Architecture Drills

Hybrid Connectivity HA vs Cost | SAA-C03

8 January 2026·1184 words·6 mins

Architecture Drills AWS SAA-C03 FinOps Decision Matrix Direct Connect VPN Hybrid Architecture High Availability

A manufacturing company needs high-availability hybrid connectivity to AWS with stable latency, minimal cost, and tolerance for slower backup. Learn why Direct Connect + VPN backup is the optimal solution over dual Direct Connect or dual VPN approaches.

Azure SQL PII Protection Decisions | Azure AZ-305

8 January 2026·818 words·4 mins

Architecture Drills Microsoft Azure AZ-305 Azure CAF Governance Azure SQL

A breakdown of the scenario focusing on secure data access control, governance, and encryption strategies for Azure SQL.

S3 Gateway Endpoint vs NAT Gateway Costs | SAP-C02

8 January 2026·1386 words·7 mins

Architecture Drills AWS SAP-C02 FinOps Decision Matrix VPC S3 Gateway Endpoint NAT Gateway Data Transfer Costs

This drill explores how to reduce cloud spending for a high-security image processing service by optimizing VPC networking—specifically choosing between NAT Gateways and S3 Gateway Endpoints for 1TB daily S3 data transfer.

SQS Dedup vs Visibility Timeout | SAA-C03

7 January 2026·1026 words·5 mins

Architecture Drills AWS SAA-C03 FinOps Decision Matrix Amazon SQS Message Processing Idempotency Distributed Systems

A retail analytics company faces duplicate database records despite unique SQS messages. This drill examines why visibility timeout extension is the correct solution and how it prevents race conditions in distributed message processing.

High-Throughput Web Apps—Compute vs Storage | GCP PCA

7 January 2026·616 words·3 mins

Architecture Drills Google Cloud Platform GCP PCA GCP FinOps SRE Cloud Run Bigtable BigQuery

A fintech startup must handle 500K requests per second with cost constraints. This drill explores managed compute vs. VM autoscaling and BigQuery vs. Bigtable for real-time exact-match storage.

Marketplace Deployment Governance | Azure AZ-104

7 January 2026·656 words·4 mins

Architecture Drills Microsoft Azure AZ-104 Azure CAF Governance Marketplace Resources

A breakdown of a subscription governance scenario focusing on Marketplace terms acceptance, role assignment, and resource provider registration.

Shared VPC vs Peering for Projects | GCP ACE

7 January 2026·657 words·4 mins

Architecture Drills Google Cloud Platform GCP ACE GCP FinOps SRE VPC Networking

This drill explores connecting Compute Engine instances running in separate VPCs and projects, focusing on the best practices for network sharing and access control.

SQL Monitoring Trade-offs in Hybrid | Azure AZ-305

7 January 2026·718 words·4 mins

Architecture Drills Microsoft Azure AZ-305 Azure CAF Governance Azure SQL

A breakdown of configuring multiple diagnostic settings for Azure SQL in a hybrid governance scenario.

S3 Lifecycle vs Glacier for Instant Access | SAA-C03

7 January 2026·1130 words·6 mins

Architecture Drills AWS SAA-C03 FinOps Decision Matrix S3 Lifecycle Storage Classes Cost Optimization

A critical business data archival scenario requiring 4-year retention with instant access. Learn why S3 Standard-IA beats Glacier and One Zone-IA through FinOps analysis and compliance constraints.

StackSets in AWS Organizations Governance Traps | SAP-C02

7 January 2026·1238 words·6 mins

Architecture Drills AWS SAP-C02 FinOps Decision Matrix CloudFormation StackSets AWS Organizations Multi-Account Strategy Infrastructure as Code

Master the critical decision of choosing service-managed vs. self-managed permissions for StackSets deployment across 100+ AWS accounts, with quantified FinOps impact and governance considerations.