Why do AWS Certification?

I've worked on a lot of Amazon Web Services - AWS over the years and thought of adding this as an experience to my resume, but before that, I also wanted to assure that I have a good understanding of all those services, and what could be a better way to showcase that experience rather than certification, right?.

I went to the official AWS certification portal to find a better certification for me, but after looking at lots of certifications options I was a little bit confused as to which certification I should complete first and which one is not necessary for me as of now.

While finding the best certification for me, I also thought of sharing my experience with others so that it would be easier for others to pick the certification based on their specialization.

What is AWS

Before we jump into “Why to do AWS certification” let’s first see “What is AWS”. AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a cloud platform that provides a Platform as a Service for personal use, businesses, and government projects.

AWS provides features like storage services, messaging services, development and management tools, analytics services, content delivery management system, computing, database management, app services, payments services, mobile networking, on-demand workforce, and many more.

AWS is much more secure because currently, it has many data centers around the globe and those are regularly monitored and strictly maintained. They also try to keep their database centers as hidden as possible for providing much better security and reducing the data breach chances.

AWS is available in approx 24 Regions with 76 Availability Zones and it serves 245 countries with its cloud services.🌏

Why AWS Certification

I hope you got some basic understanding of AWS and now let’s see why it is good to do AWS certification.

Starting with the usage I must mention that many of the world’s biggest enterprises like Netflix, Samsung, Airbnb, McDonald’s, ESPN, and many more are now running part or all of their software environments in the AWS Cloud, and every day many more companies are now migrating their work to AWS cloud. That’s why, if you’re looking for a new IT job, a new role in your current organization, or simply want to continue to grow in your current position then earning an AWS certification can be a very smart investment.

Now if we see some statistical data then, out of 100 around 63% of cloud services are provided by AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Alibaba, and from all of those, AWS’s alone market share is 31%. It means around one-third of cloud services are provided by AWS itself, which means a lot more opportunities to get a job as an AWS DevOps engineer or Solution Architect or Developer or Administrator.🤯

Alright, now let's take a look at some key points that can be impacted if you do an AWS certification, let’s see what they are.

Showcase

If you are certified then you can easily demonstrate your dedication and commitment towards the platform and also showcase that you already have learned the basic benchmarks to get started with that platform.

Earning

With certification on hand, the employer can be assured that the employee they are hiring is capable enough to do the work that they are expecting from an employee, and also the employee can get a chance to be hired prior to the other interviewee standing in the queue. But it doesn't mean that someone who doesn't have certification isn't capable enough to do the job.

If someone who doesn’t have certification, is equally qualified and skilled but that difference is a certified person has already proven their ability by cracking the exam in advance and that would make the employer’s work much easier to choose one from them.

AWS Community

You are eligible to join the AWS LinkedIn community once you get certified in AWS. In this community, the certification achievers can view and connect to the worldwide AWS certified professionals and receive multiple worldwide AWS events or conference invites, free study materials, practice exams, Live coding technical demos, and much more.

Subject Matter Expert

AWS has a subject matter expert program and only AWS-certified professionals are qualified for this program. SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) are responsible for arranging workshops and being a crucial part of the exam development process.

Certifications

AWS currently offers 11 certifications, out of which 6 are core certifications and 5 are specialty certifications and in this article, we are going to focus on only 6 core certifications. All these core certifications are organized into 3 layers, Foundation, Associate, and Professional as seen under the below image. Let’s see a few details about all of those certifications.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

This is a foundational exam and it covers the core principles of the AWS Cloud. This certification is perfect for non-technical roles like IT sales, finance, and management people so that they can communicate more clearly with their IT colleagues, and who need a general understanding of the AWS platform. To clear this exam you must have to be familiar with the basic concepts of AWS billing, support, pricing, deploying resources and services.

AWS suggests having a minimum of six months of AWS experience before taking an exam and this exam consists of multiple-choice questions which take 90 minutes to complete and have $100 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

This exam covers the architectural principles of the AWS Cloud. If you have experience in deploying, configuring, managing computes, network, storage, and database services in AWS then this exam can be easily cleared.

AWS suggests having a minimum of one-year of experience under deploying distributed systems at scale using different AWS services and this exam consists of multiple-choice and multiple answer questions which take 130 minutes to complete and has $150 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

This exam covers the deployment principles to multi-tier applications to the AWS Cloud and if you are taking this exam and have at least 2 years of experience in multi-tier application deployment using AWS services then AWS doesn’t recommend taking the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate prior to this exam.

This exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 180 minutes to complete and has $300 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified Developer - Associate

This exam covers the ability to use the AWS SDK and interact with other AWS services as a developer and also demands knowledge about core services, principles, and best practices associated with services on AWS. One should also have some experience in AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS CloudFormation, and Amazon DynamoDB.

AWS suggests at least one year of experience in maintaining the applications in the AWS Cloud and this exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 130 minutes to complete and has $150 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional

This exam covers the ability of DevOps Engineer to manage the distributed applications in the AWS Cloud, from provisioning to full operational management. In this exam, you will face questions on CI/CD and best practices for automating security and compliance checks.

This exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 180 minutes to complete and has $300 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate

This exam covers the ability to deploy, manage, and operate resources in the AWS Cloud. It also includes an understanding of what it takes to migrate the on-premises workloads to the AWS Cloud.

AWS suggests at least one year of experience in managing AWS-native applications and this exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 130 minutes to complete and has $150 fees. Check out more details here.

I hope you got some clarification on all the core certifications and apart from these, there are still 5 more specialty certifications which can be seen in the image below. Let’s see a few details about all of those certifications.

AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty

This exam covers the ability to design and deploy machine learning solutions to solve practical business problems. To clear this exam you’ll need to understand which AWS services are relevant to deliver a machine-learning solution.

AWS suggests at least one to two years of experience using machine learning or deep learning on the AWS Cloud. This exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 180 minutes to complete and have $300 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty

This exam covers the ability to manage a network architecture for any service on the AWS platform and automate most networking tasks.

AWS suggests at least five years of experience managing networks and a firm understanding of networking concepts and best practices related to the AWS platform. This exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 170 minutes to complete and have $300 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified Security - Specialty

This exam covers the ability of data protection and encryption techniques for AWS environments. The person who is appearing for this exam must demonstrate a mastery of AWS tools for implementing and managing cloud security.

AWS suggests at least two years of securing AWS workloads and a minimum of five years of IT security experience. This exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 170 minutes to complete and have $300 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified Data Analytics—Specialty

This exam covers the ability to design, build, secure, and maintain analytics solutions on AWS data lakes and analytics services.

AWS suggests at least five years of data analytics technology experience and two years of AWS Cloud experience. This exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 180 minutes to complete and have $300 fees. Check out more details here.

AWS Certified Database - Specialty

This exam covers the ability to design, recommend, and maintain various AWS
database services.

AWS suggests at least five years of experience with database technologies and two years of AWS Cloud experience. This exam consists of multiple choice and multiple answer questions which take 180 minutes to complete and have $300 fees. Check out more details here.

How to give an exam

Well, I have given all the exam links with their basic details so please check out each certification’s exam pattern by visiting those links and as far the concern about the scheduling exams, you can do that from the provided links itself or by visiting the official AWS portal only and as a part of the study material and some tutorials you can always check the AWS’s official training partner portal.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve now got some basic understanding of the AWS certification and why it is useful for your career growth but keep in mind that certification doesn’t make you eligible or the best candidate from others as you still have to prove yourself in front of hiring managers. Certifications just help us to put ourselves one step ahead of others.

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