Cloud Architecture in Practice

What you will be able to do

• You will be able to apply Well-Architected principles across the AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud frameworks to evaluate a design for cost, reliability, security, performance, and operational excellence.
• You will be able to design a multi-account landing zone with an organization hierarchy, environment separation, and centralized identity that scales without slowing teams down.
• You will be able to write service control policies and organization guardrails that enforce governance as code instead of relying on manual review gates.
• You will be able to architect a segmented, hub-and-spoke network with private connectivity and zero trust access aligned to NIST SP 800-207.
• You will be able to embed data protection into a design using encryption, key management, and boundary controls mapped to CIS Benchmarks and the CSA Cloud Controls Matrix.
• You will be able to capture design decisions as Architecture Decision Records and explain them with C4-style diagrams that different audiences can actually read.
• You will be able to run a structured trade-off analysis and defend your architecture in front of a review board, naming the risks you accepted and why.
• You will be able to produce a landing zone reference architecture and decision log that an engineering team could implement from.

What is inside

4 modules, 8 lessons. Each module ends in a graded quiz and most carry an assignment.

1. 01

   Cloud Architecture Foundations and Governance

   Good cloud architecture starts with a way of deciding, not a favorite service. This module builds your decision frame using the Well-Architected frameworks and the Cloud Adoption Framework, then turns governance into guardrails you can automate instead of meetings you have to attend. You will learn to record why a design is the way it is, so the next architect (or auditor) is not left guessing.

   2 lessons · 5 quiz questions

2. 02

   Landing Zones and Multi-Account Structure

   The landing zone is the foundation every workload inherits, and the multi-account structure is expensive to change once teams depend on it. This module builds the organization hierarchy from the root down: policy-driven OUs, purpose-built foundational accounts, and a deliberately minimal management account. You then design the machinery that lets teams move fast without losing control: account vending, a centralized identity foundation running on temporary credentials, environment separation by account, and preventive guardrails enforced with service control policies. By the end you can defend an account structure to both an auditor and an engineer in a hurry.

   2 lessons · 5 quiz questions · assignment

3. 03

   Security and Network Architecture

   Security in the cloud is an architecture decision before it is a tooling decision. This module builds the network from the topology up: segmentation and blast-radius control, hub-and-spoke with centralized inspection, and private connectivity that keeps traffic off the public internet. It then layers NIST SP 800-207 zero trust access and data protection by design on top, and closes by threat modeling the whole design against CIS Benchmarks so every control answers a real attack path, not a checklist item.

   2 lessons · 5 quiz questions

4. 04

   Communicating and Defending Design Trade-offs

   A design nobody understands is a design nobody will approve. This module shows you how to document architecture at the right altitude using C4 diagrams and Architecture Decision Records, run a structured trade-off analysis when cost, resilience, and delivery speed collide, and defend your choices in an architecture review by naming the risks you accepted out loud.

   2 lessons · 5 quiz questions · assignment