Cloud Skills: Career-Building with AWS Certifications

Cloud Skills: Career-Building with AWS Certifications

Technology is changing rapidly and new use cases are constantly being created by the market. Yet I find the most interest in my core training for Amazon Web Services (AWS) in all of my certifications.

You rarely get as enriching and refreshing a certification program as AWS. I highly recommend obtaining their cloud certifications at some point if you are an IT professional, even if your work does not demand that you you actively work with these products.

AWS is the Standard for Cloud Skills

AWS is the mature cloud provider with the largest cloud software portfolio to operate, retain, build and more. Which means it's a built-in direct line to standard learning and the latest and greatest items. There is no browsing the internet or signing up with a pricey college or bootcamp.

However, they set the standard for cloud computing and put themselves at the forefront of new product trends (remember RDS?). Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) have important gaps in their design and product range, but it is safe to say that if you are certified in core AWS services, you can quickly catch up with Azure and GCP.

The AWS certification program is also the oldest and most comprehensive program, which for now and for the foreseeable future puts them in much higher demand and higher value on the job market. These certifications are highly respected, with industry-wide acceptance for their training and research. (Note to cheaters: you are not going to pass an AWS Associate or Professional level test with a cutting corner!)

Where to Begin?

It's easy to feel lost when you begin your certification journey with 9 total certification tracks. It can be difficult to wrap your head around the size and complexity of AWS services even as a technical expert. While being an expert in every AWS product offering is not feasible, certain critical services are a must.

For example, Virtual Private Cloud, Identity and Access Management, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), RDS, DynamoDB, Route53, S3 and more must be understood by all AWS professionals. But how do you determine what's essential in over 200 items beyond the core fundamentals? Starting with a detailed plan for your future and working backwards is easiest.

Build a Strong Cloud Foundation as an Associate

I love Systems Architect–Associate Exam as it builds a solid foundation on what AWS is, including detailed knowledge of key AWS products. If you choose to follow the DevOps path, it provides a strong foundation. This will also provide the basis for the certification of the Developer-Associate.

Define Your Cloud Career Path at the Professional Level

This may be  your  next crossroads  determine to want you to focus  on  building plans for  cloud  migration /  application architecture  or network  automation and development (DevOps).Build a Deeper Specialty

Through AWS, you can continue down any number of rabbit holes like  Machine Learning, Serverless, and more as your career progresses.

Tips and Tricks To Getting Certified

AWS certifications can be difficult, but don’t despair. Here are few words of wisdom as you begin down the path:

Get Your Hands Dirty: There is no theoretical cost to technical certification. It’s real, tangible, technological know-how you’re working with, so make certain you get below the hood and sign up for a free AWS subscription and journey the product yourself. Besides, as soon as you roll up your sleeves and work with AWS, the curriculum will sink in much faster. Rich documentation and guidelines are all over the true interface, and will accelerate your schooling very quickly. Reading the documentation is crucial to being able to navigate the interface, design and use the features.

Practice Makes Perfect: Before reserving the exam, take on line AWS assessment exams from AWS itself, or from third-party practice-exam providers… however don’t count number on exercise exams alone. They’re awesome for measuring your AWS knowledge, but AWS re-creates and rephrases the questions very regularly. This isn’t about rote memorization; it’s about placing concepts into practice.

Prepare to Put in the Time

AWS exams are not easy. Expect some heavy funding in time and effort. Don’t hassle preserving any information in your head that is difficulty to steady change, such as product pricing or genuine specifications. In most cases, AWS needs to check your potential to graph and combine a number merchandise collectively to furnish an basic solution to a problem. While you want to zoom in-depth on related products, you equally have to understand how these merchandise relate to every other in order to provide a packaged solution for a client’s need.

As AWS continues to capture a giant section of the public cloud computing market, it’s inevitable that your profession will subsequently intersect with it in some way. Luckily, the agency wants to put together gurus to leverage its products as efficiently as possible for groups of all sizes. I especially advise consisting of AWS certifications in your self-development plan. It’s served me well, and it’ll do the identical for you.