AWS

AWS has more than two hundred services and almost nobody needs more than ten. The hard part of learning it is choosing which. This selection is ordered by practical usefulness for teams deploying web apps and APIs, not by a certification syllabus. That means starting with compute, storage and networking, and leaving for later the services that only make sense at a certain scale. We also include material on cost, because the surprise AWS bill is a rite of passage we would rather you skip.

Who it is for

• Developers who deploy on managed platforms today and want to understand the layer underneath.
• Teams evaluating an infrastructure migration who need to size the real effort.
• Anyone taking a certification who wants the knowledge to stick, not just the exam.

What you will learn

• Compute: when an instance, when a container and when a serverless function.
• Storage and managed databases, with their failure modes.
• Networking and permissions: the IAM model, where the expensive mistakes concentrate.
• Cost control and observability from day one, not when the bill arrives.

Recommended order

1. Console fundamentals and the billing model. Half an hour here avoids three-figure surprises.
2. Compute and storage, deploying something of your own even if minimal.
3. IAM and networking at the end, once you have context on what you are protecting.