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Back to Cloud Computing Applications, Part 1: Cloud Systems and Infrastructure

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Cloud Computing Applications, Part 1: Cloud Systems and Infrastructure by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

4.3
stars
822 ratings

About the Course

Welcome to the Cloud Computing Applications course, the first part of a two-course series designed to give you a comprehensive view on the world of Cloud Computing and Big Data! In this first course we cover a multitude of technologies that comprise the modern concept of cloud computing. Cloud computing is an information technology revolution that has just started to impact many enterprise computing systems in major ways, and it will change the face of computing in the years to come. We start the first week by introducing some major concepts in cloud computing, the economics foundations of it and we introduce the concept of big data. We also cover the concept of software defined architectures, and how virtualization results in cloud infrastructure and how cloud service providers organize their offerings. In week two, we cover virtualization and containers with deeper focus, including lectures on Docker, JVM and Kubernates. We finish up week two by comparing the infrastructure as a service offering by the big three: Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Week three moves to higher level of cloud offering, including platform as a service, mobile backend as a service and even serverless architectures. We also talk about some of the cloud middleware technologies that are fundamental to cloud based applications such as RPC and REST, JSON and load balancing. Week three also covers metal as a service (MaaS), where physical machines are provisioned in a cloud environment. Week four introduces higher level cloud services with special focus on cloud storage services. We introduce Hive, HDFS and Ceph as pure Big Data Storage and file systems, and move on to cloud object storage systems, virtual hard drives and virtual archival storage options. As discussion on Dropbox cloud solution wraps up week 4 and the course....

Top reviews

SP

Feb 17, 2017

Well structured course. Gives a good overview of the basics of cloud computing. couple of typos in the transcripts. will flag errors in future courses

UN

Apr 9, 2018

Understanding of this course will help you to know more about Cloud Computing and the technologies that drive Big Data

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1 - 25 of 166 Reviews for Cloud Computing Applications, Part 1: Cloud Systems and Infrastructure

By Edwin B

Aug 26, 2018

An ok survey, but it covers too many topics, without going in depth on any of them; despite using a lot of time informing about how great each technology is.

If they cut out 1/2 of the cheerleading about how great everything is, and how flexible everything is, then perhaps there would have been time for presentation of examples, so we could see how easy it is instead of just hearing about it.

By Zhikun L

Aug 4, 2017

This is so far the worst course I take in this specialization. Professor Roy H. Campbell doesn't seem to really understand what he is doing. It gives me a sense of feeling that he is just reciting slides (sometimes he even can't recite the slides in the right way). He can hardly make one complete sentence without destroying the grammar. His mind just keep wanders around, and I simply can't follow him. I took this course out of curiosity of how bad it can be, and it didn't fulfill my purpose. I am not trying to be harsh here. This is my comparison of this course and the cloud computing concepts course. However, I think Reza Farivar did a really good job at explaining topics.

By Jörg S

Feb 5, 2017

Mr. Campbell's presentations are quite boring and consist of a handful of phrases repeated over and over again. The subjects are treated very superficially and the presentation style is confusing. I recommend to other students to read the Wikipedia articles about the subjects instead. Several times it feels like Mr. Campbell has never before seen the slides he is reading from and he is simply inventing stuff. Some information presented is plain wrong. Also, there is repeated talk of practical exercises to come, but that never happens. To Mr. Campbell's presentations, I would only award ONE STAR.

On the other hand I really liked the presentations from Mr. Farivar. He obviously knows what he is talking about and presents the material in a clear and understandable way. He should take over the whole course and let Mr. Campbell do some research back in his office. I would award 4.5 STARS to Mr. Farivar.

The homeworks of this course are simply checking for a very basic understanding of the topics. E.g. "To do this and that, would you use technology A, B, or C?" Where the answer are some quite different technologies.

The course needs more involvement of the students by going more in-depth and adding some practical exercises.

Had the cloud computing specialization started with this course, I would probably have aborted it.

By Uche N

Apr 10, 2018

Understanding of this course will help you to know more about Cloud Computing and the technologies that drive Big Data

By Craig K

Jul 2, 2019

This course had great content (best of the first 3) and covers a lot of the key technologies used in cloud systems.

By Dronesh D

Nov 29, 2018

A really good course to present the entire landscape of Cloud Infrastructure in a concise format. Course provides a good comparison of all the latest technologies and offerings. This will really help anyone working or aspiring to work in this space to make better decisions and choose the optimal solutions.

By Rakesh M

Nov 2, 2021

Excellent course for introduction to Cloud Computing. Bcakground information might be needed to do the quizzes, but the course really gives a great introduction to cloud computing. Both professors are very easy to understand, thank you!

By sanjay p

Feb 18, 2017

Well structured course. Gives a good overview of the basics of cloud computing. couple of typos in the transcripts. will flag errors in future courses

By Luis F P

Oct 20, 2018

The flow of the course was so natural and well explained.

By 강진희

Dec 3, 2019

클라우드 내부의 많은 기술들을 알게 되어 좋은 기회였던거 같습니다.

By Chenrui C

Oct 15, 2017

Very good introductory level courses.

By Norman P

Jun 14, 2017

A really great course for a novice

By Edwin G

Nov 10, 2019

It was difficult to follow the lectures quite often. Sentences weren't clear and consistent at times. The course more-or-less felt like it was being read from a prompt and not very engaging. I would like to have seen more enthusiasm from the lectures. In addition, I don't think that there was a lot of depth into the core technologies that built the tools that were taught. Basically, the course felt like it was more about tools than concepts. For example, I don't understand the point of spending 12 minutes talking about the DropBox API.

By Pratap C

Nov 1, 2016

This course covered many relevant topics to the Cloud that you would't find in any other course. The professors have done a wonderful job. A must for any Architect or folks trying to deploy or support Cloud technologies. Even helpful for application or API developers to understand the Cloud technologies.

By jinwoo, p

Sep 27, 2017

easy to understand the cloud infrastructure and why cloud need for future business and technology.

By Manjeet D

May 5, 2018

Great Course! It gave me solid foundation in understanding cloud computing and its applications.

By Rizwan H

Dec 22, 2018

its Best course for me i'm very satisfied and get knowledge, its better for my future

By LAKSHAYE V

Oct 11, 2018

Excellent videos with appropriate quizzes to check the analyse the depth of learning

By ASHISH M

Jun 30, 2019

Excellent course covering the core concepts of cloud and distributed systems.

By Michael

Sep 28, 2019

Very good high level overview and compare/contrast of cloud technologies.

By Luis R

Aug 14, 2018

Great course. Looking forward to completing the whole specialization!

By lowell s

Mar 10, 2019

Great course on the foundations of the cloud. Excellent Lectures

By Harshal M

Oct 24, 2019

Course content was too good. It covers all basic topi

By Sunil G

Oct 29, 2017

very interesting and informative. Really enjoyed it!

By Lawrence L

Jun 24, 2018

It was an awesome course. Opened up my eyes