Master core networking (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/S) and operating systems (Linux, Windows Server).

Understand virtualization and gain hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes basics.

Learn the principles of IT security, including access control, encryption, and network security.

Learn concepts of IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and the shared responsibility model on a major cloud like AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Gain proficiency in compute (EC2/VMs), storage (S3/Blob), networking (VPC/VNet), and databases (RDS).

Get familiar with the command-line interface (CLI), SDKs, and tools for billing and cost management.

Study key design patterns like microservices, serverless, event-driven, and n-tier architecture.

Design systems that are fault-tolerant and highly available using load balancing and auto-scaling.

Architect secure solutions using principles of defense-in-depth, network segmentation, and identity federation.

Master tools like Terraform or CloudFormation to automate provisioning and management of infrastructure.

Build automated pipelines for continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment.

Implement robust monitoring, logging, and alerting to ensure system health and performance.

Design solutions for data processing, storage, and analytics using data lakes, warehouses, and streaming.

Go deep with container orchestration using Kubernetes, service meshes, and cloud-native patterns.

Design the underlying infrastructure required to train and deploy machine learning models at scale.

Translate business requirements into technical solutions and analyze the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Effectively communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Design solutions that adhere to industry standards and regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC 2.