Cloud Providers & Platforms
The sequel to Cloud & Deployment -- 25 lessons mapping the actual provider and platform landscape: AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure fairly compared; Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, Railway, and Render as modern deployment platforms; Supabase and Firebase as Backend-as-a-Service; and how to actually choose between them, closing with real platform-selection projects.
25 Lessons · 640 min · Learning Platform Editorial Team
What you need on the desk
- None strictly required -- every concept is taught through diagrams, tables, and prose
- Optionally free-tier accounts on any of the mentioned platforms, to look around while reading (not required to complete the course)
- A Node.js environment, to run the small JavaScript decision-function examples
Know this much before you start
- Recommended: the Cloud & Deployment course, or equivalent comfort with what deployment, environment variables, and CI/CD mean conceptually.
- This course does not re-teach deployment fundamentals, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, AWS services, or Firebase's hands-on workflow -- those live in their own dedicated tutorials, linked from the relevant lesson.
- This course teaches the PROVIDER/PLATFORM LANDSCAPE and how to choose between options -- not how to operate any single platform's dashboard.
By the end, you can
- Explain IaaS/PaaS/SaaS, regions/availability zones, and basic cloud cost structure without memorizing any single provider's pricing
- Fairly compare AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure by category and know which existing course to continue to for AWS hands-on depth
- Fairly compare Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, Railway, and Render by what kind of workload each fits best
- Explain the Backend-as-a-Service model and fairly compare Supabase against Firebase
- Apply a platform decision framework to a real workload instead of guessing or defaulting to whatever is popular
- Explain rollback strategies (rolling, blue-green, canary) at a conceptual level and know where to learn hands-on CI/CD rollback
- Design a complete platform architecture for a real project, naming a specific category (not necessarily a specific vendor) for each piece
- Review an AI-generated ("vibe coded") application for production-readiness before deploying it