CST 489 - Week 7

 Hey everyone,

This week, I expanded my understanding of AWS databases, security, governance, migration, pricing, and architectural best practices.

I reviewed database services including Amazon RDS and Aurora for relational workloads, DynamoDB for NoSQL applications, Neptune for graph data, and DocumentDB for document-based use cases. I also learned how Amazon ElastiCache improves performance through in-memory caching. A key takeaway was understanding when to choose managed services versus unmanaged deployments on EC2.

I explored migration services such as AWS DMS, AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT), Migration Hub, DataSync, and Transfer Family. I reinforced knowledge of the 7 Rs migration strategies and the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF), particularly the importance of change management through the People perspective.

On security and governance, I reviewed IAM best practices (principle of least privilege), AWS KMS for encryption key management, AWS Shield for DDoS protection, AWS Config for compliance monitoring, AWS Organizations for consolidated billing, and Service Control Policies (SCPs). I also learned how AWS CloudTrail tracks user activity and how AWS Trusted Advisor provides optimization recommendations.

In cost management, I studied pricing fundamentals (compute, storage, and outbound data transfer), AWS Pricing Calculator, support plans, and cost-optimization practices like rightsizing EC2 instances.

Finally, I applied Well-Architected Framework principles—especially reliability and cost optimization—understanding the importance of eliminating single points of failure and designing for scalability.

Overall, these modules strengthened my ability to align AWS services with business, operational, security, and financial goals.

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