Learning tips and tricks to obtain AWS certifications

Now that we have learned about the various certifications offered by AWS, let's learn about some of the strategies we can use to get these certifications with the least amount of work possible and what we can expect as we prepare for these certifications.

Focus on one cloud provider

Some enterprises are trying to adopt a cloud-agnostic or multi-cloud strategy. The idea behind this strategy is not to depend on only one cloud provider. In theory, this seems like a good idea, and some companies such as Databricks, Snowflake, and Cloudera offer their wares to be run using the most popular cloud providers.

However, this agnosticism comes with some difficult choices. One way to implement this strategy is to choose the least common denominator, for example, only using compute instances so that workloads can be deployed on various cloud platforms. Implementing this approach means that you cannot use the more advanced services offered...

Some frequently asked questions about the AWS certifications

While preparing for certifications, you may have several questions, like where to start and how to finish. The following section will list frequently asked questions that often come to mind.

Online courses

In addition to the courses provided by AWS, other training organizations and independent content creators provide excellent courses to achieve AWS certifications.

A Cloud Guru

A Cloud Guru has been around since 2015, which is a long time in cloud years. A Cloud Guru has courses for most of the AWS certifications. They have a few other courses unrelated to certifications that are also quite good. Linux Academy used to be another good resource to prepare for a certification exam, but that got acquired by A Cloud Guru, which means now you can access the best of these in one place.

They used to charge by the course, but a few years back, they changed their model to a monthly subscription, and signing up for it gives you access...

Summary

This chapter pieced together many of the technologies, best practices, and AWS services covered in the book. We weaved it all together into AWS's Well-Architected Framework, which you should be able to leverage and use for your projects.

You learned about AWS's Well-Architected Framework and how to use the AWS Well-Architected tool to validate your architecture against AWS-provided best practices. All workloads are not the same, and you learned about AWS's Well-Architected lenses focusing on specific workloads.

After reviewing architecture best practices, you have hopefully convinced yourself to hop aboard the cloud train. One of the easiest ways to build credibility is to get certified. We learned that AWS offers 12 certifications. We learned that the most basic one is AWS Cloud Practitioner and that the most advanced certifications are the Professional-level certifications. In addition, as of 2022, we learned that there are six Specialty certifications for various...

Understanding SaaS

SaaS, or cloud application services, are services where most of the heavy lifting is done by the cloud provider (in this case, AWS). In this case, you will not have to install software or worry about the operating system or software patches. Your focus will be on customizing the application's business logic and supporting your users. Most SaaS will only need browser access as most of the computation will be done on the cloud side.SaaS gets rid of the need for your staff to visit individuals' devices in terms of software installation. AWS is fully responsible for any issues on the server, middleware, operating system, and storage levels. Let's now analyze the characteristics that makeup SaaS, the advantages and disadvantages of using a SaaS deployment, and some SaaS examples.

Characteristics of SaaS

These are the clues that will help determine if a service is a SaaS:

• It is managed by the vendor (such as AWS).
• It is hosted on a third-party server.
• It...

Selection by use case of SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS

Each model you learned, including the on-premises model, has advantages and disadvantages. The one you should choose depends on your specific business requirements, what features are needed, and the developers and testers that comprise your team. You might need a fully out-of-the-box solution, and time to market might be a more important consideration than price. Or perhaps you have regulatory constraints that force you to have complete control of the environment. AWS offers a lot of assurances regarding their Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and compliance certifications. The more levels in the stack you decide to manage, the more effort you will exert to verify that your systems comply with the different regulations.In general, one good rule of thumb is to let AWS take over the management of your resources whenever possible. You only take over the responsibility whenever necessary. For example, could you imagine trying to implement the functionality...

Cloud Migration Strategy

The proportion of IT spending shifting to the cloud is accelerating. With predictions, over 45% of system infrastructure, infrastructure software, application software, and more will move from traditional solutions to the cloud by 2024. Migrating to AWS Cloud makes your organization more innovative by enabling them to experiment and be agile. The ability to move fast and achieve business values quickly for your users is what truly matters for your company's cloud migration.By migrating your digital assets to the cloud, you can gain better insights from your data, innovate faster, modernize aging infrastructure, scale globally, and restructure organizational models to create better customer experiences. Often, cost reduction is one of the primary drivers of migrating workloads to the cloud. In practice, organizations regularly see the value of migration going well beyond the cost savings from retiring legacy infrastructure.As you have started to discover,...

Cloud migration patterns - The 7 R’s

There is more than one way to handle migration. The followings are the 7 R’s cloud patterns defined by AWS:

1. Rehost
2. Re-platform
3. Refactor
4. Relocate
5. Repurchase
6. Retain
7. Retire

Creating a detailed strategy that identifies your workloads’ best patterns is essential to accelerating your cloud journey and achieving your desired business objectives. Let’s learn a full breakdown of the 7 R’s and what each migration pattern brings to the table.

Rehost in the cloud

This method is also commonly known as lift and shift. By rehosting your application in the cloud, you perform the least work to move your workloads to the cloud. Applications are being rehosted as they are in a different environment. Services are simply migrated. Let's say, for example, that you are hosting a simple three-tier application on your on-premises environment that is using the following:

• A webserver
• An app server
• A database server

Using the lift...

Migration assessment tools

You don't have to reinvent the wheel as you migrate your workloads and projects from your current environment to the cloud. As you can imagine, many others have already started this journey. AWS and third-party vendors offer various tools to facilitate this migration to facilitate this process. A few examples of services and tools that are worth exploring are as follows:

• AWS Migration Hub: AWS Migration Hub is a central repository that can be used to keep track of a migration project
• AWS Application Discovery Service: AWS Application Discovery Service automates the discovery and inventory tracking of different infrastructure resources, such as servers and dependencies.
• AWS Migration Pattern Library: This is a collection of migration templates and design patterns that can assist in the comparison of migration options and alternatives.
• CloudEndure Migration: CloudEndure Migration is a product offered by AWS that simplifies cloud migration by automating many...