It's safe to say that AWS certifications are some of the most coveted certifications in the industry. There are many different certification opportunities to choose from. And the best part about AWS certifications is that they're all very comprehensive, so you can start at any level and work your way up from there.
AWS Certified - Cloud Practitioner
The AWS Certified - Cloud Practitioner certification is the most entry-level of all the certifications that AWS offers. It's designed to test your knowledge of basic cloud services and features and how they can be used together. This certification isn't as comprehensive as others, so it's better suited for people just starting with AWS.
The exam consists of a multiple-choice exam with 50 questions and an essay question (100 points total). The multiple-choice exam lasts 90 minutes, while the essay portion takes 60 minutes to complete. There's no minimum score required to pass this test; however, you must meet certain benchmarks to earn up to 11 bonus points on your final scorecard from Amazon Web Services (AWS).
AWS Certified FinOps Practioner
The value of an AWS Certified FinOps Practioner is at an all-time high. This is because the world is going digital, and everything from finance to accounting has to change.
FinOps (short for financial operations) allows businesses and organizations to automate their financial processes using new technologies like cloud computing, blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
The AWS Certified FinOps Practioner certification covers topics like how to build a cost model for your business using AWS services; how to use Amazon Quick Sight for analytics; how to integrate data into an application by using Amazon Athena; or how you can use Amazon Kinesis Streams to make sense of streaming data generated by various systems within your organization.
AWS Certified Developer – Associate
For junior developers, the AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification is a great first step into cloud computing. Having this certification on your resume shows that you have a basic understanding of AWS, can program in some of its most popular languages—JavaScript and Python—and understand how to use tools like DynamoDB.
This certification can be a good starting point for developers looking to move into DevOps roles because it requires an understanding of programming languages (and not just AWS services) and an awareness of security issues in the cloud.
If you're interested in moving into security roles such as penetration testing or system administration, completing this coursework shows that you understand some core concepts about how AWS works and what types of threats are present when working within it.
AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
Advanced Networking is a specialization that adds to the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate certification. It provides specialized knowledge of designing, securing, and maintaining AWS networks.
The Advanced Networking – Specialty certification will validate your ability to design highly available and scalable network architectures for your customers that meet their requirements for availability, performance, scalability, and security.
The AWS Advanced Networking exam tests your ability to use complex networking services such as Elastic Load Balancing and Amazon Route 53 in an enterprise environment built upon Amazon VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud). You must have passed the Solutions Architect – Associate level before taking this exam because it covers advanced topics that are not covered in the associate level courseware or exam.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional certification is the most popular of all of the AWS certifications. It is designed for those who want to be or are already architects and need to design scalable and secure cloud computing solutions.
This certification requires you to have mastered designing and building cloud-based distributed applications. You will also need to understand how to build an application that can scale horizontally while minimizing downtime.
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
DevOps is a software development process focusing on communication and collaboration between software developers, QA engineers, and operations teams. DevOps practitioners aim to improve the speed of releasing software by making it easy for members of each team to understand what their counterparts do and how they can help.
DevOps Engineer has mastered this practice in their organization and can lead others through it. A good DevOps Engineer can adapt quickly as requirements change or new technologies emerge—and will always work toward improving the delivery process overall.
The value of becoming a certified professional in this field is clear. Businesses are increasingly reliant on technology. There will always be a demand for experts to ensure that all systems run smoothly at every level (software design through deployment). In short: if you want a job where your skills are never outmoded or obsolete, choose DevOps!
Conclusion
If you're looking for the best AWS certifications, this article has covered it for you. If you want more in-depth information about the different paths and programs – book a quick call and we’ll walk you through.