Cloud Computing Intro

Learning Objectives Differentiate between containerization and serverless computing architectures. Explain the purpose and function of load balancing and autoscaling in a distributed system. Define Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and describe its benefits for managing cloud resources. Analyze the performance and cost trade-offs between different cloud deployment models for a given scenario. Design a simple, scalable, and fault-tolerant cloud architecture for a web application. Identify the role of an API Gateway in a microservices architecture. How does a service like Netflix handle millions of people suddenly streaming a new hit show at the exact same time without crashing? 🤔 Let's explore the advanced cloud magic that makes it possible! We've covered the basics of...

TermDefinitionExample ContainerizationA lightweight form of virtualization where an application and its dependencies are packaged into a standardized unit called a 'container'. Containers share the host system's operating system kernel, making them faster and more resource-efficient than traditional virtual machines.Using Docker to package a Python web application with all its libraries into a single container. This container can then be run identically on a developer's laptop, a testing server, or in the cloud on a platform like Kubernetes. Serverless Computing (FaaS)A cloud execution model where the cloud provider manages the server infrastructure, and developers only provide code that runs in response to events. You don't provision or manage any servers, and yo...

The Autoscaling Pattern IF (metric > threshold) THEN scale_out() ELSE IF (metric < threshold) THEN scale_in() Use this pattern to ensure application availability and manage costs. Define a key performance metric (e.g., CPU Utilization, Request Count) and set high/low thresholds. The system automatically adds resources (scales out) when the high threshold is breached and removes them (scales in) when the low threshold is passed. The Idempotency Principle (for IaC) f(f(x)) = f(x) In the context of IaC, this means that running a configuration script multiple times will result in the same system state as running it once. The script should be smart enough to detect if a resource already exists in the desired state and not attempt to recreate it. This prevents errors and ens...