AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam Prep

Stories can help us remember key concepts; especially when preparing for an exam. Here are some stories that can help YOU prepare for the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam.

Scene 1: The Global Cloud Kingdom’s Network

In the faraway land of Cloud Kingdom, King Data ruled over a vast empire that stretched across many regions. The kingdom was divided into magical Regions, each protected by several Availability Zones. These zones acted as powerful fortresses, keeping the kingdom safe and running smoothly even when storms struck.

High in the sky, glowing Edge Locations floated like enchanted islands. They ensured that messages and supplies traveled quickly to the farthest corners of the kingdom, no matter how remote the villagers were.

One day, a great challenge arose: the northern villagers were receiving supplies late due to stormy skies. King Data gathered his advisors to solve the issue using the kingdom’s powerful infrastructure. They planned to direct all supplies through the closest Availability Zones and use Edge Locations to deliver the goods faster.

With the kingdom’s global infrastructure, they could overcome any distance or storm!

Scene 2: The Core Powers of Cloud Kingdom

In the magical Cloud Kingdom, King Data relied on his trusted allies to ensure the kingdom ran smoothly with the most efficient magic.

First, there was Sir EC2, a powerful knight known for his ability to build castles (servers) of any size. The beauty of Sir EC2’s magic was that he could summon On-Demand castles for short-term use, or for long-term needs, King Data could reserve his services at a discount through Reserved Instances. Sir EC2 was always ready to scale up or down, depending on how many villagers needed space.

Next, there was Lady Lambda, a clever sorceress who used the power of serverless magic. Lady Lambda didn’t need castles or resources to work her magic. She simply appeared when needed, casting quick spells to perform tasks like sending messages or calculating numbers. The kingdom loved Lady Lambda’s efficiency — King Data only paid when she cast a spell, and then she would disappear until needed again. This saved the kingdom time and money.

Guarding the kingdom’s treasures was Dynamo the Dragon, who watched over the kingdom’s vast treasure vault. Dynamo’s vault was limitless, able to store anything, from tiny bits of data to vast amounts of information. DynamoDB made sure that when someone needed data, it could be fetched instantly, without delay.

Finally, there was Aurora, the keeper of the kingdom’s grand libraries. Aurora’s libraries were special because they were highly available and fault-tolerant — meaning if something went wrong in one part of the kingdom, the libraries in other regions would instantly take over. Aurora’s libraries were also incredibly fast, making sure villagers could find what they needed in the blink of an eye.

Together, Sir EC2, Lady Lambda, Dynamo the Dragon, and Aurora made sure Cloud Kingdom’s core powers were always working at their best, no matter the challenge.

Scene 3: The Cost of Magic

In the Cloud Kingdom, King Data was always mindful of how much magic the kingdom used. The magical services came at different costs, depending on how they were summoned.

The bravest knight, Sir EC2, offered his services in three ways. For short-term needs, King Data could summon him On-Demand, paying only for the time Sir EC2 was needed. This was perfect when the kingdom needed to build castles (servers) quickly but for only a short while.

For long-term projects, King Data could reserve Sir EC2’s services ahead of time through the Reserved Instances option, booking him for a year or more at a discount. The more certain King Data was about future needs, the more he could save by reserving ahead.

Then there were times when the kingdom only needed extra help during quiet moments when no one else was using Sir EC2’s power. This was called the Spot Instances option. It was the most affordable, but it only worked when Sir EC2 wasn’t busy with other tasks.

But Sir EC2 wasn’t the only one with magical pricing! Lady Lambda used her serverless magic, so King Data only paid for the moments when she cast her spells. Lady Lambda didn’t need a castle or anything else, which made her magic both flexible and cost-effective.

Whenever King Data needed to manage the kingdom’s gold wisely, he used the AWS Cost Explorer to keep track of how much each service was costing, making sure the kingdom’s resources were used wisely.

Scene 4: Protecting the Kingdom

In the magical Cloud Kingdom, security was one of King Data’s highest priorities. The kingdom was vast, with many treasures and important data that needed protection. To keep the kingdom safe, King Data relied on his trusted gatekeeper, IAM (Identity and Access Management).

IAM was responsible for ensuring that only the right people could enter specific parts of the kingdom. Villagers were given keys (permissions), and IAM carefully controlled which doors they could open. Some villagers could enter the treasure vault (S3 buckets), while others could only visit the library (Aurora databases).

In times of trouble, when the kingdom was under attack, AWS Shield came to the rescue. Shield was the kingdom’s mighty protector, keeping the kingdom safe from dangerous DDoS attacks. No enemy could get through while Shield was standing guard.

To keep track of everything, CloudTrail watched over the kingdom, recording every move and keeping a log of who entered which part of the kingdom. This way, King Data could always review the activity and ensure that everything was secure.

With IAM, AWS Shield, and CloudTrail working together, Cloud Kingdom remained a safe place where villagers could thrive, knowing their treasures and knowledge were well-guarded.

Scene 5: The Magical Storage Vaults

In the Cloud Kingdom, there were many treasures to store, from books of knowledge to shiny jewels of data. King Data had several magical vaults, each designed to store different kinds of treasures in the most efficient way.

The first vault was guarded by S3, the magical chest that could store an infinite amount of treasures. S3’s vault was durable and scalable, ensuring that nothing was ever lost, no matter how big or small the treasure. Villagers could store their things in S3’s vault and easily retrieve them whenever needed. S3 even offered different rooms within the vault for things that were used less frequently, like the S3 Glacier for long-term storage at a lower cost.

For storing items that needed to be quickly accessed and attached to other parts of the kingdom, EBS was used. This vault was perfect for treasures that needed to stay close to Sir EC2’s castles. Whenever the villagers needed a fast, reliable connection to their treasures, they turned to EBS.

Then there was EFS, the vault that allowed many villagers to access the same treasures at the same time. EFS was perfect for when teams of villagers needed to work together, sharing the same data without waiting in line.

With S3, EBS, and EFS, the Cloud Kingdom could store its treasures securely and access them quickly, no matter how many treasures there were.

Scene 6: Databases

In the magical Cloud Kingdom, Aurora, the wise librarian, oversaw glowing libraries filled with enchanted books, representing the powerful relational databases known as RDS. Aurora ensured that all the kingdom’s knowledge was organized and easy to retrieve, providing the kingdom with speed and efficiency.

Meanwhile, Dynamo the Dragon protected a vast treasure vault, representing the NoSQL DynamoDB. His vault could hold endless amounts of treasures (data), and Dynamo was quick to retrieve anything the villagers needed, no matter how big or small.

With Aurora’s libraries and Dynamo’s vault, the kingdom’s data was always safe and accessible, no matter the task.

Scene 7: Management and Monitoring

In the magical Cloud Kingdom, CloudWatch the Falcon soared high above the land, keeping a sharp eye on everything below. From his vantage point, CloudWatch could see all the activities happening in the kingdom, making sure that nothing went wrong. If anything looked unusual, CloudWatch would sound the alarm and notify King Data right away, ensuring everything ran smoothly.

Nearby, King Data carried a magical scroll, representing CloudTrail. This scroll kept track of every important event and move in the kingdom. Whether a villager accessed a treasure vault or used magical powers, CloudTrail would record it all, allowing King Data to look back and see who did what.

With CloudWatch and CloudTrail always watching over the kingdom, Cloud Kingdom remained a well-monitored and safe place.

Scene 8: Deployment and Automation

In the magical Cloud Kingdom, Sir EC2, the brave knight, wielded his sword to summon castles (infrastructure) whenever the kingdom needed them. But these castles didn’t take long to build; with Sir EC2’s magic, they appeared instantly, thanks to CloudFormation and infrastructure automation.

Meanwhile, Lady Lambda cast her serverless spells, performing tasks without needing any castles or resources ahead of time. She worked her magic efficiently, making sure that all tasks were completed in the blink of an eye using AWS Lambda.

With automation and serverless magic, the Cloud Kingdom’s infrastructure was built faster than ever, allowing the kingdom to focus on its most important challenges.

Scene 9: Support Plans

In Cloud Kingdom, King Data carefully reviewed the different magical scrolls that provided support for his kingdom’s services. There were four scrolls in front of him:

• The Basic Plan scroll offered simple guidance, helping the kingdom manage its services with basic information and access to documents.
• The Developer Plan scroll provided more help for the wizards and engineers of the kingdom, offering faster responses to technical questions.
• The Business Plan scroll ensured that King Data could call for help at any time, day or night, making sure the kingdom’s most critical services stayed running.
• And finally, the Enterprise Plan scroll gave King Data a personal advisor, a magical helper who would assist with every challenge the kingdom faced.

With the right support plans, King Data ensured that the kingdom always had the help it needed to stay prosperous.

The Strength of Cloud Kingdom

With the help of his trusted advisors and the powerful magic of the Cloud Kingdom, King Data ensured that the kingdom thrived. From Sir EC2’s ability to summon castles to Lady Lambda’s quick serverless spells, the kingdom’s infrastructure was always ready for whatever challenges came its way. Dynamo the Dragon and Aurora kept the kingdom’s data safe in vaults and libraries, while CloudWatch and CloudTrail monitored every corner, ensuring security and smooth operations.

With wise decisions on pricing and the perfect support plans in place, the Cloud Kingdom became a shining example of efficiency, scalability, and safety. King Data’s subjects could focus on innovation and progress, knowing their kingdom was protected and optimized in every way.

And so, the Cloud Kingdom remained strong, its magic keeping the villagers prosperous, and its future bright with endless possibilities in the cloud.

The kingdom’s story would inspire others to embark on their own cloud journeys, with the knowledge that they too could wield the power of the cloud to build something extraordinary.

Fun ways to remember key concepts:

Here’s a fun and easy list of key concepts for AWS Cloud Practitioner

AWS Core Services

• Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): “Summon castles on demand” — Virtual servers in the cloud.
• Simple Storage Service (S3): “Endless treasure chest” — Scalable, durable object storage.
• Relational Database Service (RDS): “The library of structured data” — Managed relational databases.
• Lambda: “Spells cast on demand” — Serverless functions triggered by events.
• DynamoDB: “Dynamo the fast treasure guardian” — NoSQL database for fast access.
• CloudFront: “Fast messengers on the edge” — Content delivery network (CDN) for fast global access.
• Elastic Block Store (EBS): “Treasure stored close to the castle” — Block storage for EC2.
• Elastic File System (EFS): “Shared vault for the team” — File storage shared across EC2 instances.
• Aurora: “The fast librarian” — High-performance relational database service.
• Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): “Your own private kingdom” — Isolated network environment in AWS.

AWS Compute Services

• Elastic Beanstalk: “Magic gardener of applications” — Automatically deploys and scales web apps.
• EC2 Auto Scaling: “More castles when needed” — Automatically adjusts capacity for demand.
• Fargate: “Serverless containers” — Run containers without managing servers.
• Lightsail: “Simple cloud servers” — Easy-to-use cloud platform for small apps.
• Batch: “Processing jobs in bulk” — Efficiently runs hundreds or thousands of batch jobs.
• EC2 Spot Instances: “Discounted castle rentals” — Purchase unused EC2 capacity at reduced prices.

Pricing Models

• Pay-as-you-go: “Only pay when you eat” — Pay only for what you use.
• Reserved Instances: “Book ahead and save gold” — Reserve resources for long-term savings.
• Spot Instances: “Get a bargain when it’s quiet” — Purchase unused capacity at a discount.
• Free Tier: “Free magic for new villagers” — Try AWS services for free for 12 months.
• Savings Plans: “Commit to save” — Flexible pricing model for long-term savings.
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): “Compare the cost of your kingdom” — Compare AWS costs with on-premises costs.
• AWS Cost Explorer: “The accountant’s crystal ball” — Visualize and analyze your spending.
• AWS Budgets: “Keep your gold under control” — Set custom budgets to track and manage costs.

Storage and Data Management

• S3 Standard: “Your everyday treasure chest” — Frequent access storage.
• S3 Glacier: “Frozen treasures” — Low-cost storage for infrequent access.
• S3 Infrequent Access (IA): “Storage for occasional treasures” — Lower-cost storage for less-accessed data.
• S3 Lifecycle Policies: “Move your treasure over time” — Automatically move data between storage classes.
• S3 Versioning: “Never lose a treasure” — Keep multiple versions of your objects.
• EBS Snapshots: “Take a picture of your treasure” — Create backups of EBS volumes.
• S3 Object Lock: “Lock the vault” — Prevent deletion of objects for compliance.
• S3 Transfer Acceleration: “Faster treasure delivery” — Speed up S3 uploads globally.
• S3 Multipart Upload: “Big treasure, small pieces” — Upload large objects in parts.
• EFS Mount Targets: “Access the vault from anywhere” — Allow EC2 instances to access shared files.

Security and Compliance

• Identity and Access Management (IAM): “The gatekeeper of permissions” — Manage user access to resources.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): “Two locks for the vault” — Extra layer of security for user access.
• AWS Shield: “The kingdom’s protector” — DDoS protection for applications.
• Web Application Firewall (WAF): “The magical firewall” — Protects apps from web exploits.
• AWS Inspector: “The security inspector” — Automated security assessments for EC2.
• Encryption: “Magic seals for your treasures” — Encrypt data at rest and in transit.
• Key Management Service (KMS): “Keeper of the magic keys” — Manage encryption keys.
• Secrets Manager: “Guard your passwords” — Securely store and manage credentials.
• CloudTrail: “The kingdom’s historian” — Records and tracks AWS API activity.
• Trusted Advisor: “Your trusted counselor” — Recommends security, cost, and performance improvements.

Monitoring and Management

• CloudWatch: “The all-seeing eye” — Monitors resources and sets alarms.
• CloudTrail: “Track every step” — Logs API activity and resource changes for auditing.
• AWS Config: “Track your kingdom’s layout” — Monitors and records configuration changes.
• CloudFormation: “The magic blueprint” — Infrastructure as code for automated deployments.
• AWS Organizations: “Run multiple kingdoms” — Manage multiple AWS accounts centrally.
• AWS Systems Manager: “The overseer of tasks” — Automate common maintenance tasks.
• Elastic Load Balancer (ELB): “Spread the load” — Distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets.
• Amazon RDS Backups: “Never lose a page” — Automatically backup relational databases.

Networking and Content Delivery

• Route 53: “The kingdom’s map maker” — Scalable DNS routing to global applications.
• VPC Peering: “Bridge between kingdoms” — Connect two VPCs for secure communication.
• Direct Connect: “The dedicated road” — Private network connection to AWS.
• VPC Security Groups: “Guards at the gate” — Control inbound and outbound traffic for resources.
• Internet Gateway: “Connect to the outside world” — Allows public internet access for VPC resources.
• NAT Gateway: “A secure way out” — Enables instances in a private subnet to access the internet.
• VPN Gateway: “The secure tunnel” — Securely connect your on-premises network to AWS.
• VPC Flow Logs: “Watch the flow of traffic” — Monitor and capture IP traffic to and from network interfaces.

Analytics and Machine Learning

• Athena: “Ask questions of your treasure” — Query data in S3 using SQL.
• SageMaker: “Build magic potions” — Develop, train, and deploy machine learning models.
• Redshift: “Big data storage in a snap” — Managed data warehouse for large-scale analytics.
• Kinesis: “Real-time magic” — Analyze streaming data in real time.
• QuickSight: “The crystal ball of insights” — Business analytics and visualization service.
• Glue: “Stick your data together” — ETL service for preparing data for analytics.
• Elastic MapReduce (EMR): “Big data in the cloud” — Process large amounts of data with Hadoop or Spark.

Database and Data Warehousing

• RDS Multi-AZ: “Always have a backup castle” — High availability and failover for databases.
• Read Replicas: “Copies of your books” — Scale out read-heavy workloads in RDS.
• Aurora Global Database: “The world’s library” — Replicate Aurora databases across multiple regions.
• Database Migration Service (DMS): “Move your data safely” — Migrate databases to AWS with minimal downtime.

Deployment and Automation

• CodePipeline: “The magic conveyor belt” — Automate software release processes.
• CodeDeploy: “Deploy your spells” — Automate code deployments to EC2, Lambda, and more.
• Elastic Beanstalk: “Grow your apps” — Automatically handle deployment, scaling, and monitoring.
• OpsWorks: “Stack your services” — Configuration management using Chef or Puppet.
• CodeBuild: “Build in the cloud” — Compile source code, run tests, and create software packages.
• Step Functions: “Orchestrate your spells” — Coordinate microservices into complex workflows.
• Systems Manager Automation: “Run predefined magic” — Automate common operational tasks.

Support Plans

• Basic Plan: “Basic guidance and self-help” — Includes access to AWS docs and community forums.
• Developer Plan: “Support for small projects” — Email support during business hours.
• Business Plan: “24/7 help for critical apps” — Phone, chat, and email support with faster response times.
• Enterprise Plan: “Your personal cloud wizard” — Dedicated Technical Account Manager and 15-minute response for critical issues.

I hope this helps you prep for the exam and GOOD LUCK!

Note: This was developed with the help and imagination of generative AI :)