AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide

Associate SAA-C01 Exam

Ben Piper, David Clinton

• Publisher: Sybex
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119504177
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Networking
• Index: Computer Science

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate (SAA-C01) Exam is your complete and fully updated resource to the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate certification. This invaluable Sybex study guide covers all relevant aspects of the AWS Solutions Architect job role, including mapping multi-tier architectures to AWS services, loose coupling and stateless systems, applying AWS security features, deploying and managing services, designing large scale distributed systems, and many more. Written by two AWS subject-matter experts, this self-study guide and reference provides all the tools and information necessary to master the exam, earn your certification, and gain insights into the job of an AWS Solutions Architect. Efficient and logical presentation of exam objectives allows for flexible study of topics, and powerful learning tools increase comprehension and retention of key exam elements. Practice questions, chapter reviews, and detailed examination of essential concepts fully prepare you for the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate certification.

The certification is highly valued in IT and cloud computing professionals. Now in a new edition—reflecting the latest changes, additions, and updates to the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate certification exam guide—this book is your complete, one-stop resource:

• Access the Sybex interactive learning environment and test bank, including chapter tests, practice exams, electronic flashcards, and a searchable glossary of key terms.
• Learn all the components of the AWS exam and know what to expect on exam day
• Review challenging exam topics and focus on the areas that need improvement
• Expand your AWS skillset and keep pace with current cloud computing technologies

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate (SAA-C01) Exam enables you to validate your skills, increase your competitive advantage, and take the next step on your career path. Comprehensive and up-to-date content and superior study tools make this guide a must-have resource for those seeking AWS Solutions Architect – Associate certification.

PART I
The Core AWS Services

Chapter 1
Introduction to Cloud Computing and AWS

The cloud is where much of the serious technology innovation and growth happens these days, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), more than any other, is the platform of choice for business and institutional workloads. If you want to be successful as an AWS solutions architect, you’ll first need to make sure you understand what the cloud really is and how Amazon’s end of it works.

To make sure you’ve got the big picture, this chapter will explore the basics:

• What makes cloud computing different from other applications and client-server models
• How the AWS platform provides secure and flexible virtual networked environments for your resources
• How AWS provides such a high level of service reliability
• How to access and manage your AWS-based resources
• Where you can go for documentation and help with your AWS deployments

Cloud Computing and Virtualization

The technology that lies at the core of all cloud operations is virtualization. As illustrated in Figure 1.1, virtualization lets you divide the hardware resources of a single physical server into smaller units. That physical server could therefore host multiple virtual machines running their own complete operating systems, each with its own memory, storage, and network access.

Figure 1.1 A virtual machine host

Virtualization’s flexibility makes it possible to provision a virtual server in a matter of seconds, run it for exactly the time your project requires, and then shut it down. The resources released will become instantly available to other workloads. The usage density you can achieve lets you squeeze the greatest value from your hardware and makes it easy to generate experimental and sandboxed environments.

Cloud Computing Architecture

Major cloud providers like AWS have enormous server farms where hundreds of thousands of servers and data drives are maintained along with the network cabling necessary to connect them. A well-built virtualized environment could provide a virtual server using storage, memory, compute cycles, and network bandwidth collected from the most efficient mix of available sources it can find.

A cloud computing platform offers on-demand, self-service access to pooled compute resources where your usage is metered and billed according to the volume you consume. Cloud computing systems allow for precise billing models, sometimes involving fractions of a penny for an hour of consumption.

Cloud Computing Optimization

The cloud is a great choice for so many serious workloads because it’s scalable, elastic, and, often, a lot cheaper than traditional alternatives. Effective deployment provisioning will require some insight into those three features.

Scalability

A scalable infrastructure can efficiently meet unexpected increases in demand for your application by automatically adding resources. As Figure 1.2 shows, this most often means dynamically increasing the number of virtual machines (or instances as AWS calls them) you’ve got running.

Figure 1.2 Copies of a machine image are added to new VMs as they’re launched.

AWS offers its autoscaling service through which you define a machine image that can be instantly and automatically replicated and launched into multiple instances to meet demand.

Elasticity

The principle of elasticity covers some of the same ground as scalability—both address managing changing demand. However, while the images used in a scalable environment let you ramp up capacity to meet rising demand, an elastic infrastructure will automatically reduce capacity when demand drops. This makes it possible to control costs, since you’ll run resources only when they’re needed.

Cost Management

Besides the ability to control expenses by closely managing the resources you use, cloud computing transitions your IT spending from a capital expenditure (capex) framework into something closer to operational expenditure (opex).

In practical terms, this means you no longer have to spend $10,000 up front for every new server you deploy—along with associated electricity, cooling, security, and rack space costs. Instead, you’re billed much smaller incremental amounts for as long as your application runs.

That doesn’t necessarily mean your long-term cloud-based opex costs will always be less than you’d pay over the lifetime of a comparable data center deployment. But it does mean you won’t have to expose yourself to risky speculation about your long-term needs. If, sometime in the future, changing demand calls for new hardware, AWS will be able to deliver it within a minute or two.

To help you understand the full implications of cloud compute spending, AWS provides a free Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator at https://aws.amazon.com/tco-calculator/. This calculator helps you perform proper “apples-to-apples” comparisons between your current data...