Every application runs on infrastructure, and I teach students how that infrastructure actually works - from the cable to the cloud. When you understand what happens beneath the code, you debug faster, design better, and make sounder decisions about where systems should live.
The area spans classic networking fundamentals through to modern cloud architectures and the practical craft of managing infrastructure day to day.
Topics I cover
Network fundamentals
The OSI and TCP/IP models, Ethernet, switching and routing - the mental model that makes every ‘why isn’t this connecting?’ problem solvable rather than mysterious.
IP addressing and subnetting
IPv4 and IPv6, subnet design, DHCP and DNS - the addressing logic that underpins every network students will ever build or troubleshoot.
Cloud computing architectures
IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, virtualisation and containers, and the trade-offs organisations weigh when moving workloads to the cloud: cost, scalability, resilience, and control.
Infrastructure management
Monitoring, documentation, backup and recovery - the operational discipline that keeps systems running and the habits that make an administrator trustworthy.
Explore: the OSI model, layer by layer
Seven layers, each with one job - the most useful troubleshooting framework in networking. Click or tap each stage to explore it.
How I teach it
Students configure real and virtualised networks - addressing schemes, routing, services - and then break and troubleshoot them, because diagnosis under pressure is the skill employers actually pay for.
On the cloud side, students deploy real services and compare the models hands-on, so ‘IaaS versus PaaS’ becomes a practical judgement rather than a definition to memorise.
Test yourself
Three quick questions - click an answer to check it instantly.
1. At which OSI layer do IP addresses and routing operate?
2. What does DNS do?
3. In the IaaS cloud model, what does the provider supply?
Where this leads
Networking and cloud skills lead into network engineering, cloud administration, and DevOps roles - and they underpin my cybersecurity teaching, because you can only defend a network you genuinely understand. Certifications map naturally onto this area too, giving students a clear route from course content to industry credentials.
