Become a Solutions Architect with these 5 AWS Projects!

In Today’s Cloudbites:

☁️ Become a Solutions Architect with these 5 AWS Projects!

👩‍💻 A Complete Guide On Building the 5 Projects

☁️ Online AI & Cloud Events to Look Forward to

🤯 PLUS: GPT & Gemini Just Got Real Competition

Read time: 4 minutes

Hi friends, welcome back to Cloudbites

In this newsletter, we’re diving into 5 hands-on AWS projects that will help you think and design like a Solutions Architect.

You’ll learn how to build secure, reliable, serverless, and cost-optimised architectures.

I’ll also share an interesting AI update about a surprising new competitor in the AI space.

CLOUD COMPUTING ☁️

☁️ Become a Solutions Architect with these 5 AWS Projects!

Want to build real-world projects to help you get hired as a Cloud Solutions Architect?

Here are 5 AWS projects designed to give you practical architecture and design experience:

#1 Secure Application Deployment on AWS (Security Pillar)

This project uses VPC, EC2, RDS, S3, Bastion Host, and AWS WAF.

You’ll redesign a vulnerable e-commerce platform into a secure, production-ready environment.

If you’re aiming to become a Solutions Architect, this project gives you hands-on experience applying the AWS Security Pillar.

🕒 Est time: 3-4 hours

💰 Est cost: Free (AWS Free Tier)

#2 Highly Available Architecture on AWS (Reliability Pillar)

Fix reliability issues for a medical records application that cannot tolerate downtime.

You’ll configure Auto Scaling across multiple AZs, deploy Multi-AZ RDS, set up ALB routing, and implement Route 53 health checks and failover.

This project gives you real-world experience designing fault-tolerant architectures used in enterprise environments

🕒 Est time: 3-4 hours

💰 Est cost: Free (AWS Free Tier)

#3 Real-Time AWS Operations from Slack (Operational Excellence Pillar)

Build a system that integrates Slack with AWS to deliver instant alerts and allow operational commands directly from chat.

Perfect for learning how Solutions Architects design automated operations and monitoring workflows.

🕒 Est time: 3-4 hours

💰 Est cost: Free (AWS Free Tier)

#4 Serverless Inventory Management on AWS (Performance Efficiency Pillar)

Create a fully serverless application for CoffeeShop Manager using DynamoDB, Lambda, API Gateway, Lambda layers, and Amplify.

You’ll design a fast, scalable, pay-per-use architecture that automatically adjusts based on demand.

🕒 Est time: 3-4 hours

💰 Est cost: Free (AWS Free Tier)

#5 Automated Cost Governance on AWS (Cost Optimisation Pillar)

Deploy a cost governance system that detects waste, sends alerts, and performs automated cleanup using CloudWatch, SNS, and SSM Automation.

This project gives you the strategic cost management skills employers expect from Solutions Architects.

🕒 Est time: 3-4 hours

💰 Est cost: Free (AWS Free Tier)

👩‍💻 A Complete Guide On Building the 5 Projects

Like the sound of these 5 projects, but not sure where to start?

Check out my YouTube video on Want to be an AWS Solutions Architect? Build these 5 Projects, where I dive deeper into each project.

I also have a guidebook with step-by-step tutorials you can follow along for each project.

If you’re interested in purchasing the guidebook, you can apply the coupon code “YOUTUBE10” for 10% off.

☁️ Online AI & Cloud Events to Look Forward to

#1 CSA Zero Trust Summit (Dec 3-4, 2025)

A virtual summit by the Cloud Security Alliance focused on Zero Trust architectures, cloud security best practices, and modern identity frameworks.

Click here to register.

#2 Global AI Show 2025 Abu Dhabi (Dec 8-9, 2025)

A global AI summit bringing together innovators, enterprise leaders, and policymakers to showcase AI applications in enterprise, industry, and real-world use cases.

Click here to register.

#3 Global Artificial Intelligence Virtual Conference (Dec 15-17, 2025)

A vendor-agnostic global AI conference covering enterprise AI, generative models, data & AI pipelines, open to AI & cloud professionals worldwide.

Click here to register.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) 🤖

🤯 PLUS: GPT & Gemini Just Got Real Competition

Baidu just launched its new multimodal AI model: ERNIE-4.5-VL, and early tests show it outperforming GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro in areas like chart reading, diagram analysis, and visual reasoning.

💡 Here's what you should know:

• It understands real-world, non-text data like dashboards, engineering drawings, and factory floor videos.

• It runs efficiently by activating only ~3 billion parameters, making it fast and low-cost to operate.

• This points to the next phase of enterprise AI: models that don’t just chat, but actually reason over complex data and support real operational workflows.

This advancement marks a significant step in AI's ability to automate complex tasks in real-world environments.

THAT’S A WRAP

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Thanks for reading! 😊

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