Top 5 Online Courses to learn Cloud Computing in 2020 - Best of Lot

Cloud Computing is becoming an essential skill for any Software developer or IT professional today as more and more companies are moving towards Cloud for their infrastructure and service needs. It pays to learn Cloud Computing today as the most likely application will be solely building and deploy in the cloud in the future. No matter what your role is, if you are working in technology, cloud computing is going to affect you, one way or another. Anyway, if you want to learn cloud computing then you have come to the right place, in this article, I am going to share some of the best courses to learn Cloud computing basics in general and with AWS and GCP in particular.

To be honest, I have had a tough time finding an excellent course to learn Cloud Computing, after trying a handful of courses on Udemy, Pluralsight, Educative, and Coursera, I have finally zeroed down into following five directions to learn basics of Cloud Computing.

These courses provide a broad introduction to all aspects of cloud computing, but before going to see these courses let's first understand what is cloud and what benefit it provides? What problem cloud solves, and why is there so much buzz about it?

Well, Cloud has a different meaning for different people and also used to refer different things in a different context, but in general, cloud means a host of services that are ready to use for your application. There are many Cloud service provider companies like AWS (Amazon Web Service), GCP (Google Cloud Platform), and Microsoft Azure, which provides these services.

Now, what are those services? Well, these could be servers, networks, storage, computing power, and other infra related services commonly offered and referred to as IaaS (Infrastructure as service). There are other cloud models as well, like PaaS(Platform as Service) and SaaS(Software as service), but let's focus on IaaS first to understand the benefits provided by Cloud.

Not long ago, in order to host a real-world E-commerce application, you need to buy servers, networks, storage and need to set them up to your requirements like installing the required software and operating system. Most of the companies have their own Data Center where these servers are kept, and there was a high cost involved to keep those data center running.

It was just initial time and cost for setting up the server, but also their utilization was poor; for example, secondary servers are often idle just wasting that precious CPU and memory power. The effect was more evident on big companies which own thousands of servers across multiple data center on the world.

Amazon was one such company, which quickly realize that by using virtualization, they can use the computing power of their infrastructure and that gives birth to the cloud. In the cloud, you can spin up a server, database, network very quickly with just some clicks and you will only be charged for whatever you use. So this solves the problem of setup, utilization, and scalability.

Top 5 Online Courses to Learn Cloud Computing for Beginners

Now that you know what cloud is and what benefits it offers in terms of cost, ease of setup, efficiency, and scalability, it's time to deep dive and goes through these online training courses, which will help you to learn Cloud Computing fundamentals better.

1. Cloud Computing Concepts by Coursera

This is one of the best online courses to learn about Cloud Computing on Coursera. I strongly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn the basics of cloud computing.

The course material is excellent, and instructor Indranil Gupta is phenomenal. He is exceptionally thorough, and his delivery is excellent as well, which makes learning a joyful experience.

On top of this, exams are marvelous and help you to retain the knowledge you have learned. This course is also part of Coursera's Cloud Computing Specialization , which is nothing but a collection of some individual sessions to learn different areas of Cloud computing.

This course is also part of the 100%online Master in Computer Science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. If you have joined to the full program, your course will also count towards your degree learning as well.

For online learners, this specialization provides a self-paced learning option, practice quizzes, graded assignments with peer feedback, graded quizzes, and sharable certificates, which you can put on your LinkedIn profile.

2. Introduction to Cloud Computing with Amazon Web Services

When I started learning about Cloud, it was a very abstract thing for me; I wasn't able to understand what the cloud is and why everyone is talking about the cloud. It was like a person without a face, but when I learned about AWS, I could co-relate various cloud concepts very quickly.

So, AWS is like putting a face on Cloud, and that's why I recommend this course for anyone starting to learn about Cloud.

This course explains key concepts of clouds like Iaas, PaaS, and Saas with examples from AWS, which makes it easy to learn what Cloud is and what benefits it offer.

Knowing AWS is also a plus because it's one of the most popular Cloud platforms, and your experience with AWS will also boost your CV for any AWS job or for a developer job where AWS skills are desired.

Talking about social proof, this course is created by Infinite Skills and has, on average, 4.2 ratings from close to 2400 students, which is excellent. I recommend these books for absolute beginners who want to learn about Cloud computing in general and with AWS.

3. Getting Started with Cloud Computing - Level 1

This is another beginner-level course on Cloud Computing, which I often recommend to my readers. This course will provide you a fundamental understanding of what cloud computing is and explains the essential characteristics of cloud computing.

It also explains 3 main services models like IaaS (Infrastructure as Service), SaaS (Software as Service), and PaaS (Platform as Service), along with 4 cloud deployment models like private, public, hybrid and community model.

On top of that, you will learn the key benefits of public cloud services like AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure. Overall an excellent Cloud computing beginner course for anyone who is just starting off.

4. Cloud Computing: The Big Picture By David Chappell

Some of you might know that I also have Pluralsight membership and its one of my goto place for online learning. So, when I started learning about Cloud Computing in general and AWS in particular, I looked into Pluralsight for some learning material and get hooked to this course.

This course provides a good overview of cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, as well as private clouds (bringing cloud technology on-premises).

By the time you’re done, you’ll know what cloud computing is all about and be ready to start exploring specific implementations.

So, if you have Pluralsight membership , this course is for you. If you don't have a membership, it's worth getting as you get access to almost 6000+ top-quality courses for just $29/month or $299/year.

If you want to try, you can also get access to this course for free by taking their 10-day free trial .

5.AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

To be honest with you, this is the course that teaches you most about cloud and cloud computing to me. I learned most when I started preparing for the AWS Certified Solution Architect exam; unfortunately, I couldn't carry on and need to drop in the middle as I didn't have any time to progress further with exams, but taking this course was the best decision for me.

The instructor Ryan Kroonenburg and Faye Ellis are some of the well-known Cloud experts and run a site with the name CloudGuru which is quite right given their extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of AWS Cloud. They also hold most of the AWS cloud certification you can think of.

This is the best course to pass the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate Exam, but it also teaches you a lot of small details about cloud computing with AWS. You learn how the services you use on a daily basis on cloud works like S3, IAM, etc.

Talking about the social proof, this course has, on average, 4.5 ratings from 132,775 ratings and 417,354 students enrolled, which is massive for any stretch of the imagination. No doubt that this course is the best-seller on Udemy, and most of the AWS certified people I have met have taken this course.

In short, if you are preparing for AWS certification, then this course is a must, but even if you are learning Cloud Computing, take this course to learn from these knowledgeable Cloud experts.

That's all about some of the best online courses to learn Cloud Computing. There is no better time to learn Cloud computing than today, and I recommend every programmer to learn and get familiar with Cloud computing because no matter what you are doing, your job will be affected by clouds and if you don't pay attention now, you will be left behind in future.

Just knowing about public cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure will also help you to get a job quickly as more and companies are looking for professionals who can operate on these public clouds. In other words, Cloud Computing is a handy skill for IT professionals, and you should pay attention to it.

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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these Cloud Computing online courses, then please share it with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.

P. S. - If you are new into the world of Cloud and AWS and looking for some free courses to learn Amazon Web Service, then you can also check this list of Free AWS Courses for Beginners on Java67.