Overview
Running production AWS environments demands more than console familiarity. Your team needs to build monitoring that catches problems before customers do, design architectures that survive failures without manual intervention, automate deployments that don’t break at 2 AM, and enforce security policies that actually hold up under audit.
This three-day, instructor-led course builds those skills through hands-on practice with real AWS resources. Participants work through ten focused sessions covering monitoring and observability, performance optimization, high availability, disaster recovery, infrastructure as code, security and compliance, networking, and content delivery. Every session pairs focused instruction with a hands-on lab where participants configure, troubleshoot, and optimize the same services they use at work.
This course is fully aligned to the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator — Associate (SOA-C03) exam blueprint, covering all five exam domains. Participants who complete the course are well-positioned to sit the certification exam — but the primary goal is building the operational skills your team uses every day.
Business Impact
Faster incident resolution — Participants build monitoring dashboards, configure composite alarms, and learn to correlate logs across services, reducing the time it takes to find and fix production issues.
More resilient infrastructure — Hands-on practice with Auto Scaling, Multi-AZ architectures, backup strategies, and disaster recovery means your team can design systems that survive failures without scrambling.
Safer, faster deployments — Participants automate infrastructure with CloudFormation, implement change sets and drift detection, and practice deployment strategies that reduce the risk of breaking production.
Stronger security posture — Your team implements least-privilege IAM policies, enables compliance monitoring with AWS Config and Security Hub, and configures network protection — skills that directly reduce your organization’s attack surface.
Certification readiness — The course covers 100% of the SOA-C03 exam blueprint. Participants leave with a personalized study plan and the confidence to pursue certification on their own timeline.
What Participants Will Be Able to Do
- Build comprehensive monitoring and alerting using CloudWatch metrics, composite alarms, and cross-account dashboards to maintain visibility across AWS environments.
- Troubleshoot production issues using CloudWatch Logs, CloudTrail, X-Ray traces, and VPC Flow Logs to identify root causes quickly and systematically.
- Design resilient architectures using Auto Scaling, Multi-AZ deployments, cross-Region replication, and disaster recovery strategies that keep applications available.
- Automate infrastructure provisioning and deployments using CloudFormation, including drift detection, change sets, and safe rollback strategies.
- Enforce security and compliance using IAM policies, permission boundaries, AWS Config rules, Security Hub standards, and encryption with KMS.
- Configure and troubleshoot VPC architectures, DNS routing with Route 53, content delivery with CloudFront, and network protection with WAF and Shield.
Agenda
| Day | Session | What Participants Do |
| 1 | CloudWatch Metrics, Alarms, and Dashboards | Configure custom CloudWatch metrics, build composite alarms for complex failure scenarios, and create cross-account dashboards. The lab involves building a complete monitoring solution for a multi-tier application. |
| 1 | Logging, Tracing, and Automated Remediation | Correlate CloudWatch Logs, CloudTrail events, and X-Ray traces to diagnose a production issue, then automate the remediation using EventBridge and Systems Manager. The lab walks through a realistic troubleshooting scenario from alert to resolution. |
| 1 | Performance Optimization | Analyze performance bottlenecks using CloudWatch metrics, Performance Insights, and Compute Optimizer, then implement optimization strategies. The lab involves diagnosing and resolving performance issues across compute, storage, and database services. |
| 2 | Scalability, Elasticity, and High Availability | Configure Auto Scaling groups with target tracking and step policies, implement Multi-AZ architectures, and design for fault tolerance. The lab involves building a resilient architecture that survives simulated component failures. |
| 2 | Backup, Restore, and Disaster Recovery | Implement backup strategies with AWS Backup, configure cross-Region replication for S3 and RDS, and practice disaster recovery procedures. The lab includes a full backup-and-restore exercise with recovery time validation. |
| 2 | Infrastructure as Code and Deployment Automation | Author CloudFormation templates, use change sets to preview modifications, detect and remediate drift, and implement deployment strategies with CodeDeploy. The lab involves deploying, updating, and rolling back a multi-resource stack. |
| 3 | Identity, Access Management, and Compliance | Implement least-privilege IAM policies with permission boundaries, troubleshoot access issues using Access Analyzer and CloudTrail, and enable compliance monitoring with AWS Config and Security Hub. The lab covers a complete security hardening exercise. |
| 3 | VPC Architecture, Connectivity, and Troubleshooting | Build multi-tier VPC architectures with public, private, and isolated subnets, configure VPC endpoints and peering, and troubleshoot connectivity using Flow Logs and Reachability Analyzer. The lab involves building and debugging a complete network topology. |
| 3 | DNS, Content Delivery, and Network Security | Configure Route 53 routing policies for high availability, deploy CloudFront distributions with origin access control, and apply WAF rules to protect web applications. The lab covers DNS failover, content delivery optimization, and web application protection. |
| 3 | Exam Strategy and Domain Review | Review all five exam domains, apply question interpretation and elimination strategies to practice questions, and build a personalized study plan based on a gap analysis. Participants leave with a concrete action plan for certification. |
Total: three days of instruction with hands-on labs in every session.
Who Should Attend
- System administrators and operations engineers managing production AWS environments
- DevOps engineers responsible for deployment pipelines, monitoring, and incident response
- Cloud engineers building and maintaining AWS infrastructure
- Team leads who want to deepen their hands-on AWS operational skills
- IT professionals who want to formalize their AWS expertise with an industry-recognized certification
Prerequisites
- At least one year of hands-on experience with core AWS services (EC2, S3, VPC, IAM)
- Familiarity with the AWS Management Console and AWS CLI
- Basic understanding of networking concepts (DNS, TCP/IP, subnets, firewalls)
- An AWS account with administrative access for hands-on labs
- AWS Cloud Practitioner certification or equivalent knowledge is helpful but not required
What’s Included
- Three days of expert instructor-led training delivered by the course author
- Digital student guide covering all ten sessions with lab instructions
- Ten hands-on labs using real AWS resources
- AWS service quick reference cards organized by operational domain
- Exam domain coverage map with personalized study priorities
Delivery Format
This course is available as instructor-led training delivered in person or virtually.
Approximately 45% of the course is hands-on lab work — participants configure, troubleshoot, and optimize real AWS resources throughout every session. Labs use goal-oriented instructions appropriate for experienced practitioners, with facilitator support available for complex scenarios.
In-person delivery: Client provides the training venue and participant workstations with internet access. Travel and expenses are billed separately.
Virtual delivery: Delivered via video conference with screen sharing. Participants need a reliable internet connection, a modern browser, and access to the AWS Management Console.
Customization: Industry-specific examples and scenarios can be incorporated into the standard delivery at no additional cost. Custom lab scenarios built to your specifications are available as an add-on.
What Makes This Course Different
Built by a practitioner, not a publisher. The course author delivers every session — you get direct access to deep AWS operational expertise, not a rotating pool of contract instructors reading slides.
Hands-on in every session. Ten labs using real AWS resources, not simulations. Participants leave with muscle memory, not just slide knowledge.
Full SOA-C03 alignment. The course covers 100% of the exam blueprint across all five domains. Participants who want certification have a clear path; those who don’t still get comprehensive operational skills.
Small-group format. Every participant gets individual attention during labs. Questions get answered, not queued.