Engineering Role

Cloud Engineer

Design, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure across Azure, AWS, and GCP. Automate provisioning with Terraform and operate containerized workloads.

10Courses
Beginner→IntermediateLevel
130h+Est. Time

What does this role do?

Cloud Engineers design and manage cloud infrastructure, ensuring systems are scalable, secure, cost-optimized, and highly available across one or more cloud platforms.

  • Provision and manage cloud resources on Azure, AWS, and GCP
  • Design networking: VNets, subnets, peering, firewalls, DNS
  • Automate infrastructure provisioning with Terraform
  • Manage identity and access across cloud tenants
  • Operate containerized workloads on Kubernetes
  • Monitor infrastructure health and optimize cloud costs

Industry Context

Cloud Engineers are the backbone of modern IT infrastructure. They work in cloud-first and hybrid organizations across virtually every industry vertical.

Most Cloud Engineers specialize in one primary cloud (usually Azure or AWS) while having working knowledge of others. Multi-cloud skills command higher salaries.

  • AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) is the standard entry cert
  • AWS SAA-C03 is the AWS equivalent
  • Progression: Cloud Engineer → Cloud Architect → Principal

Your 10-Step Roadmap

Start with Azure as your primary cloud, add AWS and GCP, then master IaC and containers.

01
☁️ Azure BasicsFoundation

Start here. Azure resource hierarchy, subscriptions, resource groups, IAM, ARM templates, portal navigation, and billing fundamentals.

02
⚙️ Azure Core ServicesCompute & Storage

VMs, App Services, Functions, Blob Storage, Azure SQL, and Cosmos DB — the building blocks of every Azure application environment.

03
🌐 Azure NetworkingNetworking

VNets, subnets, NSGs, Azure Firewall, load balancers, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, DNS, and hybrid connectivity patterns.

04
🔐 Azure SecuritySecurity

Azure AD, RBAC, MFA, Key Vault, Defender for Cloud, network security, and compliance frameworks — essential for any production cloud environment.

05
🟧 AWSMulti-Cloud

Expand to AWS: EC2, S3, VPC, IAM, RDS, EKS, Lambda, CloudFormation, and the key differences from Azure for multi-cloud scenarios.

06
☁️ GCPMulti-Cloud

Add Google Cloud: GCE, GCS, GKE, Cloud SQL, BigQuery, IAM, and GCP-specific networking. Round out your multi-cloud knowledge.

07
🏗️ TerraformIaC

Automate cloud provisioning across Azure, AWS, and GCP with Terraform. Modules, state management, remote backends, and pipeline integration.

08
🐳 DockerContainers

Understand containers at a practical level — how cloud-native apps are packaged, how container registries work, and how to manage them on cloud platforms.

09
☸️ KubernetesOrchestration

Operate Kubernetes clusters on the cloud. Workload management, networking, autoscaling, persistent storage, and cloud-managed Kubernetes (AKS, EKS, GKE) operations.

10
📊 Prometheus & GrafanaMonitoring

Monitor cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes workloads. Prometheus metrics, PromQL, Grafana dashboards, and cloud-native alerting patterns.

What You'll Master

☁️ Azure Administration 🟧 AWS Fundamentals 🔵 GCP Fundamentals 🌐 Cloud Networking 🔐 IAM & Security 🏗️ Terraform IaC 🐳 Containerization ☸️ Kubernetes 💰 Cost Optimization 📊 Cloud Monitoring

Tools You'll Use

☁️
Azure
🟧
AWS
🔵
GCP
🏗️
Terraform
🐳
Docker
☸️
Kubernetes
🔐
Key Vault
🌐
Azure Firewall
🔥
Prometheus
📊
Grafana

What You'll Actually Build

Multi-Tier Azure Environment

Provision a production-grade Azure environment with hub-spoke networking, Azure Firewall, Key Vault, AKS cluster, ACR, and Azure Monitor — all with Terraform and RBAC enforced by policy.

Multi-Cloud Landing Zone

Design a landing zone strategy that deploys baseline networking, IAM, and security controls consistently across Azure and AWS using shared Terraform modules and CI/CD pipelines.

Cloud Cost Governance Dashboard

Instrument Azure Cost Management and AWS Cost Explorer, build unified cost dashboards in Grafana, and configure budget alerts to detect overruns before they impact projects.

Common Interview Questions

Fundamentals

What is the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS? Give an Azure example of each.
How does Azure RBAC work and what is the principle of least privilege?
What is a VNet peering and when would you use it instead of a VPN?

Intermediate

How do you design a hub-spoke network topology in Azure?
How do you manage Terraform state in a team of 10 cloud engineers?
Compare Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and AWS EKS from an operational standpoint.

Scenario-based

A VM in your VNet cannot reach a storage account. Walk through your troubleshooting steps.
Your cloud bill has doubled in one month. How do you investigate and remediate?
An application must run in Azure and AWS simultaneously with no data residency violations. How do you design this?