Systems Management and Operations in AWS (CloudOps)

AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer — Associate Cloud operations and systems management, built around you

Have you ever wondered who keeps cloud systems running smoothly behind the scenes — ensuring applications stay online, secure, and performing at their best around the clock?

That's the role of a cloud operations professional. While architects design the systems and developers build the applications, CloudOps (SysOps) administrators are the people who keep everything running — monitoring performance, managing infrastructure, responding to incidents, and making sure every part of the environment is secure, compliant, and cost-efficient.

This course teaches you exactly how to do that — at scale, on AWS, and to industry best-practice standards.

What this course is about

The day-to-day management of cloud infrastructure is one of the most in-demand skill sets in the technology industry. As more businesses move their critical operations to AWS, the need for professionals who can confidently manage, monitor, and maintain those environments has never been greater.

This programme is built for people who want to move beyond the fundamentals and develop the practical, hands-on skills needed to manage complex cloud systems with confidence. It covers everything from environment setup and compute management through to networking, observability, automation, and security operations — all aligned with the official AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer — Associate certification (SOA-C03).

It is also the natural bridge between cloud architecture and the more advanced disciplines of DevOps engineering and security engineering — making it one of the most strategically valuable certifications you can hold at this stage of your cloud career.

What you will learn

• How to set up, configure, and manage scalable, secure AWS environments following AWS best practices
• How to monitor, observe, and respond to issues across complex cloud infrastructure using AWS-native tools
• How to manage compute systems, storage, networking, and databases in a live operational context
• How to automate routine operational tasks to improve efficiency and reduce the risk of human error
• How to implement security controls, manage access, and maintain compliance across AWS accounts
• How to prepare for and respond to incidents, outages, and performance degradation
• How to approach and pass the official AWS Certified SysOps Administrator — Associate exam with confidence

What you will work with

This is a hands-on programme. From early in your training you will be working directly within AWS, completing real operational tasks across the services and scenarios you will encounter in a professional environment. Theory and context are provided where needed, but the focus throughout is on doing — not just watching.

Every session is delivered by an active industry professional with real-world experience managing enterprise AWS environments.

Flexible delivery — designed around your life

We offer multiple training formats so you can learn in the way that works best for you:

One-to-one (1:1) Private, personalised sessions scheduled around your availability. 

Group training (cohort) Prefer to learn alongside others? Our weekend cohort sessions bring motivated learners together in a structured, collaborative environment — a great option if you enjoy the energy of a group and want to build connections with like-minded professionals along the way.

What's included

• Personalised AWS SysOps Administrator — Associate training plan
• Full exam preparation and technique coaching
• Hands-on labs and real-world operational scenarios
• Access to an expert trainer before, during, and after every session
• Guidance on study materials and additional resources

Who this is for

This course is designed for IT professionals who are ready to take their cloud skills to the next level. It is particularly well suited to:

• System administrators looking to transition their skills into AWS and cloud operations
• IT professionals who have completed the AWS Solutions Architect — Associate training and want to build on that foundation
• Anyone currently managing on-premises infrastructure who wants to move into cloud operations
• DevOps and platform engineers looking to formalise their operational knowledge with a recognised certification
• Technical professionals aiming to progress toward DevOps Engineering or AWS Security specialisations

Recommended prior experience: Some background in IT or system administration is beneficial. Completion of the AWS Solutions Architect — Associate training, or equivalent hands-on AWS experience, is recommended before starting this programme. If you're unsure whether you're ready, speak to one of our advisers — we'll give you an honest assessment.

Your outcome

You will complete this programme with the operational skills to manage production AWS environments confidently, a globally recognised certification that validates your expertise, and a clear pathway into the more advanced disciplines of DevOps engineering, security engineering, and cloud platform management.

More than that — you will have the kind of practical, hands-on experience that employers notice immediately.

Not sure if this is the right course for you, or whether you're ready to start? Our student support team is happy to help. Get in touch and we'll give you an honest answer.

This programme is fully aligned with the official AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer - Associate certification.

Every module, lab, and practical exercise is designed not only to build real-world cloud architecture skills, but to ensure you have exactly the knowledge and confidence needed to sit and pass this globally recognised certification.

AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer - Associate exam (SOA-C03)

Course curriculum

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator — Associate

Resource discovery and configuration management

Learn how to maintain full visibility of your AWS environment — tracking what exists, how it's configured, and whether it meets your organisation's compliance requirements at all times.

• Service and resource discovery across your AWS environment
• Recording and tracking configuration changes with AWS Config
• Continuously auditing and verifying compliance across your organisation
• Identifying and responding to configuration drift

Advanced Account security and identity management

Build a secure foundation for your AWS accounts — controlling access, enforcing least privilege, and maintaining visibility of activity across your organisation.

• IAM fundamentals: principals, users, groups, and roles
• Managing credentials, permissions, and access policies
• Monitoring user and resource activity across your organisation
• Restricting permissions through permission boundaries and Service Control Policies (SCPs)
• AWS Organizations: multi-account management and consolidated governance
• AWS Control Tower: landing zone setup and account governance best practices

Advanced Networking configurations

Understand and manage the network layer of your AWS environment — from core VPC components through to secure connectivity with external systems and other cloud accounts.

• VPC fundamentals: subnets, route tables, internet gateways, and NAT gateways
• Managing IP addresses, subnets, and routing configurations
• Configuring and managing firewalls and network access controls
• Managing connectivity between AWS accounts and external networks
• Setting up secure private connections to AWS services using VPC endpoints and AWS PrivateLink

Advanced Node and Compute management

Master the day-to-day management of AWS compute resources — from virtual machines and containers through to serverless functions — with a focus on resilience, efficiency, and cost control.

• EC2 fundamentals and the range of compute options available on AWS
• Automating image creation, management, and distribution with EC2 Image Builder
• Selecting, managing, backing up, and optimising storage for virtual machines
• Configuring Auto Scaling groups and scaling policies for dynamic workloads
• System recovery strategies and instance maintenance best practices
• Cost optimisation using spot instances, reserved capacity, and savings plans
• Introduction to containers: Amazon ECS, AWS Fargate, and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
• Serverless compute: AWS Lambda functions, event triggers, and integration patterns

Advanced Infrastructure management, administration and automation

Learn how to manage your AWS infrastructure efficiently at scale — automating repetitive operational tasks and maintaining secure, consistent access across your environment.

• AWS Systems Manager: overview and core capabilities
• Automating patching and maintenance across fleets of instances
• Running commands and automation workflows across your virtual machines
• Connecting to instances securely without exposing SSH ports using Session Manager

Advanced Traffic management, Load balancing and DNS

Ensure your applications remain fast, available, and resilient by distributing traffic intelligently and managing DNS routing across global infrastructure.

• Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Application, Network, and Gateway load balancers
• Setting up and configuring load balancers for different use cases
• Configuring health checks, target groups, and listeners
• Traffic management, SSL termination, and security configurations
• DNS fundamentals and Amazon Route 53
• Global traffic management: latency-based, geolocation, and failover routing policies
• DNS record types, configuration settings, and health check integration

Advanced Monitoring, logging, and observability

Build full operational visibility into your AWS environment — detecting issues early, automating responses, and maintaining a complete audit trail of activity across your accounts.

• Amazon CloudWatch: metrics, dashboards, and resource monitoring
• Setting up alarms and EventBridge rules for automated incident response
• Collecting and centralising logs from applications and AWS services
• Storing, processing, and analysing log data at scale
• AWS CloudTrail: auditing account activity and API usage across your organisation
• VPC Flow Logs and network traffic monitoring

Advance Management of Storage systems

Explore the full range of AWS storage services — understanding when to use each one and how to manage, optimise, and protect your data effectively.

• Amazon S3: buckets, objects, permissions, and storage management
• Storage classes and archiving: Standard, Standard-IA, Glacier, and Intelligent-Tiering
• Advanced S3 features: versioning, lifecycle policies, replication, and object lock
• Migrating data to AWS: tools, strategies, and best practices
• Shared file storage: Amazon EFS and Amazon FSx
• Data replication strategies for durability and disaster recovery

Infrastructure as code and automation

Move beyond manual configuration — learn how to define, deploy, and manage your entire AWS infrastructure through code, reducing human error and increasing consistency at scale.

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): principles, benefits, and operational use cases
• AWS CloudFormation: template structure, stacks, change sets, and drift detection
• Terraform: providers, modules, variables, and state management
• Application deployment and environment management with AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Cost Management, Alerting and Optimisation

Understand how to take control of your AWS spend — identifying waste, right-sizing resources, and implementing the tools and practices that keep costs aligned with business value.

• AWS cost management tools: Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, and Cost and Usage Reports
• Right-sizing and optimising compute resources for cost efficiency
• Optimising storage costs across S3, EBS, and other storage services
• Purchasing strategies: on-demand, reserved instances, savings plans, and spot
• Cost optimisation best practices and AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations

Where this course can take you

Completing your AWS Systems Management and Operations training is a significant milestone — and a genuine foundation for some of the most exciting and well-compensated specialisations in the technology industry. Whether you want to go deeper into AWS, move into a high-demand specialism, or broaden your expertise across platforms, there are clear and rewarding paths forward from here.

Earn your AWS certification

The natural first step after completing your training is sitting the official AWS Certified SysOps Administrator — Associate exam (SOA-C02). We prepare you thoroughly — not just on the content, but on exam technique and time management — so that when you book your seat, you're ready to perform with confidence.

Advance to AWS DevOps Engineer — Professional

Ready to go beyond infrastructure management? The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer — Professional certification takes your operational skills into more advanced territory — bridging the gap between development and operations at enterprise scale.

You will go deeper into source control with Git, containerisation with Docker and Kubernetes, advanced infrastructure provisioning with Terraform, and the automation of complex, multi-environment deployment pipelines. This certification is widely regarded as one of the most valuable credentials you can hold for working with modern engineering teams — and it opens doors into some of the highest-paying roles in the industry.

Specialise in cloud security (SecOps)

Everything built in the cloud can be made to work. The harder question — and the one every organisation is asking — is how secure it actually is.

If you want to be the person who answers that question, our AWS Certified Security Specialty path is the right next step. You will develop deep expertise in protecting cloud workloads, managing data securely, implementing compliance controls, and responding to security incidents — all aligned with AWS best practices and real-world enterprise requirements.

Security skills are in critical demand. Organisations of every size are actively hiring professionals who can design and operate secure cloud environments, and this specialism consistently commands some of the strongest salaries in the field.

Move into data or machine learning

Two of the fastest-growing and highest-paying areas in technology sit at the intersection of cloud and data. If working with data interests you, our AWS Data Engineer and AWS Machine Learning Engineer programmes offer a natural and well-structured next step — building on your existing AWS knowledge to open doors into roles that are shaping the future of the industry.

Expand beyond AWS

AWS is the dominant cloud platform, but today's most versatile professionals understand more than one provider. Our Google Cloud Platform (GCP) training and certification programmes give you the breadth to work across cloud environments — making you a stronger candidate and a more adaptable professional as the industry continues to evolve.

Not sure which direction is right for you?

That's completely normal at this stage. Our advisers work with students every day to help them map out learning paths that match their goals, their current experience, and the kind of career they're building toward. It's a free, no-pressure conversation — and it could save you a significant amount of time choosing the wrong next step.

Get in touch and let's figure it out together.