Free AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam Flashcards

The on-demand delivery of IT resources over the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services like computing power, storage, and databases on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider like AWS. This eliminates upfront infrastructure costs and allows businesses to scale quickly.

The ability to automatically scale computing resources up or down based on demand. For example, an e-commerce website can automatically add more servers during Black Friday sales and reduce them afterward, paying only for what you use. This ensures optimal performance during peak times while minimizing costs during low-traffic periods.

A system design approach that ensures an application or service remains operational and accessible for the maximum amount of time, typically 99.9% or higher uptime. AWS achieves this through redundant systems across multiple Availability Zones, automatic failover mechanisms, and load balancing. Critical for business applications that cannot afford downtime.

The ability of a system to continue operating properly even when one or more components fail. AWS implements this through redundancy, automatic backups, and failover systems across multiple Availability Zones. For example, if one server fails, traffic automatically routes to healthy servers without service interruption.

The capability to increase or decrease IT resources to meet changing demand. Vertical scaling adds more power to existing machines (bigger servers), while horizontal scaling adds more machines. AWS Auto Scaling automatically adjusts capacity to maintain steady, predictable performance at the lowest possible cost.

AWS Regions are separate geographic areas (e.g., US East, EU West) containing multiple isolated data centers called Availability Zones (AZs). Each AZ has independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying across multiple AZs provides high availability and fault tolerance. Choose regions based on latency, compliance, and cost.

AWS secures the infrastructure (hardware, facilities, network), while customers secure what they put in the cloud (data, applications, access management). AWS is responsible for 'security OF the cloud,' customers for 'security IN the cloud.' Understanding this division is critical for compliance and proper security configuration.

CapEx involves upfront investment in physical infrastructure (servers, data centers) that depreciates over time. OpEx is pay-as-you-go spending on cloud services with no upfront costs. Cloud computing shifts IT spending from CapEx to OpEx, improving cash flow and reducing financial risk.

The complete cost of running IT infrastructure including hardware, software, facilities, power, cooling, maintenance, and staff. Cloud computing typically reduces TCO by eliminating data center costs, reducing staff needs, and providing economies of scale. AWS TCO Calculator helps estimate savings.

AWS best practices framework with six pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability. Provides design principles and questions to evaluate architectures. Helps build secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient infrastructure for applications.

Virtual servers in the cloud that provide resizable compute capacity. Choose instance types optimized for compute, memory, storage, or GPU workloads. Pay only for running instances with options like On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, and Savings Plans. Launch in minutes, scale up or down, and deploy globally.

Object storage service offering industry-leading scalability, durability (99.999999999%), and availability. Store unlimited data as objects in buckets. Use cases include backups, data lakes, websites, archives. Storage classes range from frequently accessed (S3 Standard) to long-term archive (S3 Glacier). Pay only for storage used.

Serverless compute service that runs code in response to events without provisioning servers. Pay only for compute time consumed (per millisecond). Automatically scales from a few requests per day to thousands per second. Supports multiple languages and integrates with 200+ AWS services. Ideal for event-driven architectures.

Block-level storage volumes for EC2 instances, similar to hard drives. Persistent storage that exists independently of instance lifetime. Types include SSD (gp3, io2) for transactional workloads and HDD (st1, sc1) for throughput-intensive workloads. Supports snapshots for backups and can be encrypted.

Fully managed, scalable file storage for use with EC2 instances. Supports NFSv4 protocol and can be accessed by thousands of instances concurrently. Automatically grows and shrinks as files are added/removed. Use cases include content management, web serving, and shared development environments.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) that automatically handles deployment, capacity provisioning, load balancing, and auto-scaling. Simply upload code and Elastic Beanstalk handles the infrastructure. Supports Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and Docker. Retain full control over underlying resources.

Simplified compute service offering virtual private servers with predictable, low monthly pricing. Includes everything needed to launch a project: instances, storage, databases, networking. Ideal for simple web applications, websites, business software, and dev/test environments. Easy-to-use alternative to EC2 for beginners.

Automatically adjusts compute capacity to maintain performance and minimize costs. Monitors applications and adjusts capacity based on demand patterns. Works with EC2, ECS, DynamoDB, and Aurora. Define scaling policies based on metrics like CPU utilization or custom CloudWatch metrics.

Low-cost cloud storage for data archiving and long-term backup. Designed for data accessed infrequently with retrieval times from minutes to hours. Three tiers: Glacier Instant Retrieval (milliseconds), Glacier Flexible Retrieval (minutes to hours), and Glacier Deep Archive (12-48 hours). Extremely durable and secure.

Hybrid cloud storage service connecting on-premises environments to AWS cloud storage. Provides seamless integration between on-premises applications and S3, EBS, or Glacier. Three types: File Gateway (NFS/SMB), Volume Gateway (iSCSI), and Tape Gateway (virtual tape library). Enables cloud backup and disaster recovery.

Different instance families optimized for specific workloads: General Purpose (T3, M5) for balanced compute/memory, Compute Optimized (C5) for high-performance processors, Memory Optimized (R5, X1) for large datasets, Storage Optimized (I3, D2) for high I/O, and Accelerated Computing (P3, G4) for GPU workloads.

Physical data transport solution for moving large amounts of data into and out of AWS. Snowball Edge provides 80TB storage with compute capabilities. Snowmobile is an exabyte-scale transfer service (up to 100PB per truck). Faster and more cost-effective than internet transfer for massive datasets.

Logically isolated virtual network where you launch AWS resources. Complete control over IP address ranges, subnets, route tables, and network gateways. Connect to on-premises networks via VPN or Direct Connect. Use security groups and network ACLs for security. Foundation for most AWS deployments.

Highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service. Translates domain names to IP addresses. Features include domain registration, DNS routing, health checking, and traffic management. Routing policies include simple, weighted, latency-based, failover, and geolocation. 100% uptime SLA.

Content Delivery Network (CDN) that delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs globally with low latency. Caches content at edge locations worldwide. Integrates with S3, EC2, Load Balancers, and Route 53. Provides DDoS protection via AWS Shield. Improves performance and reduces origin server load.

Automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets (EC2, containers, IP addresses) in multiple Availability Zones. Three types: Application Load Balancer (HTTP/HTTPS, Layer 7), Network Load Balancer (TCP/UDP, Layer 4), and Gateway Load Balancer (third-party appliances). Increases fault tolerance and availability.

Managed relational database service supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Amazon Aurora. Automates hardware provisioning, patching, backups, and recovery. Multi-AZ deployments for high availability. Read replicas for scalability. Eliminates database administration overhead.

Fully managed NoSQL database service providing fast, predictable performance with seamless scalability. Key-value and document database supporting single-digit millisecond latency. Automatic scaling, built-in security, backup/restore, and global tables for multi-region replication. Serverless option available.

MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud. Up to 5x faster than MySQL and 3x faster than PostgreSQL. Automatically replicates data across three Availability Zones. Continuous backup to S3. Serverless option auto-scales capacity. Combines performance of commercial databases with open-source simplicity.

Dedicated network connection from on-premises to AWS, bypassing the public internet. Provides more consistent network performance, reduced bandwidth costs, and private connectivity to VPCs. Available in 1Gbps and 10Gbps speeds. Ideal for hybrid cloud architectures and large data transfers.

Fully managed in-memory caching service supporting Redis and Memcached. Improves application performance by retrieving data from fast in-memory caches instead of slower disk-based databases. Use cases include session stores, gaming leaderboards, real-time analytics, and caching database queries.

Secure connection between on-premises networks or client devices and AWS VPC. Site-to-Site VPN connects entire networks, while Client VPN enables remote user access. Uses IPsec for encryption. Cost-effective alternative to Direct Connect for lower bandwidth requirements. Establishes connectivity in minutes.

Service for securely controlling access to AWS resources. Create users, groups, and roles with granular permissions using policies. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for enhanced security. Follow principle of least privilege. IAM is global (not region-specific) and free to use.

Temporary security credentials for AWS services or users without long-term access keys. EC2 instances, Lambda functions, and other services assume roles to access resources. More secure than embedding credentials in code. Can be assumed by federated users or cross-account access.

Virtual firewalls controlling inbound and outbound traffic for EC2 instances and other resources. Stateful (return traffic automatically allowed). Rules specify protocols, ports, and source/destination. Default denies all inbound, allows all outbound. Can reference other security groups. Operates at instance level.

Managed DDoS protection service safeguarding applications on AWS. Shield Standard provides automatic protection at no cost for all customers. Shield Advanced offers enhanced protection, 24/7 DDoS Response Team, cost protection, and real-time attack visibility. Integrates with CloudFront, Route 53, and ELB.

Protects web applications from common exploits like SQL injection and cross-site scripting. Create custom rules to filter web traffic based on IP addresses, HTTP headers, body, or URI strings. Integrates with CloudFront, Application Load Balancer, and API Gateway. Pay only for rules deployed and requests received.

Managed service for creating and controlling encryption keys. Integrates with most AWS services for data encryption. Uses Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) to protect keys. Supports automatic key rotation. Audit key usage via CloudTrail. Compliant with FIPS 140-2 standards.

Service that logs all API calls and account activity for governance, compliance, and auditing. Records who did what, when, and from where. Stores logs in S3 for long-term retention. Integrates with CloudWatch for real-time monitoring. Essential for security analysis and troubleshooting.

AWS maintains certifications and attestations for various compliance standards including PCI DSS (payment cards), HIPAA (healthcare), SOC 1/2/3 (auditing), ISO 27001 (security), and GDPR (data privacy). AWS Artifact provides on-demand access to compliance reports. Shared responsibility applies to compliance.

Automated security assessment service that helps improve security and compliance of applications. Automatically assesses for vulnerabilities, deviations from best practices, and exposure. Produces detailed findings prioritized by severity. Integrates with EC2 instances and container images.

Service for managing, retrieving, and rotating database credentials, API keys, and other secrets. Eliminates hardcoded credentials in code. Automatically rotates secrets without application downtime. Integrates with RDS, Redshift, and DocumentDB. Audit secret access via CloudTrail.

Offers free usage of many AWS services for new customers. Three types: Always Free (Lambda 1M requests/month, DynamoDB 25GB), 12 Months Free (EC2 750 hours/month, S3 5GB), and Trials (short-term offers). Helps learn AWS without cost. Monitor usage to avoid unexpected charges.

Pay-as-you-go (on-demand, no commitment), Save when you reserve (Reserved Instances up to 75% savings), Pay less by using more (volume discounts), and Pay less as AWS grows (price reductions over time). No upfront costs or termination fees. Free data transfer in, charged for data transfer out.

Tool for visualizing, understanding, and managing AWS costs and usage over time. View data up to 12 months, forecast spending for next 12 months. Filter by service, region, tag, or account. Identify cost drivers and anomalies. Create custom reports and set budgets.

Set custom cost and usage budgets with alerts when thresholds are exceeded. Track costs, usage, Reserved Instance utilization, and Savings Plans coverage. Receive notifications via email or SNS. Create budgets for specific services, tags, or accounts. Helps prevent unexpected charges.

Commitment to use EC2, RDS, or other services for 1 or 3 years in exchange for significant discounts (up to 75% vs on-demand). Three payment options: All Upfront (highest discount), Partial Upfront, or No Upfront. Standard RIs offer highest savings, Convertible RIs allow instance type changes.

Flexible pricing model offering lower prices in exchange for commitment to consistent usage (measured in $/hour) for 1 or 3 years. Compute Savings Plans apply to EC2, Lambda, and Fargate. EC2 Instance Savings Plans offer highest savings for specific instance families. Simpler than Reserved Instances.

Account management service for consolidating multiple AWS accounts into an organization. Centrally manage policies, automate account creation, and consolidate billing. Service Control Policies (SCPs) restrict actions across accounts. Volume discounts apply across all accounts. Simplifies governance and cost management.

Labels assigned to AWS resources for organizing and tracking costs. Two types: AWS-generated tags (automatically applied) and user-defined tags (custom). Activate tags in Billing Console to see them in Cost Explorer and reports. Use consistent tagging strategy for cost center, project, or environment tracking.