Top 5 AWS Certifications explained: what is it, and which AWS certification is right for you?

What is AWS Certification?

AWS refers to Amazon Web Services, and certification is an industry-recognized qualification. Validating the level of expertise in the Amazon Web Services cloud helps learners build trust and helps organizations identify skilled professionals who use AWS to lead cloud initiatives. Professionals get AWS certification after passing one or more exams offered by AWS. AWS certification is valid for three years.

To maintain your AWS certification status, AWS requires you to demonstrate your ongoing expertise through a recertification process regularly. They prove that you are skilled enough to pass the exam. Certification is not a testament to experience, and there is no alternative to working in the cloud for real. Even outside of your employees, there are many ways to get hands-on AWS cloud training and start your cloud career with minimal experience.

These qualifications open many doors for you, and you can guide yourself to the considerations set for an interview or promotion. Qualifications are not golden tickets – they do not guarantee work. They can stage you for success, but you need to earn it from there. The certification is quite valuable as the average salary of AWS certification holders is well over $ 100,000 a year. AWS certifications are some of the best payroll cloud certifications out there.

Certification is more than just gaining power; it also helps validate your knowledge and ensure that your team owns a common cloud “language” (sometimes called “cloud fluency”). When thinking about AWS career paths, it’s helpful to think of certifications like a foothold. It may help you reach the next level, but the actual reach is still up to you. AWS certification is the level of Amazon Web Services cloud expertise that IT professionals acquire after passing one or more exams offered by public cloud providers.

IT professionals are AWS certified to demonstrate and validate their technical cloud knowledge and skills. AWS offers a variety of certification exams for cloud engineers, administrators, and architects. AWS certifications are valid for two years, and IT professionals can recertify specific certifications after they expire. There are hundreds of exam centers around the world to take the exam. AWS offers six different certificates grouped into four primary paths: Cloud Practitioner, Architect, Developer, Operations, and additional subpaths. There is also a unique path that is split into five subpaths.

Cloud Practitioner Path:

This certification path is intended for individuals seeking to build and validate an overall understanding of the AWS cloud. This path is helpful for individuals who have the technology, management, sales, purchase, or financial role that uses the AWS cloud.

Architect path:

This path is ideal and planned for anyone who wants to learn how to design applications and systems on AWS. There are two architect subpaths.

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate: At this certification level, students need to demonstrate their knowledge of how to design, manage, and distribute applications in combination with AWS tools. These IT professionals need to design and deploy highly available and scalable systems on AWS and have the proper security, disaster recovery (DR), and troubleshooting concepts. This certification recommends that IT professionals have at least one year of work experience designing and deploying highly available, fault-tolerant AWS systems.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Professional: This certification level requires you to complete an Associate-level AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification exam and have at least two years of experience designing and deploying AWS cloud architecture. IT professionals need to demonstrate their knowledge of complex AWS applications, including how to move applications to AWS, optimize AWS architectures for the enterprise, and apply application design best practices.

Developer path:

This credential is planned for software developers developing cloud applications on AWS. There are two developer subpaths.

• AWS Certified Developers-Associates: IT professionals need to demonstrate a complete knowledge of AWS architecture, as well as code-level knowledge of AWS application design, development, and maintenance. This certification recommends that you have at least one year of experience maintaining AWS-based applications.
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer-Professional: This certification requires that the applicant participates in an Associate-level AWS Certified Developer or AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Certification Exam and has over two years of experience provisioning and managing AWS architectures. Students need to understand specific concepts related to continuous deployment (CD) and AWS process automation and implement them in the AWS architecture.

Operation path:

Two subpaths for the DevOps role are designed: sysops administrators, system administrators, and want to learn how to create automated and repeatable deployments of applications, networks, and systems on the AWS platform.

• AWS Certified SysOps Administrators-Associates: Provides deployment and operational knowledge related to AWS architecture and services, including application deployment and data migration. Students also have basic system administrator security, provisioning, and systems management skills. This certification recommends at least one year of experience in operating AWS systems.
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer-Professional: This certification requires that the applicant participates in an Associate-level AWS Certified Developer or AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Certification Exam and has over two years of experience provisioning and managing AWS architectures. Students need to understand specific concepts related to continuous deployment (CD) and AWS process automation and implement them in the AWS architecture.

Specialty path:

AWS also offers five professional certifications in the technical field. The five sub paths are:

• AWS Certified Big Data-Specialty: Requires at least one associate-level certification, five years of data analysis experience, and AWS big data tools and architectural design background. Students should use AWS tools and best practices to review their technical and empirical skills in designing, implementing, and automating big data architectures.
• AWS Certified Advanced Networking-Specialty: Requires at least one Associate Level certification, five years of data analysis experience, and AWS networking background. Students need to demonstrate a high level of knowledge of network architecture across all AWS tools and services. Network process automation. Knowledge of designing, developing, and deploying services in the AWS cloud.
• AWS Certified Security-Specialty: AWS Certified Security is intended for individuals who have a security role with more than two years of work experience in securing AWS workloads. Certificate holders can demonstrate that:
• Knowledge of particular data classification and AWS data protection mechanisms
• Understanding data encryption methods and the AWS mechanism for implementing them
• Knowledge of secure internet protocols and the AWS mechanism for implementing them
• Practical knowledge of AWS security services and their capabilities to provide a secure production environment
• Capability gained from more than two years of production deployment experience using AWS security services and features
• Ability to make trade-off decisions regarding cost, security, and deployment complexity given a set of application requirements
• Understanding security operations and risks
• AWS Certified Machine Learning-Specialties: Developers, Data Scientists, Data Platform Engineers, Business Decision makers can use this training to apply machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and deep learning to their business. You can understand how to do it and gain new insights and value.
• AWS Certification Alexa Skill Building-Specialty: Certification is intended for individuals who act as Alexa skill builders. It validates a candidate’s capability to create, test, and publish Amazon Alexa skills. They are anticipated to be able to:
• Describe the value of voice
• Format user experience (UX)
• Create an architecture to build skills
• Pursue AWS and Alexa safety best approaches for skills
• Skill development, testing, validation, troubleshooting
• Manage the skill publishing process and interact with the Alexa Developer Console
• Manage skill operations and lifecycles