Leanpub Header

Skip to main content
Go to Leanpub.com

The Practical AWS Guide

Design, Build, Secure, Automate, and Operate Production-Grade Workloads on Amazon Web Services

The Practical AWS Guide
This book is 100% completeLast updated on 2026-07-30
Steve Publications

Whether you're deploying your first AWS application or managing cloud infrastructure at scale, The Practical AWS Guide helps you design, build, secure, automate and operate reliable AWS environments. Through practical examples, real-world architectures and proven best practices, you'll learn the skills needed to build scalable, secure and cost-effective solutions with confidence.

Minimum price

$19.00

$29.00

You pay

Author earns

$

Also available for 1 book credit with a Reader Membership

PDF
EPUB
WEB
APP
159
Pages
About

About

About the Book

This book takes you from cloud fundamentals through advanced architecture patterns across every major AWS service domain. You will learn how to design secure multi-account environments, build resilient networking with VPC and Transit Gateway, choose the right compute and storage for each workload, implement automated CI/CD pipelines, architect serverless applications, deploy AI/ML solutions with Bedrock and SageMaker, optimize costs with FinOps practices, build production-grade observability, govern at enterprise scale, and troubleshoot real-world problems. Every chapter includes concrete examples, architecture decisions, best practices drawn from AWS documentation and community experience, and actionable recommendations you can apply immediately. Whether you are preparing for an AWS certification or designing your next production workload, this book gives you the practical knowledge to move confidently from concept to deployment.

Share this book

Categories

AWSInfrastructure as CodeCloud Computing

Feedback

Contact the author

Bundles

Bundles that include this book

Author

About the Author

Steve Publications

Steve is a technology professional with more than 20 years of experience spanning software development, server infrastructure, cybersecurity, vulnerability research and reverse engineering. His work focuses on understanding complex systems, uncovering security weaknesses and developing practical solutions that make technology more secure, reliable and effective.

Through Steve Publications, he collaborates with experienced researchers, engineers and industry experts to create practical, technically rigorous books on various topics not limited to self-improvement, software development, cybersecurity, cloud computing, DevOps, artificial intelligence and enterprise technologies. His mission is to make complex technical subjects accessible through clear explanations, real-world examples and hands-on exercises that help IT professionals, students and technology enthusiasts build valuable, practical skills.

Steve Publications embraces AI as a supporting tool for translation, proofreading and editorial refinement, not as a substitute for original research, technical expertise, or hands-on experience. Some contributors choose to publish under pseudonyms to protect their privacy or maintain professional boundaries.

Behind every book is a commitment to technical accuracy, practical relevance and continuous improvement. Our publications are written, reviewed and maintained by experienced professionals, with support from a private community of more than 420 engineers and researchers. Rather than prioritizing volume or mass-produced AI-generated content, we focus on delivering reliable, useful resources that readers can apply in real-world environments.

We also welcome experienced professionals who want to share their knowledge by writing or reviewing books, particularly in specialized and emerging technology fields. If you have expertise to contribute, we invite you to get in touch and explore opportunities to collaborate.

Our commitment is simple: To deliver books that respect our readers' time, support their professional growth and provide lasting practical value. If a book does not meet your expectations, Leanpub offers a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Contents

Table of Contents

Design, Build, Secure, Automate, and Operate Production-Grade Workloads on Amazon Web Services

Introduction: The Cloud Is Not a Place, It Is a Discipline

Chapter 1: Cloud Foundations — Why AWS, How AWS Works

  1. What Is Cloud Computing? IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS Compared
  2. Why AWS Leads the Market
  3. The Global Infrastructure: Regions, Availability Zones, and Edge Locations
  4. The Shared Responsibility Model
  5. Core AWS Concepts: Accounts, APIs, SDKs, and the CLI
  6. The Well-Architected Framework

Chapter 2: Identity and Access Management — Security by Design

  1. IAM Hierarchy: Users, Groups, Roles, and Policies
  2. Policy Language: JSON Documents, Conditions, and Effects
  3. Federation and Workforce Identity: IAM Identity Center
  4. IAM Roles for AWS Services
  5. Least Privilege in Practice
  6. MFA, Password Policies, and Access Key Management
  7. Organizations, SCPs, and Multi-Account Strategy

Chapter 3: Networking and Connectivity — VPC Deep Dive

  1. VPC Architecture: CIDR Blocks, Subnets, and Route Tables
  2. Internet Gateways, NAT Gateways, and Outbound Connectivity
  3. VPC Endpoints: Interface and Gateway Types
  4. Security Groups vs. Network ACLs
  5. Peering, Transit Gateway, VPN, and Direct Connect
  6. Route 53: DNS Management and Routing Policies

Chapter 4: Compute — EC2, Lambda, Containers, and Beyond

  1. EC2 Instance Families and Selection
  2. Purchasing Options: On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, and Savings Plans
  3. Auto Scaling and Capacity Planning
  4. Lambda: Serverless Compute Patterns
  5. Container Orchestration: ECS vs. EKS
  6. Choosing the Right Compute for Your Workload

Chapter 5: Storage — The AWS Storage Hierarchy

  1. Object Storage: S3 Classes and Lifecycle Management
  2. Block Storage: EBS Types and Performance
  3. File Storage: EFS and FSx
  4. Bridging On-Premises and Cloud: Storage Gateway
  5. Security, Encryption, and Access Control

Chapter 6: Databases — Relational, NoSQL, Warehousing, and Caching

  1. RDS and Aurora: Architecture and Selection
  2. DynamoDB: Capacity Modes and Patterns
  3. Redshift: Data Warehousing and Spectrum
  4. ElastiCache: In-Memory Caching
  5. Migration Strategies with DMS and SCT

Chapter 7: DevOps and Automation — CI/CD, IaC, and GitOps

  1. Infrastructure as Code: CloudFormation, CDK, and Terraform
  2. AWS CDK Deep Dive
  3. CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy
  4. Deployment Strategies: Blue/Green, Canary, and Rolling
  5. Testing Infrastructure with Guard and cfn-lint

Chapter 8: Serverless Architecture Patterns

  1. Event-Driven Architecture Principles
  2. API Gateway: REST, HTTP, and WebSocket APIs
  3. Lambda Function Design and Optimization
  4. Step Functions: State Machines and Workflows
  5. The Messaging Backbone: SNS, SQS, and EventBridge
  6. Streaming with Kinesis

Chapter 9: AI, ML, and Generative AI on AWS

  1. SageMaker: Training, Hosting, and Pipelines
  2. Bedrock: Foundation Models and RAG Patterns
  3. Applied AI Services: Rekognition, Transcribe, Translate
  4. Building AI Applications: Architecture Patterns
  5. Cost and Performance Considerations

Chapter 10: Monitoring, Logging, and Observability

  1. CloudWatch: Metrics, Logs, Dashboards, and Alarms
  2. X-Ray: Distributed Tracing with OpenTelemetry
  3. Container Insights for ECS and EKS
  4. Log Management Strategies
  5. Alerting Best Practices and Runbooks

Chapter 11: Cost Optimization and Financial Operations

  1. Pricing Models Explained
  2. Right-Sizing Compute and Storage
  3. Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, and Spot
  4. Storage Tiering and Data Transfer Costs
  5. Tagging, Allocation, and FinOps Practices

Chapter 12: Governance, Compliance, and Multi-Account Strategy

  1. AWS Organizations: Management Accounts and OUs
  2. Control Tower: Landing Zones and Guardrails
  3. AWS Config: Rules and Conformance Packs
  4. Security Hub, GuardDuty, Macie, and Inspector
  5. Compliance Frameworks and Data Residency

Chapter 13: Real-World Deployment Strategies and Case Studies

  1. Three-Tier Web Application Architecture
  2. E-Commerce Platform: High Availability and Scaling
  3. Data Pipeline Architecture
  4. Migration Strategies: Lift-and-Shift to Refactor
  5. Disaster Recovery Patterns

Chapter 14: Troubleshooting and Operational Excellence

  1. Systematic Troubleshooting Methodology
  2. Networking Troubleshooting
  3. Compute Troubleshooting
  4. Storage Troubleshooting
  5. Database Troubleshooting
  6. IAM and Access Debugging

Chapter 15: Certification Paths and Career Growth

  1. AWS Certification Landscape
  2. Solutions Architect Path
  3. DevOps Engineer Path
  4. Specialty Certifications
  5. Building a Lab Environment for Practice
  6. Real-World Experience vs. Certification
  7. Continuing Education and Staying Current

Conclusion: The Cloud Journey Ahead

References

Get the free sample chapters

Click the buttons to get the free sample in PDF or EPUB, or read the sample online here

Download Sample PDFDownload Sample EPUB

The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee

Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.

See full terms...

Earn $8 on a $10 Purchase, and $16 on a $20 Purchase

We pay 80% royalties on purchases of $7.99 or more, and 80% royalties minus a 50 cent flat fee on purchases between $0.99 and $7.98. You earn $8 on a $10 sale, and $16 on a $20 sale. So, if we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book for $20, you'll earn $80,000.

(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

Free Updates. DRM Free.

If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).

Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.

Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.

Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them

Write and Publish on Leanpub

You can use Leanpub to easily write, publish and sell in-progress and completed ebooks and online courses!

Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors, combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks.

Leanpub is a magical typewriter for authors: just write in plain text, and to publish your ebook, just click a button. (Or, if you are producing your ebook your own way, you can even upload your own PDF and/or EPUB files and then publish with one click!) It really is that easy.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub