14-Day AWS Cloud Support Engineer Challenge

Core Principles

• Least Privilege Principle for all IAM roles and policies
• Cost optimization and resource cleanup
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using AWS CDK or Terraform
• Mermaid diagrams for architecture visualization
• Draw.io diagrams with AWS 2025 icons
• Daily cleanup of resources

Challenge Structure

Days 1-3: Completed

• Day 1: Serverless API with Lambda and API Gateway
• Day 2: High-availability web application
• Day 3: Container orchestration with ECS/Fargate

Days 4-7: Infrastructure & Security

• Day 4: Database Solutions

  • RDS with read replicas
  • DynamoDB with global tables
  • Backup and recovery strategies
  • Cost optimization techniques

• Day 5: Storage Solutions

  • S3 with lifecycle policies
  • EFS for shared storage
  • EBS with snapshots
  • Storage optimization

• Day 6: Advanced Networking

  • VPC with public/private subnets
  • Transit Gateway setup
  • VPN configuration
  • Network ACLs and security

• Day 7: Security Hardening

  • IAM roles with least privilege
  • Security Groups and NACLs
  • WAF rules
  • AWS Shield

Days 8-11: Monitoring & Optimization

• Day 8: Monitoring & Logging

  • CloudWatch metrics and alarms
  • CloudTrail audit logging
  • X-Ray tracing
  • Log retention policies

• Day 9: Serverless Architecture

  • Step Functions workflows
  • EventBridge rules
  • SQS/SNS integration
  • Lambda layers

• Day 10: Disaster Recovery

  • Multi-region setup
  • Backup strategies
  • Recovery procedures
  • RTO/RPO planning

• Day 11: Cost Optimization

  • AWS Cost Explorer
  • Budgets and alerts
  • Resource tagging
  • Reserved Instances

Days 12-14: Advanced Integration

• Day 12: Hybrid Cloud

  • AWS Direct Connect
  • VPN connections
  • Route 53
  • Hybrid DNS

• Day 13: Advanced Security

  • AWS KMS
  • Secrets Manager
  • Certificate Manager
  • Security Hub

• Day 14: Final Project

  • Multi-service architecture
  • CI/CD pipeline
  • Monitoring and alerting
  • Cost optimization
  • Security hardening

Daily Checklist

• Architecture diagram in Draw.io
• Mermaid diagram for flow
• IaC implementation
• Security review
• Cost estimation
• Resource cleanup
• Documentation
• Testing
• Performance optimization

Cost Control Measures

• Use AWS Free Tier services where possible
• Implement auto-scaling based on demand
• Schedule resource shutdown during non-business hours
• Use spot instances for non-critical workloads
• Regular cost analysis and optimization
• Immediate cleanup of unused resources