AWS Certifications

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the leading cloud provider of on-demand, pay-as-you-go IT resources. Simply put, AWS Cloud Certifications validates cloud expertise to help professionals highlight in-demand skills and organizations build effective, innovative teams for cloud initiatives using AWS.

AWS Certification Paths

AWS offers six different certifications, grouped into four main paths -- Cloud Practitioner, Architect, Developer, and Operations -- and additional subpaths. There is also a Specialty Path, divided into five subpaths.

AWS Certification List

Below are the certifications provided by AWS:

1. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - Foundational
2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
3. AWS Certified Developer - Associate
4. AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
5. AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
6. AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional
7. AWS Certified Big Data - Specialty
8. AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty

Below we will explore more on the paths with details about the certification

AWS Architect Path

This path is designed for solutions architects, solution design engineers and anyone who wants to learn how to design applications and systems on AWS. There are two architect subpaths:

1. AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate: This is AWS most popular certification, and a common entry-point for those entering the cloud architecting space. This credential demonstrates your ability to design and deploy effective solutions on the Amazon Web Services platform. This certification is intended for individuals who can design distributed applications in AWS. The certification recommends IT pros have one year or more of hands-on experience designing and deploying highly available and fault-tolerant AWS systems.
2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional:This certification demonstrates advanced expertise in the design of distributed systems and applications on the AWS platform. Candidates for this certificate are required to hold the AWS Solutions Architect Associate cert, and are recommended to have 2+ years of experience in the design and deployment of cloud architecture on Amazon Web Services.

AWS Developer Path

This certification is designed for software developers who want to learn how to develop cloud applications on AWS. There are two developer subpaths:

1. AWS Certified Developer - Associate: This AWS development certification validates your ability to design and maintain AWS applications. It is intended for software developers with one or more years experience designing and sustaining an application on the AWS platform. Candidates should also possess a deep working knowledge of at least one high-level programming language.
2. AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional:This advanced AWS certificate validates knowledge in provisioning, management, security and operations of AWS solutions. Candidates are required to have either the AWS Certified Developer OR AWS Certified SysOps Administrator associate credentials before sitting for this exam. 2+ years of experience provisioning and managing AWS environments is also recommended.

AWS Operations Path

This path is designed for systems administrators and those in a DevOps role who want to learn how to create automatable and repeatable deployments of applications, networks and systems on the AWS platform. There are two subpaths:

1. AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate: This Amazon Web Services administration credential demonstrates expertise in deploying, scaling, migrating and managing AWS systems. SysOps certification exam candidates are recommended to have at least one year of hands-on experience managing cloud applications on the AWS platform.
2. AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional:This advanced AWS certificate validates knowledge in provisioning, management, security and operations of AWS solutions. Candidates are required to have either the AWS Certified Developer OR AWS Certified SysOps Administrator associate credentials before sitting for this exam. 2+ years of experience provisioning and managing AWS environments is also recommended.

AWS Specialty Path

Based on the IT professionals interest AWS Speciality has five subpaths:

1. AWS Certified Big Data - Specialty: This certification demonstrates the skills to design and manage AWS solutions that can help organizations extract valuable insights and actionable intelligence from their business data. Exam candidates must have at least one of the 3 AWS Associate certs listed above, and are recommended to have 5+ years experience in data analytics.
2. AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty:This AWS specialty certificate validates the skills to design and deploy AWS as part of a hybrid IT network architecture, to scale. Candidates need to possess one or more of the AWS Associate credentials listed above, and should have 5+ years of hands-on experience architecting and managing enterprise network solutions.



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3. AWS Certified Security - Specialty:The AWS Certified Security – Specialty certification enables tenured cloud security professional to demonstrate their ability to secure the AWS cloud. The prerequisites include a minimum of five years of IT security experience, designing and implementing security solutions, at least two years of hands-on experience securing AWS workloads and finally Security controls for workloads on AWS.
4. AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty:This certification is primarily meant for Developers, Data Scientists, Data Platform Engineers and Business Decision Makers to learn how to apply machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and deep learning to their businesses unlocking new insights and value.
5. AWS Certified Alexa Skill Building - Specialty:This certification is intended for individuals who perform a role as an Alexa skill builder. It validates a candidate’s ability to build, test and publish Amazon Alexa skills.