Amazon AWS Courses

You can gain six months of foundational AWS Cloud and industry knowledge when you get a certification as an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner. Three associate certifications can give you one year of experience in resolving issues and integrating solutions using the AWS Cloud. These are AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS Certified Developer, and AWS Certified SysOps Administrator. There are two professional certifications that provide two years of experience in creating, running, and troubleshooting solutions with the AWS Cloud. Those certifications are AWS Certified Solutions Architect and AWS Certified DevOps Engineer. Six specialty certifications are available to help you gain technical AWS Cloud experience in specialty domains. Those are AWS Certified Advanced Networking, AWS Certified Data Analytics, AWS Certified Security, AWS Certified Machine Learning, AWS Certified Alexa Skill Builder, and AWS Certified Database.

AWS core services are AWS Compute, AWS Storage, AWS Database, AWS Networking, AWS Management, AWS Security, and AWS Application Integration. The EC2 service enables streamlined scalability for virtual machines. Simple Storage Services (S3) are object-based for cloud storage. On-demand scalability and blazing performance are available with the DynamoDB NoSQL database option. In-memory caches are created with ElastiCache. The Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is provided for routing tables, gateways, subsets, and security mechanisms. Key services can be monitored through CloudWatch, and cloud databases can be hosted with the Relational Database Service (RDS). API calls to AWS are tracked by CloudTrail. Users, groups, and roles can be created with Identity and Access Management (IAM) service. Email or SMS notifications can be received through Simple Notification Service (SNS). AWS Application Integration enables queuing messages and decoupling components through the Simple Queue Service (SQS).

Amazon Web Services holds the lead position of these platforms, with Microsoft Azure ranked second and Google Cloud Platform ranked third. AWS offers a vast array of tools and continues to grow exponentially through innovation. However, they offer a complex price structure and are focused more on a public cloud platform than private cloud or hybrid cloud options. Microsoft Azure has more substantial Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) capabilities compared to AWS and Google Cloud. Google has been an innovator in artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and data analytics for some time. This continual innovation has enabled them to effectively integrate AI into their cloud platform. They have also provided customers with more discount incentives than the other two platforms. They are in third place right now because they were the last of these three to create a cloud platform and have been more focused on technology than business operations.

AWS stands for Amazon Web Services, which is a cloud platform owned by Amazon and hosted across its global data centers. AWS Certification is a credential that Amazon awards to you after passing an exam that validates your AWS Cloud knowledge, technical skills, and expertise. AWS provides the credential in a digital badge and title format so that you may use it on your business cards and other professional collateral to designate yourself as AWS Certified. AWS Certification is open to candidates over age 18 and those between the ages of 13-17 with their parent or legal guardian's consent. Candidates must be at least 13 years of age at the time of scheduling an exam. You can schedule an exam using either an online proctoring testing environment or at a testing center facility. Exams are offered by Pearson VUE and PSI, both of which are test delivery providers that deliver AWS certification exams globally.

Due to the complexity of the exam content and recommended experience to successfully pass exams and obtain certifications, people might consider AWS Certifications difficult. AWS recommends that candidates have a minimum of six months of experience with AWS to take the Foundational (first-level certification) exam. While exam difficulty depends on your experience and type of certification course, you can plan on spending 80-120 hours practicing and studying for your AWS exam. Some of the exams include scenario-based questions that can be challenging for certification candidates. Specialty exams include detailed technical information and are often considered the most difficult types of AWS Certification. To help prepare for exams, you can use AWS exam preparation resources (which includes AWS whitepapers) and watch Amazon’s complimentary AWS Certification exam preparation webinars. You can also leverage Udemy courses and practice exams and opt for AWS training services.