Learn Cloud + AI - Without Chasing a Certification¶
Plain-English explanations of cloud computing and AI/ML for people who want to understand the technology, not just pass an exam.
Built and maintained by Patrick Wiloak - Ex-AWS Solutions Architect, 18x multi cloud certified, 60 certifications and accreditations, 10 years in tech. If certs aren't your goal, start here.
🎥 @patrickwiloak | 💼 LinkedIn
Who this is for¶
You want to understand cloud and AI, but:
- You're not preparing for an exam (or not yet)
- You want context and intuition, not 200-question fact dumps
- You'd rather learn the why before drilling into vendor-specific details
- You're a developer, founder, PM, analyst, or curious technologist
If you do want certifications, head back to the Study Hub - 148 certs across 27 providers, fully indexed.
What's in this hub¶
Brand new to all of this?¶
- Day One - terminal, git, HTTP, servers. The pages assume nothing. If you've never opened a terminal, start here.
Bite-size concept pages¶
- Concepts - 46 topic pages, 5-10 min each. Cloud primitives (VPC, K8s, serverless), DevOps (CI/CD, Terraform), networking (DNS, TLS), and AI (LLMs, RAG, agents, transformers, embeddings, prompt engineering, evals).
Structured learning paths¶
- Cloud from Scratch - 8-phase path from "what is cloud?" to designing real systems
- AI from Scratch - LLMs, RAG, agents, and production AI apps
Reference¶
- Glossary - 200+ cloud, AI, DevOps, networking, and security terms in plain English
- YouTube curation - filtered videos worth your time
How to use this¶
There's no "right order." Pick what fits:
| If you want to... | Start here |
|---|---|
| Start from absolute zero | Day One |
| Look up a term you keep seeing | Glossary |
| Understand one concept (RAG, VPC, agents, ...) | Concepts |
| Build a foundation in cloud | Cloud from Scratch |
| Build a foundation in AI/LLMs | AI from Scratch |
| Compare AWS vs Azure vs GCP | Service comparisons |
| See real architectures | Architecture patterns |
| Try hands-on labs | Hands-on projects |
Why this exists¶
Most cloud and AI content is either:
- Cert-shaped - exam objectives, fact sheets, practice questions (great if you have an exam date, useless if you just want to understand)
- Vendor marketing - "transform your business with the cloud!" (no actual technical content)
- Deeply specialized - PhD-level papers, engineering postmortems (skip the fundamentals you'd need to follow them)
This hub is the missing middle: technical, accurate, plain-English, no exam scaffolding.
Companion resources¶
- Main Study Hub - if you decide to certify
- Architecture Patterns - 17 real-world patterns
- CLI Cheat Sheets - AWS, Azure, GCP, kubectl, Terraform, Docker, Helm, GitHub CLI
- Service Comparisons - cross-cloud equivalents
Contributing¶
Spot something wrong, unclear, or missing? See CONTRIBUTING.md. Plain-English contributions especially welcome - if you can explain something better than I did, please do.