# Episode 1: Introduction and Building a Foundation for Enterprise Cloud Operations

![](media/ssm-aws-logo.png)

NOTE: You will incur charges as you go through either of these workshops, as they will exceed the [limits of AWS free tier](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/free-tier-limits.html).

## Table of Contents

- [Summary](#summary)
- [Learning Objectives](#learning-objectives)
- [Gettting Started](#getting-started)

## Summary

Businesses are taking advantage of the cloud to innovate more quickly, scale, and get to market faster leveraging cloud scale and elasticity. Dev-Ops and operations teams need the ability to automate and scale to maintain reliability, flexibility, security, and compliance of their environments regardless of what methdology they use. In this episode, we will introduce the series structure, and you will learn how to use AWS services and best practices to set up an operational foundation to automate inventory and operational best practices for your cloud or hybrid-cloud applications and resources.

In episode one, you will enable the service [AWS Config](https://aws.amazon.com/config/) which enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. Additionally, you will enable and use various capabilities of [AWS Systems Manager](https://aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/) to gain visibility and control of your infrastructure including:

- [Quick Setup](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-quick-setup.html)
- [Inventory](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-inventory.html)
- [Run Command](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/execute-remote-commands.html)
- [Change Calendar](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-change-calendar.html)
- [Automation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-automation.html)
- [State Manager](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-state.html)
- [Parameter Store](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-parameter-store.html)

## Learning Objectives

During this workshop episode, we will work towards the following learning objectives:

- Learn how to enable AWS Config to continuously monitor and record your AWS resource configurations.
- Learn how to enable gathering inventory data for EC2 instances and on-premise servers and VMs.
- Learn how to create playbooks and define freeze periods for automated workflows.
- Learn how to establish configuration management for Systems Manager managed instances.

## Getting Started

Click the link below to go to the next section.

[![](media/enable-inventory.png)](/episode-01-step-01-enable-inventory.md)