AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02): Monitoring, Security, and Pricing
Field | Description |
Purpose | To master the "Operational Excellence" and "Security" pillars of AWS, focusing on governance, cost management, and risk mitigation to ensure a safe and cost-effective cloud environment. |
Audience | Technical and business professionals who need to understand the financial and administrative guardrails required for production workloads on AWS. |
Role | Junior Cloud Administrators, IT Managers, Finance/Procurement Specialists, and Compliance Officers. |
Domain | Cloud Governance / Security & Compliance / Financial Management (FinOps). |
Skill Level | Beginner (Fundamental). |
Style | A practical administrative guide featuring critical labs on cost budgeting, security monitoring (Security Hub), and system observability. |
Duration | 1.5 - 2 Days. |
Related Technologies | Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, AWS IAM, AWS Organizations, Security Hub, and AWS Budgets. |
Course Description
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02): Monitoring, Security, and Pricing focuses on the management and protection of your cloud investment. This course teaches you how to keep a "watchful eye" on your infrastructure using CloudWatch for performance and CloudTrail for auditing. You will dive deep into the Principle of Least Privilege using IAM and explore how to govern large-scale environments with AWS Organizations. A major highlight of this module is the focus on the "Bottom Line"—understanding how data transfer, storage, and compute choices impact your monthly bill, and how to use AWS Budgets to prevent cost overruns.
Who is this course for
This course is intended for:
Account Administrators: Those responsible for setting up security guardrails and managing multi-account structures.
FinOps & Procurement: Professionals who need to predict, monitor, and optimize cloud spending using AWS Cost Management tools.
Compliance Officers: Individuals who need to understand how AWS supports regulatory requirements and where to find audit reports.
CLF-C02 Candidates: This covers the "Security and Compliance" and "Pricing and Billing" domains, which are often the most challenging sections of the exam for technical and non-technical learners alike.
Course Objectives
Observability: Differentiate between Monitoring (CloudWatch) and Auditing (CloudTrail) and build dashboards to visualize system health.
Identity & Access: Implement the Principle of Least Privilege and troubleshoot IAM policies to ensure secure resource access.
Security Operations: Utilize AWS Security Hub to centralize security alerts and respond to events using AWS best practices.
Cost Engineering: Identify the "hidden" drivers of cloud costs, including data transfer and storage tiers, and implement S3 Lifecycle policies for cost savings.
Financial Guardrails: Set up AWS Budgets and alerts to maintain fiscal control over cloud resources.
Governance at Scale: Understand how to manage billing and security across multiple accounts using AWS Organizations and Consolidated Billing.
Prerequisites
Required Foundation: Completion of previous CLF-C02 modules (Foundations, Storage/Networking, and Deployment).
Business Knowledge: A basic understanding of organizational budgeting and administrative workflows is helpful for the Pricing and Governance sections.
How does the Cost Management and Budgeting lab in this course fit into your current project for microskill.ai? Are you planning to set up consolidated billing as you transition from your old domain to the new AI brand?
Course outline
Section 1: Auditing, Monitoring, Logging, and Additional Technology and Services
Introducing Monitoring and Logging on AWS
Exploring Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail
Lab: Getting to Know CloudWatch Dashboards
Managing Many Resources on AWS
Visualize Metrics for Tagged Resources on Amazon CloudWatch
Monitoring Service Health and Best Practices
Understanding Auditing on AWS
Identifying Business and End User Services
Auditing, Monitoring, and Logging Exam Tips
Auditing, Monitoring, Logging, and Additional Technology and Services Quiz
Section 2: Security, Compliance, and Governance
Security: The Bigger Picture
What Do We Need To Secure on AWS?
Illustrating the Principle of Least Privilege
What Is IAM?
Troubleshooting an IAM Policy on an EC2 Instance
Keeping Secrets Safe
Exploring Network Security Services
What Is Security Hub?
Lab: Exploring Security Hub
Responding to Security Events
Growing Your Security Muscles
Governing Multiple Accounts on AWS
Understanding Compliance on AWS
Security, Compliance, and Governance Exam Tips
Security, Compliance, and Governance Quiz
Section 3: Pricing, Billing, and Support
Cloud Costs: The Bigger Picture
Optimizing the Cost of Compute
Understanding Data Storage Costs
Creating an S3 Storage Lifecycle
Understanding Data Transfer Costs
Monitoring and Predicting Costs on AWS
Lab: Setting a Budget Alert in Your AWS Account
Managing Costs in a Multi-Account Environment
Monitoring The Cost of Resource Groups
Seeking Support From AWS
Exploring Other Sources of Support
Pricing, Billing, and Support Exam Tips
Pricing, Billing, and Support