DEV Community: AWSome TownHall

Becoming an AWS Community Builder: How to Apply and What to Expect

SyedAsadRazaDevops — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 09:36:47 +0000

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a Community Builders program for individuals and organizations that are actively working to build and grow cloud-based communities. The program provides access to a wide range of resources and benefits, including training, technical support, and marketing assistance, to help members develop and promote their cloud-based communities.

The AWS Community Builders program is open to a wide variety of individuals and organizations, including developers, system administrators, entrepreneurs, and educators, who are working to promote the use of cloud computing and open-source technologies.

To apply to the AWS Community Builders program, follow these steps:

Review the program details and requirements: Before applying, make sure you understand the purpose and benefits of the program, and that you meet the basic qualifications.

Create an AWS account:

In order to apply for the program, you'll need to have an active AWS account. If you don't already have one, you can sign up for a free account on the AWS website.

Submit an application:

Once you've created an AWS account, you can submit your application for the program through the AWS Community Builders website. You'll need to provide information about yourself or your organization, as well as details about the community you're building and how you plan to use AWS resources to support it.

Provide additional documentation:

Depending on your application, you may be asked to provide additional documentation to support your application. This could include things like your CV/resume, links to your community's website or social media channels, or information about other open-source or cloud-related initiatives you've been involved with in the past.

Wait for review:

After you've submitted your application, it will be reviewed by the AWS Community Builders team. The review process can take several weeks, so be patient.

Accept the terms and conditions:

If your application is accepted, you'll receive an email with instructions on how to accept the terms and conditions of the program and access your benefits.

Once you've become a member of the AWS Community Builders program, you'll have access to a variety of resources, including AWS credits, technical support, training and marketing materials, that you can use to promote and grow your community. Additionally, members of the program will have access to exclusive content and events, such as webinars and meetups, as well as opportunities to connect with other members of the AWS Community Builders community.

It's also worth noting that, as a Community Builder, you'll be able to share your story with the AWS Community through various medium like social media, blog, podcast, and conferences, not just to promote your community but to help other to build theirs too.

In summary, the AWS Community Builders program is a great opportunity for individuals and organizations that are working to build and grow cloud-based communities. The program provides access to a wide range of resources and benefits, including training, technical support, and marketing assistance, that can help members develop and promote their communities. To apply, simply create an AWS account, submit an application, and wait for the review process to be completed.

💡AWS DevOps Services: A Comprehensive Guide

SyedAsadRazaDevops — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 09:21:50 +0000

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a popular and powerful suite of cloud computing services that allows developers and organizations to easily build, deploy, and scale applications and services on a highly-reliable and secure infrastructure.

AWS offers a wide range of services that can be used to accomplish a variety of tasks, including computing power, storage, databases, analytics, application services, and much more. One of the key benefits of using AWS is that it allows organizations to pay only for the resources they need and use, without having to make large upfront investments in expensive hardware or software.

When it comes to the DevOps, AWS offers a number of services that can help organizations streamline their software development and deployment processes, improve collaboration and communication among team members, and achieve faster time-to-market for their applications and services.

Here are some of the key AWS DevOps services and how they can be used:

AWS CodeCommit:

This service provides a fully-managed, highly-available, and scalable source control service that can be used to store and manage code and other files. CodeCommit supports a variety of version control systems, including Git, and integrates with other AWS services such as CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and CodePipeline.

AWS CodeBuild:

This service provides a fully-managed build service that can be used to compile, test, and package applications and services. CodeBuild supports a wide range of programming languages and frameworks, and can be configured to automatically build and test code when changes are pushed to a repository.

AWS CodeDeploy:

This service provides a fully-managed deployment service that can be used to automate the process of deploying applications and services to a variety of environments, including on-premises and in the cloud. CodeDeploy can be configured to automatically deploy code to a specific environment when changes are pushed to a repository, and can also be used to deploy applications to a variety of platforms, including Windows and Linux.

AWS CodePipeline:

This service provides a fully-managed continuous delivery service that can be used to automate the software release process. CodePipeline can be configured to automatically build, test, and deploy code when changes are pushed to a repository, and can also be used to automate the process of rolling back changes in the event of an error.

AWS CloudFormation:

This service provides a way to use templates to describe and provision AWS resources, rather than managing them individually. CloudFormation enables teams to automate the process of creating and updating environments, making it a powerful tool for automating the provisioning of infrastructure and applications.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk:

This service provides a fully-managed platform for deploying and scaling web applications and services. Elastic Beanstalk supports a variety of programming languages and frameworks, and provides a simple, web-based interface for deploying, configuring, and monitoring applications.

AWS Config:

This service is a fully-managed service that enables continuous monitoring and recording of configuration changes across multiple AWS resources and applications. It is useful to help identify and respond to security threats, and to troubleshoot issues.

AWS Systems Manager:

This service provides a way to manage, automate, and maintain your AWS resources and configurations. It allows you to automate common tasks and procedures, such as software deployments, security patching, and inventory management.

AWS DevOps services make it easy for teams to build, test, and deploy their applications and services in the cloud, using a range of powerful and flexible tools and services. With AWS, you can build your own custom pipeline, or choose one

Getting Started with AWS Cloud: An Overview of AWS Services for Developers

SyedAsadRazaDevops — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 09:05:26 +0000

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a popular and powerful
suite of cloud computing services that allow developers and organizations to easily build, deploy, and scale applications and services on a highly-reliable and secure infrastructure.

AWS offers a wide range of services that can be used to accomplish various tasks, including computing power, storage, databases, analytics, application services, and much more. One of the key benefits of using AWS is that it allows organizations to pay only for the resources they need and use, without having to make large upfront investments in expensive hardware or software.

One of the most popular AWS services is Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which provides scalable and customizable computing power in the cloud. Using EC2, developers can quickly launch and scale virtual servers, and choose from a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows and Linux.

Another popular AWS service is Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), which provides secure and scalable storage in the cloud. S3 allows developers to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time, from anywhere on the web. This makes it ideal for storing and managing files, images, backups, and other types of data.

In addition to these services, AWS also offers a number of other services that can be used to build and deploy highly-available and highly-scalable applications, such as Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), which allows developers to set up and manage a variety of relational databases easily, and Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), which provides block-level storage for use with EC2 instances.

AWS also offers services for monitoring and managing the performance and health of your applications and services, such as Amazon CloudWatch, and for deploying and managing containerized applications, such as Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

Overall, AWS offers a wealth of powerful services that can be used to build and deploy a wide variety of applications and services, making it a great choice for developers and organizations looking to take advantage of the power and scalability of the cloud. And with the availability of free-tier plans for new users and pay-as-you-go pricing, getting started with AWS is easy and cost-effective.

In short, AWS cloud is a great platform for the developer to start with, especially to use for web and application development, Data analytics and AI/ML with a variety of services which are scalable, customizable and cost-effective. AWS is one of the major cloud platforms used by enterprise companies and developers as it gives easy-to-use, easy-to-manage and secure infrastructure.

✌🏻How to pass AWS Certification exams

SyedAsadRazaDevops — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 10:42:52 +0000

I’ve never cared too much about certificates. yet I passed AWS exams. Why? How to prepare? How to pass? How to pay only 50% for the exam?
I answer all this and more in this post.

🌈 What are AWS certificates?

AWS offers 12 certificates. They come in four categories, covering different areas of AWS and varying in difficulty.

The Foundational, Associate, and Professional-level certificates build learning paths for Architects and Engineers. They cover a broad spectrum of AWS services and solutions built on AWS. Specialty certificates focus on particular areas and go into much detail on services in scope.

🔥 Which AWS certificate is for you?

If you are a “tech” person – don’t take the Cloud Practitioner – Foundational exam. It is very abstract, requiring just a knowledge of what the cloud is, its advantages, concepts, and the purpose of core services. However, it may be a proper exam for Sales, Marketing, or Agile people from your organization, helping them understand the technology the Engineers are working with.

There is no required order for taking the exams. You don’t need Associate certifications to pursue Professional ones.

Nonetheless, I suggest starting with the Associate level exam first. Which one? The one that matches your expertise and practical experience the most. The scope and expected knowledge for each exam is listed on the AWS Certification pages.

🚀 How much do AWS exams cost?

As you can see in the illustration above, the Foundational-level exam is the cheapest – it costs “only” 100 USD. The Associate-level exams cost 150 USD, and the Professional and Specialty – 300 USD.

However, you can pay only 50% of it! After you pass an exam, you get a voucher with a 50% discount for the next one. So, as long as you prepare well to pass it on the first try, you can pay half the price of all the exams after the first.

⚙️ Do AWS Certificates expire?

All certificates are valid for three years. Then, to keep it active, you must either re-take the exam or achieve a higher-level certification. The connection lines in the above illustration show which certificates prolong which. You can keep the Cloud Practitioner – Foundational certificate active by achieving any Associate-level certificate.

The DevOps Engineer – Professional extends the validity of both the Developer and SysOps Administrator from the Associate level. And Solution Architect – Associate can be prolonged by passing the Solution Architect – Professional exam.

💡 Why take AWS exams?

Everyone can have different reasons for getting certified. I will list mine.

Firstly, for me, getting certified is a great way to learn. The exam scope pushes me to learn about services and features I may not have used and dive deeper into the ones I know. And always at least part of this knowledge comes in handy in my daily work.

In my opinion, AWS exams are valuable for being close to real-life problems. So after preparing for it, you are left with practical learnings.

Another argument for getting certified, is to boost your professional profile and CV, thus opening doors to interviews or promotions. So while it’s not my most significant reason, it’s certainly valid. And if you can get your current employer to pay for the learning and getting certified, which can considerably help you in case of looking for another company in the next three years – that’s a great deal.

🌀 How to learn for AWS Certificate?

I always rely on those three parts for learning for AWS Certificate exams:

practical experience,
certificate course,
solving practice tests.

The first one, practical experience, is not to be underestimated. The more hands-on experience you have with the services you are questioned about, the better. While you can learn everything in theory and pass the exam, I strongly advise against it. Getting at least some experience in core services for the given certificate will make learning and taking the exam much easier.

That leads us to the next part – courses. I recommend AWSome TownHall courses . While I’m generally not a fan of video courses, that’s the best, most comprehensive way to go through the exam’s scope and get the condensed knowledge I found.

But don’t just watch. Active learning is much more effective!

And finally – solving practice tests. It’s a great learning technique – it forces your brain to work on problems and figure out the answer actively. It works even if you don’t answer correctly but check the right solution with justification afterward.

✔️ How to take an AWS Certificate exam?

You register and take the exam through one of the testing companies, Pearson VUE or PSI. From January 1, 2023, only Pearson VUE.

You can take the exam at a local testing center or online. However, if you have a testing center nearby – go there. I took two exams online, and my experience was poor. First, you waste time installing testing software that monitors everything and often requires disabling any antivirus you have. Then you spend more time preparing your room and taking photos of it. And when you are finally ready to start, the software crashes. And then, for the next 30 minutes, you are trying to contact the support and make it work, stressing out about the technical issues on top of the exam itself. And it’s not just my experience, but my colleagues as well. So, if you can, go to the local testing center.

Sadly, you won’t get the results right after you finish the exam. You must wait up to 24 hours. Usually, the first thing you get is a notification from Credly about a new badge issued to you (if you passed) and, several hours later, an official email from AWS Training and Certification.

🛞 Summary

AWS offers certifications that prove your knowledge on several levels and in distinct areas.

Getting AWS Certified is a good way to deepen your AWS knowledge and prove that knowledge to your (current or future) employer and customers. But it does not replace the hands-on experience. Quite the contrary – it will be much easier to pass an exam having at least some practical experience in the area first.

It’s best to start with an Associate-level certificate. Then continue with Specialty or Professional, depending on your area of expertise.

AWS exams are not trivial, so you must prepare accordingly. I recommend three learning methods in conjunction: getting practical experience in the area, going through a certificate course, and solving practice tests.

https://awsome-town-hall.github.io/

And finally, you can take the exam at the online or local test center. If available, I recommend the first option as it’s perversely and often less time-consuming.

🪩 Good luck!

PS. Do you have any tips and tricks for the AWS exams yourself? Please share in the comments!