Everything is about the cloud these days. It’s everywhere, and so it should be.
The cloud as an enabler of modern digital business, the ease of setting up environments and solutions compared to what you had to provision pre-cloud is simply amazing.
Amazon has the largest market share of all the platforms, followed by Microsoft with their Azure platform. Alibaba and Google are in third and fourth positions.
While I’ve been semi-involved in cloud projects before, I didn’t have a full grasp of all the cloud concepts and I decided that I wanted to learn more. So I asked around. Ratan – an ex-enterprise architect from NZ Post recommended I study AWS, and I asked a cloud specialist at our CCM division – Shane, and he suggested I start with AWS first. Both of these people are well-respected experts and I trust their advice, so that was it, a decision made – AWS it is.
Tech Futures Lab has recognised that cloud computing is becoming a dominant technology platform and they have partnered with AWS academy to offer some courses in cloud technology. They are looking to start with AWS foundations, which is a great start for most people.
Because of my technical background, I felt that the foundations’ course might be too easy, and I wanted to explore if I could pass the AWS Architect Associate course. An old work colleague recommended A cloud guru in one of his Linkedin posts, so I thought maybe I should give that a try.
So I signed up. They were just putting their prices up, but if I signed up this month, I’d get the lower rate. Marketing 101 – add urgency to your sales pitch. It worked, I signed up.
Ryan Kroonenburg (one of the founders) leads the AWS Architect Associate course, and he does a great job. Providing extra information where necessary and sharing a little of his background and experience along the way. He’s a big fan of SpaceX, so that’s good – we share that in common – I now follow him on twitter.
I did the course which was titled AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-CO2 – this one supersedes the older CO1 certificate offered by AWS. The course consists of video training and follow-along labs with multi-choice tests at the end of each section. I watched and followed along with all the videos and made lots of notes in my notebook – which was full by the end of the course.
At the end practice tests are offered, which are really good. Lots of questions. I did these until I was getting over 90% each time and booked the exam.
I was able to take a proctored exam from the AWS Pearson-VUE provider – they get you to setup a webcam so you can see your desk, remove your apple watch and phone, any notebooks etc – they are quite strict, but that’s fine. I followed all the rules and took the exam.
I noticed some differences in the exam from the practice questions, but they were pretty close – the exam took 130 minutes (and I went right up to the end, double-checking my answers) and cost US$150.00. You find out immediately if you passed, which is great. I am quite impatient really.
Did I pass? – YES, First time! – see my digital badge below. I also received a PDF certificate. The certification is valid for 3 years, which is good.
Do I recommend A Cloud Guru. Yes I do, the next course I’ll be doing are the Azure Architect courses so that I get a good understanding of the Microsoft ecosystem. A Cloud Guru has courses for certifications on AWS, Azure and Google.
Google Cloud after Azure? – Probably. It’s important to have a good understanding of the various cloud platforms I believe. Life is a voyage of discovery…
- Kirk out.