FreeCompute_24_00002 - itnett/FTD02H-N GitHub Wiki

🚀 4-Year Playbook for Maximizing Free Cloud Services and Learning

Year 1: 🌱 Foundations in Cloud Computing, DevOps, and CI/CD

🖥️ GitHub

☁️ Microsoft Azure

  • Azure Free for Students: $100 credits for the first year, free services like App Services, Functions, and more.
  • Leverage: Deploy your first web app using Azure App Services or Azure Functions.

☁️ AWS (Amazon Web Services)

  • AWS Educate: $100 credits, access to AWS Lambda, EC2, and S3.
  • Leverage: Learn how to deploy serverless applications using AWS Lambda and manage databases with DynamoDB.

☁️ Google Cloud

  • Google Cloud Free Tier: $300 free credits for 90 days, plus Always Free micro-instances (0.25 vCPU, 1GB RAM).
  • Leverage: Experiment with Compute Engine and Google Cloud Functions to deploy applications.

☁️ DigitalOcean

  • DigitalOcean: $200 credits for one year.
  • Leverage: Use droplets to spin up small VMs and host websites or applications.

☁️ Heroku

  • Heroku: $13/month credits for 2 years, perfect for quick app deployments.
  • Leverage: Easily deploy your web apps with GitHub integration and CI/CD pipelines.

Year 2: 🌿 Scaling Applications and Exploring Advanced Cloud Services

☁️ AWS Free Tier (Always Free)

  • AWS Free Tier: Services like Lambda (1 million requests/month), DynamoDB (25 GB storage).
  • Leverage: Use AWS Lambda to build serverless functions and store data in DynamoDB for free.

☁️ Microsoft Azure (Always Free)

  • Azure Free Tier: Access 54+ free services such as VMs, AI, and Blob storage.
  • Leverage: Deploy scalable applications on Azure's VMs and explore cloud storage for backups.

☁️ Google Cloud (Always Free)

  • Google Cloud Always Free: Use free-tier Compute Engine instances (0.25 vCPU, 1 GB RAM), BigQuery (1TB queries), and Cloud Storage.
  • Leverage: Deploy web apps or APIs on Google Cloud Run, or experiment with big data using BigQuery.

☁️ Heroku

  • Heroku Free Tier: Continue using $13/month credits.
  • Leverage: Set up Heroku Pipelines for continuous delivery of apps.

🛠️ Sentry

  • Sentry: 50K errors, 100K transactions/month, free for students.
  • Leverage: Integrate Sentry into your applications to monitor for errors and exceptions.

Year 3: 🌳 Mastering DevOps, Cost Management, and Multi-Cloud Orchestration

☁️ AWS Free Tier (Always Free)

  • AWS Free Tier: Continue using free-tier services such as S3 (5GB/month) and EC2 (750 hours of t2.micro per month).
  • Leverage: Use EC2 to run lightweight web servers, and store backups on S3.

☁️ Microsoft Azure (Always Free)

  • Azure Always Free: Continue leveraging free-tier services like Blob Storage, App Services, and Functions.
  • Leverage: Use Blob Storage for data backups and host serverless functions using Azure Functions.

☁️ Google Cloud (Always Free)

  • Google Cloud Always Free: Continue using the free micro-instance for hosting and testing applications.
  • Leverage: Utilize BigQuery for large-scale data analysis (up to 1TB of queries per month for free).

🛠️ Datadog

  • Datadog Free for Students: Monitor 10 servers for free with Datadog.
  • Leverage: Set up real-time monitoring of multi-cloud deployments using Datadog's dashboards and alerts.

🛠️ GitHub Actions

  • GitHub Actions: Continue automating deployments and CI/CD workflows with free build minutes.
  • Leverage: Automate multi-cloud deployments across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud using GitHub Actions.

🛠️ Terraform (Open Source)

  • Terraform: Use Terraform to automate and orchestrate multi-cloud infrastructure.
  • Leverage: Write Terraform scripts to manage infrastructure across AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.

Year 4: 🌲 Master Automation, Advanced Cloud Architectures, and Certifications

☁️ AWS Free Tier (Always Free)

  • AWS Free Tier: Continue using Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, and EC2.
  • Leverage: Use S3 for backups, DynamoDB for noSQL databases, and EC2 for virtual machines.

☁️ Google Cloud (Always Free)

  • Google Cloud Always Free: Continue leveraging Google Cloud for free-tier VM instances, Cloud Functions, and BigQuery.
  • Leverage: Implement advanced analytics with BigQuery and experiment with serverless functions.

🛠️ 1Password

  • 1Password: Manage credentials securely with 1Password's free student plan.
  • Leverage: Use 1Password to securely manage cloud credentials across multiple providers.

🛠️ GitHub Actions

  • GitHub Actions: Continue using GitHub Actions for automated CI/CD pipelines and deployments.
  • Leverage: Integrate GitHub Actions with Terraform to manage infrastructure across AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.

🎓 Certification Preparation

Tips for Leveraging Free Services:

  • 💡 Monitor Usage: Regularly check cloud usage to avoid exceeding free-tier limits.
  • 💡 Rotate Services: Use time-limited services first, then transition to always-free tiers in later years.
  • 💡 Automate Everything: Use scripting (Python/Bash) and Terraform to automate deployments and infrastructure management across multiple providers.
  • 💡 Leverage CI/CD: Automate testing, deployments, and scaling with GitHub Actions, GitHub Codespaces, and other CI/CD tools.