Cloud Development and Operations
Take your systems administration or application development career to the cloud.
- Learn to design, build, and manage secure, scalable, and cost-effective solutions using the latest cloud-native tools
- Practice migrating legacy applications and their data to new cloud-hosted environments
- Integrate technical knowledge and experience gained throughout the program and demonstrate leadership and communications skills with an applied project for a real-world client
Program Availability and Schedule
Availability
Open
Closed
Waitlisted
Start Term
Availability
Competitive?
Winter 2025
No
Spring 2025
No
Fall 2025
No
Schedule
Program Summary
Credential
Program Code
Area of Interest
Other Campuses
Other Delivery Options
Build on the information technology management and software development skills that you already have through the one-year Cloud Development and Operations Ontario College Graduate Certificate program. Learn to design, build, and manage secure, scalable, and cost-effective solutions using the latest cloud-native tools. This program prepares you to meet the mounting demand for cloud computing professionals across all industries in both the public and private sectors. You benefit from the experience of faculty as you prepare for industry-recognized certifications in various cloud computing career paths.
Through authentic industry problems from industry advisors, you gain experience choosing between public-cloud, private-cloud, hybrid-cloud, and multi-cloud architectures. Practise migrating legacy applications and their data to new cloud hosted environments. Build highly available solutions that balance security and data privacy needs with time-to-market agility and cost-efficiency. Employing industry best practices, you compose containerized microservices, serverless functions, redundant message queues, and managed cloud database services to create full-stack cloud-native application solutions. Learn to manage infrastructure as code using open source and cloud platform-specific tools to automate many DevOps tasks like continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, performance and compliance monitoring, and security audits....(read more)
Overview
Take your systems administration or application development career to the cloud.
Build on the information technology management and software development skills that you already have through the one-year Cloud Development and Operations Ontario College Graduate Certificate program. Learn to design, build, and manage secure, scalable, and cost-effective solutions using the latest cloud-native tools. This program prepares you to meet the mounting demand for cloud computing professionals across all industries in both the public and private sectors. You benefit from the experience of faculty as you prepare for industry-recognized certifications in various cloud computing career paths.
Through authentic industry problems from industry advisors, you gain experience choosing between public-cloud, private-cloud, hybrid-cloud, and multi-cloud architectures. Practise migrating legacy applications and their data to new cloud hosted environments. Build highly available solutions that balance security and data privacy needs with time-to-market agility and cost-efficiency. Employing industry best practices, you compose containerized microservices, serverless functions, redundant message queues, and managed cloud database services to create full-stack cloud-native application solutions. Learn to manage infrastructure as code using open source and cloud platform-specific tools to automate many DevOps tasks like continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, performance and compliance monitoring, and security audits.
Build industry relationships while completing an applied project for a real-world client. You integrate the technical knowledge and experience gained throughout the program and demonstrate your leadership and communications skills. Graduates are well prepared to complete recognized industry certifications including:
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect
- AWS Certified Developer
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
Cloud computing skills are in-demand across most industry sectors, including retail, transportation, media, gaming, health care, and more. Upon graduation you may find employment in software development, DevOps, or professional services. You may work with small start-ups, established companies or governments of all levels.
SUCCESS FACTORS
This program is well-suited for students who:
- Have prior programming experience.
- Enjoy solving complex problems, with an ability to think critically and outside-the-box.
- Are curious and inquisitive.
- Are well-organized.
- Are comfortable communicating with groups of peers in professional settings.
- Have the ability to professionally lead and collaborate to achieve team deliverables.
- Are able to translate design models to implementation details.
- Value lifelong learning.
Courses
Registration Note:
Applications for this full-time program must be submitted on Ontario Colleges. If you are interested in the part-time delivery of the program, please refer to the part-time program page for course by course registration. The courses take place entirely online and do not require you to come to campus. Without a set class time you can complete your assignments when it’s most convenient for you while following the course deadlines.
Online  |
| Course Number | Hours | Course Name | Winter | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level: 01 | ||||||
| CST8911 | 42.0 | Introduction to Cloud ComputingCST8911 Introduction to Cloud ComputingStart-ups, large enterprises and governments alike are increasingly leveraging cloud computing technology and services to improve agility and accelerate innovation while also lowering costs. By exploring common use-cases, students investigate the benefits, challenges, and core architectural concepts of creating secure and cost-effective cloud-based solutions. Students gain hands-on experience with the leading cloud services providers' core service offerings and cost models by evaluating and deploying simple cloud-based solutions in hosted lab environments. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8912 | 56.0 | Cloud Solutions ArchitectureCST8912 Cloud Solutions ArchitectureWhether migrating existing application workloads to the cloud or building cloud-native solutions, businesses must balance development speed, maintainability and operational performance with governance policies, regulatory requirements, and cost constraints. Students develop a broad understanding of the range of computing, storage, networking and database cloud-infrastructure solution options. Understanding the benefits and limitations of public-cloud, private-cloud, hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud solution designs, students select the appropriate architectural model for given business requirements. After exploring leading vendor best practice recommendations, students evaluate, design and deploy highly available and scalable solutions using real-world use-case examples. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8913 | 56.0 | Cloud MigrationCST8913 Cloud MigrationMigrating existing on-premise solutions to managed cloud solutions can be implemented by mirroring the current solution components and transferring the data and application code. The migration process also offers organizations the opportunity to modernize some or all the application components. Students analyze the benefits and costs of both options and then propose the recommended solution. Using industry case-study scenarios, students plan and execute the migration of on-premise solutions to managed cloud solutions. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8914 | 42.0 | Accessible By DesignCST8914 Accessible By DesignIncluding accessibility as a core design consideration leads to products and services delivering a better overall user experience and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Students apply recommended tactics, software component libraries, and testing tools to consistently create Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) compliant designs. Students hone these skills in the lab by redesigning and rebuilding typical web application components. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8915 | 70.0 | Full-Stack Cloud-Native DevelopmentCST8915 Full-Stack Cloud-Native DevelopmentFor software start-ups and larger organizations creating brand new applications, a cloud-native solution often offers the shortest time to deliver and the most flexibility in scaling up to meet growing demand. Students build full-stack solutions that combine custom code components with popular managed cloud services such as databases, usage analytics, and identity and access management. In the lab, students utilize software development kits (SDKs) and component libraries to compose applications with containerized microservice designs following the test-driven design (TDD) methodology. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8916 | 42.0 | Remote Data and Real-Time ApplicationsCST8916 Remote Data and Real-Time ApplicationsApplications that receive data from the internet of things (IoT) or have mobile clients often have additional architectural requirements to handle real-time updates and inconsistent network connectivity. Students select and implement application connectivity standards such as REST, GraphQL, and WebSockets to connect remote sensors and mobile application clients with cloud-hosted application services and databases. Students use industry use-case examples to build offline-ready and real-time application components in hands-on labs. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| Level: 02 | ||||||
| CST8917 | 56.0 | Serverless ApplicationsCST8917 Serverless ApplicationsThe evolution of managed cloud services continues to remove layers of complexity in infrastructure management. Serverless computing, also known as hosted functions, allows event-driven decoupled application component designs resulting in a high level of component reuse and lower operating costs. Students identify appropriate use-cases for integrating serverless functions into larger solution architectures. Guided lab scenarios give students hands-on practice with designing and implementing serverless application components. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8918 | 42.0 | Devops - Infrastructure as CodeCST8918 Devops - Infrastructure as CodeIn the cloud computing model, all traditional infrastructure elements, such as servers, networks and firewalls, are virtualized. These components are defined in code and can then be deployed or decommissioned on-demand. Without systematic controls and policy enforcement mechanisms, this flexibility can result in inconsistent performance and wasted resources. Students employ industry-standard tools to manage both application code and the virtualized deployment environment. Industry best practice recommendations guide lab scenarios for automating the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) of application code and automating infrastructure management tasks such as auto-scaling, container orchestration, and data extract-load-transform (ETL) tasks. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8919 | 42.0 | Devops - Security and ComplianceCST8919 Devops - Security and ComplianceMoving data and applications out of a self-hosted datacentre to a managed cloud provider raises many security and privacy concerns. Students implement robust security policies and the monitoring and compliance tools required to ensure those policies are correctly followed. Students use a combination of open source and cloud vendor-specific tools during lab simulations to design, deploy and test various security and governance scenarios. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8920 | 42.0 | Highly Effective TeamsCST8920 Highly Effective TeamsEffective teams are a collection of skilled contributors, each of whom often has a particular area of specialization. Efficient communication among all contributors is a critical success factor in any project. It becomes even more impactful with large, geographically dispersed or cross-organizational teams. Students produce and present common project artifacts such as user stories, design specifications, and implementation plans. Through interactive review labs, students facilitate team discussions, prioritize activities, and create technical communications products related to their applied projects. Co-requisites: CST8922 This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8921 | 42.0 | Cloud Industry TrendsCST8921 Cloud Industry TrendsWith the rapid rate of innovation in cloud computing, keeping pace with the latest technological developments, best practices, and managed solutions is a never-ending task. Students explore current relevant industry trends, such as software development and testing techniques, SDKs and APIs, laws concerning data storage and privacy, new hardware virtualization technologies, data analytics solutions, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, or cybersecurity. Students investigate and present innovative technologies and techniques relevant to the cloud computing industry. This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
| CST8922 | 84.0 | Applied ProjectsCST8922 Applied ProjectsIntegration of theory and practice in the context of a real-world industry project reinforces learning for students while affording industry partners a low-risk opportunity to explore innovative solutions. Working in teams, students experience the analysis, design, implementation, testing, and deployment phases of a cloud computing solution. Essential topics from throughout the program of study contribute to the successful completion of this capstone project. Faculty advisors facilitate student teams to demonstrate their skills throughout the applied project. Student teams make a technical presentation to their faculty advisors and industry client partners. Co-requisites: CST8920 This course is part of a complete program of study, individual course registration is not available. | | |||
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
CST8911 Introduction to Cloud Computing
Start-ups, large enterprises and governments alike are increasingly leveraging cloud computing technology and services to improve agility and accelerate innovation while also lowering costs. By exploring common use-cases, students investigate the benefits, challenges, and core architectural concepts of creating secure and cost-effective cloud-based solutions. Students gain hands-on experience with the leading cloud services providers' core service offerings and cost models by evaluating and deploying simple cloud-based solutions in hosted lab environments.
CST8912 Cloud Solutions Architecture
Whether migrating existing application workloads to the cloud or building cloud-native solutions, businesses must balance development speed, maintainability and operational performance with governance policies, regulatory requirements, and cost constraints. Students develop a broad understanding of the range of computing, storage, networking and database cloud-infrastructure solution options. Understanding the benefits and limitations of public-cloud, private-cloud, hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud solution designs, students select the appropriate architectural model for given business requirements. After exploring leading vendor best practice recommendations, students evaluate, design and deploy highly available and scalable solutions using real-world use-case examples.
CST8913 Cloud Migration
Migrating existing on-premise solutions to managed cloud solutions can be implemented by mirroring the current solution components and transferring the data and application code. The migration process also offers organizations the opportunity to modernize some or all the application components. Students analyze the benefits and costs of both options and then propose the recommended solution. Using industry case-study scenarios, students plan and execute the migration of on-premise solutions to managed cloud solutions.
CST8914 Accessible By Design
Including accessibility as a core design consideration leads to products and services delivering a better overall user experience and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Students apply recommended tactics, software component libraries, and testing tools to consistently create Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) compliant designs. Students hone these skills in the lab by redesigning and rebuilding typical web application components.
CST8915 Full-Stack Cloud-Native Development
For software start-ups and larger organizations creating brand new applications, a cloud-native solution often offers the shortest time to deliver and the most flexibility in scaling up to meet growing demand. Students build full-stack solutions that combine custom code components with popular managed cloud services such as databases, usage analytics, and identity and access management. In the lab, students utilize software development kits (SDKs) and component libraries to compose applications with containerized microservice designs following the test-driven design (TDD) methodology.
CST8916 Remote Data and Real-Time Applications
Applications that receive data from the internet of things (IoT) or have mobile clients often have additional architectural requirements to handle real-time updates and inconsistent network connectivity. Students select and implement application connectivity standards such as REST, GraphQL, and WebSockets to connect remote sensors and mobile application clients with cloud-hosted application services and databases. Students use industry use-case examples to build offline-ready and real-time application components in hands-on labs.
CST8917 Serverless Applications
The evolution of managed cloud services continues to remove layers of complexity in infrastructure management. Serverless computing, also known as hosted functions, allows event-driven decoupled application component designs resulting in a high level of component reuse and lower operating costs. Students identify appropriate use-cases for integrating serverless functions into larger solution architectures. Guided lab scenarios give students hands-on practice with designing and implementing serverless application components.
CST8918 Devops - Infrastructure as Code
In the cloud computing model, all traditional infrastructure elements, such as servers, networks and firewalls, are virtualized. These components are defined in code and can then be deployed or decommissioned on-demand. Without systematic controls and policy enforcement mechanisms, this flexibility can result in inconsistent performance and wasted resources. Students employ industry-standard tools to manage both application code and the virtualized deployment environment. Industry best practice recommendations guide lab scenarios for automating the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) of application code and automating infrastructure management tasks such as auto-scaling, container orchestration, and data extract-load-transform (ETL) tasks.
CST8919 Devops - Security and Compliance
Moving data and applications out of a self-hosted datacentre to a managed cloud provider raises many security and privacy concerns. Students implement robust security policies and the monitoring and compliance tools required to ensure those policies are correctly followed. Students use a combination of open source and cloud vendor-specific tools during lab simulations to design, deploy and test various security and governance scenarios.
CST8920 Highly Effective Teams
Effective teams are a collection of skilled contributors, each of whom often has a particular area of specialization. Efficient communication among all contributors is a critical success factor in any project. It becomes even more impactful with large, geographically dispersed or cross-organizational teams. Students produce and present common project artifacts such as user stories, design specifications, and implementation plans. Through interactive review labs, students facilitate team discussions, prioritize activities, and create technical communications products related to their applied projects.
Co-requisites: CST8922
CST8921 Cloud Industry Trends
With the rapid rate of innovation in cloud computing, keeping pace with the latest technological developments, best practices, and managed solutions is a never-ending task. Students explore current relevant industry trends, such as software development and testing techniques, SDKs and APIs, laws concerning data storage and privacy, new hardware virtualization technologies, data analytics solutions, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, or cybersecurity. Students investigate and present innovative technologies and techniques relevant to the cloud computing industry.
CST8922 Applied Projects
Integration of theory and practice in the context of a real-world industry project reinforces learning for students while affording industry partners a low-risk opportunity to explore innovative solutions. Working in teams, students experience the analysis, design, implementation, testing, and deployment phases of a cloud computing solution. Essential topics from throughout the program of study contribute to the successful completion of this capstone project. Faculty advisors facilitate student teams to demonstrate their skills throughout the applied project. Student teams make a technical presentation to their faculty advisors and industry client partners.
Co-requisites: CST8920
Careers & Pathways
Careers
Graduates of the program may pursue opportunities as cloud architects, cloud engineers, DevOps engineers and/or cloud developers.
Pathways
Please use our Pathways tool to search for pathway options.
Learning Outcomes
The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:
- Create an appropriate architectural design to support the client's secure virtual infrastructure and application development needs.
- Select and deploy appropriate cloud environments to support a variety of workloads in a rapidly changing business environment.
- Design and implement highly-available and elastically-scalable solutions within cloud computing platforms to maximize the reliability and resiliency of application services.
- Integrate and automate development and operations processes to enhance business innovation and agility with consistently reliable solutions within an established policy framework.
- Evaluate and integrate industry best practice recommendations into the design and development of secure cloud-based solutions to protect the privacy and integrity of client data.
- Evaluate the full cost implications of various cloud solution options to find an optimal cost/benefit balance for an organization.
- Assess and implement policy monitoring and compliance strategies and tools to ensure all deployed cloud-based solutions adhere to relevant regulatory, governance and legal requirements.
- Apply collaborative project management principles to identify, track and effectively communicate project goals, costs, constraints and deliverables, that support successful project outcomes.
- Identify and apply discipline-specific practices that contribute to the local and global community through social responsibility, economic commitment and environmental stewardship.
Tuition & Fees
2024/2025 Academic Year
Tuition and related ancillary fees for this program can be viewed by using the Tuition and Fees Estimator tool at www.algonquincollege.com/fee-estimator.
Further information on fees can be found by visiting the Registrar's Office website at www.algonquincollege.com/ro.
Fees are subject to change.
Admissions Requirements
Program Eligibility
- Ontario College Diploma, Ontario College Advanced Diploma or degree, or equivalent in the areas of Information Systems (IS), Information Technology (IT), Telecommunications/ Networking, IT/IS Security, Computer Engineering or equivalent. This includes, but is not limited to, courses demonstrating technical skills in backend and frontend programming, database management, and scripting; OR
- Graduate Certificate, Diploma, Advanced Diploma, or Degree from an accredited institution in a non-related field, with minimum three years of relevant practical field experience in an IT/IS or Application Development position may be considered. These applicants will be assessed individually and will be required to complete an Eligibility Package.
- Eligibility Package submission details can be found on the Algonquin College Additional Admission Requirements website: www.algonquincollege.com/admissionspackages.
- Applicants with international transcripts must provide proof of the subject-specific requirements noted above and may be required to provide proof of language proficiency. Domestic applicants with international transcripts must be evaluated through the International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS) or World Education Services (WES).
- IELTS-International English Language Testing Service (Academic)Overall band of 6.5 with a minimum of 6.0 in each band; OR TOEFL-Internet-based (iBT)-overall 88, with a minimum in each component: Reading 22; Listening 22; Speaking 22; Writing 22.
Application Information
CLOUD DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONS
Program Code 1531X09FAO
Applications to full-time day programs must be submitted with official transcripts showing completion of the academic admission requirements through:
ontariocolleges.ca
60 Corporate Court
Guelph, Ontario N1G 5J3
1-888-892-2228
Applications are available online at www.ontariocolleges.ca.
Applications for Fall Term and Winter Term admission received by February 1 will be given equal consideration. Applications received after February 1 will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis as long as places are available.
International applicants applying from out-of-country can obtain the International Student Application Form at https://algonquincollege.force.com/myACint/ or by contacting the Registrar's Office.
For further information on the admissions process, contact:
Registrar's Office
Algonquin College
1385 Woodroffe Ave
Ottawa, ON K2G 1V8
Telephone: 613-727-0002
Toll-free: 1-800-565-4723
TTY: 613-727-7766
Fax: 613-727-7632
Contact: https://www.algonquincollege.com/ro
Additional Information
Program Resources
This program is also offered part-time online and full-time on campus.
Please note: The Co-op option is only available in the on-campus delivery of this program.
PRIOR LEARNING AND RECOGNITION (PLAR):
Students who wish to apply for PLAR need to demonstrate competency at a post-secondary level in all of the course learning requirements. Evidence of learning achievements for PLAR candidates may include a comprehensive challenge examination and/or completion of a portfolio.
PROGRAM PROGRESSON:
As per policy AA39: Program Progression and Graduation Requirements when students are admitted to a program, they are assigned to the Program of Study that aligns with their start date. If a student takes a break for two or more consecutive terms the Program of Study is reset to align with the current version (when studies are resumed). For more information, please contact your Student Advisor (https://www.algonquincollege.com/academic-success/ac-online/).
Contact
Future Students
For additional information, please contact our Customer Service Representative team at online@algonquincollege.com and they will direct you to the best person to answer your specific questions.
Current Students
For additional information, please reference the AC Online Circle of Care.