So I’ve played about with AWS in my time at VMware, but really only dipped my toes. Like many people I like to have a goal to work towards – so it felt reasonable to think about going through the steps to prepare for certification. For me the important thing is the learning process and getting the old IT Brain working again. So I may or may not end up doing the eggzams for AWS, but thought the structure around that prep could help frame my learning. I took a look at the certs on Amazons websites:
https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certification-prep/
The above link is pretty good for generic info – if you want more detail for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification this – a much better location – https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-solutions-architect-associate/
And I can tell I need to do the “asssociate’ stuff before I do anything ‘profesisonal’ – and given my background the Administrator/Architect path is one that suits me. I’ve spent most of my career training, education and teaching sysadmins how to manage systems – and AWS isn’t going to be any different to that. I’m not about to morph into a developer at my advanced age. You can can teach a dog new tricks, but you can’t teach an old dog to be a cat.
According to Amazon – Step1 is take a training class. As understand it authorised training is not a requirement, only recommendation. So unlike some (ahem) certification tracks that mandate authorised training, that’s NOT the case with AWS. Yippee. That means I can spend my plentiful time instead of my limited cash on training.
As vExpert (2009-2017) I bagged a free 1-year subscription to Pluralsight so it makes sense to use it as alternative to authorised training from a recognised training partner. As rule I prefer classroom training with an instructor is who alive (as opposed to dead). But given the finances I will make do with the passivity that is online training. Pluralsight does have a course entiteld “AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate” which fits the bill. It’s created by Elias Khnaser. I know Elias though Linkedin and Twitter, so intend to be little cheeky monkey and ask him questins directly. Although to be kind, I’ll probably store them up until the end of the course. There’s nothing worse for an instructor to be asked questions in Module1, that is answered in Module2, right?
Right out of the bat, Elias recommends attending another course to the above if your a novice. I’ve never been one to skip steps in learning process so I opted to do that first.
https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/aws-system-admin-fundamentals/table-of-contents
If you are going to do the fundmentals course first – I would recommend skipping to Module3: Introduction to AWS Global Infastructure, if you have been in the industry a while like myself. The course is itself feels pretty up to date (I notice there’s no date of creation) and isn’t going date that much because its fundmentals. But you will spot little changes – for instance the course states that there are 10 Regions plus GovCloud. Actually, its now stands at 16 regions with another 3 planned. So long as you follow the URLs in the course you should be able to see these difference. For a more up to date list of the Global Infrastructure – you need this page:
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/
My plan once I’ve gone through both courses is double back to Amazons 8-Step program outline on their webpages. Both courses are about 8hrs in duration… and I would recommend perhaps going through each one twice. One of the decide benefits of online training like this is the “rewind button”. Something that is decidedly lacking in instructor-led training – although I believe some vendors do allow access to online versions of their training material AFTER you have passed the exam. Although in my personal opinion I imagine few people can spare their time out of the bizzy schedules to re-do a course all over again. The benefit I think is “refreshing” yourself on a particular topic or subject you found tough.