Day 1: AWS Cloud Resume Challenge

The Goal:

Kickstarting the #CloudResumeChallenge by deploying a static resume website to the cloud!

What I Built Today:

Today was all about foundational cloud storage and web hosting. I utilised ChatGPT to rapidly generate a semantic HTML/CSS boilerplate, allowing me to focus entirely on the cloud architecture: deploying the portfolio and making it publicly accessible via Amazon S3.

The Roadblock and Troubleshooting:

After uploading my index.html file and enabling S3's "Static Website Hosting" feature, I immediately hit a wall: a 403 Access Forbidden error when trying to view the site URL.

I realised that disabling the public access block doesn't automatically grant access to the internet. AWS S3 is intrinsically secure by default. Even after enabling the static website feature, the bucket remains private until explicitly told otherwise.

The Solution:

I needed to define exactly who could view the content. I wrote and attached a custom JSON Bucket Policy granting the s3:GetObject permission to all principals(*). The moment I applied the policy, the 403 error vanished, and my website was live!

Key Takeaway:

It was incredibly satisfying to refresh that 403 page and finally see my live site! It was a great hands-on lesson in how AWS separates service features (like website hosting ) from resource-based security policies.

Up Next:

The raw S3 website URL works, but it isn't secure(HTTP) and lacks a custom domain. Next up: architecting the DNS and CDN layers to serve this site securely via HTTPS!

#AWS #CloudComputing #DevOps #CloudResumeChallenge #BuildInPublic