Cloud Computing Technologies:
A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

What is this course about?

This course defines Cloud Computing and establishes a strong working knowledge of the concepts and technologies needed to work effectively with the cloud.

The knowledge you gain will enable you to determine whether the cloud is appropriate for your organization from a business and technical perspective, to select appropriate cloud providers and to plan and implement a cloud adoption strategy.

What background do I need?

No prior background with cloud computing is required for this course. A working knowledge of Internet technologies, Microsoft Windows and Web applications is helpful but not required. Programming experience is also helpful but not required.

Who will benefit from this course?

Anyone seeking to exploit the benefits of cloud computing technologies. The course provides examples of cloud systems and code but focuses on best practices that can be applied to any language and cloud environment.

What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

Applications delivered over the Internet that reside in the cloud and are accessed on a pay-as-you-go financial model are known as SaaS. Examples include Google applications for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations and Salesforce.com.

During the course, attendees gain experience in using the Google productivity tools as an example of SaaS. In addition, services for building applications such as credit card payment services will also be examined.

What is Platform as a Service (PaaS)?

A computing platform, defining development tools, execution environment, middleware and deployment tools, available as a pay-as-you-go system are known as PaaS. During the course, we introduce the kind of facilities PaaS provides and look at the Google App engine as an example of PaaS, using the Google development tools and seeing an application deployed to Google App engine.

What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

The ability to commission and decommission servers, networks, storage, etc. on demand and instantaneously on a pay-as-you-go basis is known as IaaS. During the course we demonstrate the Iaas provisions from the major providers and via Hands-On exercises use the Eucalyptus cloud to gain experience of commissioning a server. Then Amazon Web services is examined in detail as an example of IaaS also.

How much of the course is devoted to hands-on exercises?

Approximately 40 percent of the time in this course is spent doing hands-on exercises. The course incorporates both small-group discussions and computer-based exercises, including:

• Sharing documents with cloud-based collaboration and productivity tools
• Securing a cloud-based service and application
• Building an application to leverage the elasticity of the cloud
• Persisting structured data in the cloud
• Commissioning an immediate server infrastructure
• Evaluating cost benefits of a cloud solution
• Developing a business plan for cloud adoption
• Specifying a cloud adoption and migration strategy

Which Cloud products and tools does this course use?

The course covers a number of cloud products including the Microsoft Azure, Amazon, Google and Eucalyptus cloud systems as well as productivity tools from Google all with the aim of providing a balanced, independent view of the market. Development tools from Microsoft, Amazon and Google will also be used.

Will there be any programming in the course?

While programming experience is not required to attend the course, we will be discussing programming examples to enable attendees to gain practical experience of deploying applications to the cloud. The exercises are structured in such a way that all experience levels (from no programming to extremely experienced programmers) will be challenged. For those attendees that do not have any programming experience, the exercises include guided instructions to enable them to complete the programming exercises without any difficulties. Those that have programming experience are challenged with bonus activities to help showcase specific cloud computing capabilities. The focus of these exercises is not on a particular programming language but on a set of best practices that can be applied to any programming language.

I am from a non-technical background. Will I benefit from the course?

Yes! The course presents the business advantages of the cloud and also the technical benefits it can provide. The technical discussions are at a level that attendees with a business background can understand and apply. Where technical knowledge is required, sufficient guidance for all backgrounds is provided to enable activities to be completed and the learning objectives achieved.

How much time is spent on each topic?

How does this course relate to Course 1220, Securing the Cloud: Hands-On?

This course lays the foundation for utilizing the cloud and establishes a strong working knowledge of the concepts and technologies needed to work effectively with the cloud. It defines the cloud to enable you to determine whether the cloud is appropriate for your organization from a business and technical perspective. Course 1220 goes beyond determining if the cloud is right for you into what steps need to be taken once your organization has implemented the technology in order to maintain data security. While this course is geared toward helping managers decide if the cloud environment is the right choice for the organization, Course 1220 delves into what needs to be done once the decision to move to the cloud has been made and the overall implementation.

How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses?

Learning Tree offers a number of courses that will help you expand upon the knowledge gained in this course and further your skills in several key areas. Those courses include:

• 170, Virtualization Technologies: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 171, Deploying VMware® vSphere: Hands-On 
• 968, Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V? Virtualization: Hands-On 
• 940, Securing Web Applications, Services and Servers: Hands-On 
• 2602, Windows® AzureTM Platform Introduction: Programming Cloud-Based Applications 
• 471, Java Programming: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 502, Programming with .NET: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 419, C# Programming: Hands-On 
• 296, Project Management: Skills for Success