Exploring Amazon Web Services (AWS)

In my previous article, Creating a VPC - Part 1 , I've shown you how to create a VPC using the VPC Wizard.  Here I will demonstrate how to build a VPC manually, without using the Wizard. We will use the same requirements: 1. End users are located in US Northern Virginia 2. VPC requires 1 Private and 1 Public subnet with the private subnet having     outbound access to the internet. 3. Defined CIDR Block is 10.0.0.0/16 Method 2: Creating a VPC manually 1. Login to the AWS management console using your Admin account. 2. Select your location based on where your end users will be. In this     case it is US Northern Virginia (US East 1) 3. Click " Services ", then scroll down to Network & Content Delivery     and then click " VPC ". 4. From the Navigation pane click on " Your VPCs ". 5. Then click " Create VPC " 6. Enter the name you wish to give your VPC.  Then enter the CIDR Block     for your VPC as well. ...

A VPC is your very own private cloud within AWS.  Think of it as a DataCenter that you build with your own specifications and will be the place you build and deploy your cloud environment. In this article, I will teach you how to create a Custom VPC within AWS.  Please note that this is different from the default VPCs that AWS creates for you when you setup an account. What you will need: 1. An AWS account ( Creating and AWS Free Tier account ) 2. Location of your target end users 3. Number of Private and/or Public subnets required 4. A Network CIDR range of your choice depending on your requirements There are 2 ways to create VPCs. 1. Using the VPC Wizard 2. Creating VPC from scratch For demonstration purposes let us assume these requirements:  1. End users are located in the US Northern Virginia 2. You need 1 Private subnet with outbound access to the internet and 1 Public subnet 3. CIDR 10.0.0.0/16 Method 1: Creating a VPC using the VPC Wizard 1. ...

AWSome Day is back in Calgary my friends!  The Date is June 13, 2019 Thursday.   Time to get that date blocked off and reserved so you can spend a whole day learning about the Core AWS Services. For those of you who have missed last year's event.  Now is the time to register and be part of this all day free event hosted by AWS. About the event: This will be a one-day introduction and training on the CORE AWS Services namely: Compute Storage Database Networking The services' key features will be discussed as well as an overview of practical application through use cases.  Industry best practices will also be shared and technical demos on how to build out and configure the services will be provided. Who should join the event: IT Infrastructure managers considering Cloud Adoption Enterprise Architects and Solutions Architects Project Managers who manage Cloud based projects Systems and Network Administrators and Analysts Datacenter Administrat...

Good new my fellow Calgarians! AWS is hosting a full day technical event here in Calgary. The details of the event are as follows: Date: April 30, 2019 (Tuesday) Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (Mountain Time) Location: Delta Hotel by Marriott - Downtown Calgary                  209 4th Ave SE, Calgary AB T2G 0C6 ( view map ) Additional info:   This is an all day free event.  breakfast and lunch will be provided. What to expect from the event: In this event you will get a chance to build Intelligent Data Lakes using AWS Big Data & Analytics and AI/ML Services that you can definitely take back and use in your organization.  There will be multiple Deep dive sessions on the related services as well as workshops to allow you to have a hands on feel of the technology. By the end of the day,  you would have built yourself a functional cloud-native and future-proof Serverless data lake architecture. AWS Technologi...

AWS makes it easy for you to learn more through hosted Events, Seminars, Webinars and Training.  Here you will find a list of upcoming events that I'm sure you will be interested with.

It has been a while since I last posted the list of AWS Services.  Since then, there has been significant changes in their service offerings.  Here is a list of all the changes and new services released to date. It's been organized by Categories for you. AWS Game Development: -  No changes or additional new services AWS IoT - IoT Device Defender - IoT Events - IoT SiteWise - IoT Things Graph AWS Desktop & App Streaming (Now: End User Computing) - WorkDocs - WorkLink AWS Business Productivity (Now: Business Applications) -  WorkDocs has been removed from this category and transferred to End User Computing AWS Customer Engagement -  No changes or additional new services AWS Application Integration Services -  No changes or additional new services AWS AR & VR Services -  No changes or additional new services AWS Mobile Services - AWS Amplify - Mobile SDK for Android - Mobile SDK fo...

To refresh your knowledge.  Aurora is a MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible relational database built for the cloud.  It combines the performance and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases. The release of this new feature (Parallel Query) provides the benefit of being able to process queries twice the order of magnitude faster by running the queries in parallel. At the moment, it is only available for the MySQL compatible edition and would need to be enabled upon the initial creation of your Aurora database clusters.

There is a new EC2 instance on town.  Welcome the EC2 High Memory Instance type . This EC2 instance support up to 12 Terabytes of memory in a single instance, are EBS optimized by default and includes enhanced networking. These instances use the latest generation 8 socket intel skylight processors. Database administrators who manage large in-memory databases such as SAP HANA would greatly benefit from the use of this type of instance as they are specifically designed to run complex, high performance analytics.  These instances are also certified by SAP to run their data analytics and processing applications. If you want to learn more about this instance type, follow this link:  EC2 High Memory

AWS changes and evolves rapidly and quite often that we are not able to keep up with everything that is released. The " What's New " section of my blog will help everyone get up to speed on what are the new technology releases or changes in the AWS space.  This will also provide a list of upcoming events, and webinars featured by AWS so everyone interested can participate in them. To view the articles,  just click More... and then click What's New. Be sure to check this section often or subscribe to get alerts whenever new articles are posted.

What is IAM? IAM (Identity and Access Management) is a component of AWS which manages Users, Groups, Policies, and Roles to control access permissions to your various services within your AWS environment. Here is where you can create User accounts, add them to groups that have attached permissions to control access or create policies or roles that you can attach to trusted entities to give them access to services within your environment.   For more details on IAM checkout this link:  AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) In this article I will demonstrate how to create an administrator account that you can use to launch services in AWS.  In my previous post I mentioned that it is advised that you do not use your Master or Root account to perform these functions but instead use a separate Administrator account for the purpose of launching services.  The Master account should be used to manage Budgets, setup CloudWatch monitoring and consolidate child account...

When working on IAM for the first time, in my opinion, it is best that you start off at creating your initial IAM Groups before creating user accounts.  This will give you an overview of how you would allocate permissions depending on the job function of users you will be creating next. IAM Groups are similar to Microsoft AD Groups in such a way that it has attached permissions that provide any user added to the group access to perform certain functions on a given resource or resources.  However IAM Groups can only be used to manage permissions for AWS resources. This article shows you how to create IAM Groups. Steps to follow: Login to the AWS console using your Root account. Click Services and then Click " IAM " On the left hand side click " Groups " Click the " Create New Group " button Type the name of the group you wish to create then click the " Next Step " button. Choose the level of permission from the list of Policie...

When considering AWS cloud adoption you have to be clear as to what are the strengths and benefits that AWS has to offer.  And when architecting your infrastructure, you have to build on these strengths and benefits in order to effectively maximize your cost savings and infrastructure improvements. Here I will discuss some of the major strengths and benefits of AWS. Disposable Compute - With traditional Data Centers compute resources aren't easily disposed of after it has already served its purpose.  They would normally be re-purposed or re-allocated to other projects or services other than what they were intended for when purchased.  The requirements for these may vary thus putting you at risk of being over or under capacity.  With AWS you can spin up compute resources as needed and tear them down after use.  No need to hold on to resources that you no longer need.   Flexible Capacity - Your AWS cloud infrastructure has the capability to scale ...

Now that you have already created your free tier account, the next thing to do is to make sure you do not unintentionally incur charges as you play around the AWS environment.  Most of the services that you can try out are free however may have limitations.  Check out this link to see a list of the free services under the free tier account: AWS Free Tier details The best way to monitor your spending on AWS is to setup Billing Alerts.  In this post I will show you how you could set it up initially so that you will receive an email warning whenever your estimated charges go over a specified amount.  This will help you manage cost or avoid it totally. Here are the Steps: Login to your AWS account On the upper right corner click the drop down arrow right beside your account name, then click "My Billing Dashboard"  Scroll down to the Alerts and Notifications section.  On the second line where it says "Monitor your estimated charges." click on the high...

Creating an AWS account isn't all that difficult.  This should be your 2nd step in your AWS journey.  The first being a clear familiarization of the various AWS services and their functions.  If you are not at all familiar with any of them, I would suggest you check out my previous posts which briefly discusses the various core services available in AWS then come back here to create your AWS account. When creating an AWS account you will need the following: A registered email address.   A credit card note: don't worry about fees.  creating the free tier account is totally free.  and there is a list of services that you will have free access to within their respective usage parameters.  Just be aware of these parameters as you can be charged if you go over the usage limit for the free tier account.   Now that you have the requirements available, lets begin creating your account.   First click this:  AWS Free Tier and then...