Cloud Academy Team

New Content: Tons of New Labs and Courses for Fall 2021

Fall 2021 Cloud Academy Content Update

To give fall a proper kickoff, over the past two months our team of expert certification specialists released 12 new or updated learning paths, 39 courses, 29 hands-on labs, and 17 lab challenges!

New Content on Cloud Academy

Fall’s new content fell into these categories:

AWS

COURSE: AWS Cost Management: Visualizing Costs

This course explores how to visualize your costs in AWS and share them with others. We’ll look at some of the tools you can use for this purpose, including the AWS Billing Service, AWS Cost and Usage Reports (CURs), AWS Glue, Amazon Athena, and Amazon QuickSight. You’ll follow with guided demonstrations from the AWS platform showing you how to use these services.

COURSE: Running Operations & Large Scale Data Transfer in non-AWS Environments with the AWS Snow Family

This course takes an introductory look at the AWS Snow Family of devices, giving you an understanding of what they are and the problems they are designed to solve when it comes to data transfer. The devices covered by this course include AWS Snowcone, Snowball, and Snowmobile.

COURSE: Using EC2 Image Builder to Build and Maintain Secure Images

This course explores EC2 Image Builder, a service designed to help automate the creation and updating of images for your EC2 instance. So if you want to understand how to build and maintain secure EC2 images, you’re in the right place!

COURSE: AWS Snowcone: Providing Portable Edge Computing and Data Transfer

This course explores how the AWS Snowcone service can be used to provide portable edge computing and data transfer. We’ll cover the basics of the service, what it’s used for, how to request one, and how to transfer data in and out of it.

COURSE: How to Think Like a Solutions Architect!

If you’re just beginning your journey towards becoming a solutions architect, this course is a great place to start. We’ll cover what a solutions architect is and what they do, the pillars of the AWS well-architected framework, and other essential aspects of AWS that you should know if you want to become a solutions architect.

LAB CHALLENGE: AWS Identity and Access Management Permissions Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to create IAM resources in a production-like AWS environment.

HANDS-ON LAB: Transforming Your Data with Amazon S3 Object Lambda

In this lab, you will configure an Amazon S3 Object Lamdba Access Point and write a custom Lambda function to retrieve CSV files stored in an S3 bucket. Then you’ll transform that data into JSON before returning it to the application.

LEARNING PATH: Webinar Exam Prep: Acing the AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C01)

This learning path is suitable for anyone wanting to pass the AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C01) exam. As a prerequisite, you should have already completed the AWS Developer – Associate Preparation for AWS learning path.

HANDS-ON LAB: Writing Your Own AWS CDK Constructs in TypeScript

In this lab, you will refactor an existing CDK application by creating your own custom S3 construct.

HANDS-ON LAB: Implementing an Azure WAF Application Gateway

In this lab, you will explore enabling WAF on Application Gateway and creating a policy.

LAB CHALLENGE: Amazon DynamoDB and AWS Lambda Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to create a DymamoDB table and implement an AWS Lambda in a production-like AWS environment.

HANDS-ON LAB: Snapshot Testing AWS CDK Constructs

In this lab, you will discover how the Jest framework works within a CDK project and learn how to implement snapshot tests.

HANDS-ON LAB: Evaluating CDK Constructs with Fine-Grained Assertions and Validation Tests

In this lab, you will write fine-grained assertions and validation tests to evaluate a custom Amazon Kinesis stream construct.

LEARNING PATH: Get Hands-on with AWS Lambda

This learning path has been designed to provide you with hands-on experience of using AWS Lambda to configure and implement a variety of solutions, many of which will integrate with other AWS services.

LEARNING PATH: Managing AWS Compute (EC2) & Block Storage (EBS)

This learning path is focused on two key services: Amazon EC2 and the Elastic Block Store service (EBS).

LAB CHALLENGE: AWS CDK Construct Testing Challenge

This challenge will test your practical ability to work within a CDK project and utilize the built-in Jest framework tools to satisfy a set of requirements in a production-like AWS environment.

HANDS-ON LAB: Integrating Services with an AWS Step Functions State Machine

In this lab, you will work with two examples of these state machine service integrations and discover how to implement them using the Amazon State Language.

COURSE: AWS Snowcone: Providing Portable Edge Computing and Data Transfer

This course explores how the AWS Snowcone service can be used to provide portable edge computing and data transfer.

LAB CHALLENGE: AWS CodeDeploy Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to modify a solution in a production-like AWS environment. You will be presented with a task and set of requirements you must fulfill to pass the challenge.

LAB CHALLENGE: Amazon S3 and AWS Lambda Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to configure a solution in a production-like AWS environment. You will be presented with a task and set of requirements that you must fulfill to pass the challenge.

LEARNING PATH: Monitoring and Observing your Resources with Amazon CloudWatch

This learning path has been designed to enhance your knowledge of the Amazon CloudWatch service, allowing you to implement some of its key features.

COURSE: AWS Cost Management: Tagging

Costs in cloud environments can get complicated quickly. Therefore, it is essential to provide transparency and responsibility to everyone in a business. In this course, we will take a look at tagging in AWS in general and other best practices in the context of cost optimization in AWS.

COURSE: Performing Data Transfers using AWS DataSync

This course explores the AWS DataSync service which focuses on the transfer of data between on-premises into AWS storage services, in addition to transferring data between AWS storage services.

HANDS-ON LAB: Accessing Amazon DynamoDB Using Amazon API Gateway Service Proxy

In this lab, you will configure HTTP endpoints that interact directly with an Amazon DynamoDB table using an API Gateway Service Proxy.

HANDS-ON LAB: Defining Cloud Infrastructure with the AWS Cloud Development Kit and Python

In this lab, you will use these features of the AWS CDK Toolkit to create an AWS CloudFormation stack using the Python programming language.

LEARNING PATH: Get Hands-on with the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)

This learning path has been designed to explore the AWS CDK and provide you with the practical knowledge you will need to begin building your own applications. You’ll gain hands-on experience with the AWS CDK and understand how features such as the CDK Construct Library and the CDK Toolkit can improve the way you provision your cloud infrastructure.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with the AWS CDK Toolkit

In this lab, you will walk through the development process of a sample AWS CDK application in an integrated development environment (IDE) to utilize the AWS CDK Toolkit and discover the usage and benefits of the subcommands.

LAB CHALLENGE: AWS CDK Toolkit Challenge Using Python

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to interact with the AWS CDK Toolkit and Python to satisfy a set of requirements in a production-like AWS environment.

HANDS-ON LAB: Integrating Custom Resources in AWS CloudFormation

In this lab, you will implement an AWS Lambda that can be used to provision a non-AWS resource. You’ll also create an AWS CloudFormation stack containing a custom resource that is backed by the AWS Lambda function.

LEARNING PATH: AWS FinOps: Cost Management & Optimization

This learning path has been designed to focus on the cost management techniques when using AWS.

COURSE: An Introduction to AWS Systems Manager to Gain Operational Insights

In this course, you will be introduced to AWS Systems Manager and learn how the Systems Manager service helps you automatically implement complex workflows related to your machine setup, maintenance, and life cycle.

HANDS-ON LAB: Defining Cloud Infrastructure with the AWS Cloud Development Kit and TypeScript

In this lab, you will use these features of the AWS CDK Toolkit to create an AWS CloudFormation stack using the TypeScript programming language.

HANDS-ON LAB: Writing Your Own AWS CDK Constructs in Python

In this lab, you will refactor an existing CDK application by creating your own custom S3 construct.

LAB CHALLENGE: AWS SSM Parameter Store and AWS Lambda Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to make changes to a solution in a production-like AWS environment.

COURSE: Running Highly Performant File Systems with Amazon FSx

This course will cover both FSx for Windows file system and FSx for Lustre, the two choices you have when deploying an FSx workload.

Google Cloud

COURSE: GKE Services and Network Policies

This course will cover how to manage communication both inside and outside of your Kubernetes cluster.

COURSE: GKE Role-Based Access Control

This course will demonstrate how to use Kubernetes role-based access control (RBAC) to create roles and bind them to both user and service accounts.

LEARNING PATH: Architecting with Google Kubernetes Engine

This learning path is designed to teach you how to deploy and manage containerized applications using Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

LEARNING PATH: Developing for Google Kubernetes Engine

This learning path is designed to teach you how to build and deploy containerized applications on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

LEARNING PATH: Google Cloud Platform Technical Essentials

This learning path is designed to show how Google Cloud Platform can be used to build cloud-based products and services.

COURSE: Managing Application Logs and Metrics on GCP

In this course, you will learn how to stream logs using Cloud Logging Agent, as well as how to find the information you are looking for using Metric Explorer.

COURSE: Setting Up a Google Platform Environment

In this course, you will learn how to create and set up new GCP projects and how to give users permission to access project resources by assigning them to roles such as owner and editor. You will also learn how to enable APIs, set up budgets, and monitor spending.

COURSE: Introduction to Google Cloud SDK
In this course, we will cover how to install, set up, and use the main features of the Google Cloud SDK.

Microsoft Azure

COURSE: An Intro to Microsoft Defender for Identity

Learn what Microsoft Defender for Identity is, what it offers, the components that comprise it, and the requirements you must meet to use it.

COURSE: Managing Regulatory Compliance in Microsoft 365

This course explores the compliance features available to a Microsoft 365 administrator as well as how to manage regulatory compliance in a Microsoft 365 environment.

COURSE: Implementing Image Classification by Using the Azure Custom Vision Service

This course explores the Azure Custom Vision service and how you can use it to create and customize vision recognition solutions.

COURSE: DP-203 Exam Prep – Introduction

This course introduces the DP-203 Exam Preparation: Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure learning path, which explores the main subject areas covered in Microsoft’s DP-203 exam.

HANDS-ON LAB: Converting ARM Templates to Azure Bicep Templates

In this lab, you will learn how to convert existing ARM templates to Azure Bicep templates and fix common conversion issues that may appear.

COURSE: Configuring Health Monitoring for Azure IoT

This course will focus on the skills needed to integrate Azure Monitor and its corresponding features within IoT solutions.

LAB CHALLENGE: Azure Virtual Network NAT with Azure Function Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to build a solution in a production-like Azure environment.

LAB CHALLENGE: Converting ARM Templates to Azure Bicep Challenge

In this challenge, you have to convert an ARM template to a Bicep template using the Azure CLI and deploy the template along with the given parameter file to Azure using the Azure CLI.

COURSE: Azure SQL – Designing and Implementing a Migration Plan

This course explores how to migrate an existing on-premises database environment to an Azure SQL database solution.

COURSE: Intro to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

This course explores what Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is, what it does, and how to plan for deployment.

HANDS-ON LAB: Real-time Azure Bicep Template Conversion Playground

In this playground, learners have the ability to upload an existing ARM template of choice and have it be decompiled into an Azure Bicep template; choose from a number of sample templates to see how they are converted; and amend a converted template and see the changes in the original ARM template in real time.

LEARNING PATH: Azure Bicep: Flexing Your Infrastructure-as-Code Muscles

This learning path is helpful for anyone who wants to learn how to use Azure Bicep to manage infrastructure on Azure.

HANDS-ON LAB: Managing Workstreams Using Projects in Azure DevOps

In this lab, you will learn about the various tools available within a project, as well as creating your own project and adding a team to that project.

HANDS-ON LAB: Automating DSC Configuration using Azure Automation Account

In this hands-on lab, you will work with Azure Automation Account to automate the configuration management on an Azure Virtual Machine using DSC.

LAB CHALLENGE: Azure Automation Account DSC Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to interact with the Azure Automation Account to satisfy a set of requirements in a production-like Azure environment.

COURSE: Authentication and Access for SAP on Azure

This course is intended for anyone who wants to boost security for their SAP environments on Azure, through the use of authentication and access practices.

LEARNING PATH: MS-500 Exam Preparation: Microsoft 365 Security Administration

This learning path is designed to help you and your team prepare for the MS-500 Microsoft 365 Security Administration exam.

COURSE: Handling Slowly Changing Dimensions With Azure Synapse Analytics Pipelines

In this course, we’ll explain the concept of slowly changing dimensions and the different approaches to dealing with them.

COURSE: Monitoring Microsoft 365 Security with Azure Sentinel

This course explores Azure Sentinel and how to use it to monitor Microsoft 365.

COURSE: Intro to Sensitivity Labels in Microsoft 365

This course introduces you to sensitivity labels in Microsoft 365. You’ll learn what they are and what functions they perform in protecting your data.

COURSE: Introduction to Azure Delta Lake on Azure Databricks

This course provides an introduction to Delta Lake in Azure Databricks and shows you how to use it.

HANDS-ON LAB: Implementing Azure Virtual Network NAT with Azure Functions

In this hands-on lab, you will learn to configure Azure Function behind a NAT gateway to restrict the outbound IP address.

COURSE: Implementing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

This course explores Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and how to implement it.

LAB CHALLENGE: Azure Bicep Parameterizing Challenge

This challenge complements the introductory labs in the Bicep series and tests a student’s practical ability to amend and deploy a Bicep template in a production-like Azure environment using the Azure CLI.

LAB CHALLENGE: Azure Bicep Parameter File Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to create a parameter file for a Bicep template and deploy both in a production-like Azure environment.

HANDS-ON LAB: Implementing Azure Front Door with App Service Origin Host

In this hands-on lab, you will be introduced to Azure Front Door, along with how to set up origin groups and configure health probes and load balancing for the backend.

LAB CHALLENGE: Azure Front Door Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to build a solution in a production-like Azure environment. You will be presented with a task and a set of requirements that you must fulfill to pass the challenge.

COURSE: Deploying Microsoft Defender for Identity

This quick-hitting course is intended for those who want to learn how to deploy Defender for Identity.

Security

COURSE: CSSLP Domain 1:3 Security Policies and Regulations​

This is one of four courses covering Domain 1 of the CSSLP. This course explores the topic of security policies and regulations.

COURSE: CSSLP Domain 1:2 Risk Management

This is one of four courses covering Domain 1 of the CSSLP. This course explores the topic of risk management.

COURSE: CSSLP Domain 1:4 Software Development Methodologies

This is the fourth installment of four courses covering Domain 1 of the CSSLP, exploring the topic of software development methodologies.

DevOps

HANDS-ON LAB: Using Kubernetes Primitives to Implement Common Deployment Strategies

This lab covers the following new objective on the recently released CKAD exam: “Use Kubernetes primitives to implement common deployment strategies (e.g. blue/green or canary).”

HANDS-ON LAB: Exposing Applications Using Kubernetes Ingress Rules

This lab is valuable to anyone working with Kubernetes, but the content has been prepared considering topics described in the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Exam Curriculum. 

COURSE: Terraform 1.0 – Provisioning AWS Infrastructure

This course explores Terraform, an open-source tool which DevOps and SysOps engineers often use to codify their cloud infrastructure requirements. In this course you’ll learn about Terraform from the ground up, and how it can be used to codify infrastructure. Terraform can be used to provision infrastructure across multiple cloud providers, including AWS, which this course will focus on.

Programming

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with JavaScript Arrays

In this lab, you will be working with JavaScript arrays. Arrays are zero-indexed data collections with many built-in methods. These methods help you access and manipulate the values (elements) of an array.

COURSE: Introduction to JavaScript Variables, Primitive Data Types, and Console

This course focuses on JavaScript basics. It begins by defining what a variable is, and then transitions to some different primitive data types. Lastly, it covers the JavaScript console and how to display output to it.

COURSE: Introduction to JavaScript Arrays

This course introduces the array collection data type. You’ll be taught how to write an array and then how to manipulate the array data with some common JavaScript array methods.

COURSE: Introduction to JavaScript Objects

This course explores JavaScript objects, including how to create an object and how to access values from properties within that object.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with JavaScript Objects

In this lab, you will declare an object and use both dot notation and square bracket notation to access, add, and change property values. Each check will ask you to output data to the console.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with JavaScript Comparison Operators

In this lab, you’ll work hands-on with JavaScript comparison operators. Learn the differences between each comparison operator. 

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with JavaScript Logical Operators

In this lab, you will be working with JavaScript Logical Operators. You’ll use console.log() with Boolean values to understand what results are returned under certain combinations.

HANDS-ON LAB: Working with JavaScript Functions

In this lab, you will write function declarations and expressions. Each function will have you use console.log() to display the resulting value.

COURSE: Introduction to JavaScript Comparison Operators

This course introduces using JavaScript comparison operators to evaluate the equality or difference between two values or variables.

COURSE: Introduction to JavaScript Logical Operators

This course introduces how JavaScript logical operators are typically used to compare two or more conditions that will return a true or false value.

HANDS-ON LAB: Reading, Writing, and Parsing YAML Files

This lab serves as a foundational piece of content that will be of interest to anyone new to configuring cloud-based systems and software with YAML configuration files.

HANDS-ON LAB: Configuring Systems and Tools Using YAML

In this lab, you will examine some practical examples of YAML configuration, and you will learn some advanced techniques to make using YAML more effective.

LAB CHALLENGE: YAML Configuration File Challenge

This hands-on lab challenge will test your practical ability to use an integrated development environment (IDE) to create a database configuration YAML file.

HANDS-ON LAB: JavaScript Primitive Data Type Variables and Console Log

In this lab, you’ll declare variables of different primitive types, and then output each variable’s value in the console.

LAB CHALLENGE: Python and Boto3 Lab Challenge

This challenge provides you with several Python programming tasks to complete from a browser-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE). 

Data Science & AI

HANDS-ON LAB: Data Visualization with Bokeh

In this hands-on lab, you will master your knowledge of Bokeh, a very popular Python library for dynamic data visualization. Here, you will build standalone plots, and add interactive tools and features, including dynamic legends and Hover inspectors.

COURSE: PyTorch 101

This course covers the fundamentals of PyTorch, a Python ecosystem mostly used in machine learning systems.

LAB CHALLENGE: Data Science with Python – Basic Concepts

This lab will test your knowledge of Python for Data Science, focusing on three important aspects: programming, data management, and visualization. By the end, you should have a deep understanding of how Python is used in Data Science.

LAB CHALLENGE: Data Science with Python – Advanced Concepts

This lab will further test your knowledge of Python for Data Science. The main focus will be on Pandas and Matplotlib, the fundamental libraries for performing data analysis, management, and visualization using 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.

  • New navigation bar: All users will notice that the toolbar that appears at the top of the screen on most pages of the application has been streamlined. The help center article How the New Navigation Bars Are Different explains the benefits of this change and explains where to find all the old functionality in the new navigation bar.
  • Certification dashboard: A dashboard summarizing data about your members’ certifications now appears in the management dashboard. See Certification Dashboard in the Cloud Academy help center.
  • Job roles: A screen that makes it easy for admins and team managers to assign training plans related to particular job roles now appears in the management dashboard. You can learn more about the screen in the Job Roles help center article.
  • Bulk actions on the organization screen: The tools to complete actions on multiple teams or team members have been improved. The Managing Members article in the help center includes a How to Select Multiple Members to Act On section that explains how to use this tool.
  • Content access report: This new report contains a history of which of your members have been assigned content access licenses over time. See Content Access Report in the Cloud Academy help center.
  • Certifications on the member spotlight: The member spotlight now has a section for certifications that the member has uploaded, as well as certificates of excellence the member earned for completing learning paths in Cloud Academy.
  • Inactive members report: This new report lists the members in your account who have never consumed training content.
  • Lab validation check hints: For selected hands-on labs, members can now get hints when they fail a validation check.
  • Bookmarks tab in the mobile app: Members using the mobile app for training can now access their bookmarks on a special bookmarks tab in the app.

Stay updated

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