IBM Hybrid Cloud Architect Professional Certificate

This intermediate-level course equips IT professionals with practical skills to manage cloud operations, monitoring, security, and compliance in hybrid and multicloud environments. You will explore foundational operations concepts, including Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles, Service-Level Indicators (SLIs), Service-Level Objectives (SLOs), and error budgets. You'll also apply Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for automated deployments and recovery strategies, and design effective monitoring and observability systems using tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and CloudWatch.

In addition, you will configure identity and access management (IAM), implement encryption and zero trust principles, and align architectures with compliance frameworks, including System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The course concludes with a final project where you integrate operations, monitoring, and security strategies into a cohesive, job-ready design for hybrid cloud systems.

This course examines the design and operation of hybrid and multicloud solutions and systems. You’ll explore how organizations plan, structure, and govern environments that span on-premises infrastructure and multiple cloud providers. The course covers foundational concepts such as cloud service models, deployment patterns, connectivity, cost accountability, and governance. You’ll also examine architectural topics including availability, resilience, workload portability, data placement, observability, and security across distributed systems. Advanced sections introduce automation, infrastructure as code, reliability patterns, and operational trade-offs in complex environments. Through videos, readings, podcasts, scenarios, and a final project, the course presents real-world considerations that influence architectural decisions. The content emphasizes clear terminology, common patterns, and practical constraints that shape hybrid and multicloud designs in enterprise settings.

The Hybrid Cloud Capstone Project serves as the culminating course in the professional certificate program, enabling learners to apply and integrate hybrid and multi-cloud concepts in a real-world scenario. Designed for IT professionals aspiring to become Cloud Architects, Cloud Engineers, or Network Engineers, this intermediate-level capstone emphasizes practical application of strategic and technical cloud competencies. Over an estimated 6–8 hours of guided learning, participants synthesize skills in hybrid cloud architecture, global traffic management, data sharding, disaster recovery planning, cost modelling, and system resilience.

The course is structured across five sequential modules, beginning with requirements gathering and business process modelling to frame business and technical objectives. Learners then progress to hybrid-ready application design and deployment strategies, emphasizing RESTful microservices, containerization, and CI/CD automation. Subsequent modules explore robust hybrid architectures, disaster recovery and compliance frameworks, followed by operational excellence through monitoring, automation, security, and resilience planning. Throughout the course, participants produce key artifacts—including requirement documents, architecture designs, process models, and deployment strategies—culminating in a final integrated project submission. With over 15 animated videos, 12 instructional readings, and multiple quizzes, this capstone blends conceptual depth with applied practice. By its conclusion, learners demonstrate the ability to design, secure, and sustain enterprise-class hybrid cloud systems aligned with business and compliance goals.