How to get started, with tips on billing alerts and a suggested project.

1. Cloud 101
Amazon Web Services
Getting Started

2. A Simple Definition
At a basic level Cloud Computing is a collection of:
• Compute
• Storage
• Networking
Resources that can be consumed on demand.

3. Cloud vs Traditional DC
Cloud
Advantages
• Flexible Infrastructure
– Quick to provision
• “On demand” servers
– Power on/off as you need
• Pay as you go service
– Public cloud only
Disadvantages
• Lack of physical access
Traditional Data Centres
Advantages
• Complete Control
Disadvantages
• Wasted Resources
• Long lead times for new
equipment
• Always on Infrastructure

4. Problems in a Traditional DC
• You need to plan capacity carefully
• Often an unknown quantity
• Best guess
• Finite resource
• Limited ability to burst
• Wasted resource

5. AWS Platform
Physical Infrastructure
Core Cloud Services
Enterprise Apps
Platform As A Service (PaaS)
Offerings A
P
I
Tools
Libraries
Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)
Deployment
Tools

6. AWS Platform
Enterprise Apps
A
P
I
Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)
Regions Availability Zones
AWS Console
CLI Tools
Java, JS, Python,
PHP
.NET, Ruby,
Node.js, iOS,
Android
SDK’s
Compute Storage NetworkingSecurity Control
Databases Analytics App Services Mobile
Services
Deployment
Tools

7. AWS Platform
WorkSpaces Zocalo
A
P
I
Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)
Regions Availability Zones
AWS Console
CLI Tools
Java, JS, Python,
PHP
.NET, Ruby,
Node.js, iOS,
Android
SDK’s
Compute Storage NetworkingSecurity Control

8. Getting Started
• Sign up for free!
• Use the free usage tier's
– Try “most” AWS products for free
– The Console alerts you when its not free

9. Free Tier

10. Free Tier

11. Free Tier

12. Billing Alerts
Even if you are careful sometimes you can incur charges, so its best to set up a
billing alert as your first task.
• Billing alerts will email you if you exceed a certain value
• You can even alert if you go $0.01 over the free tier usage
• It’s a simple 9 step process found here:
• http://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/create-billing-alarm.html

13. What to build?
The free tier is good for simple, low to moderate usage websites
Perfect to try a WordPress Blog with the following components:
• EC2 Linux Server (running apache)
• I recommend Amazon Linux as a a t2.micro
• RDS MySQL Database
• Choose the none multi-AZ deployment and db.t2.micro
• Elastic Load Balancer (not needed as only one server but
good to learn)
• S3 Storage (For storing files uploaded to WordPress)
• CloudFront (Optional but good for taking pressure off the
server)
• SES (for sending emails to users)
• Identity controls
• IAM for user access
Guide: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/hosting-wordpress.html

14. Taking WordPress Further
The previous guide only goes so far, so have a play and add in the extra
services. Try using RDS instead of installing MySQL. You’ll get a better
performing website. You should end up with something like this:

15. Taking WordPress Further
These building blocks aren’t that different to a full scale deployment to run very
large sites. There are just more parts. You’ve now got all the skills to do this.

16. Resources
• AWS Sign Up
– http://aws.amazon.com/
• AWS Free Tier Information
– http://aws.amazon.com/free/
• AWS Billing Alerts
– http://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/create-billing-alarm.html
• AWS Documentation
– http://aws.amazon.com/documentation/
• Running WordPress on AWS
– http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/hosting-wordpress.html
• AWS Plugins for WordPress:
– S3 / CloudFront
• W3 Total Cache: https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/
– SES
• WP-SES: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-ses/
• Forums + Meetup Groups
• Official Forum:
– https://forums.aws.amazon.com/index.jspa
• AWS User Group East
– http://www.meetup.com/AWS-User-Group-East/