AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) Cert Prep (February 2025)

Course details

Earning the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) certification vets your ability to design cost- and performance-optimized solutions leveraging the powerful features of AWS. Join instructor Tom Carpenter as he demonstrates the fundamental cloud-computing skills required to pass the exam. Discover the basics before progressing into specific AWS services, security and compliance considerations, and AWS regions and availability zones. An ideal fit for anyone beginning their cloud computing journey as an AWS architect, this course equips you with in-demand skills and prepares you to tackle the official SAA-C03 exam.

Concepts

Introduction

AWS Solutions Architect - Associate

Cloud Computing Overview

Cloud computing defined
Benefits of cloud computing
Cloud computing models
History
Platform

AWS Cloud Services

Services, part 1
Services, part 2
Services, part 3
Security and compliance
Regions and availability

Amazon S3

Storage services
S3 storage class
S3 terminology
S3 advanced features
Creating S3 buckets lab
S3 bucket properties
S3 managing objects lab

Additional AWS Storage Services

Glacier
Setting up a Glacier vault lab
S3 and Tape Gateway
S3 enhanced features
Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Creating EBS volumes lab
Elastic File System (EFS)
Creating an EFS file system lab
EFS and PrivateLink
Intro to Amazon FSx
Hands on with FSx
Integrating on-premises storage
Storage access security lab
Storage performance

Amazon VPC Applications

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) overview
Creating a VPC lab
Configuring DHCP options lab
Elastic IP addresses (EIPs)
Elastic network interfaces (ENIs)
Endpoints

VPC Peering

VPC peering
Creating a VPC peering connection lab

Amazon VPC Security

Security groups overview
Network address translation (NAT)
Gateways (VPGs and CGWs)
VPN configuration options

Compute Services Design

EC2 overview
EC2 instance types
EC2 pricing
EBS and EC2
AWS Compute Optimizer

Compute Services Implementation

Launching an EC2 Linux instance lab
Configuring an EC2 Linux instance lab
Setting up an EC2 Windows instance lab
Shared tenancy
Dedicated hosts
Dedicated instances
AMI virtualization

Compute Services Management

Instance management
Connecting to instance labs
Working with security groups
Working with security group labs
Advanced EC2 management
AWS Batch
Elastic Container Service (ECS)
Elastic Beanstalk environment

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Identity and access management (IAM) overview
Principals
Root user
Authentication
Authorization policies
Multifactor authentication
Key rotation
Multiple permissions
AWS compliance program
AWS Security Hub
Shared responsibility model
Data security control
Federated directory services

Identity and Access Management (IAM) Best Practices

User accounts
Password policies
Credential rotation
Principle of least privilege
IAM roles
Amazon STS
Policy conditions
CloudTrail
Service control policies
Key security services
Additional security services

Auto Scaling Solutions

Auto Scaling overview
Auto Scaling groups
Termination policies
Launch methods
Load balancer concepts
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Virtual Network Services

DNS
Configuring DNS lab
Configuring Route 53 lab
Configuring ACLs and NACLs lab
Flow logs

Designing Cost-Optimized Compute

Application and deployment services
Additional application services
Lambda
API Gateway
Kinesis
Kinesis Data Streams and Firehose
Kinesis Data Analytics
Reference architectures

Designing for Operational Excellence

CloudFront
Web application firewall (WAF)
Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Simple Notification Service (SNS)
Step Functions

Designing for Elasticity and Scalability

Cognito
Elastic MapReduce (EMR)
CloudFormation
CloudFormation properties
CloudWatch
Trusted Advisor
Organizations

AWS Database Design

Database types
Relational databases
Database hosting methods
High-availability solutions
Scalability solutions
Database security
Aurora
Redshift
DynamoDB
Data security policies

AWS Database Deployment

DynamoDB tables lab
MySQL lab
Configuration lab
Backups lab
Restore lab
Snapshot lab
Monitoring lab

Amazon Services

Media content delivery
Desktop and app streaming
ElastiCache
Security services lab
Analytics engines
Development operations (DevOps)
AWS Solutions
AWS Transit Gateway
AWS Backup
AWS Cost Explorer

Operational Excellence with AWS

The operational excellence process
Widget Makers scenario
Resilient design
Resilient design scenario
Performant design
Performant design scenario
Secure design
Secure design scenario
Cost optimization
Cost optimization scenario
General best practices