IT4545 builds foundational cloud computing literacy centered on the essential characteristics that define cloud computing: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, elasticity, and measured service. Students develop hands-on proficiency with Microsoft Azure, one of the dominant industry cloud platforms, while also analyzing the economic case for cloud adoption and designing security measures that satisfy regulatory compliance requirements.
The five essential characteristics of cloud computing (NIST)
| Characteristic | What It Means |
|---|---|
| On-Demand Self-Service | Users provision computing resources automatically without requiring human interaction with the provider |
| Broad Network Access | Resources are available over the network through standard mechanisms across diverse client devices |
| Resource Pooling | The provider's computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model |
| Rapid Elasticity | Resources can be scaled rapidly outward and inward to match demand |
| Measured Service | Resource usage is monitored, controlled, and reported, supporting a pay-as-you-go model |
What IT4545 covers
The course grounds students in the formal definition of cloud computing established by NIST, the five characteristics that distinguish true cloud services from simply hosting a server somewhere else. Capella expects students to use this framework to evaluate whether a given technology solution genuinely qualifies as cloud computing or merely uses cloud-adjacent marketing language without delivering these core characteristics.
IT4545 then moves into hands-on work with Microsoft Azure, building practical platform skills students can transfer directly to enterprise environments, since Azure remains one of the most widely deployed cloud platforms in corporate IT. The course examines the economic advantages of cloud computing, including the shift from capital expenditure to operational expenditure and reduced infrastructure management overhead, while also addressing the strategy considerations for transitioning from on-premise to cloud infrastructure. A significant portion of the course focuses on designing security measures that satisfy regulatory frameworks including HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI-DSS, since cloud deployments in regulated industries must demonstrate compliance regardless of where the underlying infrastructure lives.
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Key topics in IT4545
- NIST's five essential characteristics of cloud computing and how to apply them analytically
- Hands-on proficiency with Microsoft Azure as an industry-standard cloud platform
- Economic benefits of cloud computing: capital versus operational expenditure shifts
- On-premise to cloud transition strategy and the practical challenges of migration
- Designing cloud security measures aligned with HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI-DSS requirements
- Cloud architecture design principles for scalability and reliability
- Evaluating cloud solutions against the formal definition of cloud computing rather than marketing claims
Key compliance frameworks covered in IT4545
- HIPAA: governs protected health information in the United States, requiring specific safeguards for healthcare data stored or processed in the cloud
- GDPR: the European Union's data protection regulation, imposing strict requirements on personal data handling regardless of where cloud infrastructure is physically located
- PCI-DSS: the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, governing how payment card data must be protected in any environment, including cloud-hosted systems
- Each framework requires specific technical and administrative controls, and cloud architecture must be designed with these requirements in mind from the start, not retrofitted after deployment
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Frequently asked questions
Microsoft Azure has deep enterprise market penetration, especially among organizations already using Microsoft's broader software ecosystem, including Office 365 and Windows Server. Capella's choice reflects Azure's strong presence in corporate IT environments where many graduates will work, though the underlying cloud concepts students learn (resource pooling, elasticity, on-demand provisioning) transfer directly to other major cloud platforms.
Common assignments include hands-on Azure configuration exercises demonstrating specific cloud service implementations, an economic analysis comparing on-premise versus cloud total cost of ownership, and a compliance-focused architecture design satisfying a specific regulatory framework like HIPAA or GDPR for a case-based organization. Capella expects both practical platform competency and written justification grounded in cloud computing principles.
IT4525 covers implementation strategy broadly across compute, storage, networking, security, and special workloads like AI without focusing on one specific platform. IT4545 grounds students more deeply in the formal NIST cloud computing definition and builds platform-specific Azure skills, with a stronger emphasis on regulatory compliance design. Many programs include both courses because they reinforce different but complementary cloud competencies.
Moving data and applications to the cloud does not eliminate an organization's legal and regulatory obligations, it just changes where the technical controls need to be implemented. A healthcare organization migrating patient records to the cloud remains fully responsible for HIPAA compliance, and the cloud provider's infrastructure security does not automatically satisfy that obligation. IT4545 treats compliance-aware architecture as a core skill because organizations in regulated industries cannot adopt cloud computing without it.