Top 15 online courses to learn Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS in 2021
Tags: Java, AWS, Kubernetes, DevOps, Docker

Top 15 online courses to learn Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS in 2021 javinpaul Follow Mar 31 · 12 min read

Hello all, You’ve probably heard the buzz around Docker and Kubernetes. They have fundamentally changed the development and deployment process and been adopted by software teams of all sizes, and for good reason.

Docker makes it considerably easier to create, deploy, and run applications with the use of containers, and Kubernetes takes it to the next level by managing containers for you and scaling your application as and when required.

One of my goals this year is to master Docker and Kubernetes, How about you? I am sure you had made goals when this year started, but if not, you can still check out 10 Things Java developers can learn in 2021.

It’s never too late. From my experience with interacting with many software developers, it seems DevOps is the top priority for many programmers. I have been receiving a lot of queries, emails, and chats about how to learn Docker and Kubernetes, two of the most popular DevOps tools.

When it comes to learning, nothing beats personal training, but that’s not always feasible; hence we need to rely on self-learning using books and online courses, and that’s what I will suggest to you in this article.

Until, a couple of years back, I was a big fan of books, but nowadays, I am using more and more online courses to get up-to-speed with new technology. They seem to better cover the 20% important part of the technology, which is used 80% of the time.

Anyway, If you don’t know what Docker and Kubernetes are, let me give you a brief summary before I suggest you some online courses to learn Docker and Kubernetes in 2021.

In simple words, Docker is a container where you can run your application without worrying about hardware and operating system versions, which makes it easy to spin off a new environment without worrying about config details. It provides both containers and a command-line tool to manage those containers while Kubernetes is a container orchestration system that manages your container effectively.

Kubernetes is arguably the most crucial container management technology in the world and used a lot in a real production environment where you have many containers to manage.

It’s essential from the scalability perspective and also to manage your resources effectively. Even though it’s not from Google, Its origin is. It’s created as an open-source by engineers who work on a similar tool in Google. You can understand that if it can work on the scale of Google, it’s definitely well tried and tested.

In this article, I’ll share some of the best online courses from Udemy to learn Docker and Kubernetes, but if you are in a hurry and just want to join one class, then the Docker and Kubernetes: The Complete Guide by Stephen Grider is the best one to start with.

15 Best Online Courses to learn Docker, AWS, and Kubernetes

Without wasting any more of your time, here is my list of some of the best courses to learn Docker and Kubernetes in 2021. These courses are created by an expert in the DevOps area who have real-world experience in using these tools.

This is one of the comprehensive course to learn DevOps along with both Docker and Kubernetes. In this course, you will learn how to build, test, and deploy Docker applications with Kubernetes.

The course starts from scratch, i.e. no previous experience with Docker or Kubernetes is required. Along the course, you will build a CI + CD pipeline from scratch with Github, Travis CI, and AWS.

You will not only understand the purpose and theory of Kubernetes by building a complex app but also master the Docker CLI to inspect and debug running containers.

This is another great course to learn Docker on Pluralsight. In this course, you will not only learn the fundamentals of Docker and containers but also some advanced features like Swarm mode, services, and stacks.

You’ll start with installing Docker on the most common development and production platforms — Windows and Mac laptops, Windows Server, and Linux.

After this course, you’ll be up and running a solid understanding of the fundamentals of Docker, along with some game-changing features.

This is a great online course to learn Docker from scratch by Nigel Poulton. IF you don’t know Nigel, he is a Docker Captain and popular technology author. He is known for his engaging videos and books on cloud-native technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.

In this course you will with installing Docker on the most common development and production platforms — Windows and Mac laptops, Windows Server 2016, and Linux.

After that, you’ll get to see some fundamental concepts of containers and images, including how to perform common management tasks.

You’ll also spend a good deal of time covering all the new stuff introduced with Docker 1.12, including Swarm mode, services, scaling, rolling updates, stacks, and distributed application bundles.

After completing this course, you’ll be up and running with some of the game-changing improvements announced with Docker 1.12 and have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of Docker.

This is a great course to learn Docker programmers and developers on The Educative Team, an interactive coding platform that provides text and image-based courses for faster learning.

If you prefer a text-based course then this is a great course to learn Docker in 2021, particularly for programmers and developers.

This is another course from Educative, and you can join this course along with the previous one for learning both Docker and Kubernetes. As I said, the site is great if you prefer a text-based, learn-by-doing approach. Reading is always faster than watching and if you get bored watching videos, you should try this platform in 2021 for your online learning.

In this course, you’ll start with the fundamentals of Kubernetes and what the main components of a cluster look like. You’ll then learn how to use those components to build, test, deploy, and upgrade applications, as well as how to achieve state persistence once your application is deployed.

As a platform, Educative also has some of the best courses to prepare for coding interviews like Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions and Grokking the system design interview.

It also has a lot of free resources like this free JavaScript tutorial to learn essential technologies. You can register for this course for free but if you like to take full advantage of the platform, I suggest you go for Educative Subscription, which costs $18(50% discount now) monthly, completely worth it for a programmer and software engineers where continuous learning is required.

You’ll also learn how to secure your deployments and manage resources, which are crucial DevOps skills.

This is another fantastic course to learn Docker by Nigel, especially if you want to learn Docker in-depth.

In Docker Deep Dive, you’ll go from zero-to-Docker by learning everything you need to know to take your career to the next level and give you the confidence to start working with containers.

This course is also good if you are preparing for Docker Certified Associate Exam as after completing this course you’ll be prepared for most of the topics presented on the Docker Certified Associate exam, and be ready to work with containers.

This is another great course for people looking to learn Kubernetes in 2021. It is yet another gem from Nigel Poulton, author of the previous two Docker courses.

In this course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of Kubernetes and the ‘Kubernetes way’. First, you’ll dive into Kubernetes architecture, what the main components and services are, and how they come together to build a production-class container infrastructure.

After that, you’ll learn how to install and deploy Kubernetes on several cloud platforms. Finally, you’ll delve into working with pods, deployments, and services.

By the end of this course, you’ll have a solid understanding of what Kubernetes is and how it works, as well as skills to deploy a Kubernetes cluster and simple applications.

Btw, you would need a Pluralsight membership to get access to this course, which costs around $29 per month or $299 annually (14% discount).

If you don’t have Pluralsight membership, I encourage you to get one because it allows you to access their 5000+ online courses on all the latest topics like front-end and back-end development, machine learning, etc. It also includes interactive quizzes, exercises, and the latest certification material.

It’s more like Netflix for Software Developers and Since learning is an important part of our job, Pluralsight membership is a great way to stay ahead of your competition.

Pluralsight also has a 10-day free trial without any commitment, which is a great way to not just access this course for free but also to check the quality of courses before joining Pluralsight.

This is the best online course to learn Kubernetes in depth. As you already know that Kubernetes can run and manage your containerized applications.

This course will teach you how to build, deploy, use, and maintain Kubernetes.

You will learn how to install and configure Kubernetes (on your laptop/desktop or production-grade cluster on AWS).

After this course, you should be able to run both stateless and stateful applications on Kubernetes.

This course provides the beginner level introduction to Docker, the most famous DevOps tool. The course is entirely hands-on, so you will not just learn or listen but do a lot of exercises to actually practice the stuff you are learning.

First, you will learn basic Docker commands with hands-on exercises, and then you will learn how to build Docker images using Dockerfiles.

You will also learn Docker Swarm and Docker Compose and build an application stack using Docker Compose Files.

In short, a complete Docker course for beginners with lots of hands-on exercises.

This is one of the best courses to learn practical AWS you will find online. This course is created by a former Amazon engineer with 15 years of experience working on AWS.

This is not your typical AWS reference course. You won’t find most of the knowledge that’s shared here in the AWS docs. The goal here is to help you realize which AWS features you’d be foolish not to use — features that have passed the test of time by being at the backbone of most things on the Internet.

In this course, you’ll learn a technique used to help make reliable technical choices without getting paralyzed in the face of so many options. You’ll start by going through the most fundamental services AWS offers such as DynamoDB, S3, EC2. Each section breaks down how it’s used, the pros and cons, why you should (or shouldn’t) be using it, and more.

Here is the link to sign up for this course — The Good Parts of AWS: Cutting Through the Clutter

You can either buy this course or you can get and Educative membership to access this course. If you ask me, I suggest you get Educative Subscription which costs $17(50% discount now) monthly, completely worth it for a programmer and software engineers where continuous learning is required. Thanks to The Educative Team for this awesome course.

This course is also available as e-Book on Gumroad, if you like to read books then you can also check out The Good Parts of AWS eBook. There is a 20% discount available if you buy the book using this link.

Docker provides containers, but they can quickly become messy if you don’t manage them. Kubernetes provides a way to manage them.

Kubernetes has emerged as one of the most essential and exciting container management platforms, and in this course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of Kubernetes and the ‘Kubernetes way.’

First, you’ll learn Kubernetes architecture and understand the main components and services, and how they come together to build a production-class container infrastructure.

After that, you’ll learn how to install and deploy Kubernetes on several cloud platforms like GCP, AWS, and Azure. Finally, you’ll learn how to work with pods, deployments, and services.

After finishing this course, you’ll have a solid understanding of what Kubernetes is and how it works, as well as skills to deploy a Kubernetes cluster and simple applications.

That’s all about some of the best courses to learn about Docker and Kubernetes, two of the most important tools for DevOps engineers. As I have said, Docker provides a container which has now become a standard way to deploy your application because it abstracts a lot of setup stuff. You don’t need to worry about inconsistencies in OS, DB version, etc. between the environment.

On the other hand, Kubernetes is the best container management technology, and you will definitely need it if you are going to use containers in production.

All these courses are excellent, but you should join the one which suits you better. I put a lot of focus on the Instructor’s style, and whether I can connect to him or not, hence I suggest you to join the course where you can connect with the instructor. If you just need one class, make that to Docker and Kubernetes: The Complete Guide, merely the best course to learn both Docker and Kubernetes.

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Thanks for reading so far. If you like these Docker and Kubernetes courses, then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.

P. S. — If you are looking for some free courses to start your DevOps journey and learn essential tools like Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes then, you should check out this list of Free Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes courses for DevOps and Programmers.