Cloud Virtualization, Containers and APIs
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Cloud Virtualization, Containers and APIs
This course is part of Building Cloud Computing Solutions at Scale Specialization
Instructor: Noah Gift
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There are 4 modules in this course
Welcome to the second course in the Building Cloud Computing Solutions at Scale Specialization! In this course, you will learn to design Cloud-native systems with the fundamental building blocks of Cloud computing. These building blocks include virtual machines and containers. You will also learn how to build effective Microservices using technologies like Flask and Kubernetes. Finally, you will analyze successful patterns in Operations including: Effective alerts, load testing and Kaizen.
This course is ideal for beginners as well as intermediate students interested in applying Cloud computing to data science, machine learning and data engineering. Students should have beginner level Linux and intermediate level Python skills. For your project in this course, you build a containerized Flask application that is continuously deployed to a Cloud platform: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
This week, you will learn how to access the free tiers of three Cloud environments. If you are joining after completing the first course in this Specialization, this will already be familiar to you. You will then have an opportunity to review the details of the final project in this course: Creating a containerized Flask application that is continuously deployed to a Cloud platform. Each week, you will learn and build upon key Cloud development skills to prepare you for this final course project.
What's included
5 videos6 readings1 discussion prompt
5 videos•Total 10 minutes
- Instructor Introduction•2 minutes
- Course Introduction•3 minutes
- Course Prerequisites•2 minutes
- Lab Onboarding•2 minutes
- Course 2 Project Overview•2 minutes
6 readings•Total 75 minutes
- Getting Started and Course Gotchas•10 minutes
- Course Structure and Discussion Etiquette•10 minutes
- AWS Cloud9 vs AWS CodeCatalyst •10 minutes
- Report a problem with the course•5 minutes
- Create a free account with AWS, Azure and GCP•30 minutes
- Specialization Project Roadmap: Course 2 •10 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
- Introductions•10 minutes
This week, you will learn to evaluate the correct workflows for virtual machines and containers and how to choose the appropriate solution for the task at end. You will also learn about the powerful container management service: Kubernetes. You will apply this knowledge to create a containerized web service and deploy it to a managed container service.
What's included
26 videos16 readings4 assignments4 discussion prompts3 ungraded labs
26 videos•Total 115 minutes
- Introduction to Virtual Machines•3 minutes
- Containers vs. Virtual Machines•3 minutes
- How Do Spot Instances Work?•3 minutes
- Launch an AWS Spot Instance•11 minutes
- Create a GCP Virtual Machine from Terminal•6 minutes
- Create Compute Cluster in Azure ML Studio•3 minutes
- AWS Cloud Shell•4 minutes
- Google Cloud Shell•8 minutes
- Introduction to Containers•1 minute
- Using Containers•3 minutes
- What is Docker?•6 minutes
- Run a Container from Docker Hub•5 minutes
- Build a Docker Container Project from Scratch•4 minutes
- Push to Project to AWS ECR Registry•7 minutes
- What is Distroless?•3 minutes
- Rust Distroless PyTorch Walkthrough•7 minutes
- Rust Distroless PyTorch Running Demo•7 minutes
- Introduction to Kubernetes•1 minute
- Overview of Kubernetes•6 minutes
- Kubernetes Key Concepts•2 minutes
- Kubernetes Pods and Nodes•1 minute
- Kubernetes Cluster•1 minute
- Deploy App to Kubernetes on GKE•6 minutes
- Kubernetes Demo•6 minutes
- Options Container Orchestration•2 minutes
- Minikube FastAPI Demo•7 minutes
16 readings•Total 190 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- Red Hat on Containers vs VMs•10 minutes
- Microsoft Learn on Containers vs VMs•10 minutes
- Launch VM Quiklabs•40 minutes
- Lesson Reflection•10 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- Docker Format Containers•10 minutes
- Container from Scratch (GitHub Repo)•10 minutes
- Containerized Flask Microservice Locally•10 minutes
- Distroless Project •10 minutes
- Lesson Reflection•10 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- More on Kubernetes•10 minutes
- Containers and Deployment from an AWS Perspective•10 minutes
- Lesson Reflection•10 minutes
- Deploy a Kubernetes Python Flask App•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 120 minutes
- Quiz•30 minutes
- Quiz-Virtual Machines•30 minutes
- Quiz-Containers•30 minutes
- Quiz-Kubernetes•30 minutes
4 discussion prompts•Total 40 minutes
- AWS vCPU•10 minutes
- Advantages of Spot Instances•10 minutes
- Advantages of Containers•10 minutes
- Kubernetes as "Planet Scale"•10 minutes
3 ungraded labs•Total 180 minutes
- Bash Aliases•60 minutes
- Lint Dockerfile•60 minutes
- FastAPI Calculator Microservice•60 minutes
This week, you will learn to build effective Microservices that comply with DevOps best practices. You will also learn to operationalize Microservices using Continuous Delivery. You will apply this knowledge to create an effective Microservice using AWS Lambda.
What's included
22 videos16 readings4 assignments3 discussion prompts3 ungraded labs
22 videos•Total 89 minutes
- Introduction to Microservices•2 minutes
- What is a Microservice?•2 minutes
- Running Microservices•1 minute
- Introduction to Flask•2 minutes
- What is Flask?•3 minutes
- Flask Change Microservice•5 minutes
- Flask Azure Microservice•9 minutes
- Introduction to Serverless Microservices•1 minute
- Serverless Functions Overview•2 minutes
- Build Marco Polo AWS Lambda•6 minutes
- Build Marco Polo Step Function•5 minutes
- Build AWS S3 Bucket Trigger•4 minutes
- CLI Trigger of Lambda•3 minutes
- Google Cloud Function Change•6 minutes
- Using AWS Lambda Console•5 minutes
- Using Step Functions•4 minutes
- Invoking Step Functions CLI•3 minutes
- Building Rust AWS Lambda Add Function•7 minutes
- Building Rust AWS Lambda Divide by Two Function•5 minutes
- Invoking AWS Step Functions from CLI•3 minutes
- Rust AWS Step Functions•7 minutes
- Demo App Engine Rust Deploy•5 minutes
16 readings•Total 160 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- How To Transform•10 minutes
- What is JSON?•10 minutes
- Microservices with AWS Lambda•10 minutes
- Operationalizing a Microservice•10 minutes
- Lesson Reflection•10 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- Flask Random Fruit-External Lab•10 minutes
- Lesson Reflection•10 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- Serverless Cookbook Repository•10 minutes
- Learn about AWS SAM (Serverless Application Model)•10 minutes
- Cargo Lambda•10 minutes
- AWS Step Functions•10 minutes
- Lesson Reflection•10 minutes
- Enhance a Flask Microservice•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 120 minutes
- Quiz•30 minutes
- Quiz-What is a Microservice?•30 minutes
- Quiz-Using Flask•30 minutes
- Quiz-Serverless Microservices•30 minutes
3 discussion prompts•Total 30 minutes
- Microservices as a DevOps Best Practice•10 minutes
- Python Decorators in Flask•10 minutes
- Events versus Polling•10 minutes
3 ungraded labs•Total 180 minutes
- Processing JSON•60 minutes
- Flask Change Microservice•60 minutes
- Marco Polo Command-line tool•60 minutes
This week, you will learn to effectively perform Operations. This involves mastering Monitoring and Alerts. A key question about Monitoring and Alerts is what to do when they occur. This question is handled in the following lesson. You will learn how load testing can prevent issues before they arise. Finally, the topic of Kaizen, or continuous improvement, is tackled. All of the topics this week are components of DevOps best practices.
What's included
13 videos14 readings4 assignments3 discussion prompts4 ungraded labs
13 videos•Total 43 minutes
- Introduction to Monitoring and Alerts•1 minute
- Effective Monitoring and Alerts•2 minutes
- Monitoring, Triggers and Alerts with AWS Cloudwatch•6 minutes
- Building an Alert from Scratch•3 minutes
- Monitoring and Logging with Google App Engine Rust Microservice•4 minutes
- Introduction to Load Testing•1 minute
- Effective Load Testing•3 minutes
- Flask Locust Load Test•6 minutes
- Locust Load Test in GitHub Codespaces•3 minutes
- Prometheus Monitoring•7 minutes
- Introduction to Kaizen•1 minute
- Effective Continuous Improvement•3 minutes
- What are the 'Five Whys'?•3 minutes
14 readings•Total 140 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- Scaling and Monitoring•10 minutes
- Lesson Reflection•10 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- Flask Load Test•10 minutes
- Prometheus Monitoring•10 minutes
- Locust First Test•10 minutes
- Lesson Reflection•10 minutes
- Key Terms•10 minutes
- Toyota Production System•10 minutes
- Load Test a Flask Microservice•10 minutes
- Create a containerized Flask Machine Learning Microservice•10 minutes
- Next Steps•10 minutes
- Share your learning experience•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 120 minutes
- Quiz•30 minutes
- Quiz-Monitoring and Alerts•30 minutes
- Quiz-Load Testing •30 minutes
- Quiz-Kaizen•30 minutes
3 discussion prompts•Total 30 minutes
- Actionable Alerts•10 minutes
- Load Testing•10 minutes
- The Five Whys•10 minutes
4 ungraded labs•Total 240 minutes
- Load Test a Flask Microservice•60 minutes
- VS Code Sandbox•60 minutes
- Jupyter Sandbox•60 minutes
- Linux Desktop Sandbox•60 minutes
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Reviewed on Dec 12, 2025
Very well strctured course to learn public cloud services and how to leverage them for your applications.
Reviewed on Sep 26, 2022
This cource is best suited if you are part of transformation jounery
Reviewed on Jan 17, 2025
Please don't revoke my access till 2026. I want to access again
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