AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner
Build cloud skills while having fun.
Got cloud skills?
Want a more exciting way to learn new cloud skills? Try Season 3 of AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner, a 6-episode training series on the AWS Training Live channel.
Join in as your hosts lead you through AWS Cloud Quest, the open world role-playing game that teaches you how to create real-world AWS solutions using cloud concepts and exercises. During each 1.5-hour episode, we’ll follow the AWS Cloud Practitioner learning track while exploring fundamental cloud topics to help the citizens of a virtual city solve their complex challenges.
This is your chance to add to your cloud expertise and advance your journey toward the quest!
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AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner, Season 3
Watch If you’re looking for a fun and interactive way to learn about cloud computing, this series on the AWS Twitch channel is just for you. Join in as your host Rafael “Raf” Lopes leads you through AWS Cloud Quest, an open world role-playing game that teaches you how to build real-world AWS solutions using cloud concepts and exercises.
Episode 1: AWS Cloud Quest - Cloud Computing Essentials
In this episode, Raf Lopes will explain how playing the AWS Cloud Quest game can help you learn fundamental Cloud concepts. Follow along as Raf shows you how to modernize a virtual city’s operations by using cloud solutions. In the first episode, Raf will teach you how to build a dashboard that provides beach wave information while playing Node 1 of the Cloud Practitioner role in Cloud Quest.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes and Morgan Willis
Add to calendar › 
Watch on demand › Episode 2: Cloud First Steps - Compute and Infrastructure
In the second episode, Raf will focus on helping the city’s citizens fix their Island Stabilization System by using AWS Cloud solutions. During this journey, Raf will cover topics such as AWS Regions and Availability Zones (AZs) as he builds EC2 Instances on multiple AZs and unlocks a new city feature. You can help Raf choose which reward the city should receive as part of Node 2 of the Cloud Practitioner role in AWS Cloud Quest.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes and Morgan Willis
Episode 3: Compute Solutions
In the third episode, Raf will show you how to construct a new school and help build the “City of Tomorrow.” Raf will focus on compute solutions such as EC2 operations, including instance types, instance resizing, browsing instance attributes, managing tags, and much more. This episode covers Node 3 of the Cloud Practitioner role in AWS Cloud Quest.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes and Morgan Willis
Resources
Episode 4: Q&A recap, pet companions, drone challenges, and lots of fun!
The fourth episode is all about pet companions and in-game drone capturing, with challenges and Q&As! Over the last episodes, Raf played the first 3 nodes of AWS CloudQuest: Cloud Practitioner. He will recap what has been taught and played so far, so you get solid foundational knowledge. This will be done by exploring the drone hunting and pet companions feature of AWS Cloud Practitioner!
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes and Morgan Willis
Resources
- Cloud Quest (skillbuilder.aws)
- Logically Isolated Virtual Private Cloud—Amazon VPC – Amazon Web Services
- Work with security groups - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
- Connect to the internet using an internet gateway - Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
- Create and attach an internet gateway to a VPC (amazon.com)
Episode 5: Databases in Practice - DB/Storage
The fifth episode of the series is all about databases and storage. Follow along as Raf helps an insurance company in the city implement a resilient, multi-AZ, backed-up, and replicated database with the use of Amazon RDS. By following the databases-in-practice approach, Raf will rely on your help to continue building out the “City of Tomorrow.”
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes and Morgan Willis
Resources
- Cloud Quest (skillbuilder.aws)
- Fully Managed Relational Database - Amazon RDS - Amazon Web Services
- What is Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)? - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Amazon RDS Multi AZ Deployments | Cloud Relational Database | Amazon Web Services
- Multi-AZ deployments for high availability - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Multi-AZ DB instance deployments - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Amazon RDS Read Replicas | Cloud Relational Database | Amazon Web Services
- Working with read replicas - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Creating a read replica in a different AWS Region - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Amazon RDS Backup & Restore | Cloud Relational Database | Amazon Web Services
- Working with backups - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Backup and recovery for Amazon RDS - AWS Prescriptive Guidance
- Creating a DB snapshot - Amazon Relational Database Service
Episode 6: Core Security Concepts
The final episode we’ll explore core cloud security concepts. Raf will help a stock exchange company harden its security boundaries by leveraging IAM (Identity Access Management) concepts like IAM roles, groups, users, policies, credentials, and security best practices. After this episode, you’ll understand why "Security is Job Zero at AWS." Stay tuned for more seasons of AWS Cloud Quest on Twitch, because this was just the start of our journey.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes and Morgan Willis
Resources
AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner, Season 2
Watch AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner Season 2 to learn key cloud concepts for beginners. Our hosts will livestream as they play Cloud Quest, helping you learn cloud concepts along they way. Stay with us for a 30-minute live forum opportunity to ask your questions and get help from AWS experts.
Episode 1: First NoSQL Database
In the initial episode of Season 2, host Aaron Hunter and Player 2 Curtis Morton will recap Season 1 of AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner and how it helped explain AWS concepts. In this episode, we’ll review key features in the AWS Cloud Quest game before diving into NoSQL database concepts and how to use an Amazon DynamoDB table.
Instructor: Aaron Hunter, Curtis Morton, Darren White, Jason Cuddy
Resources
- Visit AWS Cloud Quest
- Within AWS Cloud Quest, explore the following in-game videos: NoSQL Databases, Amazon DynamoDB Overview, How to Create a NoSQL Table, Amazon DynamoDB Scans Overview
Episode 2: Networking Concepts
In the second episode, Aaron and Curtis will be joined by a guest to help the virtual city’s bank set up a secure network environment. We’ll cover networking topics such as CIDR notation, VPCs, subnets, Internet gateways, and route tables as you learn core networking concepts for the cloud.
Instructor: Aaron Hunter, Darren White, Jason Cuddy
Resources
- Visit AWS Cloud Quest
- Within AWS Cloud Quest, explore the following in-game videos: Amazon VPC Overview, Amazon VPC Internet Connectivity, Amazon VPC Concepts, Amazon VPC Security
Episode 3: Connecting VPCS
In episode 3, Aaron and Curtis will work with a guest to help the city’s marketing team create separate VPCs that communicate with each other. We’ll explain how you can create VPC peering connections between two VPCs using a specific subnet.
Instructor: Aaron Hunter, Darren White, Jason Cuddy
Resources
- Visit AWS Cloud Quest
- Within AWS Cloud Quest, explore the following in-game videos: Amazon VPC Peering, Amazon VPC Internet Connectivity, Amazon VPC Concepts
Episode 4: File Systems in the Cloud
In episode 4, Aaron and Curtis will recap the previous episodes and review what’s happening on the in-game leaderboard. After the recap, we will teach you how to configure Amazon EFS endpoints to help the virtual city’s pet modeling agency set up shared centralized storage.
Instructor: Aaron Hunter, Darren White, Jason Cuddy
Resources
- Visit AWS Cloud Quest
- Within AWS Cloud Quest, explore the following in-game videos: Amazon EFS Overview, Amazon EFS Benefits, Amazon EFS Features, Amazon EFS - Data Transfer and Backup
Episode 5: Auto Healing and Auto Scaling Applications
Episode 5 will cover autoscaling on AWS as we show you how to help the virtual city’s gaming café implement auto scaling and auto healing for their gaming server fleet. At the end of the episode, Aaron and Curtis will go head-to-head in a drone-zapping quiz question battle!
Instructor: Aaron Hunter, Darren White, Jason Cuddy
Resources
- Visit AWS Cloud Quest
- Within AWS Cloud Quest, explore the following in-game videos: Auto Healing and Scaling, AWS Well Architected Overview, Amazon EBS Benefits
Episode 6: Highly Available Web Applications
In the final episode of Season 2, we will help the virtual city’s travel agency set up a highly available web application. You’ll learn how to implement an application load balancer and auto scaling groups for health monitoring. After completing this task, Curtis and Aaron will purchase vehicles from the city’s vehicle center!
Instructor: Aaron Hunter, Curtis Morton, Darren White, Jason Cuddy
Resources
- Visit AWS Cloud Quest
- Within AWS Cloud Quest, explore the following in-game videos: Amazon ELB Overview, Amazon ELB Benefits, Amazon ELB Features, Amazon Cloud Watch Overview, Highly Available Web Applications, Amazon Well Architected Overview
AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner, Season 1
If you’re looking for a fun and interactive way to learn about cloud computing, this 6-week series on the AWS Twitch channel is just for you. Join in as your host Rafael “Raf” Lopes leads you through AWS Cloud Quest, an open world role-playing game that teaches you how to build real-world AWS solutions using cloud concepts and exercises.
Episode 1: AWS Cloud Quest - Cloud Computing Essentials
In this episode, Raf Lopes will explain how playing the AWS Cloud Quest game can help you learn fundamental Cloud concepts. Follow along as Raf shows you how to modernize a virtual city’s operations by using cloud solutions. In the first episode, Raf will teach you how to build a dashboard that provides beach wave information while playing Node 1 of the Cloud Practitioner role in Cloud Quest.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes
Episode 2: Cloud First Steps - Compute and Infrastructure
In the second episode, Raf will focus on helping the city’s citizens fix their Island Stabilization System by using AWS Cloud solutions. During this journey, Raf will cover topics such as AWS Regions and Availability Zones (AZs) as he builds EC2 Instances on multiple AZs and unlocks a new city feature. You can help Raf choose which reward the city should receive as part of Node 2 of the Cloud Practitioner role in AWS Cloud Quest.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes
Episode 3: Compute Solutions
In the third episode, Raf will show you how to construct a new school and help build the “City of Tomorrow.” Raf will focus on compute solutions such as EC2 operations, including instance types, instance resizing, browsing instance attributes, managing tags, and much more. This episode covers Node 3 of the Cloud Practitioner role in AWS Cloud Quest.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes
Resources
Episode 4: Q&A recap, pet companions, drone challenges, and lots of fun!
Streaming LIVE at AWS Summit New York! The fourth episode is all about pet companions and in-game drone capturing, with challenges and Q&As! Over the last episodes, Raf played the first 3 nodes of AWS CloudQuest: Cloud Practitioner. In the fourth episode, he will recap what has been taught and played so far, so you get solid foundational knowledge. This will be done by exploring the drone hunting and pet companions feature of AWS Cloud Practitioner! You will have the chance to ask questions in the chat and interact with the hosts live.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes
Resources
- Cloud Quest (skillbuilder.aws)
- Logically Isolated Virtual Private Cloud—Amazon VPC – Amazon Web Services
- Work with security groups - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
- Connect to the internet using an internet gateway - Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
- Create and attach an internet gateway to a VPC (amazon.com)
Episode 5: Databases in Practice - DB/Storage
The fifth episode of the series is all about databases and storage. Follow along as Raf helps an insurance company in the city implement a resilient, multi-AZ, backed-up, and replicated database with the use of Amazon RDS. By following the databases-in-practice approach, Raf will rely on your help to continue building out the “City of Tomorrow.”
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes
Resources
- Cloud Quest (skillbuilder.aws)
- Fully Managed Relational Database - Amazon RDS - Amazon Web Services
- What is Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)? - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Amazon RDS Multi AZ Deployments | Cloud Relational Database | Amazon Web Services
- Multi-AZ deployments for high availability - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Multi-AZ DB instance deployments - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Amazon RDS Read Replicas | Cloud Relational Database | Amazon Web Services
- Working with read replicas - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Creating a read replica in a different AWS Region - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Amazon RDS Backup & Restore | Cloud Relational Database | Amazon Web Services
- Working with backups - Amazon Relational Database Service
- Backup and recovery for Amazon RDS - AWS Prescriptive Guidance
- Creating a DB snapshot - Amazon Relational Database Service
Episode 6: Core Security Concepts
The final episode of this series will stream LIVE from AWS re:Inforce in Boston via AWS On Air! We’ll explore core cloud security concepts. Raf will help a stock exchange company harden its security boundaries by leveraging IAM (Identity Access Management) concepts like IAM roles, groups, users, policies, credentials, and security best practices. After this episode, you’ll understand why "Security is Job Zero at AWS." Stay tuned for more seasons of AWS Cloud Quest on Twitch, because this was just the start of our journey.
Instructor: Rafael “Raf” Lopes
Resources
AWS Power Hour: Database
Join us live on Twitch at twitch.tv/aws for AWS Power Hour: Database to learn key concepts you’ll want to know if you’re preparing for the AWS Certified Database - Specialty exam. Our hosts will use demonstrations and real world examples to help you learn to design, migrate, deploy, monitor, and secure databases on the AWS Cloud. Stay with us for a 30-minute live forum opportunity to ask your questions and get help from AWS experts.
Friday, October 7, 2022
8:00am - 9:30am PT
Episode 1: Introduction to Designing Databases on AWS
In the first episode of our AWS Power Hour: Database series, we will review the certification exam guide and resources for you to study as we progress through this series. We will then introduce you to designing a database on AWS. We’ll talk about the differences between database types and using AWS Managed Services or deploying a database on an EC2 instance.
Instructor: Kevin Shaffer-Morrison and Stuart Fox
Friday, October 14, 2022
8:00am - 9:30am PT
Episode 2: Database Deployment and Migration
In this episode, you’ll learn about costs around AWS database solutions, followed by a discussion of how to deploy your database in the AWS Cloud. We will finish the episode by working through data preparation and migration strategies using native database and AWS managed tools.
Instructor: Kevin Shaffer-Morrison and Stuart Fox
Friday, October 21, 2022
8:00am - 9:30am PT
Episode 3: Database Management, Operations, and Security
In this episode, you’ll learn about management and governance. We will talk about database security, controlling access, and automating operational tasks. This includes backups, encryption, and upgrading your database.
Instructor: Kevin Shaffer-Morrison and Stuart Fox
Friday, October 28, 2022
8:00am - 9:30am PT
Episode 4: Database Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Monitoring databases is a critical component to ensure we have a healthy workload with properly provisioned resources. In this episode, we will review the tools available for us to react, respond, and troubleshoot as needed. Once we have our database monitored, we will also discuss some performance optimization options for different AWS database solutions.
Instructor: Kevin Shaffer-Morrison and Stuart Fox
Friday, November 4, 2022
8:00am - 9:30am PT
Episode 5: Review and Prepare for the Certification Exam
In the final episode of AWS Power Hour: Database, we will review topics from the previous four episode. Then, we will cover next steps as you continue your journey to become AWS Certified Database - Specialty certified.
Instructor: Kevin Shaffer-Morrison and Stuart Fox
AWS Power Hour: Advanced Networking
Join us live on Twitch at twitch.tv/aws for AWS Power Hour: Advanced Networking to learn key concepts you’ll want to know if you’re preparing for the AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty exam. Our hosts will use demonstrations and real world examples to help you learn to design, implement, operate, and secure networks on the AWS Cloud. Stay with us for a 30-minute live forum opportunity to ask your questions and get help from AWS experts.
Friday, October 7, 2022
9:30am – 11:00am PT
Episode 1: Network Design
Join us to learn about designing networks on AWS—including AWS Regional resources, on-premises resources, and edge network services—to achieve a design that supports global traffic reliably. This episode will focus on an overview of services and features to use, rather than their configuration or implementation. You’ll learn about high availability, scalability, and DNS.
Instructor: Harrison Sherwin and Chris Woodlief
Resources
Friday, October 14, 2022
9:30am – 11:00am PT
Episode 2: Network Implementation
In this episode, you’ll learn about implementing routing strategies to support global traffic reliably. We’ll look at routing options with AWS Direct Connect, AWS Transit Gateway, VPC peering, and VPNs.
Instructor: Harrison Sherwin and Chris Woodlief
Friday, October 21, 2022
9:30am – 11:00am PT
Episode 3: Network Management & Operation
An observability strategy is key to understanding the health and security of our networks. In this episode, you’ll learn about options like VPC Flow Logs, CloudWatch, Route 53 health checks, and VPC Traffic Mirroring. We’ll wrap-up by discussing how to automate network operations on AWS.
Instructor: Harrison Sherwin and Chris Woodlief
Friday, October 28, 2022
9:30am – 11:00am PT
Episode 4: Network Security, Compliance, and Governance
In our final episode, we’ll be focusing on AWS inbound and outbound network security features and services, such as AWS WAF, Shield, and Network Firewall. We’ll also discuss inter- and intra-VPC security features such as security groups, network ACLs, and VPC endpoint policies. And with any time remaining, we’ll wrap-up with network encryption options.
Instructor: Harrison Sherwin and Chris Woodlief
Resources
AWS Power Hour: Machine Learning
Join us live on Twitch at twitch.tv/aws for AWS Power Hour: Machine Learning to learn key concepts you’ll want to know if you’re preparing for the AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty exam. Our hosts will use demonstrations and real world examples to help you learn to develop, architect, and run machine learning workloads in the AWS Cloud. Stay with us for a 30-minute live forum opportunity to ask your questions and get help from AWS experts.
Friday, October 7, 2022
3:00pm - 4:30pm PT
Episode 1: Introduction to Machine Learning on AWS
In the first episode of the AWS Power Hour: Machine Learning series, we will introduce you to the AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty exam and cover the exam guide. Then, we will go into details about the data engineering phase of machine learning lifecycle on AWS.
Instructor: Fred Graichen and Ivan Kopas
Friday, October 14, 2022
3:00pm - 4:30pm PT
Episode 2: Exploratory Data Analysis
The second episode of AWS Power Hour: Machine Learning will focus on data preparation, feature engineering and visualization techniques on AWS.
Instructor: Fred Graichen and Ivan Kopas
Friday, October 21, 2022
3:00pm - 4:30pm PT
Episode 3: Modeling
Since the modeling domain is 36% of the certification exam, this topic deserves an entire episode to itself! In this episode, you’ll learn about training, hyper-parameter tuning, and model evaluation.
Instructor: Fred Graichen and Ivan Kopas
Friday, October 28, 2022
3:00pm - 4:30pm PT
Episode 4: Security, Operations, and the Certification Exam
In the final episode of AWS Power Hour: Machine Learning, we will discuss best practices to help you deploy secure and resilient machine learning workloads on AWS. Then, we will cover next steps as you continue your journey to become AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty.
Instructor: Fred Graichen and Ivan Kopas