Cloud Pro: AWS Hybrid and Edge: Choose, Compare and Launch

What's inside

1. Level 1: The AWS Hybrid and Edge Map on One PageFree
   Learners sort every AWS hybrid and edge service into six groups: management planes, provider hardware on site, metro and telecom edge, rugged devices, IoT, and data transfer and gateways. Each service is listed with its current name, any former names and its status as of today.
2. Level 2: The Standard Hybrid ProfileFree
   Learners record a site's needs in a reusable profile: the reasons a region won't do, the sites, connectivity, workloads, who maintains the hardware, the update policy, compliance, team skills, and a cost model that includes hardware terms.
3. Level 3: AWS Outposts Racks
   A nine-part lesson on Outposts racks: first and second generation, fit, dated limits, pricing on fixed hardware terms, the split of operational duties with AWS, real uses, the ordering and site steps, and when to choose or avoid them.
4. Level 4: AWS Outposts Servers
   A nine-part lesson on the 1U and 2U Outposts servers: how they differ from racks, which services they run, their local-network-only design, dated limits, pricing on hardware terms, and the ordering and install steps.
5. Level 5: AWS Local Zones
   A nine-part lesson on Local Zones: metro extensions of a parent region that need no hardware, with a limited service and instance set, per-zone pricing, opt-in steps, and when they beat Outposts.
6. Level 6: AWS Wavelength
   A nine-part lesson on Wavelength Zones inside telecom carrier networks: carrier gateways and carrier IPs, the limited set of partner carriers and locations, dated limits, pricing, and a mobile edge quick start.
7. Level 7: Dedicated Local Zones in Brief
   A short look at Dedicated Local Zones: infrastructure built for one customer and run by AWS at a location the customer chooses, aimed at sovereign and regulated workloads, and how they compare with Outposts and Local Zones.
8. Level 8: Amazon EKS Anywhere
   A nine-part lesson on EKS Anywhere: Kubernetes clusters on your own hardware or virtualisation, with an optional paid support subscription per cluster, supported providers, dated version limits, and a smallest-cluster quick start.
9. Level 9: Amazon ECS Anywhere
   A nine-part lesson on ECS Anywhere: registering your own servers and VMs as EXTERNAL container instances, so the ECS control plane in the region schedules tasks on hardware you run, with per-instance-hour pricing.
10. Level 10: Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes
    A nine-part lesson on EKS Hybrid Nodes: joining on-premises machines as worker nodes to an EKS cluster that AWS manages in the region, with its network, CNI and credential requirements, per-vCPU pricing and how it differs from EKS Anywhere.
11. Level 11: Systems Manager for Hybrid Servers
    A nine-part lesson on Systems Manager hybrid activations: registering on-premises and other-cloud servers as managed nodes, the standard and advanced instance tiers, and the tools that work on them, with dated notes on Systems Manager features now in maintenance.
12. Level 12: Fleet Operations Across Sites
    Learners combine Hybrid Nodes, ECS Anywhere, EKS Anywhere and Systems Manager into one operating model for observability, patching and identity across many sites, with only a brief recap of network links.
13. Level 13: Snowball Edge and the Snow Family's End
    A nine-part lesson on Snowball Edge: offline transfer and edge compute, open only to existing customers since 7 November 2025 and losing support on 31 December 2026. It ends with a plan to finish current jobs and move to other services.
14. Level 14: AWS IoT Core
    A nine-part lesson on IoT Core as the cloud side of device fleets: MQTT messaging, device identity and policies, rules that route data, message-based pricing, the quotas that bite, and the smallest working setup.
15. Level 15: AWS IoT Greengrass
    A nine-part lesson on IoT Greengrass V2 as edge runtime software: components, deployments, local processing and offline operation, per-device pricing, and the sunset of Greengrass v1.
16. Level 16: AWS Storage Gateway
    A nine-part lesson on Storage Gateway's S3 File, Tape and Volume Gateway types: local caching and backup integration, dated changes such as the end of the hardware appliance and the move from AL2 to AL2023, and pricing levers.
17. Level 17: DataSync and Data Transfer Terminal
    Learners choose between moving data online with DataSync agents or enhanced mode and taking physical drives to a Data Transfer Terminal location. Both are priced, timed and launched from a smallest working setup.
18. Level 18: Retirements and Replacements Map
    Learners build a dated register of every retirement and change in AWS hybrid and edge services, such as Snowcone, older Snowball models, Snowball Edge, Greengrass v1 and the Storage Gateway appliance, and map each one to the service that replaces it.
19. Level 19: Choosing a Hybrid Pattern
    Learners use the hybrid profile to choose between three patterns: extend the cloud on-premises, manage on-premises resources from the cloud, or move the workload to a region or Local Zone. They test each choice against what the profile says rules a region out.
20. Level 20: Site Readiness and Disconnected Operation
    Learners check whether a site is ready for AWS hardware or managed nodes and plan what happens when the link to the region drops, service by service.
21. Level 21: Security and Updates Outside the Region
    Learn how to secure and keep current the workloads, hardware and agents that run outside an AWS Region: who owns physical security, credentials, encryption keys and patching for each service, and how updates reach sites that are slow, metered or sometimes offline.
22. Level 22: Worked Three-Year Cost for Two Sites
    Build a dated, provider-independent three-year total cost of ownership for two sites. The model compares provider hardware on site, managing your own hardware from the cloud, and moving the workload to a nearby Region or Local Zone, using hardware terms, per-node or per-cluster fees, data transfer and people costs.
23. Level 23: The Weighted Selection Scorecard
    Turn the standard hybrid profile from Level 2 into a weighted scorecard. Each criterion gets a weight, a scoring rubric and must-pass gates, so every candidate service or pattern is scored the same way and can be defended.
24. Level 24: Scoring AWS Against Another Cloud
    Apply the same scorecard to another provider's hybrid and edge offerings, for example Microsoft's Azure Arc and Azure Local or Google Distributed Cloud. Every score must be backed by dated, sourced evidence and not by marketing claims.
25. Level 25: Selection Drills on Varied Site Profiles
    Practise fast, defensible decisions on a set of contrasting site profiles: a retail chain, a factory floor, a regulated hospital, a media studio, a disconnected field site and a telecom-latency app. Each is scored to a pattern and a service, with the deciding factor named.
26. Level 26: Final Challenge: Decision Workshop and Selection Record Exam
    Run a full decision workshop for one realistic two-site case using everything in the course: the service map, profile, nine-part service knowledge, pattern choice, site readiness, security and updates, three-year cost, scorecard and cross-cloud evidence. It ends in a one-page selection record.

Access

The first 2 levels are free with a free account. Every level, the podcast edition and the AI tutor come with All Access at £4.99/month or any Creator plan — see pricing.

Start free →