AWS Compute Foundations: EC2, Containers, and Serverless

Choosing the right compute infrastructure is the most critical decision you make when building in the cloud. With dozens of options available, selecting the wrong service can lead to high costs, poor performance, or unnecessary operational overhead. This text-based course guides you through the core AWS compute ecosystem, helping you make informed engineering decisions for any application workload. You will transition from a cloud beginner to a confident practitioner capable of matching application requirements with the optimal hosting model. Through clear explanations and practical configuration scenarios, you will learn how to balance cost, control, and scalability. What you'll learn: - Understand foundational cloud virtualization principles and core AWS compute terminology - Configure and launch EC2 virtual machine instances with appropriate storage and security settings - Deploy containerized applications using ECS, EKS, and Fargate for modern microservices - Build scalable, cost-effective serverless solutions using Lambda functions and event-driven architectures - Apply architectural best practices to choose between virtual servers, containers, and serverless options - Implement basic infrastructure-as-code concepts to deploy your compute resources consistently We begin with the absolute basics, clarifying core concepts like virtualization, regions, and security groups. From there, we progress systematically through virtual machines, container orchestration, and serverless computing, analyzing real-world decision frameworks along the way. This course is designed for software developers, system administrators, and technology professionals new to AWS who want to build a solid foundation in cloud infrastructure. No prior cloud experience is required. Start reading today to master the core engine of the AWS cloud.