New Content in October

March 2022 Content Update

This October, our team of expert certification specialists released eight new or updated learning paths, 23 courses, 21 hands-on labs, and one lab challenge!

New Content on Cloud Academy

This month’s new content fell into these categories:

AWS

COURSE: How IAM Is Used to Securely Manage Access

This course provides an overview of the AWS Identity & Access Management Service, commonly referred to as IAM, along with its core features. This is a key security service within AWS and is likely to be one of the first security services you will come across allowing you to manage specific access controls within your environment for your users.

COURSE: Tablet Talk: The AWS Network – How Does It Actually Work!?

If you’ve ever wondered how the underlying AWS network actually works, this Tablet Talk is for you. We’ll have an advanced conversation that will describe how traffic moves through the VPC, from the internal IP spaces to the external world, as well as how instance-to-instance communication takes place. There are a few hidden AWS services that make all the magic happen behind the scenes, and we will discuss those as well.

HANDS-ON LAB: Detecting Malicious Web Requests With AWS Web Application Firewall

This lab demonstrates how to use the AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) service to detect potentially malicious web requests.

HANDS-ON LAB: Analyzing Sentiments and Entities in Text with Amazon Comprehend

This lab supports our content for the AWS Financial Game Day initiative and walks the student through using the Amazon Comprehend console to analyze natural text.

HANDS-ON LAB: Predicting Time-Series Data with Amazon Forecast

This lab will help you understand the main components of Amazon Forecast, a fully managed machine learning service for time-series forecasting.

COURSE: Introduction to Microservices, Containers, and ECS

This course covers microservices and how a microservices-based architecture differs from a monolithic architecture. It also explains what containers are and how you can create your own and then run them in AWS using the Elastic Container Service (ECS).

HANDS-ON LAB: Filtering Published Amazon SNS Messages

In this guided lab, you’ll create an Amazon SNS topic, subscribe Amazon SQS queues to it, create subscription filters, and publish Amazon SNS messages. This lab will be of particular interest to candidates for the Solutions Architect Associate certification.

LEARNING PATH: re:Invent: STG207 – Best practices for moving your data to AWS, online and offline

This learning path has been curated to help you get the most from the STG207 re:Invent session. It will enable you to understand the insights and discussions during the talk at a greater level, and prepare you to ask some great questions of the speaker(s).

LEARNING PATH: re:Invent: NET206 – Advanced Amazon VPC design and new capabilities

Optimize your experience with this learning path, which will help you get the most from the NET206 re:Invent session. It will enable you to understand the insights and discussions during the talk at a greater level, and prepare you to ask some great questions of the speaker(s).

LEARNING PATH: re:Invent: STG205 – AWS storage solutions for containers and serverless applications

Gain the knowledge and understanding required to get the most from the STG205 re:Invent session. This learning path will enable you to understand the insights and discussions during the talk at a greater level, and prepare you to ask some great questions of the speaker(s). 

Google Cloud

COURSE: Introduction to Google Cloud Pub/Sub

In this course, you will learn how to use Google Cloud Pub/Sub to create a reliable, asynchronous messaging service for any scale.

COURSE: Cloud Fundamentals

This course introduces important cloud concepts and terminology. Learn about the types of “clouds,” the various service models, and the main differences from traditional on-premises data centers.

LEARNING PATH: Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam Preparation

This learning path is designed to help you prepare for the Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam. Candidates who pass the exam will earn the Google Cloud Digital Leader Certification.

Microsoft Azure

COURSE: Getting Started with Compliance Policies in Microsoft 365

This course will provide you with a solid understanding of compliance policies and where they fit into Microsoft 365.

COURSE: Building a Chatbot on Azure (2021)

In this course, you will learn how to create a chatbot to answer support questions about specific products and services. This course requires some previous knowledge of Azure and coding.

HANDS-ON LAB: Organizing Code Using Azure Repos in Azure DevOps

In this lab, you will create a new repository, clone a repo to an IDE, make a branch to make changes, commit changes, and submit a pull request to merge the master branch.

HANDS-ON LAB: Azure CLI Playground

This playground is a safe and secure sandbox environment for you to explore your own ideas, follow along with Cloud Academy courses, or answer your own questions—all without the need to install any software on your local machine.

COURSE: Building a Chatbot on Azure

In this course, you will learn how to create a chatbot to answer support questions about specific products and services. This course requires some previous knowledge of Azure and coding.

LEARNING PATH: AZ-120: Planning and Administering Microsoft Azure for SAP Workloads

This learning path is designed to help you prepare for the AZ-120 Planning and Administering Microsoft Azure for SAP Workloads exam.

LAB CHALLENGE: Azure DevOps Git Workflow with Azure Repos Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test the learner’s practical ability to follow a feature branching 

Git workflow using Azure DevOps and an IDE.

LEARNING PATH: AI-102 Exam Preparation: Designing and Implementing a Microsoft Azure AI Solution

This learning path is designed to help you prepare for the AI-102 Designing and Implementing a Microsoft Azure AI Solution exam. Even if you don’t plan to take the exam, these courses and hands-on labs will help you get started on your way to becoming an Azure AI engineer.

COURSE: Getting Started with Conditional Access Policies

This course covers conditional access policies in Azure. You’ll learn what Conditional Access is, why you use it, and what it offers. We’ll then explore how to build a conditional access policy, and you’ll see a demonstration of how to create one.

HANDS-ON LAB: Azure DevOps Playground

In this lab playground, learners have the opportunity to play around with a preconfigured Azure DevOps environment. This lab playground also includes a couple of suggested activities to get you started with exploring Azure DevOps.

COURSE: Storage Solutions for SAP on Azure

This course delves into greater detail on previously discussed topics and introduces new, more complex subject matter and its application to SAP workloads to ensure business continuity.

COURSE: Assessing Data Characteristics for Power BI

This course shows you how to use the various graphical tools in Power Query Editor to visualize data distribution, including uniqueness and distinct values. It also looks at factors that impact correctly importing table relationships into a Power BI data model and pitfalls to look for when assessing and profiling column data.

HANDS-ON LAB: Understanding Data Events using Azure Event Hubs

This hands-on lab is designed to help you understand and explore the usage of Azure Event hubs to send and receive cloud events.

COURSE: Connecting Your Physical Environment to a Digital World – A Roadmap to IoT Solutioning

This course will share an IoT real-world adoption scenario and how the team went about incorporating IoT Azure services.

COURSE: Deciphering Data – Optimizing Data Communication to Maximize Your ROI

This course focuses on data acquisition, data ingestion, and the data processing aspect of IoT solutions to maximize value from data.

COURSE: Adding Intelligence – Unlocking New Insights with AI & Machine Learning

Processing data in the cloud is not always the optimal way to run computational workloads, for various reasons. This session dives into how Azure IoT Edge can help in this scenario by training a machine learning model in the cloud using the Microsoft AI Platform and deploying this model to an IoT Edge device using Azure IoT Hub.

COURSE: Big Data 2.0 – IoT as Your New Operational Data Source

This course is intended for anyone looking to improve their understanding of Azure IoT and its benefits for organizations. You’ll gain an understanding of all the related data components of the IoT reference architecture.

COURSE: Strategy & Best Practices When Mapping Designs from Edge to Cloud

This course explores strategies for secure IoT device connectivity in real-world edge environments—specifically how the use of the Azure IoT Edge Gateway can accommodate offline, intermittent, legacy environments by means of Gateway configuration patterns.

Security

COURSE: CSSLP Domain 2:1 Policy Decomposition

This course is the first installment of three courses covering Domain 2 of the CSSLP, covering the topic of policy decomposition. Understand the fundamental concepts of information security and operational security.

COURSE: CSSLP Domain 2:2 Data Classification & Categorization

This course is the second installment of three courses covering Domain 2 of the CSSLP, covering the topic of data classification and categorization. Understand the fundamentals of data classification and categorization; learn about the security implications of data ownership and labeling; and learn about different data types and the data lifecycle.

COURSE: CSSLP Domain 2:3 Requirements

This course is the third installment of three courses covering Domain 2 of the CSSLP, covering the topic of functional and operational security requirements. You’ll explore the functional and operational requirements for building secure software.

LEARNING PATH: CSSLP: Domain 2 – Secure Software Requirements

This learning path covers domain two of the CSSLP certification and prepares you to successfully take and pass the examination. 

DevOps

HANDS-ON LAB: Understand Kubernetes API Access Control Mechanisms

In this lab, you will gain a basic understanding of the three layers for securing the Kubernetes API server and how each can impact requests sent to the cluster.

HANDS-ON LAB: Using Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)

You will learn how to discover and use custom resources in this lab. You will work with Argo CD custom resources to release an update to an application.

HANDS-ON LAB: Utilizing Ephemeral Volume Types in Kubernetes

This lab explores ephemeral volumes. You will learn how Kubernetes provides ephemeral storage and how to utilize ephemeral storage.

Programming

COURSE: Introduction to JavaScript ES6 Variables

This practical course explores JavaScript ES6 Variables. You will learn what they are and how to use them.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with Files and Directories in Linux

In this lab, you will use fundamental Linux commands to work with files and directories in a Linux environment.

HANDS-ON LAB: Practicing Shell Scripting Fundamentals

This lab assigns shell scripting tasks that involve declaring and using variables, conditional statements, tests, and for loops.

COURSE: Introduction to JavaScript Functions

This course introduces the function declarations and expressions along with ES6 arrow function syntax.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with Exit Statuses in Your Shell Scripts

Use Linux command exit statuses and return codes in a shell script. This lab provides supplemental hands-on learning for the student to work with topics covered in the Using Exit Statuses and Return Codes in Your Scripts course.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with Functions in Your Shell Scripts

In this lab, you will utilize functions, parameters, and variables in a shell script. The commands used in this lab are covered in the Functions in Scripts course.

COURSE: Introduction to JavaScript Conditionals (If Statements)

This course introduces the conditional chain using if, else if, and else statements to determine which blocks of code should be executed in a program.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with JavaScript Conditionals (If Statements)

In this lab, you will work hands-on with JavaScript if statements. Learn how to use conditional chaining to execute specific blocks of code.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with Linux Wildcards

This lab covers Linux wildcards in shell scripts to assist with file and directory searching and string pattern matching. You’ll use wildcards to perform actions on one or more files at a time, as well as use character classes to find matching pieces of text in a file.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with While Loops in Your Shell Script

This lab covers patterns that benefit from the use of while loops and will have you update two shell scripts that revolve around reading and creating files.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with Case Statements in Your Shell Scripts

This lab covers patterns that benefit from the use of case statements as an alternative to conditional statements.

COURSE: Foundation of Creating an HTML Document

This practical course explores the initial creation of an HTML document and also offers a quick primer on the structure of an HTML element.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working With the Foundation of an HTML Document

This lab created by Rebecca Hom has the learner create the foundational pieces of an HTML document. You’ll begin with the declaration and then work through the head and body of the document.

Data Science & AI

HANDS-ON LAB: Machine Learning with scikit-learn

The aim of this lab is to challenge you on building a supervised machine learning pipeline to predict the median values of owner-occupied housing in USD 1000 in the Boston dataset.

LEARNING PATH: Machine Learning with Python

This learning path explores a range of techniques for building machine learning pipelines with Python.

Webinars

Check out the complete list, including links to sign up for future webinars and watch recordings of past ones, on our Webinars page.

Upcoming — click to register

Recent — click to view recording

New Product Features

******TECHNICAL BULLETIN******

There are new versions of the Members report, some Report API endpoints, and some LMS API endpoints. The old versions will no longer be available after October 31, 2021. 

You should update any processes that depend on the legacy items before that date. You can read more in the Technical Bulletins article in the help center.

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Changes to the way the product looks or works appear in the Cloud Academy Release Notes page.

  • End User Dashboard: The dashboard that team members see first when they log in to their Cloud Academy account has been updated. All the functionality is still there, but we have refreshed the layout to be more intuitive and compatible with accessibility tools. This feature is being rolled out incrementally, so if your users haven’t already noticed the change, they will soon.
  • Content Engine Editor: The content editing experience of Content Engine has been updated. The new editor has superior code sample highlighting, image inserting, and video inserting.

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