CIS135 - Cloud Fundamentals

3 Credit hours - 2 Lecture, 2 Lab

Prerequisite(s): None

Course Rationale:

Cloud-based applications have become the mainstream development platform and means of serving the growing need for distributed applications. Today's applications use cloud computing services that allow them to instantly and dynamically provide services to their customers all over the world. This course explores these technologies at the introductory level.

Catalog Description:

This course provides the concepts and skills necessary to use different cloud-computing resources in an application development setting. Topics include the benefits of different cloud service models, learning how to use services provided by major public cloud providers and best practices when working with application cloud services.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

  1. Understand the benefits of the different cloud service models

  2. Leverage services provided by the major public cloud providers

  3. Configure and provision resources on a private cloud

  4. Apply tips and best practices when adopting the cloud

All course assignments and exams are closely aligned to, and assess the student's mastery of these core objectives.

Core Outcomes

The course curriculum can be put into four categories:

  • Cloud - Introduction to cloud computing: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.

  • Services - This includes the following services: Computing and data processing (EC2, Lambda) to manage virtual machines and event-driven computation

    • File Storage (S3) to store and access objects efficiently

    • Networking (VPC, Route 53) to configure networks and routing

    • Database to store SQL (RDS) and NoSQL (DynamoDB, SimpleDB) data

    • Notification (SNS) services for portable devices like cell phones

    • Message (SQS) storage and transfer service for communication and process management

    • Others: Time Sync for accurate current time and CloudFormation to automate work, etc.

  • Security - Shared Security Model, Compliance and Artifact, Web Application Firewall(WAF), Inspector, Trust Advisor, CloudTrail, Cloud Watch, Identity and Access Management (IAM) services

  • Billing - The pricing and billing structure of different services as per usage, quota, and plans

Amazon provides a one-year free subscription plan for practice and learning, though it requires credit or debit card details to confirm your identity. Students and educators can also take advantage of the AWS Educate program.

Exams and Certification Equivalent:

Test Out Requirements

Students who wish to demonstrate proficiency in this course will need to get a passing score on one of the above exams

The college’s test out policy is outlined in policy 2.12 - Credit by Exam (Test Out)

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