LocalStack: A Practical Approach to Teaching Cloud Computing

Abstract

Cloud computing has become the core of modern software development and deployment. LocalStack provides an efficient, cost-effective platform for developers and students to simulate complex cloud architectures. In this paper, LocalStack has been explored as a cloud service emulator as it offers local deployment of cloud-based services that would typically require Amazon Web Services (AWS) and accounts. The research has focused on the deployment of LocalStack, its capability of emulating AWS cloud services, the educational benefits for students learning cloud technologies and Infrastructure-as-Code practices using Terraform and LocalStack with the goal of demonstrating how it reduces barriers to cloud education with local development, debugging and testing.