • EventBridge: Learn how to build event-driven architectures by connecting application data from your services to streamline workflows and automate responses to system events.
  • SQS: Understand the use of queue services, message attributes, and polling mechanisms to decouple and scale microservices, ensuring reliable message delivery and processing.
  • SNS: Study topic management, subscription models, and message publishing to build scalable and flexible notification systems that can reach a variety of subscribers.
  • Step Functions: Learn how to create and manage workflows by integrating different AWS services to automate complex tasks and orchestrate microservices, simplifying application development and management.

3. Compute Services​

  • EC2: Learn to launch, configure, and manage EC2 instances. Understand instance types, EBS volumes, AMIs, security groups, and key pairs.
  • Elastic Beanstalk: Focus on easily deploying and managing applications, environments, and configurations without requiring in-depth infrastructure knowledge.
  • Lambda: Understand serverless architecture, which involves writing and deploying functions, configuring triggers, and managing permissions.
  • Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM): Provides a simplified way to define and deploy serverless applications.

4. Container Services​

  • Copilot: Learn to simplify the deployment, configuration, and management of containerized applications on AWS by using this command-line tool to streamline workflows.
  • Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR): Focus on storing, managing, and deploying container images with this fully managed Docker container registry service, ensuring secure and scalable image distribution.
  • Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS): Understand how to orchestrate Docker containers using this fully managed container orchestration service, enabling you to run and scale containerized applications on AWS.
  • Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS): Learn to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications using Kubernetes, with a fully managed service that simplifies Kubernetes operations on AWS.

5. Database Services​

  • RDS: Learn to configure, deploy, and manage relational databases focusing on backup, recovery, multi-AZ deployments, and read replicas for high availability and scalability.
  • DynamoDB: Understand NoSQL database concepts, including tables, items, attributes, partitions, and indexes for efficient querying and data management.
  • Aurora: Study the benefits, configurations, and performance optimisations offered by this MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database engine.
  • ElastiCache: Explore the benefits, configurations, and performance optimizations of this in-memory data store service, designed to improve the performance of web applications by allowing you to retrieve information from fast, managed, in-memory data stores.
  • MemoryDB for Redis: Delve into the benefits, configurations, and performance optimizations of this Redis-compatible, in-memory database service designed for ultra-fast performance and high availability, ideal for real-time applications.

6. Developer Tools​

  • Amplify: Learn how to build, deploy, and host full-stack web and mobile applications with this development platform that simplifies the application lifecycle.
  • Cloud9: Understand how to use this cloud-based IDE for writing, running, and debugging code, providing a seamless development experience.
  • CloudShell: Explore this browser-based shell to securely manage, interact with, and automate AWS resources directly from your browser.
  • CodeArtifact: Study how to store, publish, and share software packages to streamline the management of dependencies across your development teams.
  • CodeCommit: Learn how to use this fully managed source control service to host secure and scalable Git repositories.
  • CodeBuild: Ensure that continuous integration and automation are prioritized to streamline the development process by using this build service to compile source code, run tests, and produce deployable artifacts.
  • CodeDeploy: Understand deployment automation to guarantee smooth and reliable application releases across various compute services.
  • CodePipeline: Study continuous delivery and release automation to integrate and automate the software release process, ensuring rapid and reliable updates.
  • CodeGuru: Utilize this machine learning-powered service to automate code reviews and application performance recommendations, improving code quality and efficiency.
  • CodeStar: Learn to use this integrated development environment to manage the entire software development workflow, from coding and building to deploying your applications.
  • CodeWhisperer: Explore how to leverage this AI-powered code completion tool to enhance developer productivity and code quality.
  • X-Ray: Study how to analyze and debug production and distributed applications by tracing requests as they travel through your services, ensuring performance optimization and troubleshooting.

7. Management and Governance​

  • AWS AppConfig: Manage application configuration and feature flags to ensure safe and rapid deployments.
  • AWS CLI: Utilize the AWS Command Line Interface to manage and automate AWS services via scripts.
  • AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK): Use high-level programming languages to define cloud infrastructure, making it easier to provision AWS resources.
  • AWS CloudFormation: Automate the provisioning of AWS infrastructure with templates to ensure consistent and repeatable deployments.
  • AWS CloudTrail: Track user activity and API usage with this logging service to enhance security and compliance.
  • Amazon CloudWatch: Monitor AWS resources and applications in real-time to collect and track metrics, set alarms, and automatically react to changes.
  • Amazon CloudWatch Logs: Centralize and manage logs from AWS services and applications for monitoring, troubleshooting, and analytics.
  • AWS Systems Manager: Gain operational insights and automate management tasks across AWS resources, improving control and visibility.

8. Networking and Content Delivery​

  • VPC: Learn to create and manage subnets, route tables, gateways, security groups, and network ACLs to control network traffic.
  • CloudFront: Learn about CDN concepts, such as distributions, origins, and edge locations, to efficiently deliver content worldwide with minimal delay.’
  • Route 53: Focus on DNS services, various routing policies, and health checks to ensure reliable domain name resolution.
  • Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Understand the configurations and benefits of load balancing to distribute incoming application or network traffic across multiple targets, ensuring high availability and reliability.
  • API Gateway: Learn to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale, enabling developers to connect and manage multiple backend services through a unified interface.

9. Security and Identity​

  • ACM: Learn how to provision, manage, and deploy SSL/TLS certificates for use with AWS services and your internal connected resources to secure network communications.
  • IAM: Understand how to manage users, groups, roles, policies, and permissions to control access to AWS resources securely.
  • KMS: Learn key management, encryption, and decryption processes to secure data at rest and in transit.
  • Secrets Manager: Study how to securely manage and rotate secrets and sensitive data, such as database credentials and API keys.
  • Cognito: Explore user authentication, authorization, and user management for web and mobile apps to add sign-up, sign-in, and access control to your applications.
  • Private Certificate Authority: Learn to create and manage private certificates for your organization, enabling secure communication and authentication within your AWS environment.
  • Security Token Service (AWS STS): Understand the process of requesting temporary, limited-privilege credentials for AWS resources to ensure secure access and identity management.
  • WAF: Learn how to protect your web applications from common web exploits and attacks using AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF).

10. Storage Services​

  • S3: Study buckets, object storage, data lifecycle policies, versioning, encryption, and different storage classes for cost optimisation.
  • EBS: Understand the different types of storage volumes, how snapshots work, and the importance of encryption for data security and recovery.
  • EFS: Explore use cases and configurations for scalable and managed file storage accessible by multiple EC2 instances.
  • S3 Glacier: Explore use cases and configurations for long-term data archiving.

Best Practices​

  • Security Best Practices: Focus on implementing the least privilege principle, encryption, and secure application development to safeguard data and resources.
  • Cost Management: Learn about pricing models, billing practices, and cost optimisation strategies to manage and reduce expenses effectively.
  • Performance Optimization: Learn how to scale applications, implement load balancing, and use caching strategies to improve performance and reliability.

Study Tips​

  • Hands-On Practice: Utilize the AWS Free Tier to gain practical experience with various services.
  • AWS Documentation: Read official AWS documentation and whitepapers for detailed insights and best practices.
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