This is the first in a series of posts about how I learned new areas of technology. Next, learning a programming language (Python).
Why learn AWS? Why learn cloud? Why continue to learn new things in IT?
IT as a career field is the perfect example of always learn the new stuff or get left behind. The tools and knowledge of said tools that would get you paid six-figures 10 years ago, you will be lucky to hit mid 5 figures in the next 5 years, in business environments where you will be seen as a necessary expense than a multiplying asset (and then they find out about MSPs). Unfortunately for me, I learned the above a bit later than I should have. The cloud, CI/CD, microservices, are just the next evolution of the past big things in IT. IT is for all intents and purposes, a big CI/CD pipeline.
AWS is simply the elephant in the room of cloud. Yes, Azure exists (and does things the Microsoft way very well), Google Cloud Platform exists, Oracle Cloud does Oracle things somewhat well, but when you think cloud, 9/10 you think AWS. When AWS goes down, most of the internet goes down with it. Getting in on the biggest ground floor that is available to you when you have to essentially start all over again.
Before going into AWS, I knew about 0% in regards to ‘the cloud’ in detail. I just figured Amazon owned a trillion Dell Servers and ran ESX/Vsphere like the rest of us, and everyone is just paying for the privilege to run their workloads on other people’s hardware, and be SOL if the hardware breaks. After learning about the cloud, and getting the AWS certification, I still think we all just pay for the privilege to run our workloads on other peoples hardware, and be SOL when it goes down.
So how did I learn all of this?
Level 1: uDemy course
If you have a few bucks and time on your hands, you can pretty much learn whatever you want. However the quality and accuracy of what you learn may vary depending on the instructor for the course. Definitely look at the reviews and also look at when the course was last updated (frequent updates to courses on uDemy is a good thing).
Level 2: Linux Academy (now ACloudGuru)
Learning platform for Linux and Cloud related things. One of the first big learning platforms primarily aimed at cloud and devops related things. Pretty much, if you were going to learn Linux / Cloud / DevOps, more than likely you would be here. This is subscription based, so if you can, get on their mailing lists and wait until they have their black friday sale to pre-pay for a year at a significant discount (I only pay $300 year for access to everything).
What really attracted me to Linux Academy / ACloudGuru was the cloud Sandbox. There you can free-range practice the things you learned (not just by following the instructions), and actually test all of the features of AWS in a temporary environment, without running up a huge AWS bill.
Also, the instructors for their AWS courses explained things in a way that allowed me to really grasp and understand how to work in AWS, not just to pass the certification test.
Slight side-plug: I recommend anyone going for their AWS Certs to go for Adrian Cantrill’s updated AWS courses on learn.cantrill.io (I was introduced via his AWS Solutions Architect course on LinuxAcademy and loved it).
Level 3: Practice tests on TutorialsDojo
Stephane Marek has practice tests up on TutorialsDojo for the AWS certification tests, which in my opinion were probably harder than the actual certification test. Doing these practice tests allowed me to really hone in on what I could expect to see, which allowed me to be way more confident taking the certification test.
Level 4: Personal Tips
- Take notes, organize notes, review notes. I have a 25 page Google document of all of the notes that I took down regarding AWS. This is what I was reviewing up to the test after finishing the online courses.
- AWS account (more importantly, their free tier stuff). You may not get to play with everything in AWS for free, but new accounts get alot of stuff initially under the free tier for a year that they get to check out without running up a huge AWS bill.
- AWS related sub-reddits (especially the ones concerning certification). I recommend this mainly to see/read other peoples experiences (as much as possible being that there is an NDA for exam questions) with taking the test.
- Don’t be in a rush to complete the course. Especially if you have a family and your free time is limited, don’t burn yourself out trying to learn it all in a short amount of time. Altogether, I spent about a good year going from knowing nothing about cloud, to being confident to taking and passing the AWS Solutions Architect certification test.