ACA CCO study plan

ACA CCO · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 6 hours per week

Week 1

Cloud Computing Fundamentals

Define the Alibaba Cloud global infrastructure model (regions, zones, edge locations) and explain how zone isolation affects availability design
Distinguish IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS responsibilities and map at least six core ACA services to each layer
Compare pay-as-you-go, subscription, and spot/preemptible billing models and compute a monthly cost estimate for a two-tier workload
Explain the shared responsibility model and identify which controls fall to the customer versus the provider

A one-page reference sheet listing core services by layer, billing model trade-offs, and a worked monthly cost estimate for a sample two-tier app

Week 2

Describe ECS instance families (general purpose, compute, memory, shared vs. dedicated) and select an appropriate family for three stated workloads
Explain the ECS instance lifecycle states and the actions that transition between them
Differentiate system disks from data disks and choose between cloud disk types based on IOPS and cost
Summarize the purpose of security groups, key pairs, and user data at instance launch

A decision table matching five sample workloads to instance family, disk type, and network configuration with a one-line justification each

Week 3

Configure an ECS instance end to end: image selection, disk attachment, security group rules, and remote access
Create and apply a custom image and explain when snapshots versus images are appropriate
Explain auto scaling concepts: scaling groups, scaling rules, cooldown periods, and health checks
Demonstrate how to resize an instance's CPU/memory and how to vertically scale a disk

A runbook documenting a full instance build, snapshot, custom image creation, and a scaling policy, with screenshots or command output as evidence

Week 4

Explain VPC components: vSwitches, route tables, and CIDR planning for a multi-zone deployment
Differentiate security groups from network ACLs and state which is stateful
Compare SLB load balancer types (CLB, ALB, NLB) and select one for a stated traffic pattern
Describe how DNS resolution and CDN caching interact for a static-content workload
Configure EIPs and NAT Gateway to give private-subnet instances outbound-only internet access

A network diagram of a two-vSwitch VPC with an internet-facing load balancer, NAT egress, and annotated security group and ACL rules

Week 5

Compare OSS storage classes and lifecycle rules and design a lifecycle policy for a mixed-access dataset
Explain OSS bucket permissions, ACLs, and the role of signed URLs for temporary access
Differentiate ApsaraDB RDS, PolarDB, and Redis/Memcache use cases and select one for three stated scenarios
Describe RDS backup, read-replica, and high-availability options and their recovery implications
Explain NAS and its fit for shared-file workloads versus object and block storage

A storage and database selection matrix covering five workload scenarios with chosen service, storage class, backup strategy, and rationale

Week 6

Explain RAM users, groups, roles, and policies and write a least-privilege policy for a read-only auditor
Distinguish RAM roles from AccessKeys and describe STS temporary credentials for cross-service access
Describe KMS key management and when to use customer-managed keys for OSS and RDS encryption
Summarize Anti-DDoS, WAF, and Security Center capabilities and map each to a specific threat
Identify common credential-handling mistakes and the controls that prevent them

A least-privilege RAM policy JSON for a read-only role plus a short threat-to-control mapping table for four attack scenarios

Week 7

Interpret CloudMonitor metrics for ECS and RDS and set an alarm on a meaningful threshold
Explain how to read ActionTrail logs to trace a configuration change to its source
Use Cloud Shell or CLI commands to inspect instance status and retrieve logs during an incident
Describe the troubleshooting sequence for an unreachable ECS instance (security group, route table, OS firewall, service state)
Outline an automated remediation pattern using triggers and functions or OOS templates

A troubleshooting flowchart for 'instance unreachable' plus one configured alarm and its documented test result

Week 8

Consolidate weak-area notes into a prioritized review list and re-study the top three gaps
Complete two timed practice sets and analyze every missed question by domain
Re-derive the shared responsibility model, VPC design, and RAM least-privilege from memory
Rehearse the storage/database selection matrix and instance-family decision table without notes

A scored practice-exam log with per-domain accuracy percentages and a written remediation plan for any domain below 80%

Week 2: Can explain regions/zones, billing models, and select an ECS instance family and disk type for a new workload without notes

Week 4: Can draw a working VPC with load balancing and NAT egress from memory and justify each security group rule

Week 6: Can write a least-privilege RAM policy and choose the correct storage or database service for a stated scenario in under five minutes

Week 8: Practice-exam accuracy at or above 80% in every domain, with a written remediation plan for any gap