Big news over the weekend! I passed my Introduction to Cryptography exam from WGU. That makes 4 courses done in 2 months. For those of you who don't know, I am currently completing the Bachelor of Science in Cloud Computing (BSCC) program from Western Governors University (WGU). Although I have completed my Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and Master of Science in Cybersecurity & Information Assurance degrees (as well as an Associate of Science in Networking), I wanted to complete this third degree to strengthen my knowledge of Infrastructure and Cloud Computing.
As you can see from my degree plan below, I was able to transfer in a lot of credit from my previous degrees. This only left me with 10 courses to finish the BSCC degree. This degree path also comes with a good list of certifications; many of which I have already achieved. When I take the C924 - Cloud Deployment & Operations course, it will require me to pass the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate examination. The good thing with WGU is that certification vouchers are included in your tuition!
I'm currently working on my paper for the C188 - Software Engineering course and should have that course completed by the weekend. That's right! Some WGU courses are that easy to complete. Competency-based learning. My goal is to have all 10 courses completed by the end of my current 6-month term. I started on Jan 1 and have until June 30. If you want to know more about WGU, please feel free to use my Refer-A-Friend link.
AWS Work
I was able to get an AWS hands-on project completed this past weekend. I took a look at the "Build a Serverless Web Application" project which was a tutorial on creating a serverless web application. This project incorporated deploying a static website full of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and image files through CodeCommit with AWS Amplify and then incorporating a Lambda function to communicate with DynamoDB table. The website Users were authenticated and managed through Amazon Cognito.
The project took a little figuring out because that was really my first experience working with Git and deploying code with versions. So I basically did a little WebDev, even though I didn't create any code as AWS provided me with the website elements and the Lambda code. If you follow the steps they provide in the tutorial, you start to understand how one website can include a network of systems and applications to work.
Overall, it was a fun and relatively simple project to complete. If you get all the resources configured and working within a few hours, you'll definitely spend less than $0.25 in AWS usage. Build it, test it, capture it (with screenshots or videos), then delete all the resources.
That's all I have for a Monday. I've started to work on the Cloud Resume Challenge, but at my own pace. I eventually want to include it in my portfolio of work for BrandonsCloud.com.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of this! Don't stop learning!
-Brandon