Akamai Cloud Computing Foundations study plan
Akamai Cloud Computing Foundations · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Cloud Computing Fundamentals
Define IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, and place each Akamai Cloud service into one of those models in your own written notes
Explain the shared responsibility model and list which controls belong to the provider versus the customer for a Compute Instance
Set up an account and navigate Cloud Manager well enough to locate compute, storage, networking, and account-level settings without searching
Describe how regions, data centers, and instance placement affect latency and availability, using at least two concrete examples
Distinguish vertical scaling, horizontal scaling, and autoscaling, and state one workload where each fits
Your checkpoint
A one-page written service map naming at least 12 Akamai Cloud services, each tagged with its service model, its primary use case, and one service it commonly pairs with
Cloud Computing Fundamentals & Compute and Storage Services
Deploy at least three Compute Instances on different plan families and record the resource profile of each
Perform a resize, a rebuild from an image, and a clean deletion, noting what persists and what is destroyed at each step
Explain how images, StackScripts, and Marketplace deployments differ in the amount of manual configuration they remove
Compare hourly billing with the monthly cap on a running instance and calculate the crossover point for a 24/7 workload
Your checkpoint
A lab log of at least 800 words comparing three instance plan families, with a justified recommendation for a small web app, a memory-heavy database, and a batch job
Compute and Storage Services
Provision a Block Storage volume, attach it to an instance, format and mount it, then detach and reattach it to confirm data persistence
Create an Object Storage bucket, upload and retrieve objects, and apply an access policy that is not public-read
Contrast Block Storage, Object Storage, and instance-local disk on durability, access pattern, and typical workload
Design a backup approach that combines scheduled snapshots or backups with an off-instance copy and state the recovery objective it meets
Your checkpoint
A storage decision matrix covering at least four storage options against durability, access method, scalability, and cost drivers, plus working evidence of one bucket and one attached volume
Networking and Content Delivery
Design a segmented network using private networking constructs and justify each segment boundary in writing
Write and apply Cloud Firewall rules that allow only the ports a two-tier application actually needs
Configure DNS records for a domain and verify resolution with command-line lookups
Place a load balancer in front of two backend instances and confirm traffic is distributed
Troubleshoot one deliberately introduced connectivity failure and document the diagnostic sequence
Your checkpoint
A labelled network diagram with an accompanying firewall rule table listing source, destination, port, protocol, and the reason each rule exists
Networking and Content Delivery
Configure content delivery for a static asset set and define caching rules that differ for static and dynamic paths
Measure cache hit ratio before and after a rule change and explain the delta
Attach TLS to an endpoint and verify the certificate chain from the command line
Explain how DDoS mitigation and edge filtering differ from host-level firewall rules
Compare offloading traffic to a load balancer, a CDN, or both, and pick the right combination for a stated traffic pattern
Your checkpoint
A short measurement report showing request counts and cache hit ratio for two configurations, with a recommendation on which configuration to ship
Security, Identity, and Access
Create additional users or teams and assign the narrowest role that still lets each perform its job
Generate a scoped API token and demonstrate that it fails against an action outside its scope
Replace password authentication on an instance with key-based SSH and disable direct root login
Layer host-level hardening, Cloud Firewall rules, and account-level access control into one defence-in-depth description
Identify which data is encrypted at rest by default and which requires customer-side action
Your checkpoint
A least-privilege access matrix mapping at least four personas to roles, token scopes, and permitted actions, with a one-paragraph justification per row
Deployment, Management, and Pricing & Compute and Storage Services
Automate the creation of an instance and a volume using the command line or API rather than the web console
Deploy a small managed Kubernetes cluster and run one workload on it
Estimate the monthly cost of a three-tier application using hourly rates and monthly caps, then identify the two largest cost drivers
Configure monitoring alerts for CPU and disk so that a threshold breach produces a notification
Document a repeatable deployment and teardown sequence that leaves no billable resources behind
Your checkpoint
A cost estimate worksheet for a three-tier application with itemised line items and a total, plus an automated deploy-and-teardown run that completes without console clicks
Cloud Computing Fundamentals & Compute and Storage Services & Networking and Content Delivery & Security, Identity, and Access & Deployment, Management, and Pricing
Complete a full-length timed practice assessment under exam conditions without notes
Rank all five domains by score and rebuild the two weakest with targeted re-study
Re-run the two labs you completed fastest in earlier weeks to confirm retention rather than recognition
Consolidate every earlier deliverable into a single indexed reference you can skim in under fifteen minutes
Write and rehearse a one-minute explanation of each domain's core trade-off
Your checkpoint
A timed practice assessment score of at least 80 percent, plus a remediation log listing each missed question, its domain, the root cause, and the source you used to close the gap
Milestones
Week 2: Can explain, without notes, the difference between resizing, rebuilding, and redeploying an instance, and state which data survives each operation
Week 4: Midpoint assessment covering the first two domains scores at least 75 percent, and the network diagram passes a self-review for missing firewall justifications
Week 6: Scoped API token fails as expected against an out-of-scope action, and the access matrix contains no role broader than the described job requires
Week 8: Full timed practice assessment scores at least 80 percent with no domain below 70 percent, and the remediation log has zero open items