AWS Cloud Practitioner Notes

Last Updated on March 15, 2025

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------------- EC2 IaaS -------------
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Security Groups
  acts as a virtual firewall on EC2 level
  use CIDR BLOCKS
  STATEFUL, allows return traffic
  ALLOW RULES ONLY (implicit denial)
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- On Demand Pricing
    will not be interrupted
    Pay as you go
    no upfront payments
    no long-term commitments
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- Spot Instance
    90% discount
    can be INTERRUPTED
    defines the number of instances, types, availability zones
    and the max hourly rate you are willing to pay per instance
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- Reserved Instances
    not a physical instance
    will NOT be interrupted
    72% discount, billing discount 
    Reserve compute capacity for future use
    NOT for LICENSING concerns
-----
- Zonal Reserved Instances
  When you purchase a Reserved Instance for a specific Availability Zone
  referred to as a Zonal Reserved Instance
  Zonal Reserved Instances provide capacity reservations as well as discounts
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- Dedicated Hosts
    physical servers with dedicated EC2 instances
    more control and security
    to comply with regulations or LICENSING terms
    for applications that require a high degree of ISOLATION and control
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- Dedicated Instances 
    suitable for applications that require SINGLE-TENANT hardware 
    but DO NOT have LICENSING concerns
    or the additional features and control offered by Dedicated Hosts
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- EBS Optimized Instances
    Enable EC2 instances to fully utilize provisioned IOPS on EBS volumes
    with options for dedicated throughput between EC2 and EBS
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Standard Reserved Instances
  Will not be interrupted
  Provide a more significant discount than Convertible RIs
  Cannot be exchanged or modified
  Can be resold on the AWS Reserved Instance Marketplace
  Attributes cannot be changed (e.g., instance family, type, platform, scope, or tenancy)
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Convertible Reserved Instances
  Allow attributes to be modified (e.g., instance family, type, platform, scope, or tenancy)
  Can be exchanged during the term for another Convertible RI with new attributes
  Cannot be resold on the AWS Reserved Instance Marketplace
  Can be applied to different instance family types
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EC2 Image Builder
  build, customize and deploy OS images without writing scripts
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Savings Plans
  Commit to 1 or 3 years
  get discounts of up to 72%
  EC2, Lambda, Fargate, and SageMaker
- TYPE:
    Compute Savings Plan
    EC2 Savings Plans
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ALB - Application Load Balancer
SAM - Serverless Application Model
CDK - Cloud Developer Kit
      Constructs defines everything needed for a CDK to create the
      CloudFormation stack
SES - Simple Email Service
ASL - Amazon States Language, the lang state machine definitions are written
      Step Functions which are written on State Machines.
STS - Security Token Service
AMI - Amazon Machine Image
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Network Firewall &
Firewall Manager
  Centrally configure and manage firewall rules across accounts and applications
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WAF & SHIELD:
WAF - NOT FREE, Layer 7, 
  deployed on CloudFront, ALB, API Gateway, AppSync
  Charges based on number of ACLs you have.
  Monitor and protect against COMMON web exploits.
  USED ON => Gateway API, CloudFront, or ALB. 
  GEOGRAPHIC BLOCKING. 
  Can protect websites hosted OUTSIDE of AWS. 
  Can check for malicious SQL code
  BLOCKS all requests except APPROVED ones
  ALSO can block MALICIOUS traffic
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Layer 7 - HTTP/S  (WAF protects)
Layer 4 - TCP/UDP (Shield protects)
Later 3 - Network (Shield protects)
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Shield  - FREE
  enbaled BY DEFAULT for EC2
  Managed (DDoS) protection service that 
  safeguards applications running on API Gateway and Global Accelerator.
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Shield ADVANCED
  enabled on EC2 and CloudFront
  provides DDoS protection on:
    Global Accelerator
    Route53
  protects against higher fees in the case of a DDoS
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Audit Manager
  continuously audit AWS usage to simplify how you assess risk and compliance
  with regulations and industry standards
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Trusted Advisor
  finds unattached or UNDER-UTILIZED EBS volumes
  advises on BEST PRACTICES, service limits, perfomance, security, fault tolerance
  Recommends cost OPTIMIZATION tips
  used on a monthly (or so) schedule
  can ALERT if PORTS allow unrestricted access
  can ALERT if S3 is misconfigured (like given public access)
  can ALERT if you dont activate logging for cloudtrail
  Included in DEVELOPER and BASIC support plans
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Inspector
  for use on EC2, ECR
  does NOT track CONFIG changes
  INSTALLED agents on EC2 
  AUTOMATED continual checks for security VULNERABILITY
  identifies DEVIATIONS from BEST PRACTICES maintenance management at scale
  CHECKS for OS vulnerabilities
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GuardDuty
  intelligent threat detection & monitoring
  monitors MALICIOUS, unauthorized activity. 
  Uses Cloudtrail and VPC Flow Logs
  does NOT check OS vulnerabilities
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Global Accelerator
  good for NON-HTTP cases
  Improve availability and performance
  provides static IP addresses as fixed entry points to  endpoints in single or multiple AWS Regions
  uses the global network to optimize the path from your users to your app
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Detective
  investigate, analyze, and quickly identify the root cause of potential security issues. 
  Uses:
   CloudTrail
   VPC Flow Logs
   GuardDuty

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Availability Zone - has 1 or more data centers, All traffic beteween AZ is encrypted
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Regions - minimum 3 AZ's
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Marketplace
  customers can find, test, BUY/SELL SaaS
  custom AMIs, SOFTWARE solutions, bundles
  CANNOT buy Reserved Instances
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Knowledge Center
  forum which contains common questions & the solutions
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AWS IQ
  for non-tech savvy to connect with pros
  advice, and implement solutions quickly

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----------- Databases --------------
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EMR
  HADOOP CLUSTERS
  big data platform for running large-scale
  distributed data processing jobs
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Batch
  run batch ON EC2/EC2 Spot
  workloads of any scale
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RDS
  can only SCALE UP, no horizontal scaling
  automatic backups by default
  aws does software patching
  can enable Auto-Patching for instances in the RDS CONSOLE
  can enable storage auto-scaling for RDS MySQL
  no need to manage OS
  SQL, managed, OLTP online transaction processing
  has BETTER performance than customer-managed DB instance
  Multi-AZ and read replicas can be used for disaster recovery
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RDS - Disaster Recovery
  Multi-AZ for SAME region
  REPLICAS for cross region
  Read Replicas improve horizontal scalability
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Aurora - SQL
  automatic backups by default
  proprietary
  relational
  also good for ACTIVE/ACTIVE replication systems 
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Athena - SQL
  does NOT autobackup by default
  MINIMUM EFFORT
  serverless (auto-scale)
  interactive query service to analyze data in S3
  only pay for queries run
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DynamoDB - NoSQL
  ok for 'recommendation engines'
  HIGH AVAILABILITY, LEAST OVERHEAD
  supports a DOCUMENT data model
  Global Tables provide an ACTIVE/ACTIVE replication architecture 
     global tables allow you to replicate data seamlessly across multiple AWS Regions
  automatic backups by default
  unlimited scaling
DAX
  caching service for DynamoDB
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MemoryDB
  in-memory database service
  compatible with Redis (OSS) and Valkey
  ultra-fast performance and features
  automatic failover, encryption
  VPC support
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ElastiCache
  serverless memory
  enables applications to scale instantly
  supports Redis & Memcached
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DynamoDB Accelerator - improve performance
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DocumentDB
  automatic backups by default, MongoDB compatible 
  MongoDB Compatible MODE
   which is a fully managed document database service that supports MongoDB workloads
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Database Migration Service (DMS)
  assist with on-prem to cloud
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Neptune
  NoSQL, GRAPH db's
  suitable for fraud detection, knowledge graphs
  RECOMMENDATION engines, social networking
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Redshift - SQL
  warehouse
  suited for online analytic processing
  is an AWS Service
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Glue
  extracts, transforms, loads, prepares
  moves data (if needed) for ANALYTICS
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Data Exchange
  find, subscribe to, and use THIRD PARTY data from a wide range of providers
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QLDB
  CENTRALIZED immutable ledger db
  single entity owns and manages the application data
  no need for cistomizations
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Managed Blockchain
  DECENTRALIZED
  open-source frameworks
  Ethereum
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Quicksight - creates dashboards
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STORAGE:
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EFS - HIGH AVAILABILITY
  You PAY for read AND write
  file-level storage accessed using NFS protocol
  can be DIRECTLY used with ON-PREM systems
  shared file system CAN be mounted across MULTIPLE AZs
  EC2 can access the files across REGIONS & VPCs
  can handle HUNDREDS of access connections
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EBS - HIGH PERFORMANCE
  Can attach to SINGLE EC2 instance, per AZ
  You PAY for read AND write
  MUST be in same AZ
  used as a physical HARD DISK in the cloud
  IOPS and VOLUME TYPE affect price
  SNAPSHOTS stored on S3
  Both Root and Non-Root volumes can be encrypted
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Instance Store
  offer block level storage
  FAULT tolerant
  HIGH Performance hardware
  fast I/O
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EBS AND Instance Store
  offer block level storage
  snapshots stored incrementally
  you are billed only for changed blocks
  you pay for each read/write
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S3
  objects stored as KEY VALUE pairs
  supports vpc endpoint gateway for private vpc connections
  good for data lakes, archives
  Use "Block All Public Access" feature (account level) to ensure S3 buckets/objects are secure
  data transfer OUT from SAME REGION is FREE
  data transfer IN from internet is free
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S3 CRR
  for cross region replication between regions
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S3TA - 
  secure file transfer over long distances
  geographically disperse
  uses CloudFront Edge Locations
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S3 Storage Class Options: (IA means Infrequent Access)
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- One Zone-IA: cheap, infrequent but rapid data access, single AZ
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- Standard: Ideal for frequently accessed data
- Standard-IA: Designed for infrequently accessed data that requires millisecond-level access
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- Intelligent-Tiering: variable cost, automatically moves data to cheaper tiers based on access patterns
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- Glacier
  Designed for archived data that is accessed one-to-two times per year.
  Expedited - 1-5 minutes. 
  Standard - 3-5 hours, for less time-sensitive needs, backup data, media editing, long-term analytics. 
  Bulk - retrievals are the lowest-cost retrieval option 5-12 hours
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Glacier Deep Archive: The lowest-cost storage option, designed for data rarely accessed
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S3 Transfer Acceleration
  optimize transfer speed from dispersed locations
  can be used with multi-part upload
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S3 NO Data Retrieval Fee:
- Intelligent-Tiering: 
- S3 Standard
- key value based OBJECT storage
  NO Storage transfer fee OUT if:
    The S3 bucket and EC2 instance must be in the same region.
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ECS - Elastic Container Service
  RUN, STOP, MANAGE Docker Containers
  does NOT store or deploy
  YOU MAINTAIN and HAVE ACCESS to underlying OS
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ECR - Elastic Container Registry
  STORE, MANAGE, DEPLOY
  store container images to be run by ECS or Fargate
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Fargate - serverless
  no access to underlying OS
  Runs docker containers on AWS
  based on CPU/RAM needed
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Amazon API Gateway
  Create and manage APIs to back-end systems on EC2, AWS Lambda, or any public web service
  Can call Lambda function to create front door of serverless app
  Can be configured to send data to Kinesis Data Stream
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CodeDeploy
  automate code deploments to any instance
  on prem or ec2
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CodePipeline
  uses CloudWatch to detect changes in repos
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CodeStar - Code Star
  holistic, not detailed view
  manage access and add owners, contributors, and viewers to your projects
  can track progress across your entire software development process,
    from your backlog of work items to teams’ recent code deployments
  -----
  to develop, build, and deploy applications on AWS
  SIMPLIFYING the setup of your entire development project
  Automates configuration of a CD pipeline
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Cloud9
  IDE to write, run, and debug your code in BROWSER
  no configuration or software invovled
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Elastic Beanstalk - PaaS
  FREE service, automation feature
  Basic Health monitor can determine if ASG is available and has at least 1 instance
  Basic Health does NOT report to CloudWatch
  DEPLOY and SCALE web applications
  No need to learn underlying infrastructure
  YOU manage data and apps and have access to UNDERLYING OS.
  Upload code and ELB automatically handles 
    deployment, 
    capacity provisioning, 
    load balancing, 
    auto scaling, 
    app health monitoring
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Launch Wizard
  guides you through sizing, config, deployment
  including SQL, SAP
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CodeBuild - fully managed CI service that compiles, tests, and produces software packages that are ready to deploy
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Wavelength - 5g
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Route53
  HEALTH CHECKS and monitoring
  domain registration
  DNS
  can perform HEALTH CHECKS
  maintain route policies
  Failover Routing is Active/Passive
  Transit Gateway, Network Load Balanacer NLB
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AmazonMQ - message broker service
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SNS
  Simple Notification, pub/sub
  time critical messaging
  no polling, is push based messaging service
  DECOUPLE
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SQS
  Simple Queue, pull based, never lose msgs, scales
  DECOUPLING for APP communication
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Simple Workflow SWF
  build, run, and scale background jobs that have parallel or sequential steps
  -----
  a fully-managed state tracker and task coordinator in the Cloud
  coordinates tasks across distributed app components
  -----
  tasks are assigned once and never duplicated
  -----
  workflow executions can last up to one year
  -----
  'deciders' and 'workers' - complete the tasks
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KINESIS - REAL TIME -> data in -> Stream -> Analytics -> Firehose -> data out to -> Redshift (Big Data DB warehouse) or S3 Bucket
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MSK - (Managed Streaming Kafka) migrate, build, and run real-time streaming applications on Apache Kafka.
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Cloudwatch
  monitor resource UTILIZATION & APP PERFORMANCE
  Logs Insights: interactive search to analyze logs within an ORG
  Monitor, store, access log files from EC2, CloudTrail, Route53 and more
  Can be triggered upon user activity like "root user sign in"
  Alarms
    billing alarms to monitor estimated charges
    triggered on configured thresholds like billing
    billing data is always in "US EAST 1"
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Cloudtrail
  history of MANGEMENT EVENTS and API calls
  ENCRYPTED by DEFAULT
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Cloudtrail Insights
  Can raise alarms when resource numbers are crossed
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X-Ray
  helps debug distributed (microservice) apps
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CodeGuru
  quality recommendations, automated code review
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Storage Data Encryption
  by default only S3 and Storage Gateway
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-------- Connection Types ----------
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Direct Connect (Gateway)
  Consistent, HIGH BANDWIDTH connection for on-prem network to cloud
  use VPN, cannot EXTEND VPC
  hybrid connection 
  AVOIDS using public internet
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VPC Endpoint
  private, encrypted
  connection of VPC TO AWS services
  provide reliable, SCALABLE connectivity to AWS services (like SQS and DynamoDB ???) 
  DOES NOT require: 
    Internet Gateway
    NAT instance
    VPN connection
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VPC Interface Endpoint
  private IP
  privately connect VPC to SQS
  since it restricts all access to inside the network, 
  no need for Internet Gateway, or NAT or Virtual Private Gateway
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PrivateLink
  private access with IP addresses
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VPN
  secure network connection between ON-PREM and CLOUD
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NAT Gateway (Network Address Translation)
  AWS managed instances
  private subnets access to the internet while remaining PRIVATE
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NACL
  can deny SPECIFIC IP
  acts as a virtual firewall for vpc at the SUBNET LEVEL
  controls traffic in/out of subnets
  has both deny/allow rules
  EVALS RULES IN ORDER to decide on traffic allowance
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Transit Gateway
  MOST EFFICIENT way to connects thousands of vpc 
  on/off prem in a single gateway 
  in different regions
  Connects multiple VPCs across regions, accounts, and on-premises networks
  providing a centralized hub for network connectivity
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Internet Gateway
  allows VPC to INTERNET connection
  for instances in PUBLIC subnets
  horizontally scaled high availability vpc
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Storage Gateway
  enables SEAMLESS USE of storage BETWEEN ON-PREM and CLOUD
  File Gateway, Tape Gateway, Volume Gateway
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Site to Site VPN
  contains Virtual Private Gateway
  Customer Gateway
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PrivateLink
  private, encrypted communication 
  between ON-PREM and VPN in the cloud
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Customer Gateway
  connects ON-PREM to AWS
  a device or software application that 
  connects over an IPsec VPN tunnel
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Virtual Private Gateway VGW
  to connect to a managed VPN service between on/off prem
  logical, fully redundant, 
  distributed edge routing function that sits at the edge of your VPC
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VPC Gateway Endpoint
  enables private connectivity to supported AWS services
  supported by S3, EC2, DynamoDB
    add target entries in the route table of the custom VPC
  bypassing the public internet
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Peering Connection
  private data sharing connection BETWEEN vpc's
  Connects two VPCs within the same region or across different AWS accounts
  providing a direct connection between the two VPCs
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VPC
  a VPC spans all AZs within a single AWS Region.
  a VPC cannot span across multiple Regions.
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Subnet
  region -> vpc -> az -> subnet -> instance
  is in one AZ
  instances launch inside a subnet
  cannot span zones
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Security Hub
  consolidated view of your security status in AWS
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KMS
  Key Management Service
  managing and GENERATING MASTER encryption keys in YOUR ACCOUNT
  AUTOMATICALLY created in your ACCOUNT used to encrypt/decrypt data
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CloudHSM (Hardware Security Model)
  CLOUD based hardware for generating and using YOUR OWN encryption keys in the cloud
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Secrets Manager
  is INSIDE CloudHSM
  managing and ROTATING application secrets, passwords, API keys, and other sensitive data
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Customer Managed Key
  you have control over creating and using your own keys for encryption

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--- AI Machine Learning Services ---
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Rekognition
  face detection, objects, text, scenes, celebrities identifier
  can also identify text located spatially within an image, such as words displayed on street signs
    t-shirts, or license plates
  can see emotions, sex, detect inappropriate content,
  train in custom labels
  integrated with A2I (Augmented AI) for human review
  has DetectModerationLabels API for scrutinizing data/images before returning
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Transcribe
  audio speech to text, custom vocabularies, custom language models, toxicity detection, remove PII
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Personalize - uses ML to create indiviualized recommendations for users/shoppers
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Polly
  text to audio, synthesize natural-sounding human speech
  lexicons, SSML, Speech Synthesis Markup language, speech marks
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Translate - can translate large volumes, one language to another
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Lex
  conversational chatbot, uses speech recognition (ASR) & natural language understanding (NLU) 
  integrates with Connect, Comprehend, Kendra
  you set intents, it detects intent of users
  fully deeply configurable
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Connect -  cloud contact center with bots
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Comprehend
  builds acustom classifier
  -----
  NER
    name entity recognition, people, places, orgs, out of the box
    can be customized (custom models) to recognize entities
    custom models can be shared across accounts, but in same region, from comprehend console
  -----
  natural language processing for analyzing ticket tracking insights from text
  -----
  can redact PII before the tickets are processed to create the search indexes
  -----
  detect sentiment analysis, entity recognition, and language detection
  -----
  provides APIs for text analysis, such as:
    Custom Entity Recognition
    Custom Classification
    Key Phrase Extraction
    Sentiment Analysis
    Entity Recognition
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Textract
  auto	tically extracts text, HANDWRITING, layout elements, and data from SCANNED documents
  can interpret text of handwriting and documents and creates objects of data from it
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Forecast - accurate forecasting
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Kendra
  fully managed document SEARCH service, and content extractor powered by machine learning
  can add SEARCH capabilities to their applications so their end users can discover information 
    stored within the vast amount of content spread across their company
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A2I - Augmented AI (part of SageMaker)
  adds human oversight to 'low confidence' predictions
  reviewers could be your own team, or mechanical turk humans
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Lookout - fully managed anomaly detection
 detectors, datasets, anomalies
 optimizing is called 'measure'
 features that influence measures are called 'dimensions'
---------- 
Fraud Detector - fully managed 
  customized to your data and learns over time
  model variables
  use case -> event type -> create model -> review performance
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Q Business
  40+ popular enterprise data sources
----------
Q Developer
  answers questions about aws services and resources
  can analyze your costs, can give cli commands
  code companion
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Elastic TransCoder
  convert S3 media files (discontinued)
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Elasticsearch
  popular open-source search and analytics engine
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CloudFront
  Global CDN
  prevents DDoS with Route53
  pricing changes throughout the world
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Compute Savings Plan - most flexible up to 66%, for 1-3 year term
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FSx for Windows File Server
  managed windows file system
  SMB protocol - server message block
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Compute Optimizer
  recommendations to identify optimal resource configuration for workloads 
  reduce costs, increase performance
  uses Machine Learning
  including:
    EC2
    ASG
    EBS
    Lambda
    ECS (containers) on Fargate 
------------------------------------
Bill Dashboard - high overview
----------
Billing Conductor
  customize your bill computation
  display your billing data in a meaningful way
  group accounts with similar
  generates Cost & Usage Report for each group
----------
Cost Tags
  helps create detailed REPORTS by tag
  used to seperate costs bt DEPARTMENT
----------
Cost Usage Reports (CUR)
  comprehensive BILLING DETAILS
  NOT FOR UNDER-UTILIZED items
  needs configuring
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Cost Explorer
  shows/monitors current and forecasted usage
  can show under-utilized EC2s
  CANNOT CHECK RESOURCE UTILIZATION
  NO ALERTS
  can help choose SAVINGS PLAN
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Bill Alarms -
----------
Budgets
  can alert when ec2's are UNDER-UTILIZED
  reserved, COST, RESERVATION, USAGE are the types
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Saving Plans
  with commitments
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Cost Anomaly Detection
  notices unusual spends using ML
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Service Quotas
  notifies when close top thresholds
------------------------------------
Pricing Calculator - estimate architecture solution cost based on expected usage
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IAM
  Internal AWS accounts for company users
  EFFECT & ACTION are REQUIRED fields
------------
ROLES - Benefits
  more ecure than storing keys within apps
  easier to manage IAM roles
------------
IAM User
  entity associated with an Access Key ID and Access Key
  needs password for management console
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IAM Groups
  CANNOT be nested
  user can be in multiple groups
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IAM Identity Center
  SSO, one login for multiple accts and applications
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AWS Organizaions - 
  for managing and creating MUTIPLE accounts
  can restrict indiviual API action
  organize by department
  restrict with SCP (Service Control Policies)
  consolidated billing, and discounts when LINKING accounts
------------
Cognito
  SAML, users can sign in through Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
  JWT token handling
  user pools
-----------
IAM Credentials Report
  lists all your IAM users in this account
  status of their various credentials
  such as passwords, access keys, MFA devices
-----------
IAM Access Analyzer
  identifies and manages permissions in your AWS environment, 
  Inspects S3 bucket policies and IAM role policies, 
  searches for EXTERNALLY shared AWS resource
------------------------------------
IAM Access Advisor
  review PERMISSIONS
  show when last accessed
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STS - Security Token Service
  temporary limited
  credentials for AWS resources
  directory services
  to integrate Microsoft Active Directory in AWS
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IoT Core
  THOUSANDS or BILLIONS of vpc and on-prem networks in a SINGLE GATEWAY
------------------------------------
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Application Load Balancer
  provides static DNS but NOT static IP
  AWS wants your ELB accessible with a static endpoint even if the infrastructure changes
  never resolve the IP of a load balancer as it can change with time
  supports WebSockets, HTTP/S/1/2, TLS
  can route to different target groups based on: URLPath, Headers & Query Strings
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Network Load Balancer
  provides static DNS & IP
  highest performance
  lowest latency
  Supports TCP and UDP
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ELB Sticky Sessions
  ensures traffic for the same client is redirected to the same target
  no lost sessions
----------------
ELB
  is designed to distribute traffic within a single region
  not across multiple regions
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X-Forwarded-For Header - ALB adds this header to get clients IP address.
Health Checks - when enabled, do not send traffic to unhralthy EC2s
----------------
Cross Zone Load Balancing - distributes evenly across all registered instances in all AZs.
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Server Name Indication SNI - allows both to load multiple SSL certs on one listener
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Auto Scaling Groups - have a cooldown period after scaling activity, default is 300s (5 minutes)

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Performance & Efficiency Design Principals:
 - democratize advanced technologies
 - go global in minutes
 - serverless architecture
 - experiment more
 - mechanical sympathy

Reliability Design Principals:
 - test recovery procedures
 - stop guessing capacity
 - manage changes in automation
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------------------------------------
Systems Manager
  identify any issues impacting apps USING those resources
  automate and centralize the management of your AWS resources and applications
  platform for visibility, control, and AUTOMATION across your AWS infrastructure
  view operational data from MANY SOURCES in a single view
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CONFIG
  A view of the CHANGES in your RESOURCES associated with your AWS account
  INCLUDING how they are configured
  can generate an INVENTORY of AWS resources
------------------------------------
AppConfig
  Create, manage, and safely deploy app config data to your targets at runtime
  validation checks
  no additional code need be written
  no restarts
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AWS Backup - simple bakup to cloud
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Disaster Recovery
  replicate between multiple REGIONS
------------------------------------
CloudEndure (Disaster Recovery)
  minimize downtime, data loss, fast reliable recovery of your 
  physical and virtual cloud based servers
------------------------------------
Elastic Disaster Recovery
  Scalable, cost-effective, minimize downtime and data loss
  fast, on-premises & cloud-based apps
  using affordable storage
  minimal compute
  point-in-time recovery
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DataSync
  incremental backup/storage
  data movement and discovery service that accelerates data migrations to AWS 
  moving data to and from on-premises storage, edge locations, other cloud providers
  and AWS Storage services.
------------------------
Amplify: 
  set of tools to help you quickly start mobile/web apps
  like a beanstalk for mobile / web
  Gives you out of the box:
  - Authentication (amplify add auth)
  - Datastore (amplfy add api)
  - Integrated with Cypress test suite
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AppSync
  flexible APIs facilitate secure, scalable mobile & web apps
  publish and subscribe to REAL-TIME events over serverless WebSockets
  access, manipulate, and combine data from multiple sources through a single GraphQL API endpoint
----------------
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SNOW FAMILY - devices to move data to the AWS Cloud or run compute and processing workloads at the edge
-----------
Snowcone
  smallest device in the Snow Family
  used to gather, process, and transport data online via Amazon DataSync
  8TB of usable storage on high-capacity HDDs
  42TB of usable storage on high-capacity SSDs
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Snowball
  80 TB of HDD storage for object storage
  provide both block storage & S3 object storage
  suited for local storage and large scale-data transfer
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Snowball Edge - Compute Optimized
  native support for EC2
  42 TB of HDD for object storage, 
  plus 7.68 TB of NVMe SSD storage for AWS EBS block volumes
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Snowmobile
  large containers to transport EXABYTES of data to and from AWS
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Cloud Migration Strategies - "The 7-R's"
  retire   rehost     (lift and shift)
  retain   replatform (lift and reshape)
  relocate repurchase
  refactor/rearchitect
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Application Migration Service
  Automatic lift and shift, conversion to AWS, many platforms/os/db
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Migration Evaluator
  aggregates data to build a case (insights/cost) 
  for moving to AWS from its current state
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Migration Hub
  central data collection to help accelerate migration (Orchestrator)
  is integrated with Application and DB Migration Services
  Application Discovery Service (?) collects data on config, usage, behavior in ON-PREM data centers

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Fault Injection Simulator
  based on chaos engineering
  create disruptive events (experiments)
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Step Functions
  visual workflow to orchestrate Lambda funcs, ec2, API Gateway and more
  used for Asynchronous integration between components
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Ground Station - control satellite communications
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EventBridge
  serverless service that uses events to connect application components 
  for developers to build scalable EVENT-DRIVEN apps
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Pinpoint
  Scalable 2 way communication marketing service
  email, voice, in-app msg, personalize msgs, SMS msgs
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Well Architected Framework Tool: 
  Reviews state of your workloads, compares them to AWS architectural best practices based on 6 pillars
  Used on workloads to gauge if you are using best practices
  Tools include: Config, Coudtrail, Cloudwatch
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Architecture Center - for examples of cloud solution designs
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Six Pillars
 - Operational Excellence
     Automation (CloudFormation)
     make small, reversible changes, 
     anticipate failure
     scalability, monitoring
     incident response
 - Security
     Protect data, systems from unauthorized access
     malicious activity, accidental damage
     USE KMS to encrypt data
 - Reliability
     fault-tolerant
     able to recover from failures
 - Performance Efficiency
     meet workload requirements
     including scaling, caching, and queuing
 - Cost Optimization
     Right-sizing resources
     optimizing costs
 - Sustainability
     environmental sustainability
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CAF - Cloud Adoption Framework (Organizationl Capabilities)
 - Business   investments accelerate biz outcomes
 - People     organize around PRODUCTS and VALUE, bridge tech and business
 - Governance helps cloud initiative, maximize benefits, minimize risks
 - Platform   reducing business risk, improving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance
 - Security   integrity, and availability of data and cloud workloads
 - Operations performance and capacity management, leverage agile methods, rapid iteration
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CAF Transforamtion Phases
 - Envision
 - Align - identify gaps
 - Launch
 - Scale
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Agility:
- speed resources are created
- ability to experiment quickly
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APN Consulting Partner
  for MIGRATING, design, 
  build and MANAGE APPLICATIONS
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APN Technology Partner
  for building services AFTER MIGRATION
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AWS Professional Services
  assist WITH infrastructure MIGRATION
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AWS Partner Network APN
  build custom solutions FOR MIGRATION
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AWS Partner Solutions
  uses "reference deployments" to QUICKLY deploy POPULAR tech, can be customized
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Quick Start Reference Deployments
  rapid deploy popular solutions, immediate use
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AWS Services Catalog
  portfolios to organize your products and distribute them
  upload your line of business products
  Authorize users, groups, and roles to access portfolios
  set governance configurations
  AppRegistry provides a repository for collecting and managing your application metadata
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Session Manager - no ports to open
Instance Connect - needs port 22 open
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OpsWorks - Chef and Puppet (wtf)
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ARM64 processors - Android
x86 processors - Windows, Linux, and Unix
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OpsHub
  SNOWBALL GUI app
  to unlock and configure single or clustered devices
  transferring files
  launching and managing instances running on Snowball Edge
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Service Health Dashboard
  can subscribe to RSS feed for status of AWS interruptions
  GENERALIZED VIEW of outages/upgrades/maintenance
  real time, open to public
  historical data
  part of ALL SUPPORT PLANS
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Personal Health Dashboard
  relevant timely info to help manage progress
  shows proactive notifications to help plan scheduled activities
  alelrts triggered by changes in AWS Health of resources
  gives visisbility and guidance to diagnose and resolve issues
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Your Account Health Dashboard - PERSONALIZED VIEW of services affecting your architecture
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Removing AWS ORG Accounts
  must operate as STANDALONE account
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AWS Credits are applied:
 - Soonest expiring
 - least number of apllicable products
 - Oldest credit
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U2F - USB (note the U) 
  plug in device for MFA
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Local Zones
  use certain services like compute
  and storage closer to end-users
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Availability Zones
  each subnet is mapped to ALL AZs in a region
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Penetration Testing -  is OK on AWS, NETWORK stress testing is not. 
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Shared Responsibility Model
  for 'absrtacted' services like S3
  AWS controls infrastructure, OS & platform
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SERVERLESS COMPUTING:
  When asked serverless computing services AWS offers
  EC2 is NOT one - since you are actually provisioning servers :(
  Lambda and Fargate are serverless...
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Service Control Policies (SCP)
  used within AWS Organizations
  allows maximum permissions that identities (users and roles) within accounts in your organization
  helps ensure your identities stay within the organization’s access control guidelines
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AWS Abuse Team
  regarding issues on prohibited use
  trustandsafety@support.aws.com
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Outposts
  low latency access to app components ON-PREM
  for hybrid architecture
  EXTENDS existing VPC to ON-PREM
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EC2 Auto Scaling - can REPLACE unhealthy instances... is free
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Management Console
  can manage ALL AWS services
  can launch ElastiCache clusters
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CLI & SDK
  can manage ALL AWS services
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Systems Manager
  Automating and monitoring EC2 instances and inventory
  Run commands
  Config and patch servers at scale
  compliance
  unified UI to view operational data for "resource groups"
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Resource Groups
  unlimited, single-region groups in your account
  use your groups to view group-related insights
  automate tasks on group resource
  Groups can be based on:
  - resource types
  - tag queries
  - CloudFormation stacks.
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Resource Access Manager
  securely share and manage AWS resources across accounts or organization
  reduce operational overhead
  centrally manage access to shared resources
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Root user credentials needed to change:
  account name
  support plans
And consists of: 
  email/password used to create the account
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MULTI AZ = MORE AVAILABILITY
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Cost Allocation Tags:
  each tag unique, and key only one value
  used for organizing and associating costs to business units
  must activate GENERATED & USER DEFINED TAGS seperately
  before the appear in Cost Explorer or on a cost allocation report
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Cloud Foundations
  guides for deploy, configure, secure workloads
  ensuring readiness for on-going operations
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For seperate invoices, create different accounts
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Policy Example:
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "AllowEveryoneReadOnlyAccess",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": "The User",
      "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:ListBucket"],
      "Resource": ["arn:aws:s3:::examplebucket", "arn:aws:s3:::examplebucket/*"]
    }
  ]
}
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RPO (Recovery Point Objective)
RTO (Recovery Time Objective)
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Automated Backups: 
Amazon RDS automatically creates and saves backups of your DB instance during a daily user-configurable 30-minute period known as the backup window. These backups are retained for a configurable number of days (called the backup retention period).
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Storage Volume Snapshots: 
Amazon RDS creates a storage volume snapshot of your entire DB instance, backing up the entire instance and not just individual databases. This snapshot is used to create automated backups.
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Manual Snapshots: 
You can create manual snapshots of your DB instance at any time. Manual snapshots are user-initiated backups that are stored in Amazon S3 until you explicitly delete them. You can restore a DB instance from a manual snapshot whenever you desire.
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Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR): 
With automated backups, you can recover your DB instance to any specific time during the backup retention period, creating a new DB instance.
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Backup and Restore (HOURS)
manage backups of data and applications in DR region and restoring them when needed to recover from a disaster. RPO is measured in HOURS, and RTO is 24 hours or less.
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Pilot Light (10 minutes or less) 
run core services in standby mode, additional services triggered as needed in case of a disaster. RPO is measured in tens of minutes, and RTO is calculated in terms of tens of minutes or less.
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Warm Standby (tens of minutes) 
run full backup system in standby mode, live data replicated from prod env. RPO is measured in tens of minutes, and RTO is calculated in terms of tens of minutes or less.
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Multi-Site Active/Active (seconds)
runn a full, secondary production system, ready to serve traffic when needed. RPO is measured in seconds or possibly none, and RTO is calculated in seconds.
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Services that Can be RESERVED:
  EC2
  RDS
  DynamoDB
  ElastiCache
  Redshift
  OpenSearch
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Cost sharing bill consolidation instances must be launched in the same AZ
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AWS Activate FOR STARTUPS
  tools, resources, content and expert support
  to accelerate your startup at every stage
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Total Cost of Ownership Calculator:
TCO Calculator - Allows for side-by-side comparison of on-premises and AWS costs
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Fault Injection Service - fully managed service for experiments to continuously improve an application’s performance, observability, and resiliency
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SUPPORT PLANS
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- Basic
  24x7 access to customer service, documentation, whitepapers, re:Post
  one on one response to acct & arc billing questions
  Trusted Advisor checks and guidance
  AWS Health
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- Developer
  Cloud Support Engineers via EMAIL ONLY
  CHEAPEST where UNLIMITED cases can be open
  (NO enhanced SUPPORT)
  For businesses with production workloads in AWS
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- Business
  THIRD PARTY software help
  Architectural GUIDANCE for your specific use-case
  unlimited number of support cases 
  Access to Health API
  most cost effective
  24/7 access to Sr. Cloud Support Engineers via email, chat, and phone,
  for businesses with production and/or business-critical workloads in AWS
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- Enterprise / On Ramp
  THIRD PARTY software help
  unlimited number of support cases 
  30 minute response time
  contains AWS Concierge (for account issues)
  24/7 access to SENIOR Cloud Support Engineers via email, chat, and phone, 
  Launch Support
  Programmatic Case Management
  Architectural guidance to specific use-cases
  Designated Technical Account Manager (TAM)
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Programmatic Support Case Control - for Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, Enterprise Support plans
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Concierge is NOT available for:
  Basic
  Developer
  Business Support
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Control Tower
  well-architected automated LANDING ZONE
  control your AWS environment with prescriptive guidance
  with BLUEPRINTS, GUARDRAILS
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Workspaces - global service, remote desktop service
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AppStream
  managed, secure service to 
  STREAM DESKTOP applications from AWS to a BROWSER
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Elastic IP
  assists in FALUT TOLERANCE
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Capital Expenditures - long term
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Operation Expenditures - short term
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AWS likes to say: 
  Trade CAPITAL expense for VARIABLE expense
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Lightsail
  launch DEV/TEST low price
  contains Managed SQL DB
  and Virtual Private Server
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AWS Artifact
  security and compliance reports
  aws agreements