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