Everything You Need to Know About AWS Certifications

Want to know everything about the hottest AWS certifications, you have landed on the right page. We will navigate you through all the nitty-gritty details of these certifications that will greatly help you in your career path.

Let’s roll in!

Introduced by Amazon, AWS certification stands as a new benchmark for technical proficiency and expertise. In the world of cloud computing, Amazon has opened strong career prospects for individuals who want to enhance their skills and make more money from their expertise.

The world has become advanced and competitive. Every company is digitizing their business models. They look for and onboard professionals with top skills and expertise, why? They want to beat their competitors with the help of their adept workforce.

If you want to bag a handsome salaried job, you need to upskill to match the up-to-the-minute requirements that the world demands today.

Here, AWS certifications can greatly help you stand out from the crowd. These certifications are globally recognized which displays the individual’s ability to design, employ, and handle both simple and complex apps and infrastructure on the very platform.

Let’s understand all the details about AWS certifications and why one should pursue them!

What are AWS Certifications?

These certifications are basically courses related to PaaS (platform as a service), IaaS (infrastructure as a service), and SaaS (software as a service). These certifications are provided by Amazon with a key objective of developing technical skills and gaining knowledge of several cloud capabilities to develop and deploy apps on the cloud.

It helps individuals create efficient, expandable, and secured apps that meet business goals while keeping operational costs to the minimum.

What is the Need to Pursue AWS Certifications?

AWS has become one platform that is vastly adopted and used by companies around the world. To showcase your knowledge and expertise with the technology and tools of this platform, you require this certification or become an AWS cloud consultant.

These certifications are offered in different categories. Whether you want to gain broader expertise, have more inclination towards technicality, or are interested in a specific area like machine learning, you can choose any level on the basis of your career goals and job needs.

To obtain certificates you need to possess hands-on experience or related knowledge to clear the examinations. These certifications help professionals, especially those in IT to learn technical skills and best practices to develop and deploy apps on the cloud.

Major Benefits of Becoming an AWS Certified Professional

Obtaining these certifications comes with numerous benefits which are:

• Keep you abreast with the latest developments and technologies.
• Elevates your confidence in specific fields related to cloud services.
• Enhance your job profile and open the door to new job opportunities.
• Direct access to a vast community of professionals to share and learn knowledge related to cloud computing and build a strong network.
• Helps you create customized solutions for your clients.
• Enhances your credibility.

AWS Certifications: Types, Levels, and Meaning

There are 11 types of certifications for professionals. This includes 5 core and 6 specialty certifications that authenticate your skills, experience, and knowledge as a cloud service provider.

Here are the different levels of certifications available for professionals:

Foundational AWS Certification

Foundational certification is a basic comprehension of AWS cloud services, its pricing model, advantages of using them, and security. This level of certification is ideal for professionals who have an understanding of basic cloud computing concepts and want to enhance their knowledge in the field.

Individuals with at least 6 months of experience in technical, financing, managerial, and sales can consider opting for this certification. The major topics that are covered in this course are:

• Cloud computing basics.
• The global infrastructure of the platform.
• Technical support and documentation.
• Several use cases that can utilize the platform’s capabilities.
• Account management, pricing models, and billing.

Associate AWS Certification

Associate certification develops skills in developing and deploying expandable solutions. There are two levels of certifications that come under this category i.e. Certified Solutions Architect-Associate and Certified Developer-Associate.

Certified Solutions Architect- Associate

This certification provides a deep understanding of the AWS cloud and emphasizes more on VPC (Virtual Private Cloud), EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), and IAM (Identity and Access Management. The eligibility to attempt this certification are:

• Experience with database, storage, computing, and networking.
• Understanding of services to meet user needs.

Certified Developer- Associate

This certification provides an outline of several services including SNS (Simple Notification Service), DynamoDB, SQS (Simple Queue Service), and Elastic Beanstalk. It requires hands-on experience in core AWS architecture and service basics.

This certification makes professionals proficient in building, deploying, and debugging serverless apps in the cloud. The eligibility to attempt this certification are:

• Experience in programming languages like C++ and Python.
• Understanding of app lifecycle management.
• Experience in using AWS SDK (Software Development Toolkit) and CLI (Command-line Interface).

Professional AWS Certification

Professional Certification develops individual skills in creating, operating, and managing distributed apps on this platform. There are two levels of certification that come under this category:

Certified Solutions Architect- Professional

This certification covers areas like the relocation of complex apps, cost optimization strategies, and best practices to follow while designing, developing, and deploying apps on AWS. To get this certification, professionals should possess experience and advanced skills in designing AWS-based solutions.

Certified DevOps Engineer- Professional

This certification covers arranging, managing, and running AWS apps. It emphasizes tools that allow easy automation of several business operations through design and management.

To attempt this certification, professionals need to have a good understanding of this platform's core services. They should have experience in scripting and programming. They should have knowledge of the Windows operating system or Linux along with the AWS command-line interface.

Specialty AWS Certification

Specialty certification includes two levels.

Certified Advanced Networking- Specialty

This certification confirms that the individual has the expertise in executing complex networking tasks on Hybrid and AWS platforms. The requirements to attempt this certification are:

• Experience and knowledge of advanced networking concepts.
• Skills to design, implement, and optimize connectivity solutions and routing architectures.
• Proficiency in using AWS solutions.
• Experience in developing automation tools.

Certified Security- Specialty

This certification verifies that an individual has proficiency in ensuring the safety of data and workload in the AWS cloud. The requirements to attempt this certification are:

At least 5 years of experience in the design and implementation of security solutions and workloads.

Expertise in cloud security, log handling, security automation, and patch management.

Knowledge of security, deployment, and cost when hosting apps in the cloud.

To Conclude

Almost every business is moving toward cloud computing and AWS is one notable name in the industry. So, getting these certifications is recommended to rack up better job opportunities.

Please note if you attempt any exam to get the certification and don't pass it, you can reappear for the exam after 14 days. However, you will have to pay the registration fee with each attempt.

Now you have all the information about these certifications. Choose the one that matches your experience and interest, and bag that dream job quickly.

Happy learning!