- [Seph] Welcome, you all, I'm Seph. Glad you're here for our course on the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. Before we start diving directly into the content, I wanted to take this time to help you understand the focus of this certification, and what it provides. And I know many of you are already aware of the benefits of becoming an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, and that's why you're here, but to make sure everyone's on the same page, I wanted to talk about the certification. To start, this exam is intended for individuals who have an overall understanding of the AWS Cloud, whether you're in or seeking a technical or non-technical role, the knowledge gained while working to pass this exam is great for building credibility. The knowledge I speak of highlights your overall understanding of the AWS Cloud, and the core AWS services, use cases, security concepts, billing and pricing models, and how cloud impacts your business. Not only is this a good starting point as you progress in AWS, this is also great for building confidence when working with your projects, and can better enable you to communicate and collaborate on cloud initiatives. Once you pass the certification exam, in addition to your certification, you'll also receive a digital badge. This is great for gaining recognition, as it can be showcased as part of your email signature, as well as displayed with your profile across various social and networking platforms. If you're looking to let colleagues know of your achievements, or are just looking to pursue or advance in technical roles, the AWS Certifications are a recognized and sought-after way of letting employers know your level of AWS knowledge, skills, and experience. As far as that foundational knowledge that I keep mentioning, the certification validates your ability to demonstrate an overall knowledge of the AWS Cloud. Ideally, you should have 6 months of active engagement with AWS, or the equivalent, with exposure to cloud design, implementation, and operations. You'll be tested on your knowledge of the AWS Cloud concepts, security and compliance comprehension, understanding of the core AWS services, and your understanding of the cloud economics. During the exam, you'll be asked to complete tasks, like explaining the value of the AWS Cloud, describe and position the core AWS services, including compute, network, database, and storage, and identify AWS services for common use cases. You'll also be expected to explain the AWS shared responsibility model, understand security best practices, and show your understanding of AWS Cloud costs, economics, and billing practices. I know that sounds like a very broad range of topics. And you may be wondering about how you would begin to prepare and assess your readiness for the exam, but that's why you're here. In this course, we'll do a number of things to help guide you in your preparation. One of the things we'll be doing is guiding you through the domains outlined in the exam guide. The guide, which you can find included in the notes of this course, is organized into four domains relating to the topics necessary to cover for the exam. Domain one is cloud concepts. This covers the knowledge around defining the AWS Cloud and its value proposition, identifying aspects of AWS Cloud economics, and explaining the different cloud architecture design principles. Domain two, which is security and compliance, covers the AWS shared responsibility model, security and compliance concepts, AWS access management capabilities, and resources for security support. The AWS technology is covered in domain three. This domain reviews methods of deploying and operating in the AWS Cloud, the AWS global infrastructure, the core AWS services, and resources for technology support. The fourth and final domain focuses on billing and pricing. This is where you look at various pricing models for AWS, evaluate account structures in relation to AWS billing and pricing, and review resources available for billing support. Throughout the course, you'll also see some other aids to help in your assessment and preparation, as you ready yourself for the exam, but everything will be related to these topics. So, you know, our goal here is not to provide every bit of information you'll need for these topics. Instead, we want to provide a method for you to do a couple of things. One, is that we want to enable you to assess your readiness for the exam through covering the topic domains. You should be able to evaluate if you're ready to move forward with registering for the exam, or if you need more preparation. The other goal is to provide a way for you to structure your continued study. As you assess the areas where you feel strong or weak, we are here to help clarify and explain the context of the domain topics, so that you're able to best understand what they're asking of you. Using that information, you can then evaluate the areas you need to cover, and understand how you need to dive into those topics. Good luck as you go through, and I hope you find the value you're looking for in the content. See you soon.