CLF-C02: Study Notes

Comprehensive study notes for the CLF-C02 AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification.

← Back to Overview | ← Objectives | Exam Tips →

Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (24%)

1.1: Benefits of the AWS Cloud

Six Advantages of Cloud Computing

Trade Capital Expense for Variable Expense
- No upfront data center costs
- Pay only for what you consume
- Lower variable costs due to economies of scale
Benefit from Massive Economies of Scale
- AWS achieves higher economies of scale
- Lower pay-as-you-go prices
- Hundreds of thousands of customers = lower costs
Stop Guessing Capacity
- Scale up or down as needed
- No expensive idle resources
- Access as much or as little as you need
Increase Speed and Agility
- New resources in minutes, not weeks
- Experiment quickly and cost-effectively
- Foster innovation
Stop Spending Money Running and Maintaining Data Centers
- Focus on your business, not infrastructure
- Let AWS handle the heavy lifting
- Redirect resources to revenue-generating activities
Go Global in Minutes
- Deploy applications in multiple Regions worldwide
- Provide lower latency and better experience
- Minimal cost

Why This Matters for the Exam

Questions often test your understanding of when each benefit applies. For example, "A company wants to reduce latency for global users" → Go global in minutes.

1.2: AWS Well-Architected Framework

The framework consists of 6 pillars:

1. Operational Excellence

Focus: Run and monitor systems to deliver business value
Key Concepts:
- Perform operations as code (Infrastructure as Code)
- Make frequent, small, reversible changes
- Refine operations procedures frequently
- Anticipate failure
- Learn from operational events

Services: CloudFormation, Systems Manager, CloudWatch, AWS Config

2. Security

Focus: Protect information, systems, and assets
Key Concepts:
- Implement strong identity foundation
- Enable traceability
- Apply security at all layers
- Automate security best practices
- Protect data in transit and at rest
- Keep people away from data
- Prepare for security events

Services: IAM, KMS, GuardDuty, Security Hub, WAF, Shield

3. Reliability

Focus: Ensure workloads perform intended functions correctly and consistently
Key Concepts:
- Automatically recover from failure
- Test recovery procedures
- Scale horizontally
- Stop guessing capacity
- Manage change through automation

Services: Auto Scaling, Multi-AZ deployments, S3, Backup, CloudFormation

4. Performance Efficiency

Focus: Use computing resources efficiently
Key Concepts:
- Democratize advanced technologies
- Go global in minutes
- Use serverless architectures
- Experiment more often
- Consider mechanical sympathy

Services: Lambda, Fargate, Aurora Serverless, CloudFront

5. Cost Optimization

Focus: Avoid unnecessary costs
Key Concepts:
- Implement cloud financial management
- Adopt consumption model
- Measure overall efficiency
- Stop spending on undifferentiated heavy lifting
- Analyze and attribute expenditure

Services: Cost Explorer, Budgets, Trusted Advisor, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans

6. Sustainability

Focus: Minimize environmental impact
Key Concepts:
- Understand your impact
- Establish sustainability goals
- Maximize utilization
- Use managed services
- Reduce downstream impact

Services: S3 Intelligent-Tiering, EC2 Auto Scaling, Lambda

Common Exam Trap

Don't confuse the 6 pillars of Well-Architected Framework with the 5 characteristics of cloud computing. They're different concepts!

1.3: Cloud Migration Strategies - The 7 Rs

Strategy	Description	When to Use	Example
Retire	Decommission applications	App is no longer needed	Legacy apps with low usage
Retain	Keep in source environment	Not ready to migrate	Mainframe apps requiring refactoring
Rehost	"Lift and shift"	Quick migration, minimal changes	Move VMs to EC2 as-is
Relocate	Move to AWS without changes	Hypervisor-level migration	VMware Cloud on AWS
Repurchase	Replace with SaaS	Move to cloud-native solution	Migrate from on-prem CRM to Salesforce
Replatform	"Lift, tinker, and shift"	Some cloud optimization	Move to RDS instead of self-managed DB
Refactor	Re-architect	Maximize cloud benefits	Redesign monolith to microservices

Exam Decision Pattern

Fastest migration → Rehost (lift and shift)
Minimal changes → Rehost or Relocate
Moderate optimization → Replatform
Maximum cloud benefits → Refactor
Replace commercial software → Repurchase

1.4: Cloud Economics

On-Premises vs. Cloud Costs

On-Premises (Fixed Costs):

❌ Server hardware purchase
❌ Data center real estate
❌ Cooling and power
❌ IT staff for maintenance
❌ Over-provisioning for peak capacity

Cloud (Variable Costs):

✅ Pay for what you use
✅ Scale up/down as needed
✅ No upfront investment
✅ Operational expenditure (OpEx) not capital (CapEx)

AWS Pricing Models

Model	Description	Use Case	Discount
On-Demand	Pay by hour/second	Short-term, unpredictable workloads	None
Reserved Instances (RI)	1 or 3 year commitment	Steady-state applications	Up to 75%
Spot Instances	Bid on spare capacity	Fault-tolerant, flexible workloads	Up to 90%
Savings Plans	Commit to usage ($/hour)	Flexible compute	Up to 72%

Critical Exam Fact

Spot Instances can be interrupted with 2-minute notice. Never use for critical, time-sensitive workloads!

Domain 2: Security and Compliance (30%)

2.1: AWS Shared Responsibility Model

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│      Customer Responsibility            │
│     (Security IN the cloud)             │
│                                          │
│  • Customer data                         │
│  • Platform, applications, IAM          │
│  • Operating system, network & firewall │
│  • Client-side encryption               │
│  • Server-side encryption (optional)    │
│  • Network traffic protection           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│       AWS Responsibility                 │
│     (Security OF the cloud)             │
│                                          │
│  • Hardware / AWS Global Infrastructure │
│  • Regions, AZs, Edge Locations         │
│  • Compute, storage, database, network  │
│  • Software (hypervisor, OS for managed)│
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Responsibility by Service Type

Service Type	AWS Responsibility	Customer Responsibility
Infrastructure (EC2)	Hardware, hypervisor, physical security	OS, applications, data, network config, security groups
Container (RDS)	OS patching, DB installation, hardware	DB credentials, user permissions, data, encryption settings
Abstract (S3, Lambda)	Everything except...	Data, access policies, encryption options

Exam Pattern

"Who manages OS patches?"

EC2 → Customer
RDS → AWS
Lambda → AWS (no OS to patch!)

2.2: Compliance and Governance

AWS Artifact

Purpose: Access AWS compliance reports
Features:
- Download security and compliance documents
- AWS ISO certifications
- SOC reports
- PCI reports

Key Compliance Programs

Program	Industry	What It Covers
HIPAA	Healthcare	Protected Health Information (PHI)
PCI DSS	Payment cards	Credit card data security
FedRAMP	US Government	Federal cloud security
GDPR	EU	Data privacy and protection
SOC 1/2/3	General	Service organization controls

Common Mistake

AWS provides infrastructure compliance, but you are responsible for how you use it. Example: S3 is HIPAA-eligible, but YOU must configure encryption and access controls properly.

Encryption

At Rest:

Data stored on disk
Services: S3, EBS, RDS
Tool: AWS KMS (Key Management Service)

In Transit:

Data moving between locations
Protocols: TLS/SSL, HTTPS
Services: CloudFront, ELB

2.3: Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Core IAM Concepts

Users: Individual people or applications

Each has unique credentials
Long-term access keys (avoid if possible)

Groups: Collection of users

Apply policies to multiple users
Users can belong to multiple groups
Cannot nest groups

Roles: Temporary credentials for services or users

No permanent credentials
Assumed by users, applications, or AWS services
Best practice for EC2, Lambda, etc.

Policies: JSON documents defining permissions

json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "s3:GetObject",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*"
    }
  ]
}

Principle of Least Privilege

✅ Do: Grant minimum permissions needed ❌ Don't: Give admin access by default

Example:

Developer needs S3 read access → Grant s3:GetObject only
Not s3:* (all S3 actions)
Not AdministratorAccess policy

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Types:

Virtual MFA device (app on phone) - Most common
Hardware MFA device (physical token)
U2F security key (YubiKey)

Critical Exam Fact

Always enable MFA for root user. This is the #1 security best practice.

IAM Best Practices

✅ Enable MFA for root account
✅ Use roles instead of access keys
✅ Apply least privilege
✅ Rotate credentials regularly
✅ Use groups to assign permissions
✅ Monitor activity with CloudTrail

2.4: Security Services

AWS Shield

Purpose: DDoS protection
Shield Standard: Free, automatic protection
Shield Advanced: $3,000/month, advanced protection + DDoS response team

AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall)

Purpose: Protect web applications from common exploits
Features:
- SQL injection protection
- Cross-site scripting (XSS) protection
- Rate limiting
- Geo-blocking

Amazon GuardDuty

Purpose: Intelligent threat detection
How: Analyzes logs (VPC Flow, CloudTrail, DNS)
Detects: Cryptocurrency mining, suspicious API calls, compromised instances

AWS Security Hub

Purpose: Central security and compliance view
Features:
- Aggregates findings from GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie
- Compliance checks against standards (CIS, PCI DSS)
- Prioritized security alerts

Decision Table: Which Security Service?

Scenario	Service
Protect against DDoS attacks	AWS Shield
Filter web traffic by rules	AWS WAF
Detect threats across AWS accounts	Amazon GuardDuty
Central security dashboard	AWS Security Hub
Encrypt data	AWS KMS
Discover sensitive data in S3	Amazon Macie

Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services (34%)

3.1: Deployment and Operations

Methods of Interacting with AWS

Method	Use Case	Example
AWS Management Console	Visual, browser-based	Best for beginners, exploring services
AWS CLI	Command-line automation	Scripts, DevOps workflows
AWS SDKs	Programmatic access	Application integration (Python, Java, etc.)
AWS CloudFormation	Infrastructure as Code	Deploy entire environments with templates
AWS CDK	IaC with programming languages	Define infrastructure in TypeScript, Python

Cloud Deployment Models

Model	Description	Example
Cloud	100% on AWS	Startup with no on-premises infrastructure
Hybrid	Mix of AWS and on-premises	Extend on-prem datacenter with AWS for bursting
On-Premises	Private cloud (not AWS)	Use AWS Outposts in your datacenter

3.2: AWS Global Infrastructure

Key Components

AWS Regions

Geographic area with multiple AZs
30+ Regions worldwide
Choose based on:
- ✅ Latency (proximity to users)
- ✅ Compliance (data residency)
- ✅ Service availability
- ✅ Pricing

Availability Zones (AZs)

One or more discrete data centers
Each Region has 2-6 AZs
Connected with high-bandwidth, low-latency networking
Isolated for fault tolerance

Edge Locations

400+ locations worldwide
Used by CloudFront (CDN)
Cache content closer to users
More locations than Regions

Exam Decision Pattern

Low latency for users → Deploy in Region closest to users
High availability → Deploy across multiple AZs
Fast content delivery → Use CloudFront edge locations
Data must stay in specific country → Choose appropriate Region

3.3: Compute Services

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Instance Types (Remember the pattern):

Family	Purpose	Example Use Case
General Purpose (T, M)	Balanced CPU/memory	Web servers, dev environments
Compute Optimized (C)	High CPU	Batch processing, gaming servers
Memory Optimized (R, X)	High RAM	Databases, caches
Storage Optimized (I, D, H)	High I/O	Data warehouses, Hadoop
Accelerated Computing (P, G)	GPU	Machine learning, graphics

Purchasing Options:

On-Demand: Pay by hour/second
Reserved: 1 or 3 year commitment
Spot: Bid on spare capacity (up to 90% discount)
Dedicated Hosts: Physical server for compliance

AWS Lambda

Serverless compute service

No servers to manage
Pay only for compute time (per millisecond)
Automatic scaling
Event-driven

Use Cases:

✅ Image processing when uploaded to S3
✅ Real-time file processing
✅ Data transformation
✅ Backends for web/mobile apps

Limits:

⚠️ Max execution time: 15 minutes
⚠️ Max memory: 10 GB

Container Services

Service	Description	When to Use
Amazon ECS	AWS-native container orchestration	Run Docker containers on AWS
Amazon EKS	Managed Kubernetes	Already using Kubernetes
AWS Fargate	Serverless containers	Don't want to manage servers for containers

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Deploy applications without managing infrastructure
Supports: Java, .NET, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, Docker
AWS handles: Capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, monitoring

3.4: Database Services

Decision Table: Which Database?

Requirement	Service	Type
Traditional SQL database	Amazon RDS	Relational
MySQL/PostgreSQL compatible, serverless	Amazon Aurora	Relational
NoSQL, millisecond latency at any scale	Amazon DynamoDB	NoSQL
In-memory cache (Redis/Memcached)	Amazon ElastiCache	Cache
Data warehouse, analytics on petabytes	Amazon Redshift	Data warehouse
MongoDB-compatible	Amazon DocumentDB	Document DB
Graph database	Amazon Neptune	Graph

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service)

Supported Engines:

MySQL
PostgreSQL
MariaDB
Oracle
SQL Server
Amazon Aurora (MySQL/PostgreSQL compatible)

Benefits:

✅ Automated backups
✅ Automated patching
✅ Multi-AZ for high availability
✅ Read replicas for scalability

Multi-AZ vs Read Replicas:

Feature	Multi-AZ	Read Replicas
Purpose	High availability	Read scalability
Synchronous	Yes	No (asynchronous)
Can be in different Region	No	Yes
Automatic failover	Yes	No
Can query	No (standby)	Yes

Amazon DynamoDB

NoSQL database

Key-value and document storage
Millisecond latency at any scale
Serverless (auto-scaling)
Fully managed

Use Cases:

Gaming applications (leaderboards)
IoT applications
Mobile apps
Real-time bidding

3.5: Networking Services

Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)

Your own isolated network in AWS

Key Components:

Subnets: Segment your VPC
- Public subnet: Has internet access
- Private subnet: No direct internet access
Internet Gateway (IGW): Allows internet access
NAT Gateway: Allows private subnets to access internet (outbound only)
Route Tables: Control traffic routing
Security Groups: Virtual firewall for instances (stateful)
Network ACLs: Subnet-level firewall (stateless)

Exam Trap: Security Groups vs NACLs

Feature	Security Group	Network ACL
Level	Instance	Subnet
Stateful	Yes (return traffic auto-allowed)	No (must explicitly allow return traffic)
Rules	Allow rules only	Allow and Deny rules
Default	Deny all inbound	Allow all traffic

Amazon Route 53

AWS DNS service

Register domain names
Route users to applications
Health checks

Routing Policies:

Simple: Single resource
Weighted: Distribute traffic across resources
Latency: Route to lowest latency
Failover: Active-passive failover
Geolocation: Route based on user location

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Distribute traffic across multiple targets

Types:

Application Load Balancer (ALB): HTTP/HTTPS (Layer 7)
Network Load Balancer (NLB): TCP/UDP (Layer 4), ultra-low latency
Gateway Load Balancer: Deploy 3rd-party virtual appliances

Amazon CloudFront

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Cache content at edge locations
Reduce latency
DDoS protection
SSL/TLS encryption

3.6: Storage Services

Decision Table: Which Storage Service?

Requirement	Service	Type
Object storage, static websites	Amazon S3	Object
Archival, long-term backup	S3 Glacier	Object (archive)
Block storage for EC2	Amazon EBS	Block
Shared file storage (Linux)	Amazon EFS	File
Shared file storage (Windows)	Amazon FSx	File
Hybrid cloud storage	AWS Storage Gateway	Hybrid

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Object storage service

Store and retrieve any amount of data
11 9's of durability (99.999999999%)
Buckets (containers) and objects (files)

Storage Classes:

Class	Use Case	Cost	Retrieval Time
S3 Standard	Frequently accessed	$$$$	Immediate
S3 Intelligent-Tiering	Unknown/changing access	Auto	Immediate
S3 Standard-IA	Infrequent access	$$$	Immediate
S3 One Zone-IA	Infrequent, non-critical	$$	Immediate
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval	Archive, immediate access	$	Milliseconds
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval	Archive	$	Minutes to hours
S3 Glacier Deep Archive	Long-term archive	¢	12+ hours

Exam Pattern

Frequently accessed → S3 Standard
Infrequent access → S3 Standard-IA
Archive, rarely accessed → Glacier
Cheapest archive → Glacier Deep Archive
Unknown access pattern → Intelligent-Tiering

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)

Block storage for EC2 instances

Persistent storage (survives instance stop/start)
Attached to single EC2 instance
Snapshots for backup

Volume Types:

gp3/gp2 (SSD): General purpose
io2/io1 (SSD): High performance, databases
st1 (HDD): Throughput-optimized, big data
sc1 (HDD): Cold storage, infrequently accessed

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Shared file storage

NFS protocol
Thousands of EC2 instances can access simultaneously
Elastic (grows/shrinks automatically)
Linux only

3.7: AI/ML and Analytics Services

AI/ML Services

Service	Purpose	Example Use Case
Amazon SageMaker	Build, train, deploy ML models	Custom ML models
Amazon Rekognition	Image and video analysis	Detect objects, faces in images
Amazon Lex	Build conversational interfaces	Chatbots
Amazon Polly	Text-to-speech	Create voiceovers
Amazon Transcribe	Speech-to-text	Generate captions
Amazon Translate	Language translation	Translate text
Amazon Comprehend	Natural language processing	Sentiment analysis

Analytics Services

Service	Purpose
Amazon Athena	Query S3 data with SQL (serverless)
Amazon Kinesis	Real-time data streaming
AWS Glue	ETL service (extract, transform, load)
Amazon QuickSight	Business intelligence dashboards
Amazon EMR	Big data processing (Hadoop, Spark)

3.8: Other Important Services

Application Integration

Service	Purpose	Pattern
Amazon SNS	Pub/sub messaging	One message to many subscribers
Amazon SQS	Message queuing	Decouple application components
Amazon EventBridge	Event bus	Route events between services

Exam Pattern

Fan-out (1 to many) → SNS
Queue/buffer between services → SQS
Event-driven architecture → EventBridge

Developer Tools

AWS CodeCommit: Git repository
AWS CodeBuild: Build and test code
AWS CodeDeploy: Automated deployments
AWS CodePipeline: CI/CD orchestration

Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%)

4.1: Pricing Models

EC2 Pricing Comparison

Model	Commitment	Discount	Flexibility	Use Case
On-Demand	None	0%	High	Short-term, unpredictable
Reserved	1-3 years	Up to 75%	Low	Steady-state apps
Spot	None	Up to 90%	Low (can be terminated)	Fault-tolerant workloads
Savings Plans	1-3 years	Up to 72%	Medium	Flexible compute usage

Free Tier

Always Free:

Lambda: 1M requests/month
DynamoDB: 25 GB storage
SNS: 1M publishes
CloudWatch: 10 metrics

12 Months Free:

EC2: 750 hours/month (t2.micro or t3.micro)
S3: 5 GB storage
RDS: 750 hours/month

Trials:

SageMaker: 2 months
Redshift: 2 months

4.2: Cost Management Tools

AWS Cost Explorer

Purpose: Visualize and analyze costs
Features:
- View costs by service, region, tag
- Forecast future costs
- Identify cost trends
- Recommend Reserved Instances

AWS Budgets

Purpose: Set custom cost and usage budgets
Features:
- Email alerts when threshold exceeded
- Budget types: Cost, usage, Reserved Instance, Savings Plans
- Multiple alert thresholds

AWS Cost and Usage Report

Most detailed cost data
Export to S3
Analyze in Athena or QuickSight

Consolidated Billing (AWS Organizations)

One bill for multiple accounts
Volume discounts apply across accounts
Share Reserved Instances and Savings Plans

Cost Optimization Strategies

✅ Use Reserved Instances for steady workloads
✅ Rightsize instances (don't over-provision)
✅ Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering
✅ Delete unused EBS volumes and snapshots
✅ Use Auto Scaling
✅ Leverage Spot Instances where appropriate

4.3: AWS Support Plans

Plan	Price	Use Case	Response Time	Technical Support
Basic	Free	All customers	N/A	None (forums only)
Developer	$29+/month	Testing/development	12-24 hours	Business hours email
Business	$100+/month	Production workloads	1 hour (urgent)	24/7 phone, email, chat
Enterprise On-Ramp	$5,500+/month	Production + mission-critical	30 minutes	24/7 + TAM access
Enterprise	$15,000+/month	Mission-critical	15 minutes	24/7 + dedicated TAM

TAM = Technical Account Manager (proactive guidance)

AWS Trusted Advisor

Automated best practice checks

5 Categories:

Cost Optimization: Idle resources, Reserved Instance recommendations
Performance: Over/under-utilized resources
Security: MFA on root, public S3 buckets, security groups
Fault Tolerance: EBS snapshots, Multi-AZ RDS
Service Limits: Approaching service quotas

Access:

Basic/Developer: 7 core checks
Business/Enterprise: All checks + API access

Quick Reference: Key Service Limits

Service	Limit	Can Increase?
S3 bucket names	Globally unique	N/A
EC2 instances per region	20 (default)	Yes (request)
Lambda execution time	15 minutes max	No
Lambda memory	10 GB max	No
S3 object size	5 TB max	No
VPCs per region	5 (default)	Yes

← Back to Overview | ← Objectives | Exam Tips →

CLF-C02: Study Notes ​

Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (24%) ​

1.1: Benefits of the AWS Cloud ​

Six Advantages of Cloud Computing ​

1.2: AWS Well-Architected Framework ​

1. Operational Excellence ​

2. Security ​

3. Reliability ​

4. Performance Efficiency ​

5. Cost Optimization ​

6. Sustainability ​

1.3: Cloud Migration Strategies - The 7 Rs ​

1.4: Cloud Economics ​

On-Premises vs. Cloud Costs ​

AWS Pricing Models ​

Domain 2: Security and Compliance (30%) ​

2.1: AWS Shared Responsibility Model ​

Responsibility by Service Type ​

2.2: Compliance and Governance ​

AWS Artifact ​

Key Compliance Programs ​

Encryption ​

2.3: Identity and Access Management (IAM) ​

Core IAM Concepts ​

Principle of Least Privilege ​

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) ​

IAM Best Practices ​

2.4: Security Services ​

AWS Shield ​

AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) ​

Amazon GuardDuty ​

AWS Security Hub ​

Decision Table: Which Security Service? ​

Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services (34%) ​

3.1: Deployment and Operations ​

Methods of Interacting with AWS ​

Cloud Deployment Models ​

3.2: AWS Global Infrastructure ​

Key Components ​

3.3: Compute Services ​

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) ​

AWS Lambda ​

Container Services ​

AWS Elastic Beanstalk ​

3.4: Database Services ​

Decision Table: Which Database? ​

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) ​

Amazon DynamoDB ​

3.5: Networking Services ​

Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) ​

Amazon Route 53 ​

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) ​

Amazon CloudFront ​

3.6: Storage Services ​

Decision Table: Which Storage Service? ​

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) ​

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) ​

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) ​

3.7: AI/ML and Analytics Services ​

AI/ML Services ​

Analytics Services ​

3.8: Other Important Services ​

Application Integration ​

Developer Tools ​

Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%) ​

4.1: Pricing Models ​

EC2 Pricing Comparison ​

Free Tier ​

4.2: Cost Management Tools ​

AWS Cost Explorer ​

AWS Budgets ​

AWS Cost and Usage Report ​

Consolidated Billing (AWS Organizations) ​

4.3: AWS Support Plans ​

AWS Trusted Advisor ​

Quick Reference: Key Service Limits ​

CLF-C02: Study Notes

Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (24%)

1.1: Benefits of the AWS Cloud

Six Advantages of Cloud Computing

1.2: AWS Well-Architected Framework

1. Operational Excellence

2. Security

3. Reliability

4. Performance Efficiency

5. Cost Optimization

6. Sustainability

1.3: Cloud Migration Strategies - The 7 Rs

1.4: Cloud Economics

On-Premises vs. Cloud Costs

AWS Pricing Models

Domain 2: Security and Compliance (30%)

2.1: AWS Shared Responsibility Model

Responsibility by Service Type

2.2: Compliance and Governance

AWS Artifact

Key Compliance Programs

Encryption

2.3: Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Core IAM Concepts

Principle of Least Privilege

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

IAM Best Practices

2.4: Security Services

AWS Shield

AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall)

Amazon GuardDuty

AWS Security Hub

Decision Table: Which Security Service?

Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services (34%)

3.1: Deployment and Operations

Methods of Interacting with AWS

Cloud Deployment Models

3.2: AWS Global Infrastructure

Key Components

3.3: Compute Services

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

AWS Lambda

Container Services

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

3.4: Database Services

Decision Table: Which Database?

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service)

Amazon DynamoDB

3.5: Networking Services

Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)

Amazon Route 53

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Amazon CloudFront

3.6: Storage Services

Decision Table: Which Storage Service?

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

3.7: AI/ML and Analytics Services

AI/ML Services

Analytics Services

3.8: Other Important Services

Application Integration

Developer Tools

Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support (12%)

4.1: Pricing Models

EC2 Pricing Comparison

Free Tier

4.2: Cost Management Tools

AWS Cost Explorer

AWS Budgets

AWS Cost and Usage Report

Consolidated Billing (AWS Organizations)

4.3: AWS Support Plans

AWS Trusted Advisor

Quick Reference: Key Service Limits