What you will be able to do
- Explain the cloud service and deployment models with real cost implications
- Operate Linux servers and cloud networking confidently
- Design least-privilege identity and access policies
- Containerise applications and run them in a managed service
- Provision reproducible infrastructure with code and ship it through CI/CD
Before you start
- Basic command line familiarity
- A free-tier cloud account
- No prior infrastructure experience required
The week-by-week plan
Already know an early week? Start at your first real gap instead of week one — the projects still build on each other from wherever you join.
Week 1: Cloud fundamentals
- IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
- Regions and availability zones
- Shared responsibility
- Pricing models
Project: Cost model comparing self-hosting against a managed service
Week 2: Linux for cloud
- SSH
- Package management
- systemd services
- Log inspection
Project: Provision a VM and serve a static site from it
Week 3: Cloud networking
- Virtual networks and subnets
- Security groups
- Load balancers
- DNS records
Project: Two-tier network with a public and a private subnet
Week 4: Compute options
- Virtual machines
- Autoscaling
- Serverless functions
- Choosing between them
Project: Deploy the same endpoint as a VM and as a function, then compare cost
Week 5: Storage and databases
- Object vs block storage
- Lifecycle policies
- Managed relational databases
- Backups and restores
Project: Automated nightly backup with a tested restore
Week 6: Identity and access management
- Users, roles and policies
- Least privilege
- Service accounts
- Secrets management
Project: Replace long-lived keys with scoped roles in an existing project
Week 7: Containers
- Docker images and layers
- Dockerfiles
- Registries
- Container networking
Project: Containerise a web app and push it to a registry
Week 8: Orchestration
- Managed container services
- Kubernetes concepts
- Deployments and services
- Health checks and scaling
Project: Run a rolling deployment with zero downtime
Week 9: Infrastructure as code
- Declarative provisioning
- State files
- Modules and variables
- Plan and apply workflow
Project: Recreate weeks 3-5 infrastructure entirely from code
Week 10: CI/CD
- Pipeline stages
- Build artefacts
- Environment promotion
- Rollbacks
Project: Pipeline that deploys on merge and rolls back on failure
Week 11: Observability and reliability
- Metrics, logs and traces
- Alerting
- SLOs
- Incident basics
Project: Dashboard plus alert for your deployed service
Week 12: Cost, security and portfolio
- Cost optimisation
- Cloud security posture
- Architecture diagrams
- Certification mapping
Project: Documented reference architecture with diagram and cost estimate
Tools you will use
Where this roadmap leads
Cloud Support Engineer
Reachable after week 6 — networking plus IAM covers most tickets.
DevOps Engineer
Weeks 7-10 are the core interview material.
Site Reliability Engineer
Add depth in week 11 observability and scripting to move this direction.
Frequently asked questions
Which cloud provider should I learn first?
Learn one deeply. AWS has the largest job market, Azure dominates enterprises already using Microsoft tooling, and the concepts in this roadmap transfer between all three in a matter of weeks.
Do I need to learn coding for cloud computing?
You need scripting, not application development. Bash plus a little Python is enough for weeks 9-11, where automation replaces clicking through consoles.
Will the free tier be enough for these labs?
Yes for almost everything, provided you destroy resources after each lab. Week 9's infrastructure-as-code habits make teardown a single command.
Is a certification necessary to get a cloud job?
An associate-level certification helps screen you in, but the portfolio from weeks 9-12 is what gets you through the technical interview.
Want this plan scheduled for you?
Pathlix turns roadmaps like this into daily goals sized to your study hours, tracks your streak, and tests you every week.