“Which cloud should I learn?” - I get that question a lot from my friends, especially from Network Engineers and Network Architects who want to tap into the cloud ☁️ market. As the center of gravity shifts to the cloud, more and more businesses are embracing public cloud services.
You may be wondering where to begin learning about cloud networking, especially if you’re a Network Engineer, Network Architect or have interest in diving more deep into the cloud networking topic. Perhaps you’ve already started learning cloud computing, but you are looking for resources that are geared towards the networking aspects. In this post, I’ll share a few resources that I found really helpful in getting started with cloud infrastrucutre with more focus on the networking side.
Fundamentals Matter
When was the last time someone asked you a basic question like, what is BGP, how does an IPsec VPN work, or how does TCP/IP work? 🤔 If you can’t explain networking fundamentals, you might want to revisit the basics. I find Adrian Cantrill is amazing at explaining these networking fundamentals and some of them are accessible for free in his course or his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/LearnCantrill
Fundamentals are crucial before you start diving into cloud product and features details, AWS Direct Connect, Azure Express Route, Google Cloud Armor, AWS Network Firewall, etc.There's been a resurgence of IT fundamentals in job interviews! I talked to a student "ted" recently about his experience https://t.co/uaDS0TUx0E. Did you know all my fundamental lessons are free at https://t.co/0Qv6SDf3pC - go subscribe and click the bell :) - Please Retweet pic.twitter.com/W5vV4Iw4nB
— Adrian Cantrill (@adriancantrill) June 19, 2022
Which Cloud Should I Learn?
Should I start with AWS or Azure or maybe GCP? ❔
All of these CSPs (Cloud Service Providers) offer fundamental courses:
- AWS Cloud Practitioner https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-cloud-practitioner/
- Azure Fundamentals AZ900 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/azure-fundamentals/
- Google Digital Leader https://cloud.google.com/certification/cloud-digital-leader
- OCI Foundations Associate https://learn.oracle.com/ols/course/oracle-cloud-infrastructure-foundations-new/35644/105700
- Alibaba Cloud Certification Associate https://edu.alibabacloud.com/certification/aca_cloudcomputing
But you’ll notice soon that networking is just one part of the course. It might even be part of an advanced/specialty course. Perhaps you’re wondering, is there a course that covers CSP fundamentals and maybe a little bit of deep dive, but just focused on cloud networking?
Aviatrix Certified Engineer (ACE) - Associate
You should check out the Aviatrix Certified Engineer (ACE) - Associate course!
The ACE-Associate course covers all of the major cloud networking fundamentals from AWS, Azure, GCP to OCI.
You’ll learn multi-cloud networking in 6 hours (or maybe less if you watch videos at 1.25x speed 😁) and it’s FREE! 🕺 🎉
ACE-Associate registration link: https://aviatrix.teachable.com/
You can get the course for free by using this voucher code: AWSAKL
Aviatrix also offers ACE-Associate with labs from time to time, which you should attend since you’ll not only learn with live instructors but you will get access to hands-on lab as well like this one:
Check out the ACE Multi-Cloud Network Training & Certification page for upcoming ACE-Associate labs: https://aviatrix.com/ace-multicloud-networking-training
Here’s the topics which are covered in ACE- Associate course:
| Section | Topic | Length in mins:secs |
|---|---|---|
| Public Cloud Networking | Introduction to Public Cloud Networking | 8:08 |
| Public Cloud Networking | AWS Networking 101 | 80:04 |
| Public Cloud Networking | Azure Networking 101 | 58:55 |
| Public Cloud Networking | GCP Networking 101 | 19:55 |
| Public Cloud Networking | OCI Networking 101 | 23:03 |
| Multi-Cloud Network Architecture | What is MCNA? | 11:56 |
| Aviatrix Platform | Feature Overview - Part 1 (Aviatrix Platform, Multi-Cloud Segmentation, High Performance Encryption, Egress FQDN Filtering) | 35:47 |
| Aviatrix Platform | Feature Overview - Part 2 (Aviatrix FireNet - Multi-Cloud Service Insertion, Site2Cloud, Secure User Access VPN) | 35:38 |
| Aviatrix Platform | ThreatIQ with ThreatGuard | 35:38 |
| Operations, Visibility, and Troubleshooting | Day 2 Operations (Aviatrix Controller, Multi-Account, Controller HA, Aviatrix CoPilot, Sandbox Starter Tool) | 40:36 |
| Advanced Use Cases | Advanced Use Cases (SD-WAN, Kubernetes, Serverless, Multi-Cloud Private Link, IoT) | 23:39 |
I’d recommend doing ACE-Associate first and then CSP fundamentals for the following reasons:
- Learn multi-cloud networking in 6 hours. You probably need more time for CSP fundamentals such as AWS Cloud Practitioner or Azure Fundamentals as CSP covers more technology and products.
- Get a bigger picture. You’ll get to know more technologies as the course covers multiple CSPs
- Hands-on experience. In some cases, there’s a hands-on lab workshop which is included as part of the course.
- It’s FREE! Some CSP courses are free, but not all. The Azure Fundamentals course and exam are free, but AWS Cloud Practitioner isn’t for example.
After ACE-Accossiate, try to register for ACE-Professional when you get a chance and the learning path would probably look like something this:
Hope this post helps you figure out where to start and what courses to take to kickstart your cloud networking learning.
When people start learning cloud technologies, the next question I get is how do I automate it?
Should I learn IaC (Infrastructure as Code)? Maybe Terraform?
I would love to hear your thoughts, but I’ll save that for another post! 🙂