Four Weeks into the Free AWS Cloud Project Bootcamp

The free Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Project Bootcamp, organised by #AWS community hero Andrew Brown promised to provide hands-on project experience combining multiple cloud services to emulate a real-world production workload. Four weeks into the program, I am happy that the experience has exceeded my expectations so far.

The bootcamp is an intensive program that covers a range of topics related to cloud development on AWS. In the first week, we focused on Docker, Inc and App #Containerization. We also learned how to write a Dockerfile for each app and ensure we can orchestrate multiple containers to run side by side. Guest instructors such as James Spurin were really knowledgeable and patient, and made sure we had a solid understanding of the basics before moving on to more advanced topics.

After that, we dove into Week 2 focusing on Distributed Tracing & Observability, which was a bit more challenging but equally important. We learned about instrumenting our backend flask application to use Open Telemetry (OTEL) with honeycomb.io as the provider. We also Instrument AWS X-Ray into backend flask application. This includes configuration and provision of X-Ray daemon within docker-compose and sending data back to X-Ray API. The guest instructor from Honeycomb.io, Jessica Joy Kerr, provided us with real-world examples and helped us understand how to apply these concepts in our own projects.

Next, we focused on Decentralized Authentication, which was my favorite part of the bootcamp so far (but the more difficult and the one that help me learn even more). We learned how to provision using Amazon #Cognito User Pool. We also learned how to implement API calls to Amazon Coginto for custom login, signup, recovery and forgot password page. Andrew Brown was the main instructors and as always, he provided us with a step-by-step guidance on the implementation. The challenging part of the week was verifying JWT Token from server side to serve authenticated API endpoints in Flask Application.

On Week 4, we focus on SQL Database. We practiced SQL read and write queries and provision of an RDS Postgres instance. We also added a caching layer using Momento Serverless Cache.

Overall, participating in the Free AWS Cloud Project Bootcamp has been an excellent experience so far. Andrew Brown is really knowledgeable and supportive, and the curriculum is challenging but rewarding. I am looking forward to learning more in the remaining part of the program and continuing to build my skills in cloud computing and application development on #AWS.