This Is How I Taught Myself Cloud Engineering
And now I build real production systems used by customers. You can do the same, too.
Welcome back to this new edition of What’s New Cloud Newsletter, where I share my insights on AWS cloud, AI/ML news, Terraform feature updates and DevOps Trends.
I served as the QA Testing & Reporting Lead on the OSDU project for a Fortune 100 company while working at one of the Big 5 consulting firms.
At the time, I had experience in program management, system administration, and AWS cloud advisory. However, I realized that if I wanted to lead a team of cloud engineers, architects, and cybersecurity analysts, I needed to become more technical.
In my off hours, I created a practical roadmap to help both myself and the team continue building and improving our OSDU SaaS platform.
I taught myself AWS Cloud Engineering (Part I)
If you’re learning AWS without preparing for production, you’re wasting time.
Here’s the production-ready roadmap I’d follow:
1. Master Linux, Python & Automation (Your Core Foundation)
If you can’t automate, you can’t scale.
If you can’t script, you can’t operate in AWS.
First thing first, focus on:
→ Linux fundamentals, shell scripting
→ Python for automation
→ Git, troubleshooting, debugging
Top Courses I Recommend:
Linux for Beginners: Linux Basics
https://www.udemy.com/course/linux-for-beginners-2021/Automate Everything with Python
https://www.udemy.com/course/automate-everything-with-pythonGoogle IT Automation with Python
https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-it-automationThe Git & Github Bootcamp
2. Build a Strong AWS Foundation (The Part Everyone Must Master)
Know the fundamentals before jumping into fancy architectures.
Focus on:
→ IAM, VPC, EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda
→ Networking, security, identity, monitoring
→ Understanding shared responsibility model
Resources I used:
AWS Cloud Practitioner
https://www.coursera.org/learn/aws-cloud-practitioner-essentialsUltimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Stephane Maarek)
https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-saa-c03AWS Networking Deep Dive
https://www.pluralsight.com/cloud-lab/aws-networking
3. Hands-On with Cloud Architecture & DevOps
This is where good engineers become great engineers.
Focus on:
→ CI/CD pipelines
→ Containers & serverless patterns
→ Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or CloudFormation)
→ Observability (CloudWatch, X-Ray, logging)
Top Resources:
You don’t need every resource listed on this roadmap. Pick the ones aligned with your goals.
But if you want production-ready AWS Cloud Engineering skills, don’t skip the engineering fundamentals.
That’s it for Part I.
Subscribe to my newsletter and receive Part II directly to your inbox or visit the homepage in a couple days for Part II.
Stay tuned for more updates. I cover cloud news, AWS releases, AI/ML changes, Terraform automation, and the trends shaping DevOps—three times a week, all in one place.