Introduction

RightTrack offers several different self-paced learning tracks.  It leads you through a learning path designed to ease your RightScale learning curve.

Legend

System Administrators
Developers
Managers, Business Development, etc.  (Anybody who needs to come up to speed at a conceptual level.)

RightTrack has a phased approach.  From top to bottom the user level progression is generally Beginner  ⇒Intermediate   ⇒Advanced¹. 

Self-Paced Modules

RightTrack is self-paced, so you can take as little or as much time as you like.  However, we recommend you strike a balance.  Finishing RightTrack in one sitting is simply too much to digest, yet spending over 4 weeks is probably stretching it out too long.  Working through the entire course in approximately 3 weeks time seems optimal. 

Track	Name	Synopsis
. . . Beginner topics . . .
	Cloud computing explained	Extremely basic, but a good place to start for those with little to know exposure to the Cloud.  Short enough that others should have a listen too (e.g. System Administrators and Developers.)  ~5 min YouTube clip.
	Cloud computing Plain and Simple	Introductory, but carries a bit more technically accurate information than the previous YouTube clip.  ~5 min long.
	Cloud Computing Sails	A basic but good discussion.  Provokes food for thought such as the market and potential battleground that is shaping up in and around the Cloud.  Touches on several cloud "buzz" words (cloud itself, Google/Google Apps, platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) etc.).  However, this segment largely misses the mark or dances around what real players such as RightScale enable you to do with the public (and private) clouds. ~5 min YouTube clip.
	Productivity and Agility in the Cloud	Broad range of use cases from our customer base.  Addresses the managed cloud in three ways:  (1) Scalable cloud model.  (2) Test/Dev environments.  (3) Grid computing example.  A must view for managers, business development types, etc.  Highly recommended for System Administrators as well.  ~10 min YouTube clip.
	RightScale Product Overview	Great introduction to what RightScale has to offer.  Also covers key RightScale differentiators such as ServerTemplates, Automation and Lifecycle Management, Cloud portability, etc.
	You can stay in control of the cloud	Thorsten Von Eicken, founder and CTO of RightScale, discusses how you really don't lose control when using RightScale to manage Servers in the Cloud.  A must view!  ~6 min YouTube clip.
	Getting Started Guide	This guide gets you started using RightScale.  It includes beginning tutorials such as signing up, adding credentials, and RightScale Basics.
	Dashboard Help Text	The RightScale Dashboard includes context sensitive Help Text.  Once logged into the Dashboard, it provides helpful instruction for your current location within the product.  The Help Text is like having an Overview Guide built into the product.  It generally covers the topic at the page (and tab) level, discusses possible actions, and links to various Tutorials and additional information on our Support Portal. Dashboard users of all levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) should use the Help Text.  Get used to using the Help Text... it is your friend!
	Webinars	Peruse our Webinar archive for topics that interest you.  Generally, our Webinars are delivered live (and recorded) and last about one hour.  They usually include a brief presentation, a live demonstration, and a very informative question and answer time.  This is time well spent and don't forget to register for future webinars if you have not done so already!
	ServerTemplates Introduction	This Flash video introduces the importance of RightScale ServerTemplates in an easy to understand manner.  ~8 min YouTube clip.
	Deployments Introduction	This Flash video explains how you can use RightScale Deployments to better manage your servers in the cloud.  ~8 min YouTube clip.
. . . Intermediate topics . . .
	RightScale Video Tutorials	View a series of 14 quick videos (typically about 2 minutes long).  Watch a Deployment being built from scratch that includes two load balanced front end servers, a PHP application that auto-scales, with a Master/Slave MySQL back end. Highly recommended step prior to using our Tutorials to assist you in various other tasks in the Dashboard.
	ServerTemplates	Peruse the RightScale published ServerTemplates in the Dashboard.  No need to completely digest them at this point, but see which ones catch your interest and you might want to get a closer look later.
	RightScripts	Similar to the ServerTemplates in the previous step, peruse our RightScripts in the Dashboard.  Again, no need to understand details at this point.  The Basic and Intermediate tutorials coming up will give you a better working knowledge of ServerTemplates and RightScripts.  (Note:  We are currently building out additional support for Chef in our ServerTemplates.)
	Example Site Architecture Diagrams	Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words!  Before diving into several of your own Deployments, take a look at common single, 4 and 6 Server architectures.  Auto-scaling and RightGrid architectures are also included.  (Note:  Although these diagrams are EC2 specific, the concepts are still helpful to see.)
	Basic Example	Basic tutorial that walks you through creating a ServerTemplate and RightScript.  Before you know it, you will have an Apache webserver running in the Cloud!
	Intermediate Example	This tutorial builds on what you learned in the Basic Example tutorial.  Clone and customize a RightScale ServerTemplate.  You will also manipulate RightScripts and Input values prior to launching a webserver on a LAMP stack.
	E2E Gaming Deployment	Learning tool that walks you through all steps (end-to-end) to create and configure a fairly typical architecture for a gaming (or other) application.  Import and run a macro to build the skeleton Deployment, then configure manually to bring an additional front end Server with DNS and load balancing as well as a scalable Server Array.  Note:  Some of the content in this tutorial is arguably advanced, not intermediate.
	All-in-one Rails Server	This tutorial shows you how to use RightScale ServerTemplates to build and launch an all-in-one Rails server.  The following solution stack is used: Apache web server with a Rails application using a MySQL database and backups to a persistent store... all on one Server in the cloud!
	FAQs	Peruse the type of questions that are often asked by our customers and partners.  For now, peruse the list at a high level, only drilling down into the specifics on a handful of topics that interest you most.
	Web Site Edition tutorials	This is an extremely practical tutorial, setting up a Deployment that is arguably the most common architecture deployed in the Cloud.  This tutorial covers each step in detail.  It takes the All-in-one tutorial and creates a multi-server Deployment in the Cloud. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a solid grasp of the Cloud in general, and how to use the RightScale Cloud Management platorm. (Note:  From start to finish this tutorial will take anywhere from a few hours, to the better part of a day, depending on your technical background and if your Deployment requires troubleshooting.)
. . . Advanced topics . . .
	RightScale API Guide	The RightScale API Guide provides an overview, getting started tutorial, reference information, as well as helpful examples.
	RightScale Macros	Macros are an extremely powerful, yet often under utilized feature of the RightScale Cloud Management Platform.  Learn how to use macros to capture everything pertaining to a Deployment, Server, Server Array or another macro.  You can create and play back macros "as is", customize them, or even just create your own from scratch.
	RightGrid Introduction Video	A great introduction for all into the power of scalable processing in the Cloud with RightGrid.  RightGrid offers nearly infinite computing power, and can scale both up and back down to meet real time application demand.  As you scale up and down to meet demand, you are only billed for the resources used.  ~10 minute YouTube clip.
	RightGrid Technical Users Guide	RightGrid Technical Users Guide.  Should be read by System Administrators and Developers that are considering RightGrid applications and need to know more.  (Note:  Consider using the "RightGrid Demo App Setup" macro in the Dashboard as well.)

¹Several transcend these phases and apply during the majority of the learning experience.  For example, using the context sensitive Help Text within the Dashboard... which is encouraged throughout your learning curve.  There is a lot of overlap between the tracks, particularly the System Administrator and Developer tracks. In some instances the order of the track spheres indicates a clear primary audience.  (For example, a green sphere first on a beginner topic such as general Cloud Computing indicates they are the primary audience.  System Administrators and Developers can also benefit however.  Similarly, Developers (blue sphere) are displayed first for the RightScale API, but System Administrators may also find the API Guide useful.)

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