- [Seph] In this section, we'll be talking about the core AWS services. There are four categories when discussing this topic. Those categories are compute, storage, networking, and database. And while the categories themselves seem fairly self-explanatory, how you want to study them will vary slightly. Before we get into that, though, let me tell you about the common things you'll want to study across all of them. First, you'll want to know how various services fit into the different categories. What makes a service compute versus database? And what does that say about the services? Is there any overlap you should be aware of? Next, be aware of why you would choose one category and service over another. When would you choose a database service over running a database on an Amazon EC2 instance? What advantages or limitations would you encounter with one option, versus another? And last, pay attention to what sort of subcategories exist within each of the separate, larger categories of the services. Are there different types of storage, and how do the services divide up into the various types? Okay. Now, with the broader focuses out of the way, I'll go over each of the categories individually. Starting with compute, one of the first things you'll want to recognize is that there are different instance families, or types. Learn about the reasons why you choose instances from different family types, how they excel, and what limitations they might have. From there, look into the other compute services that are available. Outside of EC2 instances, what is available? Do they all function the same? How do the different services interact? How do customizations come into play? Also, make sure you evaluate how to implement elasticity within the compute services, as well as decoupling. There may be different ways or services that are used to handle these tasks, and your level of control may differ. And speaking of different ways and services, that brings me to the last thing I wanted to say about compute. Compute covers a wide variety of services, whether you're working with functions in AWS Lambda, application stacks in AWS Elastic Beanstalk, container management in Amazon Elastic Container Service, or keeping it traditional with EC2, there are many compute options within AWS. The exam guide lists many of the pertinent compute services. So make sure you're evaluating all of them, and not just EC2. Time to move on to storage. Within storage, you have some very significant services to look into. Examine not only how the services operate and their limitations, but also look into their actual usage. What are their storage limitations? How does access of Amazon Elastic Block Store differ from Amazon Simple Storage Service, and from the other storage services? What are some of the considerations to weigh when deciding whether you'll use S3, EBS, Amazon S3 Glacier, or Amazon Elastic File System? What does data transfer look like for varying amounts of data, whether transferring specific files or entire archives? Because the storage services are so important, and because they vary so much in their use cases, functionality, optimizations, management, and more, you should take some time to understand how each of the services work. Look at how they communicate, how they might work with each other, and, of course, how they fit into the types of architectures you would build. With regard to the third technology category, networking services, this will be all about controlling and optimizing access and communication. Look at how Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, or VPC, helps you to control access to your resources. How can you take advantage of the features, control, and configurations to build privacy and security into your environments? What can you do to provide connectivity to your VPCs from the internet, or from your on-premises location? And in that vein, make sure you're looking closely at ways to create connections between local and AWS locations. Evaluate things like VPN creation, and the possible use of AWS Direct Connect. Lastly, zoom out on the networking topic, and look at how Amazon Route 53 fits into the picture. Yes, this is a DNS service, but it provides a lot of functionality when it comes to managing connectivity and communication within and between your environments. Look at its features, and look at when those features could be utilized for your use cases. Now, the last category of core AWS services I'm going to mention is the database services. With the database services, a major area of focus will be differentiating between which services fit specific scenarios. This involves both comparing services-- like Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon Redshift-- to each other, as well as comparing them to managing your own database on EC2 instances. What advantages do you get from utilizing the managed service? How does the use of managed services differ from that of a database engine installed on an instance when it comes to customizability, management, and performance? What are the limitations of each style of database? Look at how these services will fit into your own builds or hypothetical builds, and what each role would play. Here's a hint. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Also, keep in mind that there are other managed services. I know I was just talking about databases, but the managed services within AWS are varied and abundant. When considering them, it is important to look at not only the variety of managed services that exist, but also the varying levels of management they provide. In the same way that Amazon DynamoDB and RDS vary in how they are managed, it's also different when looking at Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service, AWS Fargate, and so many others. Evaluate where the benefits lie, how you can use them in conjunction with each other and in architecture, what they compliment or replace, and how topics like availability, failover, and data consistency come into play. Their features and customization options will be very useful in that regard. And that does it for my coverage of the core AWS services. Take note of the questions I've asked, and apply them to the use cases you come up with. Understanding the core services, especially in the context of the other domains, will take you a long way in being prepared for both the exam and your real-world use of AWS. Until next time.
