Technology
How to Become a Cloud Engineer
Learn how to design, deploy, automate, and manage cloud infrastructure.
What does a Cloud Engineer do?
Cloud engineers build and maintain infrastructure using cloud platforms, networking, compute, storage, identity, and automation technologies.
Skills you'll need
Networking
Understand how devices, applications, and networks communicate.
Why it matters: Cloud environments are fundamentally built on networking concepts such as routing, subnets, DNS, and connectivity.
Linux
Use the Linux operating system and command line to manage systems.
Why it matters: Linux is widely used for cloud workloads and is an important foundation for managing infrastructure.
AWS
Build and manage infrastructure using Amazon Web Services.
Why it matters: A major cloud platform provides the infrastructure services you will use to build practical cloud systems.
Terraform
Define and provision infrastructure using infrastructure as code.
Why it matters: Infrastructure as code allows cloud infrastructure to be created consistently and reproducibly.
Docker
Package applications into portable containers.
Why it matters: Containers provide a standard way to package and deploy applications in modern infrastructure.
Typical learning path
Cloud Foundations
~45 hoursLearn networking, Linux, and the fundamental concepts behind cloud infrastructure.
Skills
Milestone: Explain how networking, operating systems, and core cloud services work together.
Cloud Infrastructure
~55 hoursBuild practical infrastructure using compute, storage, networking, and identity services.
Skills
Milestone: Deploy a functioning cloud environment using multiple infrastructure services.
Infrastructure as Code
~45 hoursLearn to define and automate cloud infrastructure using Terraform.
Skills
Milestone: Deploy your cloud environment using infrastructure as code rather than configuring resources manually.
Containers & Cloud Automation
~35 hoursLearn how containers package applications and how containerized workloads fit into modern cloud infrastructure.
Skills
Milestone: Build and run a containerized application and explain how it could be deployed in a cloud environment.
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