This past month our Content Team served up a heaping spoonful of new and updated content. Not only did our experts release the brand new Azure DP-100 Certification Learning Path, but they also created 18 new hands-on labs — and so much more!
New content on Cloud Academy
At any time, you can find all of our new releases by going to our Training Library and finding the section titled “New this month in our library.” You can also keep track of what new training is coming for the next 4-6 weeks with our Content Roadmap.
Alibaba
Learning Path: Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate (ACA) Preparation
Just starting out in the world of Alibaba Cloud? Let this learning path be the first step on your journey. It covers the essential aspects of this fast-growing platform, introducing you to the fundamental services you’ll need in order to build your own Alibaba Cloud infrastructure.
Course: Alibaba Server Load Balancer (SLB)
This course provides an introduction to Alibaba’s Server Load Balancer service, also known as SLB. The course begins with a brief intro to load balancing in general and then takes a look at Alibaba SLB and its three main components.
AWS
Course: Understanding Amazon RDS Performance Insights
This course explores Amazon RDS Performance Insights, a performance monitoring and tuning feature that can quickly assess the load on a database hosted inside Amazon RDS and determine when and where to take action.
Course: Understanding RDS Scaling and Elasticity
This course explores how to scale your RDS databases. It covers scaling based on reads or writes, and what it means to scale horizontally or vertically. Additionally, it covers sharding databases as a way to increase write performance and when it needs to be considered as an option.
Course: Using Automation to Deploy AWS Databases
This course explores how to use automation when creating Amazon RDS databases. It includes using AWS Secrets Manager for increasing the security of provisioned resources by limiting human intervention.
Hands-on Lab: Efficiently Storing Data in S3 for Data Analytics Solutions
Amazon S3 is a fully managed service for storing data in the cloud. S3 frees you from managing servers, NAS and SAN devices, and from worrying about individual physical disks. In this lab, you will create data, store it in S3, and transform the data to be more performant and cost-efficient.
Lab Challenge: Data Analytics Processing Challenge
Put your skills to the test in this data analytics lab. Complete a data analytics processing solution before time runs out. You will need to be familiar with Amazon’s Data Analytics services and associated tools in order to complete a partially built solution for processing log data from an EC2 instance using Amazon Kinesis, AWS Lambda, and Amazon S3.
Azure
Learning Path: DP-100 Exam Prep: Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure (preview)
This learning path is designed to help you prepare for Microsoft’s DP-100 Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure exam. Even if you don’t plan to take the exam, these courses and hands-on labs will help you learn how to use Azure’s machine learning solutions.
Course: Introduction to Azure Machine Learning
Machine learning is a notoriously complex subject that usually requires a great deal of advanced math and software development skills. In this course, you will learn the basic concepts of machine learning and then follow hands-on examples of choosing an algorithm, running data through a model, and deploying a trained model as a predictive web service.
Course: Using the Azure Machine Learning SDK
Learn how to operate machine learning solutions at cloud scale using the Azure Machine Learning SDK. This course teaches you to leverage your existing knowledge of Python and machine learning to manage data ingestion, data preparation, model training, and model deployment in Microsoft Azure.
Course: Analyzing Resource Utilization on Azure (update)
This course looks into how to capture log data and metrics from Azure services and feed this information into different locations for processing. We take a look at diagnostic logging, which can help to troubleshoot services and create queries and alerts based on that data. We also look into Azure Adviser, cost consumption reporting, and how we can baseline resources.
Hands-on Lab: Tuning Hyperparameters with Hyperdrive in Azure Machine Learning
In the world of data science, model parameters are the elements generated from training a dataset. In contrast, a hyperparameter is a parameter used to control the outcome of training the model. In this lab, you will dive into Azure Notebooks and launch a Jupyter notebook to create a Hyperdrive experiment and perform hyperparameter tuning against a regression training model.
Hands-on Lab: Building Azure ML Pipelines with Azure Machine Learning SDK
With the Azure Machine Learning SDK comes Azure ML pipelines. Machine learning engineers can create a CI/CD approach to their data science tasks by splitting their workflows into pipeline steps. In this lab, you will dive into Azure Notebooks and launch a Jupyter notebook to build an Azure ML pipeline that ingests data, trains a model, and deploys a web service.
Data Science/Artificial Intelligence
Learning Path: The Beginner’s Guide to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
This Learning Path provides an introduction to Machine Learning for beginners and is designed to be a gentle introduction, which means we’ll be starting at the ground up and focusing on giving students the tools and materials they need to navigate the space.
Learning Path: The Basics of Data Management, Data Manipulation and Data Modelling
Take this learning path to get the basics of everything data-related. Learn about data sources, data formats, databases, SQL. This learning path focuses on understanding common data formats and interfaces. It explores some common data formats that you’ll encounter as a data engineer, and you’ll get a deep understanding of the pros and cons of storing your data in different ways.
Learning Path: Moving From Spreadsheets
This learning path gives you a fully hands-on introduction to machine learning with a focus on databases. It is comprised entirely of our interactive hands-on labs which means that you will get practical experience from the get-go.
DevOps
Hands-on Lab: Spinnaker Pipelines – Deploying Resources into Kubernetes
Spinnaker is an open source, multi-cloud continuous delivery platform for releasing software changes with high velocity and confidence. In this Lab scenario, you’ll first install and configure Spinnaker into its own dedicated Kubernetes cluster. As you advance, you’ll get into Spinnaker Pipelines, using Spinnaker with Kubernetes clusters, and extending the build and deployment even further.
Lab Challenge: Ansible Configuration Management Troubleshooting Challenge
In this lab challenge your Ansible configuration management skills are put to the test. You need to complete several tasks using Ansible to configure a host to serve a web application over HTTP and a web page over HTTPS. Use your knowledge of Ansible concepts and the command-line interface (CLI) to troubleshoot and resolve the issues in the provided configuration to pass all of the checks before time runs out.
Lab Challenge: Terraform Deploy AWS Resources Challenge
In this lab challenge, you will put your infrastructure development skills to the test. You will be tasked with developing an infrastructure solution using Terraform by modifying an existing Terraform configuration to include deploying a subnet and EC2 resource.
Course: Introduction to Kubernetes – refresh
Kubernetes is a production-grade container orchestration system that helps you maximize the benefits of using containers. Kubernetes provides you with a toolbox to automate deploying, scaling, and operating containerized applications in production. This course will teach you all about Kubernetes including what it is and how to use it.
Hands-on Lab: Webserver Creation using Pulumi to Manage Infrastructure
Pulumi is an Infrastructure as Code tool that supports multiple cloud providers. The key feature of Pulumi is that it allows you to describe your infrastructure using any of the popular programming languages it supports. In this lab, you will learn how to install and configure the Pulumi command-line tool, and you will learn how to use it to create a web server.
Security
Hands-on Lab: Cryptanalysis of Substitution Ciphers
Monoalphabetic ciphers are simple substitution ciphers where only one alphabet is used to substitute the characters from the plaintext and replace them one-for-one, where each character in the plaintext is always substituted with the same character in the ciphertext. This means that these ciphertexts are susceptible to frequency analysis. In this lab you will explore this by decrypting a classical cipher, the Caesar cipher.
Hands-on Lab: Asymmetric Encryption RSA Demonstration
RSA is a modern asymmetric encryption standard used in public key cryptographic schemes to share secret values and electronically sign documents. The algorithm works by using modulo mathematics to share numbers between parties, encrypting a value with a public key which only the holder of a separate, secret, private key. Each key pair is generated is calculated using several mathematic functions and equations. You will explore the RSA encryption algorithm in this lab by encrypting and decrypting a message.
Hands-on Lab: Dictionary Attacking a Web Application with Hydra and Burp Suite
In this lab, you will be attacking a Linux machine named Metasploitable, running the Damn Vulnerable Web App (DVWA). The DVWA is an open source web app written to be vulnerable to a host of different security exploits, designed for security professionals to practice their skills and conduct research.
Hands-on Lab: Cracking Hashes with John the Ripper
This lab is part of a series on cyber network security. You will be looking at different hashing algorithms, each of which were commonly used to store passwords on Windows and UNIX systems. You will be using John the Ripper to crack some password files.
Hands-on Lab: Configuring Active Directory Group Policies
You will be using the AD environment to create a new Group Policy Object (GPO) and apply it to a user account in order to enforce some security settings. Group Policy Objects are technical definitions of a user’s permissions and rights within a domain. GPOs are a powerful tool that enable a domain administration team to apply the principle of least privilege across thousands of users quickly and efficiently.
Hands-on Lab: Configuring IPsec on a Windows 2016 Server
IPsec is a framework of open standards for ensuring private, secure communications over IP networks through the use of cryptographic security services. The Microsoft Windows implementation of IPsec is based on standards developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) IPsec working group. You will configure IPsec on a Windows Server 2016 machine in this lab.
Hands-on Lab: SSL Handshake Analysis using Wireshark
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol which allows web HTTPS applications to exchange information securely. Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer that security professionals can use to filter and search through in order to understand traffic that has been logged using tcpdump or a similar tool. You will be analyzing a network traffic capture of an SSL handshake and then using a private key to decrypt and extract a file from the capture.
Hands-on Lab: Exploiting the Heartbleed Bug using MetaSploit
The Heartbleed bug is a serious vulnerability that was discovered to exist on web servers using the OpenSSL cryptographic library, a popular implementation of the TLS protocol for web servers. This exploit will work on any unpatched web servers running an OpenSSL instance in either client or server mode. You will exploit the Heartbleed bug in this lab.
Hands-on Lab: Configuring Access Control Lists on Cisco Routers
Standard ACLs allow a network security technician to control the traffic moving through their network and limit its propagation based on the kind of traffic and the source address. Cisco devices use a proprietary Command Line Interface (CLI) called the Internetworking Operating System (IOS) to configure and manage them. You will be using a Cisco virtual network simulator called Cisco Packet Tracer to learn networking and protocol functions.
Hands-on Lab: Using Snort to Detect a Brute Force Hydra Attack
pfSense is a FreeBSD based router/firewall that can be configured with various plugin modules which can enable network operations and defend a network from malicious behavior in the form of an IDS/IPS module called Snort. You will be conducting a dictionary attack on the Metasploitable DVWA using Hydra and Burp Suite in Kali Linux and attempting to detect it on the router using Snort and the community ruleset.
Hands-on Lab: Using the Man-In-The-Middle Framework (MITMf) to Bypass HTTPS Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
This exercise will familiarize you with the Man-In-The-Middle framework (MITMf) and how an attacker might use this toolset to attack clients on your network. The particular attack we will be performing in this exercise will be bypassing the HSTS policy. You will use MITMf to bypass HTTPS Strict Transport Security (HSTS) in this lab.
Hands-on Lab: Using the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) to Perform Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks
Denial of service can take many forms, but the basic purpose of an attack is to disrupt the availability of a service and to prevent normal operations from occurring. The most common method of attacking availability is network-based. The LOIC tool you will be using in this lab was made famous during Anonymous’ attacks on the church of scientology during Project Chanology.
Hands-on Lab: Performing FilePwn Using the Man-In-The-Middle Framework (MITMf)
The MITMf is a collection of tools, written into an easy-to-use framework by byt3bl33d3r, which an attacker can use to simplify the construction and execution of Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks. The MITM attack you will be carrying out will be utilizing a feature called “FilePwn”, where the attacker can inject a malicious payload into or fully replace a file that the victim is downloading from an HTTP website.
Webinars
Stop Messing Around and Start Passing Your AWS Exams
Preparing for a cert can be stressful, we know it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could gather key insights on how to tackle and pass an AWS exam from someone who has already gone through a bunch of them? Look no further! In this on-demand webinar, our AWS Certification Specialist, Stephen Cole, will guide you through some general strategies that you can apply when taking your first AWS exam, from home or on-site.
Office Hours: Nail the Google Associate Cloud Engineer Exam
This is your chance to take your career a step further. How? By preparing for the Google Associate Cloud Engineer Exam and passing it, of course! Join Guy Hummel, Google and Azure Content Lead, and Tom Mitchell, Google and Azure Trainer, in this on-demand webinar to learn all of the secrets behind this exam. Our Google experts will break down the five subject areas assessed in the exam, and using samples, explain how to analyze questions to determine the correct answer.
Platform
Introducing SCORM to Create Custom Content With Ease
Your infrastructure is custom-built to fit your organization’s unique needs. Shouldn’t your tech training be, too? Capturing all the nuances of your production environment within your cloud training helps teams perform with accuracy and precision in the real world. With SCORM, you can quickly create personalized training that’s also highly interactive, easy to manage, and easy to scale across teams.
Stay updated
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