Today I went over the first module of Mammoth Club’s AWS Cloud Practitioner course called Introduction to AWS and Cloud Computing. This is module 01 out of 8. The module was meant to provide a general overview of AWS and introduce cloud computing concepts. I found it helpful in parts, but a little confusing in others, especially when it mentioned services without explaining what they are. That’s something I noticed more than once, so I made a point to write about it and how I’m piecing things together based on what I’ve already seen in action.
Understanding IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS
One of the big topics covered was the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. This part really made sense to me once I applied it to real-world examples and thought through how much control the user has in each case. With IaaS, which stands for Infrastructure as a Service, the customer doesn’t want to deal with physical datacenters or buy any hardware. AWS handles that part. The customer still wants full control though, meaning they have to choose and install the operating system, configure the security settings, and set up any software they need. It’s like renting a virtual computer where you are responsible for installing and managing everything. An example of this is Amazon EC2.
PaaS, or Platform as a Service, gives you less to worry about. AWS not only provides the server but also installs and manages the operating system and runtime environment for you. You still have to write and deploy your code, but you don’t have to maintain the system it runs on. AWS handles the updates and security of the platform itself. A good example of this is AWS Elastic Beanstalk. It sets up everything so you can focus on building your application.
SaaS, or Software as a Service, is where AWS or another provider takes care of everything from the infrastructure to the software itself. You don’t install anything or write any code. You just sign in and use the software, like email or document editing. A good example is Amazon WorkMail or Microsoft 365. This model is great for users who just need access to a working solution without managing any of the backend.
AWS Services
AWS Lambda
One of the services I understand better now is AWS Lambda. Lambda lets you write small pieces of code that run automatically when something happens. For example, in a booking system, I worked on a project where the booking form saved new data to DynamoDB. I used a Lambda function triggered by a DynamoDB stream to send a confirmation email using SendGrid. It could have also used SES. Another Lambda could send a reminder text, and one more could trigger a video meeting at the appointment time. You don’t need to manage a server to do any of this, which makes Lambda powerful and efficient for event-driven systems.
S3
As I’ve been progressing through the course, I’m starting to match services to the things I’ve seen or done before. S3 Buckets, for example, were used in a ground station project and in a facial recognition project I worked on to store images. I now understand that S3 stores all kinds of files and static content.
EC2 & ECS
EC2, which stands for Elastic Compute Cloud, is essentially a virtual machine in the cloud. You get to choose the machine type and install your OS and software. It’s like a computer you rent from AWS. ECS, or Elastic Container Service, is used to run containers. Containers package an entire environment, including the code and libraries, so your app runs consistently. ECS can use EC2 to run the containers or use Fargate, which means AWS handles the server management part too.
DynamoDB
DynamoDB is AWS’s NoSQL database. I didn’t build the original form that saved data to it, but I connected a Lambda to a DynamoDB stream to trigger other actions when new data was added. That’s how I understand these services better—by connecting them to things I’ve actually worked on.
RDS
Another service that kept coming up in the course was RDS, and I didn’t know what that was. At first, I thought RDS worked with DynamoDB, but I looked into it more and learned that RDS is for relational databases only. It’s not a database itself—it’s more like a database butler. You tell it what database you want, like MySQL or PostgreSQL, how big it should be, and how backups should work. RDS installs it, patches it, and manages the maintenance for you. It doesn’t manage DynamoDB, since that’s NoSQL, but both services can be used together in one application depending on your needs.
Differences in Cloud Providers
The module also briefly mentioned differences between the top cloud providers. AWS is the biggest, with the most services and flexibility. Azure is the second most popular and is often used by companies running Microsoft services or .NET applications. That makes sense to me since I was originally thinking of becoming a .NET developer. Azure is also known for security and compliance. Google Cloud Platform comes in third and is best known for its strengths in machine learning and big data, like training AI models. AWS also supports machine learning and .NET, so it’s very well-rounded overall.
My Thoughts on the Mammoth Club AWS Practitioner Course (So Far)
I do have to mention that the course sometimes feels like it assumes you already know what the services are, especially during the quiz. For example, the first module quiz had questions about Amazon Chime and Elastic Beanstalk, but the course didn’t explain what either of those was. That doesn’t make much sense to me, since this is a beginner-level course. If I hadn’t looked them up, I wouldn’t have been able to answer the questions correctly. This made me wonder if I’ll miss important context by sticking to this course alone.
At this point, I think someone brand new to AWS should consider starting with the freeCodeCamp 4-hour AWS Cloud Practitioner video or the official AWS Skill Builder course. Those seem more focused on beginners and go step-by-step. I’m going to finish the Mammoth Club course and then follow it up with the freeCodeCamp video. After that, I’ll decide if I’ll continue with Mammoth Club’s Developer or Solutions Architect courses, but right now I’m leaning toward not using them.