Cloud Virtualization, Containers and APIs

Cloud Virtualization, Containers and APIs

This course is part of Building Cloud Computing Solutions at Scale Specialization

Instructor: Noah Gift

18,329 already enrolled

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4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

136 reviews

Beginner level

Recommended experience

3 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

136 reviews

Beginner level

Recommended experience

3 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

Skills you'll gain

Tools you'll learn

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

12 assignments

Taught in English

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There are 4 modules in this course

Welcome to the second course in the Building Cloud Computing Solutions at Scale Specialization! In this course, you will learn to design Cloud-native systems with the fundamental building blocks of Cloud computing. These building blocks include virtual machines and containers. You will also learn how to build effective Microservices using technologies like Flask and Kubernetes. Finally, you will analyze successful patterns in Operations including: Effective alerts, load testing and Kaizen.

This course is ideal for beginners as well as intermediate students interested in applying Cloud computing to data science, machine learning and data engineering. Students should have beginner level Linux and intermediate level Python skills. For your project in this course, you build a containerized Flask application that is continuously deployed to a Cloud platform: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

This week, you will learn how to access the free tiers of three Cloud environments. If you are joining after completing the first course in this Specialization, this will already be familiar to you. You will then have an opportunity to review the details of the final project in this course: Creating a containerized Flask application that is continuously deployed to a Cloud platform. Each week, you will learn and build upon key Cloud development skills to prepare you for this final course project.

What's included

5 videos6 readings1 discussion prompt

5 videosTotal 10 minutes

Instructor Introduction2 minutes
Course Introduction3 minutes
Course Prerequisites2 minutes
Lab Onboarding2 minutes
Course 2 Project Overview2 minutes

6 readingsTotal 75 minutes

Getting Started and Course Gotchas10 minutes
Course Structure and Discussion Etiquette10 minutes
AWS Cloud9 vs AWS CodeCatalyst 10 minutes
Report a problem with the course5 minutes
Create a free account with AWS, Azure and GCP30 minutes
Specialization Project Roadmap: Course 2 10 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 10 minutes

Introductions10 minutes

This week, you will learn to evaluate the correct workflows for virtual machines and containers and how to choose the appropriate solution for the task at end. You will also learn about the powerful container management service: Kubernetes. You will apply this knowledge to create a containerized web service and deploy it to a managed container service.

What's included

26 videos16 readings4 assignments4 discussion prompts3 ungraded labs

26 videosTotal 115 minutes

Introduction to Virtual Machines3 minutes
Containers vs. Virtual Machines3 minutes
How Do Spot Instances Work?3 minutes
Launch an AWS Spot Instance11 minutes
Create a GCP Virtual Machine from Terminal6 minutes
Create Compute Cluster in Azure ML Studio3 minutes
AWS Cloud Shell4 minutes
Google Cloud Shell8 minutes
Introduction to Containers1 minute
Using Containers3 minutes
What is Docker?6 minutes
Run a Container from Docker Hub5 minutes
Build a Docker Container Project from Scratch4 minutes
Push to Project to AWS ECR Registry7 minutes
What is Distroless?3 minutes
Rust Distroless PyTorch Walkthrough7 minutes
Rust Distroless PyTorch Running Demo7 minutes
Introduction to Kubernetes1 minute
Overview of Kubernetes6 minutes
Kubernetes Key Concepts2 minutes
Kubernetes Pods and Nodes1 minute
Kubernetes Cluster1 minute
Deploy App to Kubernetes on GKE6 minutes
Kubernetes Demo6 minutes
Options Container Orchestration2 minutes
Minikube FastAPI Demo7 minutes

16 readingsTotal 190 minutes

Key Terms10 minutes
Red Hat on Containers vs VMs10 minutes
Microsoft Learn on Containers vs VMs10 minutes
Launch VM Quiklabs40 minutes
Lesson Reflection10 minutes
Key Terms10 minutes
Docker Format Containers10 minutes
Container from Scratch (GitHub Repo)10 minutes
Containerized Flask Microservice Locally10 minutes
Distroless Project 10 minutes
Lesson Reflection10 minutes
Key Terms10 minutes
More on Kubernetes10 minutes
Containers and Deployment from an AWS Perspective10 minutes
Lesson Reflection10 minutes
Deploy a Kubernetes Python Flask App10 minutes

4 assignmentsTotal 120 minutes

Quiz30 minutes
Quiz-Virtual Machines30 minutes
Quiz-Containers30 minutes
Quiz-Kubernetes30 minutes

4 discussion promptsTotal 40 minutes

AWS vCPU10 minutes
Advantages of Spot Instances10 minutes
Advantages of Containers10 minutes
Kubernetes as "Planet Scale"10 minutes

3 ungraded labsTotal 180 minutes

Bash Aliases60 minutes
Lint Dockerfile60 minutes
FastAPI Calculator Microservice60 minutes

This week, you will learn to build effective Microservices that comply with DevOps best practices. You will also learn to operationalize Microservices using Continuous Delivery. You will apply this knowledge to create an effective Microservice using AWS Lambda.

What's included

22 videos16 readings4 assignments3 discussion prompts3 ungraded labs

22 videosTotal 89 minutes

Introduction to Microservices2 minutes
What is a Microservice?2 minutes
Running Microservices1 minute
Introduction to Flask2 minutes
What is Flask?3 minutes
Flask Change Microservice5 minutes
Flask Azure Microservice9 minutes
Introduction to Serverless Microservices1 minute
Serverless Functions Overview2 minutes
Build Marco Polo AWS Lambda6 minutes
Build Marco Polo Step Function5 minutes
Build AWS S3 Bucket Trigger4 minutes
CLI Trigger of Lambda3 minutes
Google Cloud Function Change6 minutes
Using AWS Lambda Console5 minutes
Using Step Functions4 minutes
Invoking Step Functions CLI3 minutes
Building Rust AWS Lambda Add Function7 minutes
Building Rust AWS Lambda Divide by Two Function5 minutes
Invoking AWS Step Functions from CLI3 minutes
Rust AWS Step Functions7 minutes
Demo App Engine Rust Deploy5 minutes

16 readingsTotal 160 minutes

Key Terms10 minutes
How To Transform10 minutes
What is JSON?10 minutes
Microservices with AWS Lambda10 minutes
Operationalizing a Microservice10 minutes
Lesson Reflection10 minutes
Key Terms10 minutes
Flask Random Fruit-External Lab10 minutes
Lesson Reflection10 minutes
Key Terms10 minutes
Serverless Cookbook Repository10 minutes
Learn about AWS SAM (Serverless Application Model)10 minutes
Cargo Lambda10 minutes
AWS Step Functions10 minutes
Lesson Reflection10 minutes
Enhance a Flask Microservice10 minutes

4 assignmentsTotal 120 minutes

Quiz30 minutes
Quiz-What is a Microservice?30 minutes
Quiz-Using Flask30 minutes
Quiz-Serverless Microservices30 minutes

3 discussion promptsTotal 30 minutes

Microservices as a DevOps Best Practice10 minutes
Python Decorators in Flask10 minutes
Events versus Polling10 minutes

3 ungraded labsTotal 180 minutes

Processing JSON60 minutes
Flask Change Microservice60 minutes
Marco Polo Command-line tool60 minutes

This week, you will learn to effectively perform Operations. This involves mastering Monitoring and Alerts. A key question about Monitoring and Alerts is what to do when they occur. This question is handled in the following lesson. You will learn how load testing can prevent issues before they arise. Finally, the topic of Kaizen, or continuous improvement, is tackled. All of the topics this week are components of DevOps best practices.

What's included

13 videos14 readings4 assignments3 discussion prompts4 ungraded labs

13 videosTotal 43 minutes

Introduction to Monitoring and Alerts1 minute
Effective Monitoring and Alerts2 minutes
Monitoring, Triggers and Alerts with AWS Cloudwatch6 minutes
Building an Alert from Scratch3 minutes
Monitoring and Logging with Google App Engine Rust Microservice4 minutes
Introduction to Load Testing1 minute
Effective Load Testing3 minutes
Flask Locust Load Test6 minutes
Locust Load Test in GitHub Codespaces3 minutes
Prometheus Monitoring7 minutes
Introduction to Kaizen1 minute
Effective Continuous Improvement3 minutes
What are the 'Five Whys'?3 minutes

14 readingsTotal 140 minutes

Key Terms10 minutes
Scaling and Monitoring10 minutes
Lesson Reflection10 minutes
Key Terms10 minutes
Flask Load Test10 minutes
Prometheus Monitoring10 minutes
Locust First Test10 minutes
Lesson Reflection10 minutes
Key Terms10 minutes
Toyota Production System10 minutes
Load Test a Flask Microservice10 minutes
Create a containerized Flask Machine Learning Microservice10 minutes
Next Steps10 minutes
Share your learning experience10 minutes

4 assignmentsTotal 120 minutes

Quiz30 minutes
Quiz-Monitoring and Alerts30 minutes
Quiz-Load Testing 30 minutes
Quiz-Kaizen30 minutes

3 discussion promptsTotal 30 minutes

Actionable Alerts10 minutes
Load Testing10 minutes
The Five Whys10 minutes

4 ungraded labsTotal 240 minutes

Load Test a Flask Microservice60 minutes
VS Code Sandbox60 minutes
Jupyter Sandbox60 minutes
Linux Desktop Sandbox60 minutes

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Instructor

Instructor ratings

(26 ratings)

Noah Gift

Duke University

40 Courses280,130 learners

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Duke University

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Showing 3 of 136

Reviewed on Jan 17, 2025

Please don't revoke my access till 2026. I want to access again

Reviewed on Dec 12, 2025

Very well strctured course to learn public cloud services and how to leverage them for your applications.

Reviewed on May 16, 2026

Gives a decent broad overview/gist of the tools relevant to containerization and cloud usage.

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