Module Description

Cloud Operations

Short Code:
M_CldOp
Execution Period:
FS/25-FS/26
ECTS-Credits:
4
Learning Objectives:

What happens once your software is actually running in production? Keeping it up‑and‑running with minimal or no downtime is essential. This module teaches you how to perform operations in your private or public cloud.

 

It covers the following topics:

 

DevOps, Platform Engineering & GitOps Foundations:

  • Embrace cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increase an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity.
  • Design a Git‑centric workflow (GitOps) with CI/CD pipelines that validate, test, and promote changes automatically.

 

Infrastructure Provisioning & Configuration Management:

  • Infrastructure as Code with tools like Terraform/OpenTofu for AWS resources (VPC, subnets, IAM, etc.).
  • Configuration Management with Ansible playbooks for server configuration, software installation, and updates.

 

Kubernetes Object Management:

  • Deploy and manage applications using kubectl and YAML manifests.
  • Manage namespaces, deployments, services, ingress, ConfigMaps, and Secrets.
  • Use kubectl plugins and tools like k9s for cluster exploration and management.


Kubernetes Resource Definition & Packaging:

  • Helm charts for packaging, versioning, and sharing applications.
  • Kustomize overlays for dev / staging / prod variations.

 

Cluster‑Level Operations & Automation:

  • GitOps operators (Argo CD or Flux) continuously reconcile cluster state.
  • Rolling, blue‑green, or canary releases.
  • Automated secret and certificate rotation.


Observability & Service Mesh:

  • Logging with tools like EFK (Elasticsearch, Fluentd, Kibana) or Loki (Loki, Alloy, Grafana).
  • Metrics with Prometheus + Grafana for metrics and dashboards.
  • Tracing with Jaeger or OpenTelemetry.
  • Service meshes like Istio for mutual TLS, traffic routing, and telemetry.


Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Practices:

  • Define SLIs/SLOs and manage error budgets.
  • Automated alerts trigger run‑books; conduct post‑mortems.
  • Bridge SRE and DevOps cultures for continuous reliability improvement.


Mentioned tools and technologies are examples and may be substituted with similar alternatives.

 

Capstone Project:
In the end, you will complete a capstone project that integrates the skills you've learned throughout the course, while also allowing you to explore additional tools and technologies of your choice.

Module Coordinator:
Dr. Hammer Josef
Location (Offered):
Rapperswil-Jona
Recommended Modules:
Script Repository:
Module Type:
Compulsory Elective Module for Informatik Retro STD_14_UG(Recommended Semester: 4)
Elective Module for Cyber Security STD_14 (PF)
Compulsory Elective Module for Informatik STD_14(Recommended Semester: 4)
Elective Module for Network and Cloud Infrastructure STD_14 (PF)
Compulsory Elective Module for Informatik STD_21(Recommended Semester: 6)
Elective Module for Network and Cloud Infrastructure STD_21 (PF)
Compulsory Elective Module for Informatik STD_23(Recommended Semester: 6)
Elective Module for Network and Cloud Infrastructure STD_23 (VR)

Courses in this Module