Enroll Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/cloud-computing-2
Coursera’s “Cloud Computing Concepts: Part 2” is an exceptional follow-up to its foundational predecessor, delving deeper into the intricate distributed systems that power modern cloud environments. This course is a must for anyone looking to understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind cloud infrastructure, moving beyond the basic definitions.
The syllabus is meticulously structured, offering a comprehensive exploration of core distributed computing principles. Week 1 kicks off with a thorough review of classical distributed algorithms, including crucial concepts like leader election (Ring and Bully algorithms, with mentions of Google’s Chubby and Apache ZooKeeper) and mutual exclusion (Ricart-Agrawala, Maekawa, and Chubby’s approach). This solid foundation is essential for grasping the complexities that follow.
Week 2 tackles concurrency and replication control, vital for ensuring data integrity and availability. The lessons on transactions, Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs), serial equivalence, optimistic/pessimistic concurrency control, and deadlock avoidance provide a robust understanding of managing concurrent operations. The discussion on replication strategies and ensuring transaction commits in replicated systems is particularly insightful for building highly available services.
Emerging paradigms are explored in Week 3, with a fascinating look at stream processing (Apache Storm) and graph processing in the cloud. The module also touches upon network/graph commonalities and classical scheduling algorithms, including those used in Hadoop. This section offers a glimpse into the cutting-edge technologies shaping the future of cloud computing.
Week 4 brings us back to classical systems, dissecting distributed file systems like NFS and AFS, as well as Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) systems. The exploration of sensor networks provides a broader perspective on distributed systems beyond traditional data centers.
Finally, Week 5 addresses real-life behaviors, offering a practical primer on security concepts (encryption, authentication, authorization) and invaluable case studies of datacenter outages. Learning from past failures is a critical component of building resilient systems, and this module delivers.
Overall, “Cloud Computing Concepts: Part 2” is a highly recommended course for software engineers, system architects, and anyone interested in the fundamental principles of distributed systems that underpin cloud computing. The depth of coverage, combined with practical examples and mentions of widely-used technologies, makes it an invaluable learning experience. It successfully builds upon the first part, providing the advanced knowledge needed to truly understand and engineer robust cloud solutions.
Enroll Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/cloud-computing-2