Most of the world’s greatest enterprises now run half or all of their software program environments within the Amazon Net Companies (AWS) Cloud, and extra corporations migrate to AWS every day. That’s why, if you happen to’re on the lookout for a brand new IT job, a brand new function in your present group, or need to proceed to develop in your present place, incomes an AWS certification could be a very sensible funding.

The truth is, in response to Skillsoft’s 15 Top-Paying IT Certifications of 2022, the highest wage of a cloud-certified IT skilled is now $168,080. Regardless that the highest wage on the listing this yr is $3,669 decrease than final yr, this wage represents a $9,047 enhance over 2021’s wage of $159,033 for the highest AWS certification. Enterprises clearly acknowledge that workers who earn AWS certifications know their stuff, and so they additionally acknowledge what it takes to retain these workers.

It’s time for my 2022 replace of AWS certifications, simply in time for AWS re:Invent. Yearly, AWS releases extra certifications and updates present ones. This yr there’s extra emphasis on superior certification. AWS is again on prime with its Licensed Options Architect – Skilled certification and has 4 different certifications on Skillsoft’s listing, holding 33% of the listing! Licensed Options Architect – Affiliate has moved down two spots, and the AWS Licensed Cloud Practitioner is again on the listing. There are two new AWS certifications this yr: AWS Licensed Safety – Specialty and AWS Licensed Huge Knowledge – Specialty. Specialty certifications are rising in demand.

On Skillsoft’s listing, 9 of the 15 certifications on are cloud-based. That is 5 greater than final yr, exhibiting how cloud certification is a sought-after achievement. And safety certifications are nonetheless making a significant affect yr after yr.

My opinion is to give attention to the AWS Certified Solution Architect – Associate and AWS Certified Security – Speciality certifications. This mix will provide the most effective profession alternative.

Even after reviewing the listing of top-paying IT certifications, many individuals may nonetheless have nagging questions on an AWS certification: Is it actually the fitting selection on your profession? Which of them must you pursue, and in what order? What are you able to count on from every examination? The place do you begin? And are there any certs you must not think about incomes? Learn on for some solutions.

What is the AWS certification system?

Let’s start with the massive image: AWS presently gives 12 certifications and organizes its certifications into 4 teams, beginning with Foundational and advancing to Affiliate, Skilled, and Specialty certifications. This picture from the AWS Certification page reveals the certifications in every group.

AWS core certifications explained

Now for the small print! Right here’s what it’s worthwhile to find out about every of the six core certifications.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

• Format: 65 a number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 90 minutes
• Payment: $100

This foundational AWS examination covers the core ideas of the AWS Cloud. You’ll reply questions regarding important AWS providers and options, together with enterprise use instances. The examination additionally covers AWS safety and compliance fundamentals and requires you to reveal a working data of AWS billing, help, and pricing. You also needs to count on questions on deploying sources and providers within the AWS Cloud.

This AWS Licensed Cloud Practitioner certification is ideal for anybody in a non-technical function who wants a common understanding of the AWS platform. For instance, IT salespeople can study to talk with confidence and authority when a dialog touches on a buyer’s AWS investments. Additionally, the certification may help individuals in finance, administration, and enterprise roles talk extra clearly with their IT colleagues.

AWS recommends six months of AWS expertise earlier than taking this examination. Nonetheless, that have will be in any capability, together with technical and non-technical roles (equivalent to gross sales, administration, or finance). In follow, your prep time is way extra essential for passing this examination. Put aside no less than six hours for research and overview.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

• Format: 65 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 130 minutes
• Payment: $150

For this certification, it’s worthwhile to show you know the way to construct and deploy programs within the AWS Cloud. The examination will ask questions on cloud-based options for deployments that comply with strict necessities and require you to reveal a data of architectural finest practices. You’ll want appreciable expertise deploying, configuring, and managing compute, community, storage, and database providers in AWS. I additionally strongly counsel getting into this examination with a working data of AWS security and compliance insurance policies.

Earlier than taking this examination, AWS recommends no less than one yr of deploying distributed programs at scale utilizing AWS providers.

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

• Format: 65 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 130 minutes
• Payment: $150

This AWS examination assessments your potential to develop purposes native to the AWS Cloud. You’ll want to indicate your potential to make use of the AWS SDK to work together with and optimize the AWS providers you construct into an utility. Passing this examination additionally calls for a useful understanding of code-level safety practices, together with credential creation and encryption methods.

Earlier than you’re taking this examination, AWS recommends no less than a yr of expertise sustaining purposes within the AWS Cloud. You also needs to perceive the core providers, ideas, and finest practices related to providers on AWS. And you must have some expertise creating purposes for instruments like Amazon DynamoDB, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and AWS CloudFormation (amongst others).

Additionally, Amazon has introduced that this examination is changing in February 2023.

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

• Format: 65 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 130 minutes
• Payment: $150

Certify your potential to deploy, handle, and function system sources within the AWS Cloud, together with an understanding of what it takes emigrate on-premises workloads to the AWS Cloud. You need to perceive the right way to handle cloud programs for each fault tolerance and excessive availability. You also needs to have the ability to match useful resource deployment to necessities and to account for operational wants, equivalent to safety and price management.

You’ll need no less than a yr of expertise managing AWS-native purposes for this certification. You’ll additionally need some expertise gathering necessities and following AWS finest practices for deployments and challenge lifecycle administration.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional

• Format: 75 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 180 minutes
• Payment: $300

Show your potential to construct and deploy distributed programs within the AWS Cloud to spec, plus perceive the right way to deploy them at scale with fault tolerance and excessive availability. This certification additionally requires the flexibility to deploy multi-tier purposes to the AWS Cloud and construct enterprise-scale cloud options with AWS sources whereas managing your cloud spend.

AWS now not recommends incomes the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification earlier than taking this examination. Nevertheless, if you happen to don’t have already got years of AWS expertise, I like to recommend working towards your Options Architect – Affiliate certification first. AWS strongly recommends greater than two years of expertise deploying distributed programs at scale utilizing AWS providers primarily based on design necessities and finest practices.

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

• Format: 75 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 180 minutes
• Payment: $300

The DevOps Engineer certification is about testing your potential to handle distributed purposes within the AWS Cloud, from provisioning to full operational administration. You’ll face questions on continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) methodologies and automation finest practices, together with finest practices for automating safety and compliance checks. You’ll additionally want to indicate a working data of monitoring and logging practices concerning the AWS platform.

Whereas AWS now not requires holding an AWS Certified Developer – Associate or AWS Licensed SysOps Administrator – Associate certification earlier than taking this examination, I like to recommend each. Until you may have years of AWS expertise, working in the direction of these different two certifications helps you tremendously as a result of they construct the basic data you’ll want for the professional-level certification. AWS does suggest no less than two years of delivering purposes in or managing AWS cloud deployments and a few expertise with automation finest practices, together with scripting or different programming.

Additionally, Amazon has introduced that this examination is changing in March 2023.

AWS specialty certifications

AWS has six specialty certifications. Right here’s what it’s worthwhile to find out about every of those specialty certs.

AWS Certified Database – Specialty

• Format: 65 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 180 minutes
• Registration payment: $300

Display your potential to make use of varied AWS database providers to assist speed up and drive your group’s enterprise, together with figuring out the right way to design, suggest, and keep AWS database providers.

Earlier than you’re taking this certification, AWS recommends no less than 5 years of expertise with database applied sciences, no less than two years of hands-on AWS expertise, and a while spent working with relational and non-relational databases.

AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty

• Format: 65 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 170 minutes
• Payment: $300

For those who’re into advanced networking tasks, particularly ones that span scalable AWS programs, then this cert is ideal for you. The examination requires you to know the right way to handle a community structure for any service on the AWS platform and automate most networking duties.

AWS suggests 5 years of expertise managing networks and a agency understanding of networking ideas and finest practices associated to the AWS platform.

AWS Certified Security – Specialty

• Format: 65 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 170 minutes
• Payment: $300

This AWS examination is about superior strategies for securing the AWS Cloud platform. Candidates for this cert needs to be seasoned IT safety consultants who can reveal expert-level data of information safety and encryption methods for AWS environments. You additionally should reveal a mastery of AWS instruments for implementing and managing cloud safety.

Earlier than taking this certification, AWS recommends 5 years if IT safety expertise and no less than two years of hands-on expertise securing AWS workloads and a minimal of 5 years of IT safety expertise.

AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty

• Format: 65 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 180 minutes
• Payment: $300

This certification emphasizes designing and deploying machine studying options to unravel sensible enterprise issues. You’ll be able to count on questions that ask you to decide on the most effective machine-learning resolution to an issue and why the chosen strategy is best than others. You’ll additionally want to grasp which AWS providers are related to delivering a machine-learning resolution. And also you’ll have to know the right way to optimize your AWS providers to ship scalable, dependable, and safe options.

Earlier than taking this examination, AWS recommends that candidates work in growth or information science roles and have one to 2 years of expertise utilizing machine studying or deep studying on the AWS Cloud.

AWS Certified SAP on AWS – Specialty

• Format: 65 A number of selection, a number of reply
• Size: 170 minutes
• Payment: $300

This certification validates your potential to design an SAP resolution that runs on the AWS Cloud and emphasizes implementation, migration, and operation of SAP workloads on AWS.

This certification is exclusive in that you just’ll want each AWS and SAP data. AWS abilities ought to embrace excessive availability and catastrophe restoration, AWS migration instruments, safety finest practices, in addition to multi-account and multi-region understanding. Your SAP data ought to embrace SAP Foundation and NetWeaver administration, supported SAP databases together with SAP HANA, and sizing and identification administration.

Earlier than taking this examination, AWS recommends that candidate has 5 or extra years of SAP expertise and a number of years of SAP on AWS expertise.

Constructing your AWS Certification plan

As a Options Technique Director and AWS skilled for New Relic, individuals typically ask me in what order they need to take these exams. I like to recommend the next sequence for beginning and turbocharging your cloud profession:

1. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
2. AWS Certified Developer – Associate
3. AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
4. Any specialty* AWS certifications that curiosity you
5. AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
6. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional

*With the 2 further specialty certifications on the listing this yr, chances are you’ll need to think about one or each paired with the Options Architect – Affiliate. This may occasionally supercharge a profession centered on safety or huge information.

Be aware that this route doesn’t embrace the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner examination, which isn’t terribly helpful for anybody in a technical function. I like to recommend people in technical roles start with the AWS Licensed Options Architect – Affiliate examination and go from there. This certification additionally covers subjects you’ll see once more within the Developer and SysOps Administrator exams, which makes it a terrific up-front funding for anybody planning to take all three affiliate exams.

The data gained prepping for the database, community, and safety specialty certifications will show you how to with the 2 professional-level certifications, however the others don’t provide that further edge.

Getting ready for AWS exams-at the moment and sooner or later

The AWS platform has at all times been a hotbed of innovation and fixed, typically rapid-fire change. Whereas there’s solely a lot AWS can do to handle the impact of know-how change on its exams, it does adhere to some pointers that can maintain your examination prep fairly centered:

• AWS requires a brand new function or service to be typically obtainable (GA) for no less than six months earlier than permitting it to look on an examination.
• As famous in its examination guides, AWS will focus on in broad phrases which “subject areas and aims” you’ll discover on an examination, though it gained’t focus on particular options and providers.
• AWS “usually rotates questions out and in” of its exams, however each query ought to stay throughout the examination’s said subject areas and aims.

As for the AWS examination prep course of, you’ll need to see for your self what’s available to get you ready for each exam. Based mostly on my expertise, nevertheless, severe and thorough preparation for an Affiliate-level examination requires 120 hours or extra-and the Speciality- or Skilled-level exams are much more demanding.

Many engineers, particularly youthful ones, get into the zone throughout their examination prep and take two, three, or much more exams in a matter of months. I do know the sensation, however I strongly counsel resisting the urge to binge take a look at. As an alternative, take a minimal of three to 6 months between every examination.

Take into account whenever you’ll have to re-certify: You may be within the zone at the moment, however what about three, six, and even 9 years down the road? When the time comes, making ready to re-certify when you may have a household, a profession in mid-flight, and who is aware of what else occurring in your life may turn out to be an awesome burden if in case you have a number of certifications expiring inside a brief interval. A little bit foresight at the moment pays enormous advantages all through the remainder of your profession.

Keep centered in your profession objectives, plan and put together rigorously for these exams, and transfer forward with confidence that you just’ve received a successful—and profitable—career-building technique.

Better of luck in your AWS certification journey!