AWS stands for Amazon Web Services, and it is not a new term in the world of information technology. It is fascinating to see AWS as a $20 billion revenue run rate business along with healthy market growth. It provides resources to aid in expansion. Learning AWS can help you kick-start your career in the cloud field. It also enables you to increase your salary and advance your career graph. 

So basically, AWS is a cloud computing platform that helps users create their applications over the cloud. It is well-known for offering scalable and cost-effective cloud computing solutions to help the business scale and grow. AWS has the world’s largest and most dynamic community, with millions of active users and thousands of business partners across the world. It is so popular that several reputed and noted companies like Pinterest, Netflix, Dropbox, General Electronics, Etsy, IMDb, Zoopla, and Airbnb, as well as institutes like NASA, etc.

As is known that cloud computing has emerged as a new paradigm for delivering hosted services over the internet. So there is a great demand for cloud and AWS experts who can do better work in this domain. It leads to the increased demand for AWS training and certifications, and other credentials that can help candidates and employers find perfect professionals for many different cloud computing job roles. 

So this article will throw some light on some of the best AWS certifications that can help candidates find their niche in this evolving domain.

What is AWS Certification?

AWS certification is a credential that is specially designed to certify the technical skills and knowledge associated with best practices for creating secure and reliable cloud-based applications through AWS tools and techniques. These certification courses validate cloud skills and expertise to help professionals showcase in-demand skills and organizations build innovative, effective teams for cloud initiatives using AWS. Candidates can choose any certification by role and specialty designed to empower individuals and teams to meet their specific goals. You can opt for any role-based certifications for several job opportunities, such as Cloud Architect, Cloud Practitioner, Cloud engineer, or operations role, along with specialty certifications in specific technical areas. 

AWS certification also refers to a level of Amazon Web Services cloud expertise that an IT professional obtains after passing one or more exams the public cloud provider offers. It helps candidates demonstrate technical cloud skills and knowledge. This certification lasts for two years and can be recertified after it expires. There are six different types of AWS certifications available divided into four main streams – Clod Practitioner, Architect, Developer, and Operations. Let us check out which AWS certification is best to land a career or can boost a career graph in the cloud field. 

Which Certification of AWS is the Best?

It is known that several organizations are shifting their workloads to the public cloud, which has become a core competency in the enterprise. This drastic change in organizations requires a new set of skills to design, plan, deploy and manage applications in cloud computing. To gain this skill set, there are many AWS certifications available provided by several reputed providers that cover both basics and specialty cloud computing concepts. So it is up to you how and where you want to start your journey in this domain. Let’s check out some of the popular AWS certifications.

Foundational Certifications

• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner- It is an entry-level certification that can validate a candidate’s overall understanding and knowledge of the AWS cloud. Prerequisites are to have at least six months of general AWS cloud experience in roles like managerial, technical, sales, etc. This certification will teach you about the fundamentals of AWS architectural principles, important AWS services and their common uses, Core deployment, operating principles, etc. 

Associate-Level Certifications

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)- It is designed for professionals who have some experience in designing distributed applications. It involves more services and best practices as well as more information about cloud services and techniques. It will teach you about Network technologies, AWS-based applications work, creating secure and reliable applications on the AWS platform, Deploying Hybrid systems, etc.

• AWS Certified Developer Associate-  This certification can help you develop and maintain AWS-based applications. It requires knowledge of writing actual code that uses AWS software to access AWS applications from within your custom business applications. It also helps you learn the basic AWS architecture and the core AWS services. It also provides experience in designing, developing, deploying, debugging, and maintaining AWS applications.

•  AWS Certified SysOps Administrator — Associate – This certification is specially designed for system admins that can validate candidates’ experience and skills to contribute and hit the ground running. It is considered one of the best certificates for System admins, Linux admins, and support professionals that can provide them with a wide knowledge of deploying, managing, and operating scalable, fault-orient, and highly available systems on AWS.

Professional-Level Certifications

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect- Professional-  This certification holder can evaluate an organization’s requirements and make architectural recommendations for implementing and deploying applications on AWS. So these professionals require a high degree of technical skills and experience to design AWs-based Applications.

• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer- Professional- This certification provides a good understanding of provisioning, operating, and managing distributed applications on the AWS platform. It also helps you learn to design and maintain automation tools as well as monitor the metrics of your own AWS system.

Specialty Certifications

• AWS Certified Data Analytics- Specialty- As the name shows, this certification is best for data analysts that can validate candidates’ who have the in-depth skills required to create, deploy, and turn data models and earn this certification. It provides you with the best understanding of the base layers of the data science hierarchy of requirements. It helps you become an expert in the data analytics field for many job roles like Data Analytics Engineer, etc.
• AWS Certified Advanced Networking- Specialty- It is the best cloud certification for networking experts that are specially designed to validate a candidate’s experience and skills in performing complex networking tasks on AWS and hybrid IT networking architecture at scale. It helps you learn to design, develop, and deploy cloud solutions with AWS, implement core services according to architectural best practices, automation for AWS tasks for network deployment, etc. 

This specialty section involves a few more certifications, such as AWS Certified Security, AWS Certified Machine Learning, AWS Certified Database, and AWS Certified SAP on AWS Specialty Certification, that can help you gear up your expertise in the cloud domain.

It is up to candidates’ individual professional background, experience, and previous educational background and what certification they opt for. So every certification is best at its own level and specialty. Candidates must choose wisely among these certifications and make the right choice in order to make a bright career with AWS.