How to learn AWS cloud to gain hands-on experience?

21 project ideas to learn AWS Cloud as a beginner

Hey there 👋 - Amrut here!

Happy Saturday!

In today’s newsletter issue, I will give you 20 ideas to use immediately to build projects on the AWS cloud. Toward the end, I will share an important piece of advice you need to take away after reading this issue.

Learning the AWS cloud can be overwhelming.

With so many resources and tools available to learn AWS cloud, it can be easy to get distracted, lose focus, and feel like you are not making progress.

However, as you already know by now, I have been big on focusing on skills and not certifications.

And the best way to master any skill is by practice.

The project ideas below will help you master the fundamentals and acquire hands-on experience with the AWS cloud.

Here are 21 project ideas touching various services within AWS:

1. Deploy a high-performance website using Amazon CloudFront and S3 

   Learn how to deploy a high-performance website using Amazon CloudFront and S3. Use S3 to host a simple website with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

   Learn about bucket policies, versioning, and website hosting.

2. Launch an EC2 instance and deploy it in a VPC using the AWS Management Console

   Launch an EC2 instance and connect to it using SSH.

   Understand the basics of AWS networking and security, including VPCs and security groups, key pairs, and instance types.

3. Create a serverless video processing workflow with AWS Step Functions

   Learn how to create a serverless video processing workflow using AWS Step Functions, AWS Lambda, and Amazon S3.

4. Create a serverless web application

   Use AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB to build a serverless web application.

   Learn about event-driven architectures, API design, and NoSQL databases.

5. Implement user authentication with Cognito

   Add user authentication to a web application using AWS Cognito.

   Learn about user pools, identity pools, and federated identities.

6. Create an API using API Gateway

   Create and deploy a RESTful API using API Gateway and Lambda.

   Learn about API Gateway features like methods, resources, stages, caching, and throttling.

7. Set up a CI/CD pipeline with CodePipeline

   Use AWS CodePipeline to set up a web application's continuous integration and deployment pipeline. Connect it to the CodeCommit repository, which will act as the source for the pipeline.

   Learn about source providers, build providers, and deployment providers.

8. Build a chatbot with Lex and Lambda

   Use Amazon Lex and Lambda to build a chatbot for a website.

   Learn about conversational interfaces, natural language processing, and machine learning.

9. Create a scalable database with RDS

   Set up a relational database like PostgreSQL or MySQL using Amazon RDS and test its scalability.

   Learn about database engines, backup, and recovery, and read replicas.

10. Use Elastic Beanstalk to deploy a web app

    Deploy a web application using AWS Elastic Beanstalk.

    Learn about environments, platform versions, and environment tiers.

11. Set up monitoring and logging with CloudWatch

    Use Amazon CloudWatch to monitor and log your AWS resources.

    Learn about metrics, alarms, logs and dashboards

12. Set up an IoT application with AWS IoT

    Create a simple IoT application using AWS IoT.

    Learn about MQTT, topics, and rules.

13. Build a machine learning model with SageMaker

    Use Amazon SageMaker to build a machine-learning model.

    Learn about data preparation, model training, and model deployment.

14. Use CloudFormation to automate AWS infrastructure

    Use AWS CloudFormation to automate the creation and management of your AWS resources.

    Learn about templates, stacks, and change sets.

15. Use Lambda to automate backups

    Use Lambda to create a backup of your AWS resources and store them in S3.

    Learn about triggers, event sources, and permissions.

16. Implement disaster recovery with Route 53

    Set up a disaster recovery plan using Amazon Route 53.

    Learn about disaster recovery strategies, DNS failover, health checks, and routing policies.

17. Use SES to send emails

    Use Amazon SES to send emails from your application.

    Learn about email validation, sending quotas, and feedback loops.

18. Analyze data with Athena

    Use Amazon Athena to analyze data stored in S3

    Learn about SQL queries, partitioning, and result sets.

19. Use Elastic Transcoder to convert media files

    Use Elastic Transcoder to convert media files to different formats.

    Learn about pipelines, presets, and notifications.

20. Use Kinesis to process streaming data

    Use Amazon Kinesis to process streaming data from multiple sources. Learn about streams, shards, and consumers.

21. Deploy a Docker container to Amazon ECS

    Learn how to deploy a Docker container to Amazon ECS and configure a load balancer for the container.

My advice

As you build these projects, focus on why each service is used and how it solves your problems.

Knowing when to use which service is vital as you gain hands-on experience. This is what will differentiate you from the herd.

Remember to take breaks and practice regularly.

Learning AWS cloud takes time and effort, but you can become proficient in AWS cloud with consistent dedication and persistence.

Thanks for reading!

Talk to you next week.

Thanks for reading this issue.

Drop me a note about what topics you want me to cover. I read every single email myself!

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This will be a fun journey together, and I would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to share this newsletter with your friends, family, or anyone you think needs to know.