DEV Community: Suzana Melo

AWS Amplify builds broken after a GitHub rename? Here’s the fix the console can’t give you

Suzana Melo — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:29:23 +0000

My automated builds stopped working, and I had no idea why.

I had been hosting and managing my blog on AWS Amplify since I launched it last year, and I couldn't be happier with it. Amplify gave me all that it promised and more. Quick to connect to GitHub, effortless to deploy, CI/CD out of the box. Every push to the repository rebuilt and redeployed the site for me. Exactly what I wanted: ship fast, sort the details later. Except "later" arrived sooner than I expected.

In fact, I soon realised there are scenarios where Amplify doesn't tell you when you're starting, and I hit one of them when I decided to do what I thought was a simple thing. I updated my GitHub username. What followed was not what I expected.

What happened

When I updated my GitHub username from suzanamelomoraes to suzanamelo-m, I didn't think about the obvious: all repository URLs change with it.

What I also didn't know is that AWS Amplify stores a hard link to the original repository URL and cannot automatically follow username or repository renames.

For example, from my old repo URL:

https://github.com/suzanamelomoraes/suzanamelo

to my new repo URL:

https://github.com/suzanamelo-m/suzanamelo

The CI/CD stopped, and no updates I made on my application were going live. I was pushing my changes to my remote repository at https://github.com/suzanamelo-m/suzanamelo, while AWS Amplify was still reading from the previous URL.

What Amplify doesn't tell you when you're starting out

I jumped to AWS Amplify to try to learn how to fix the issue. I went to the AWS Amplify console to check item by item where a fix could be applied.

I consulted the Amplify documentation for troubleshooting suggestions. I didn't find anything related.

I tried to reconnect to the repository by going to the Branch settings dropdown in App settings and clicking the "Reconnect repository" button. When someone renames their GitHub username, GitHub creates a redirect from the old URL to the new one, but only for a while. I thought that Amplify would just follow it. It didn't.

GitHub's redirect is a browser-level courtesy. Amplify's webhook was registered against the original URL and doesn't follow it.

The finding

Finally, I searched the internet, asked AI for help, and found that I couldn't find the fix in the AWS Amplify console. Changing the repository URL directly in the Amplify Console is not supported; GitHub's automatic redirect doesn't fix Amplify's broken webhook. The hard link must be updated via CLI.

When you need to use the update-app command

I also found out that updating information via CLI was a fix not only for my problem. More scenarios share the same root cause and the same solution.

Scenario 1 — GitHub username change (my case): AWS Amplify cannot automatically follow username renames. When I renamed my username from suzanamelomoraes to suzanamelo-m, my automated builds stopped working.

Scenario 2 — Renaming a repository: Renaming a repository also changes the GitHub URL, and since Amplify is connected via that URL, auto-build stops working. The same CLI fix applies.

Scenario 3 — Moving from a personal to an organisation account: Multiple people have reported needing to move their repository from a personal GitHub profile to an organisation's profile, but there's no way to do it in the AWS Amplify UI console without creating a whole new app. This is a common scenario when a solo project grows into a team project.

Scenario 4 — Switching Git providers: People migrating from Bitbucket to GitHub also hit the same wall: the repository URL changes completely and Amplify breaks. The AWS CLI docs confirm the command works across providers, using oauthToken for Bitbucket and CodeCommit, and accessToken for GitHub (for this article, I'm covering only accessToken for GitHub as this is the one I use, but I'll include helpful links in the list of resources at the bottom).

Scenario 5 — Switching between Bitbucket accounts: Even switching between different Bitbucket accounts connected to Amplify requires the same update-app CLI workaround.

How to fix it

Since my repository is on GitHub, I'm describing the fix I made to it. I'll leave links in the Resources to help you if you're running into issues with other web-based Git repository hosting services.

1. Prerequisites

Before running the fix, you need:

The AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) installed on your machine (you can check out how to do it here)
Access to the AWS Console (to find your App ID)
A GitHub Personal Access Token with repo scope (use oauthToken for Bitbucket and CodeCommit)
Your Amplify App ID

Note: If you set up your Amplify app some time ago, you may be using the older OAuth method rather than the GitHub App. Apps deployed via AWS Amplify using the older OAuth method continue to work for CI/CD, but AWS strongly recommends migrating to the GitHub App for new or updated connections.

2. Step-by-Step Fix

Step 1 — Generate a GitHub Personal Access Token

Go to: https://github.com/settings/tokens
Click Generate new token → Generate new token (classic)
Give it a name, e.g. Amplify Repo Update
Select the repo scope
Click Generate token and copy it immediately (you won't see it again)

Security tip: Delete this token after confirming the fix is working. It is only needed for the one-time update-app command.

Step 2 — Find Your Amplify App ID

Open the AWS Amplify Console
Select your app
Look for the App ID — it can be found in the Console Overview and starts with d followed by letters and numbers (e.g. d2x3uf5yeo5smt)
Also note the region from your console URL, e.g. us-east-1, eu-north-1 or ap-southeast-2

Step 3 — Set Up AWS CLI Credentials (`aws login`)

Before you can run any AWS CLI command in your terminal, you need to get AWS credentials for local development.
Credentials exist to authenticate your local machine or applications and authorise programmatic requests to Amazon Web Services.

The AWS CLI command aws login lets you start building immediately after signing up for AWS, as easily as you do in the AWS Console. Running aws login in your terminal opens your default web browser to authenticate as you would via console.

Once authorised in the browser, it creates short-lived, identity-based credentials for your command-line tasks, eliminating the need to use or store long-lived static access keys, which are always at risk of accidental exposure, leading to security breaches.

To get authenticated:

3a. Check your CLI version
To use AWS login, you need to have AWS CLI version 2, which must be 2.32.0 or later.
If you just installed the AWS CLI in the prerequisites step, jump to 3b below.

To check the version you have, run:

aws --version

If your version is older than 2.32.0, take a look at the Migration guide for the AWS CLI version 2 to learn about the differences between the versions and avoid any breakage.

If there are no breaking changes, follow the Migration guide for the AWS CLI version 2. It covers both uninstalling v1 and installing v2.

3b. Log in and set up your Region

To start the login process, run:

aws login

If it’s the first time you run aws login or you have not set a default Region, the CLI prompts you to specify the AWS Region of your choice. You will see a prompt like that in your terminal:

No AWS region has been configured. The AWS region is the geographic location of your AWS resources.
If you have used AWS before and already have resources in your account, specify which region they were created in. If you have not created resources in your account before, you can pick the region closest to you: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/global-infrastructure/latest/regions/aws-regions.html.

You are able to change the region in the CLI at any time with the command "aws configure set region NEW_REGION".
AWS Region [us-east-1]:

Once you define your region, the CLI will open a sign-in session in your default browser, and you will see the sign-in options page.

Select “Continue with Root or IAM user” and log in to your AWS account as you would normally.

Even though you will see a button saying “Continue with Root or IAM user”, AWS best practices recommend avoiding using the Root account for those types of tasks. The recommendation is to create a user to manage your project and give it only the access it needs.

Once you finish the sign-in process, you will be directed to a screen confirming that your credentials have been shared successfully. You can close the browser tab and return to your terminal.

3c. Configure a named profile

You're now authenticated and ready to run CLI commands. If you're managing multiple projects or environments, you can also create a named profile to keep credentials organised. Choose a name that makes sense to you and your application. For this example, I’m going to call it “blog”.

To create a profile, run aws login and set a name for your profile. The same command works when you want to authenticate specifically for this application.

aws login --profile blog

3d. Update region later if needed

As you previously saw when you ran that aws login for the first time, you are able to change the region in the CLI at any time with the command:

aws configure set region NEW_REGION

If you are updating your region under your profile (step 3c)

aws configure set region NEW_REGION --profile blog

Step 4 — Update the Repository in AWS Amplify

Run the following command, replacing the placeholders with your actual values:

aws amplify update-app \
  --app-id YOUR_APP_ID \
  --repository https://github.com/NEW_USERNAME/REPO_NAME \
  --access-token YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN \
  --region YOUR_REGION \
  --profile blog  # omit this line if you skipped step 3c

A successful response will include JSON output with your app details. Here is what the structure looks like, with sensitive values redacted:

{
  "app": {
    "appId": "YOUR_APP_ID",
    "appArn": "arn:aws:amplify:YOUR_REGION:YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID:apps/YOUR_APP_ID",
    "name": "your-app-name",
    "repository": "https://github.com/suzanamelo-m/suzanamelo",
    "platform": "WEB",
    "createTime": "...",
    "updateTime": "...",
    "environmentVariables": {},
    "defaultDomain": "your-app-id.amplifyapp.com",
    "enableBranchAutoBuild": true,
    "enableBranchAutoDeletion": false,
    "enableBasicAuth": false,
    "productionBranch": {
      "lastDeployTime": "2026-06-15T10:00:00.000Z",
      "status": "SUCCEED",
      "branchName": "main"
    }
  }
}

Two things to confirm from this output: the "repository" field now shows your new URL, and "status": "SUCCEED" confirms your last deployment is intact.

If you open the Amplify Console after running the command, you should also see the new repository URL reflected under App settings → Branch Settings.

Step 5 — Verify & Trigger a New Build

Option A — Via the Amplify Console:

Go to the Amplify Console and open your app
Click on your branch (e.g. main or prod)
Click the Run build button in the top right corner

Option B — Via the AWS CLI:

aws amplify start-job \
  --app-id YOUR_APP_ID \
  --branch-name main \
  --job-type RELEASE \
  --region YOUR_REGION \
  --profile blog

Step 6 — Delete the GitHub Token

Go to: https://github.com/settings/tokens
Find the token you created
Click Delete

The Amplify connection will continue to work after the token is deleted. The token was only needed for the one-time update-app command, not for ongoing builds.

Going further: managing multiple AWS environments

AWS profiles are named collections of credentials and settings that let you manage multiple AWS accounts or environments from your local machine, without mixing credentials.

Instead of constantly overwriting your default settings, profiles let you manage different environments, permission levels, and accounts without re-authenticating every time.

You can use AWS profiles for a variety of management cases, for example, to separate your [development], [staging], and [production] accounts to reduce the risk of accidental changes, handle different clients and projects in different regions, or, in my case, to create a separate environment specifically for my blog-related credentials.

Useful Commands

List all configured profiles:

If you authenticated using aws login, your credentials are temporary and won't appear here. Use aws sts get-caller-identity --profile blog to verify your active session instead.

cat ~/.aws/credentials
cat ~/.aws/config

Run any AWS command with a specific profile:

aws <command> --profile blog --region us-east-1

Set a profile as the default for a terminal session:

export AWS_PROFILE=blog

Verify which identity is active:

aws sts get-caller-identity --profile blog

Update a profile's region:

aws configure set region NEW_REGION --profile blog

Delete a profile — manually remove the relevant block from both files:

nano ~/.aws/credentials   # Remove [blog] block
nano ~/.aws/config        # Remove [profile blog] block

Wrapping up

AWS Amplify hosting is an incredible tool, especially when you want to benefit from the AWS infrastructure (CloudFront, Route 53, IAM). In my case, I already had my custom domain and Route 53, which made the setup even smoother.

It's also very handy when you want to avoid third-party services and rely on AWS native tools for authentication and databases.

AWS Amplify focuses on enhancing the user experience and making it even easier to manage your applications through its UI console. But not every issue can be sorted in the UI console. We just covered one issue that Amplify can't protect you from, but now you know exactly how to handle it when it happens.

This fix taught me more than I expected. Not just about how Amplify manages repository connections, but about how the AWS CLI has evolved. aws login is a genuinely useful addition, and I want to write more about it properly.
If you've hit a different Amplify wall or you're curious about more CLI basics, let me know. Your comments or questions might become the next article. 🤗

Resources

New to AWS Amplify hosting? Start here — From Procrastination to Publishing: How AWS Amplify Helped Me Finally Start Blogging
AWS CLI installation guide: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-install.html
AWS CLI update-app full reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/amplify/update-app.html
GitHub Personal Access Tokens (classic): https://github.com/settings/tokens
AWS login: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-sign-in.html
Simplified developer access to AWS with ‘aws login’: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/simplified-developer-access-to-aws-with-aws-login/
AWS Amplify Troubleshooting: https://docs.amplify.aws/react/build-a-backend/troubleshooting/
The start-job CLI reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/amplify/start-job.html
Migrating from OAuth to the Amplify GitHub App (for users on older setups): https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amplify/latest/userguide/setting-up-GitHub-access.html
Bitbucket — changing accounts: https://repost.aws/questions/QU3ibFSag6QdmlrQA55tr4-g/amplify-bitbucket-sign-to-different-account
Migrating from Bitbucket to GitHub: https://www.isme.es/2023/09/10/migrate-blog-source-from-bitbucket-to-github.html

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

Bedrock vs SageMaker: a beginner’s guide to AWS AI — and where to start

Suzana Melo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 20:39:51 +0000

You've started your AWS journey. You're hearing about AI everywhere, and two names keep coming up: Bedrock and SageMaker. Everyone seems to assume you already know what they are.

You don't. And that's completely fine — I didn't either.

In this article, I'll give you a clear overview of both services, explain which one makes more sense to start with, and show you where you can get hands-on experience with both at no cost.

📌 Before we go further:

If you're an absolute beginner to Cloud and AWS, I recommend reading "How to get started with AWS (for absolute beginners)" first and coming back when you're ready. These concepts will land much better with that foundation in place.

Bedrock and SageMaker — what are they, exactly?

Both are fully managed AWS services designed to help you build, customise, and deploy AI and machine learning (ML) applications.

Either Bedrock or SageMaker gives you:

✨ Access to cutting-edge Foundation Models (FMs) (including Anthropic Claude and Meta Llama), with pre-trained, ready-to-use options

✨ Features to tailor models to your specific needs, such as fine-tuning and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), which lets you connect models to your own data sources

✨ Seamless integration with other AWS services

But the similarities end there. They are not competitors. Bedrock and SageMaker solve different problems and operate at very different levels of abstraction.

Thinking in layers

When working with AI on AWS, it helps to picture the stack in layers:

Infrastructure layer → where models are built and trained
Model access layer → where pre-trained models are accessed and used
Application layer → where AI features are integrated into products

SageMaker sits closer to the infrastructure layer. Bedrock sits closer to the application layer. Keep that in mind as we look at each one.

Amazon Bedrock

Bedrock is a serverless platform designed from the ground up to make generative AI accessible, with pre-trained models available as ready-to-use options. It gives you access to powerful foundation models via API, with no model training required.

Instead of building models from scratch, you:

Choose a model (Claude, Titan, Llama, and others)
Send prompts via API
Get responses back

The biggest advantage is speed: no infrastructure to manage, fast time to production, and you only pay for what you use (your API calls).

Bedrock is ideal when you don't have ML expertise but want to build quickly (chatbots, AI features inside apps, rapid prototypes).

Imagine a customer support assistant that answers questions from your product documentation, a content tool that drafts marketing copy on request, or an internal search feature that understands natural language instead of keywords. These are all problems Bedrock handles well. You describe what you want, pick a model, and start building.

If you find yourself thinking, "I just want to use AI, not build it," Bedrock is your starting point.

Amazon SageMaker AI

Amazon SageMaker AI (formerly Amazon SageMaker) is a full machine learning platform with fully managed infrastructure, tools, and workflows. It gives you everything you need to:

Prepare and process their own datasets
Train models from scratch
Fine-tune existing models with proprietary data
Deploy, monitor, and manage model performance over time

Where Bedrock is about speed and simplicity, SageMaker is all about control and customisation. You manage the full ML lifecycle, which means more power and more complexity. It's worth mentioning that Bedrock does support fine-tuning for a limited set of models, but it's a managed, lightweight process (very useful for adjusting a model's tone or style). SageMaker gives you full control over the training process, including custom training scripts and complete access to model weights, which is what you need when the task genuinely requires it.

It's the right tool when you need custom ML pipelines, are working with proprietary datasets, or your team has dedicated ML expertise. Picture a hospital building a readmission risk model on its own patient records, a manufacturer predicting equipment failures from sensor data, or a legal team training a classifier on thousands of labeled contracts. These are real-world problems SageMaker is built for, where an off-the-shelf model won't do, and full control over the training process matters.

If you find yourself thinking, "I need to understand exactly how my model works," SageMaker is your platform.

Can they work together?

Yes, and in many real-world architectures, they do.

A common pattern: use Bedrock to prototype quickly and validate whether an AI feature is worth building. Once you've validated the idea, then bring in SageMaker when you need to fine-tune, optimise performance, or take full control of the model. You're not choosing one forever. You're choosing which one fits the problem in front of you right now.

Where to start as a beginner

If you've been following along, the answer is probably clear: start with Bedrock. 💡

It requires no infrastructure setup, lets you start building immediately, and removes enough complexity that you can focus on learning how AI actually behaves (rather than how to configure a training job). More than that, it gives you room to play around, get your hands dirty, and have fun breaking things along the way.

That said, don't skip SageMaker entirely. Understanding what it does, even at a conceptual level, gives you a much stronger mental model of how AWS AI services fit together. The stronger your foundation, the faster you'll move when things get complicated. And trust me, they will get complicated.

Building your foundation for free

AWS offers a wide variety of free resources to get you started. My favourite platform for this is AWS Skill Builder, where you'll find structured learning plans for Generative AI built to support different professionals and meet different needs: Developers, Decision Makers, Model Builders, Public Sector, EU Governments, and more.

📌 On the question of cost: Skill Builder has both free and paid content. The foundational courses are genuinely free, with no subscription needed. Some modules inside longer learning plans do require a paid subscription.

A great entry point for your AI journey is the Fundamentals of Generative AI — 3 hours of free content covering:

Fundamentals of ML and Generative AI
Applications of Foundation Models and Amazon Bedrock
Responsible AI
Security, compliance, and governance for AI solutions

If you're already comfortable with programming, don't miss the Generative AI Learning Plan for Developers — a full 20-hour structured path covering:

Introduction to Generative AI — Art of the Possible
Planning a Generative AI Project
Amazon Bedrock Getting Started
Foundations of Prompt Engineering
Exploring Amazon Nova models using Amazon Bedrock
Building Generative AI Applications Using Amazon Bedrock (Includes Labs) (note: this module requires a subscription)
Amazon Q Developer Getting Started
Introduction to Amazon SageMaker Notebooks

Getting hands-on with Cloud Quest

Theory will only take you so far. At some point, you just have to break something and have some fun, right?

That's exactly what AWS Cloud Quest is for. It's an online, open-world role-playing game where you learn cloud concepts by solving real-world problems (not through slides, but through actual tasks inside the AWS console). Honestly, it's as fun as it sounds.

If you're just getting started, begin with Cloud Practitioner. It consolidates your foundational knowledge and gives you hands-on experience with core AWS services through real-life cloud challenges.

For Bedrock and SageMaker specifically, the one you want is Generative AI Practitioner.

Here you'll work through 10 real-world AI challenges. By the end, you'll know how to:

✨ Build AI-powered assistants (chatbots and virtual assistants)

✨ Use Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to connect models to company data

✨ Craft and optimise prompts for better model outputs

✨ Choose between Foundation Models in Amazon Bedrock for different problem types

✨ Apply guardrails and security principles for responsible AI

What I liked most: I ended up working with not just Bedrock, but SageMaker and Amazon Q (AWS's AI assistant for development) across different challenges. The use cases were real — an HR assistant that filtered employee questions and pulled answers directly from the company handbook, and an enterprise tool that helped sales teams make sense of their own data. Building and running them changed how I understood these services.

By the time I completed the quest, the differences between Bedrock and SageMaker stopped being abstract. They made sense in practice, in a way that just reading about them didn't fully achieve.

More good resources out there

Skill Builder and Cloud Quest are my go-to starting points because they're free, structured, and built specifically for the AWS stack you'll eventually be working with. But they're not the only resources worth your time, and some of the best learning I've done on generative AI foundations has happened elsewhere.

If you want to understand what generative AI actually is before you touch any tools

Generative AI for Everyone (DeepLearning.AI, free) — taught by AI pioneer Andrew Ng, it covers how generative AI works, what it genuinely can and can't do, prompt engineering at a practical level, and how to think about real-world applications. No coding background required, no AWS account needed. I'd put this alongside the Fundamentals of Generative AI course on Skill Builder. They complement each other rather than overlap.

If you want to build something before you feel "ready"

PartyRock — an Amazon Bedrock playground where you can create AI-powered apps by describing what you want to build, no code required, with free daily usage. You don't even need an AWS account to start. It's the fastest way to develop real intuition about how foundation models behave, what prompts actually do, and where generative AI surprises you (for better and worse). Think of it as the place to play before Cloud Quest.

If you want a structured course that lives outside Skill Builder

AWS Generative AI Essentials (Coursera and edX, free to audit, launched January 2026) — practical and applied rather than theoretical. It covers Amazon Q Developer for IDE-integrated coding assistance, Amazon Bedrock, RAG with private data, security guardrails, and building AI agents. A good structured step-up once you've worked through the Fundamentals course.

📌 On cost — a consistent reminder across all three: PartyRock has a free daily usage allowance. Generative AI for Everyone is free on DeepLearning.AI's platform. AWS Generative AI Essentials is free to audit on Coursera and edX (a certificate costs extra, but you don't need it to learn the material).

Want to make it official? Certification is one option

Once you've covered the fundamentals, if you want to make your knowledge official, the AWS Certified AI Practitioner is worth considering. Still, it's one path among several, not an obligatory next step, and yes, Skill Builder has the preparation materials for that too.

That said, the broader generative AI certification landscape has grown significantly. If your interests point toward Google Cloud's stack, more developer-focused AI engineering, or perhaps toward AI for business and strategy rather than technical implementation, there are strong credentials in those directions too, such as the Generative AI Leader. The right certification is the one that aligns with where you're actually heading.

I haven't taken the AWS AI Practitioner exam yet, but when I do, I'll write up exactly how I prepared and what the experience was like.

If you've already been through it, I'd love to hear from you. What do you wish you'd known before you started? What helped? What would you tell someone who's just taking their first steps? Share your experience — your insight might be exactly what someone else needs to keep going. 💫

New AWS Community Builder? Welcome! Here is How to Hit the Ground Running

Suzana Melo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 20:11:35 +0000

From today, we will get to know and welcome 1,000+ new AWS Community Builders, and the Community is thrilled to have you! 🎉

The AWS Community Builders program was created to empower AWS enthusiasts to connect, learn, and share their knowledge with the technical Community. We welcome everyone who shares the same vision.

But what does it mean to become an AWS Community Builder, what life as a CB looks like, and how to make the most of your experience?

Here are a few things I wish I'd known when I first joined and made more use of in my first year. Trust me, you don't have to wait to be a veteran to explore all these opportunities. Start now and make the most of your new CB life.

Incredible Benefits

As an AWS Community Builder, you get lots of benefits, directly and indirectly, that enrich your experience in many aspects, from technical growth to personal development.

Here are a few:

💫 Technical Growth & Career Opportunities

AWS product team webinars — Being part of the program opens the door to incredible learning opportunities with AWS experts about what's coming, even before launch, plus access to resources to supercharge your content creation. You'll hear directly from AWS product teams about new services and features through briefings and webinars. Some sessions are under NDA and contain non-public information, and many are recorded so you can watch them later if the timing doesn't work for you. Everything is carefully curated to keep you ahead of the curve.

QA one-year subscription — As a CB, you also receive an annual subscription to AWS training platforms such as QA (formerly Cloud Academy), with access to a variety of courses for upskilling and certification preparation — for free. As far as I've heard, there are even more great things like this coming.

💫 AWS Promotional Credits

As an AWS CB, you receive AWS credits once a year (typically around $500 USD) while you are part of the program. You can add them to your AWS account and use them for personal learning projects, content creation, and more.

Maybe now it's time to create that project that was forever on your to-do list or explore a new AWS service?

💫 AWS Certification Vouchers

As a Community Builder, you can claim one Foundational, Associate, or Professional/Specialty exam voucher per cycle (your year as a CB).

It's one per year, and if you renew for the following year, you can claim it again.

💫 Exclusive Swag

Who doesn't like good swag? And the AWS CB swag doesn't disappoint. Alongside your welcome kit and annual renewal swag kits — each year you renew (years 2, 3, 4, and beyond), you receive a different kit — there are many other ways to earn swag too.

Everything you do can land you something new: your content contributions, your study performance on QA, or simply a random giveaway.

💫 AWS re:Invent Discounts

Yes! You can also benefit from a generous discount to attend the world's largest cloud event (60k+ participants and 1,000+ technical sessions). Last year, we received around 60% off the ticket price.

💫 Community

And the best part: a global community of now 4,000+ builders. 🤗

This is, by far, the greatest benefit of being an AWS Community Builder and where the true superpower of this program lies.

The program brings together content creators from all levels and backgrounds, contributing a rich variety of technical and interpersonal skills to the table. The opportunities here are endless: from mentoring others to being mentored, building relationships with like-minded developers and technologists, and accessing resources to amplify your impact within the AWS community.

The Structure and Ecosystem

💫 Tech Channels

Beyond the channel for your specific category, you're automatically added to the CB Slack workspace. From there, you can explore a wide range of channels, including technical ones where seasoned professionals share insights, tips, new tools, and approaches to using AWS services. You'll find countless ways to contribute, learn, and grow your professional network through collaboration and discussion.

First day? Introduce yourself, let us know you better, who you are, your contributions, and start your journey.

Got stuck? This is the place to ask for help, get valuable insights, and learn.

Know the answer to someone's question? Share your experience and solution, and contribute to others' growth.

💫 Events — To Speak At, Volunteer For, and Learn From

There are also dedicated channels where members announce speaking opportunities, calls for volunteers, and upcoming AWS Community Days, Summits, meetups, and more — whether you want to give a talk, help behind the scenes, or simply attend and soak it all in.

💫 Content Creation Boost and Support

What is a community if we don't help each other? As a CB, you have access to channels focused on promoting content, where you can share your work and have it amplified by your peers, while also discovering incredible content to learn from. There are also channels dedicated to improving your content-creation tools and style, where veterans openly share their experiences and best practices, and where we also want to hear about what you are doing.

This is also your chance to go beyond your current content creation. You're used to writing technical blogs, but want to explore speaking at meetups and conferences, record technical videos, create tutorials, or even a course? We got you here!

And Much More…

There are channels for an incredible range of discussions that can enrich both your professional and personal life: certification, women in tech (one of my favorites 😍), re:Invent, and — the cherry on top — regional cross-community channels connecting you with your local AWS ecosystem, including not only CBs but also AWS Heroes and AWS User Group leaders.

Making the Most of Your CB Experience

💫 Learn & Grow

Take full advantage of the countless learning opportunities this program offers — from technical skills to interpersonal growth — whether through events, webinars, mentorship, or your peers. Explore the many technical channels, connect with brilliant minds, and use every opportunity to invest in yourself.

💫 Keep Contributing

You joined the program because of the impact your content has had on the Community. Here, you'll have all the support you need to go even further and reach even more people. You'll find more opportunities to speak, mentor, write, help, and be helped.

Keep building. Keep sharing. Keep creating and contributing.

💫 Embrace the Community Spirit

Networking, friendship, diversity, motivation, inspiration... the list of what being part of a vibrant community offers is endless. At the end of the day, we are all humans, and those connections are what truly carry us when we need help, need to vent, or when life gets hard.

You will meet incredible people here, so connect and enjoy. It's not just networking, it's a genuine connection.

A Few Final Thoughts

Each year, the program team looks for ways to bring even more value to members, so the list of benefits may well grow even bigger for the next intake.

I'm applying to renew as a CB for the fourth year. The AWS Community Builder program is my safe space and my happy place. You can learn so much and always contribute meaningfully, no matter your level of seniority.

Here, I've met mentors, mentees, and friends for life. My only regret is not having found this program sooner.

Many reasons brought you to the program, perhaps the networking, the growth opportunities, the lovely swag, the AWS credits and discounts, or the recognition you hoped to find. Whatever your reason, you will find it here.

Didn't Get In This Time?

You applied, but didn't make it this round. Don't give up.

Think of it this way: you have 12 more months to create great content and contribute to the Community, proving that you are a builder, just like us.

Keep creating technical content: speaking at events (meetups, conferences); writing articles, tutorials, blogs;
Collaborate in forums, social media, and/or open source projects supporting others' growth;
Continue learning, experimenting, building projects, and sharing your journey.

AWS looks closely at quality, accuracy, consistency, and impact. Don't hesitate to reach out to CBs in your region and ask for mentorship on your content creation journey. We want you here with us. 🫂

Check out my article "Everything you need to know before applying to the AWS Community Builder Program — and my golden advice" for guidance on making the most of the next 12 months, and see you soon — this year or in the next.

To those joining us now or in the next intake, I can't wait to see all the amazing things we'll build together. Our team of AWS Community Builders is beyond happy to receive you, because that's what community really means, not just sharing what you know, but caring about who's beside you while you grow.

The AWS Community Builders is not only a platform or a program, but the people who show up for each other.

For me, it's a place where you arrive as you are and leave more than you thought you could be, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing you here!✨🚀☁️💖

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

Everything you need to know before applying to the AWS Community Builder Program and my golden advice

Suzana Melo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 19:57:09 +0000

One of the most wonderful times of the year has started, and I couldn’t be more excited! 🎉

Applications for the AWS Community Builders program opened for the 2026 intake on January 7, and to help you craft an outstanding application, a group of incredible AWS Community Builders held sessions around the globe, and… in multiple languages! 🥰

Why become an AWS Community Builder?

As an AWS Community Builder, you’ll have access to some truly amazing benefits, including:

💫 Exclusive learning opportunities with AWS experts, plus resources to supercharge your content creation

💫 AWS credits for personal projects, certification vouchers, and, of course, some epic swag

💫 And the best part: a global community of 3,000+ builders, AWS Heroes and AWS superstars — including Jason Dunn, Farrah Campbell, Elizabeth Fuentes Leone, Shafraz Rahim, Nelly Andrade, Carol Milanez, Carolina Araujo, Derek Bingham 🥑, Mouna Neelakanta, Ridhima Kapoor, Corey Strausman, Gunnar Grosch, Mike Chambers, Darko Mesaroš, Aaron Hunter, Alejandra Bricio, Hazel Saenz, Brooke Jamieson, Jeff Barr, Maish Saidel-Keesing, Uliana Cáceres 🇺🇦, Natalia Stones**, and many more — all united by one goal: your success! 🚀

What is the program?

The AWS Community Builders Program is a global initiative designed to empower AWS enthusiasts to connect, learn, and share knowledge with the wider technical community.

Who can apply?

The program is open to technical content creators (18+) of all experience levels, backgrounds, and technical areas.

You don’t need to be an AWS expert or a senior professional (I applied when I was a graduate)!

You should definitely consider applying if you are someone who:

Learns and builds on AWS (or is eager to start)
Already shares knowledge through articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, talks, or open-source contributions (especially during 2025)
Actively contributes to a tech community

👉 If this sounds like you, your place is here with us!

Helpful resources before you apply

I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here. At the end of this article, you’ll find:

Recordings of all the sessions we hosted worldwide (many in local languages)
Links to my favorite articles about the program

Everything you need to feel confident and prepared to apply and join us as an AWS Community Builder! 💡

And finally… my golden advice 🌟

✨ Take the time you need to craft a stellar application ✨

Applications opened on January 7 and typically remain open for about two weeks.

This is not about who submits first. It's about who submits best.

📌 Focus on strong, thoughtful answers. Use the STAR method to structure your responses.

Tell your story: who you are, why you contribute to the community, how you make an impact, and don’t be afraid to show your passion for helping others.

📌 Choose impactful examples. Ask mentors, mentees, or role models for guidance to identify your most meaningful and well-produced content.

Submitting examples is a crucial step. Don’t skip it!

AWS looks closely at quality, accuracy, consistency, and impact, so choose wisely.

Wrapping up 🎁

Take your time, prepare your application with care (and love 💜), and explore the resources below to craft a remarkable submission.

👉 And when you are ready to apply... Click here!

I can’t wait to see you joining us soon in the AWS Community Builders channel as one of the new members! 💞🫂🤩💖

🌎 Live sessions about the AWS Community Builders

(And a dream team of AWS Community Builders role models you definitely should follow and connect with!**)

🎤 In English:

📍 Africa - Thelma Laryea, Fatima Aruna, Endah Bongo-Awah, Omshree Butani, and me. 👉 Review the announcement here!

📍 Europe - Darya Petrashka, Endah Bongo-Awah, 🌀Anda-Catalina Giraud, Elizabeth Adégbajú, Nagaswetha Mudunuri, Anton Antanovich, and me. 👉 Watch it here!

📍 India - Abinaya S V, Jeevitha Murugan, Omshree Butani, Poonam Pratik Patel, Pooja Ranjan, Varsha Verma ☁️, and me. 👉 Watch it here!

📍 NAMER - Bansi Delwadia, Jenn Bergstrom, Amelia Hough-Ross, Darya Petrashka, Joanne Skiles, PhD, Margaret Valtierra, and me. 👉 Watch it here!

📍 Oceania - Dale Orders, Olga Shabalina, Christina Chen, Natalia Nam, Mai Nishitani, Stephen Sennett, and me. 👉 Watch it here!

🌐 In multiple languages:

📍 Brazil (Portuguese) - Amanda Silva de Souza, Lays Rodrigues, Amaury Borges Souza, Flávio Pimenta, Felipe (KiKo) de Freitas Campos, Dan Rezende, and me. 👉 Watch it here!

📍 LATAM (Spanish) - Verónica Rivera, Sary Libreros, Brenda Galicia, and Carolina Herrera Monteza . 👉 Watch it here!

📍 China (Chinese) - XIAOFEI LI, RURU Cheng, ZHITONG LIU and Christina Chen. 👉 Watch it here!

📍 Israel (Hebrew) - Eyal Estrin ☁, Orel Bello, Rotem Levi ☁️, Yedidya Schwartz, and Ophir Zahavi. 👉 Watch it here!

📍 Egypt - UAE (Arabic) - Asmaa Elalfy, Abdelrahman Ahmed 🇵🇸, Mahmoud Abdelrahman, Noureldin Ehab and Mohamed Rizk. 👉 Watch it here!

📝 Some of my favorite articles:

What Is The AWS Community Builders Program And How To Apply - Bhavesh Gohel
Future AWS Community Builder Step by Step Guide 🚀 - Shafraz Rahim
Becoming an AWS Community Builder: End-to-End Guide - Omshree Butani
2026 AWS Community Builders - How to fill in the application form - Darya Petrashka

You can also find this article on my LinkedIn articles session, where all the incredible AWS Community Builders and AWS employees mentioned here are tagged**.

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

From Procrastination to Publishing: How AWS Amplify Helped Me Finally Start Blogging

Suzana Melo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:23:01 +0000

Who doesn’t have an unfinished side project buried somewhere in a folder, notebook, or GitHub repository?

If you just nodded yes, keep reading. You’re in the right place! 🫂

💡 How it all started

I must admit, my list of unfinished side projects is long, and blogging was one of those ideas that kept coming back, with a few failed attempts added to the pile, even though I really wanted to make it happen.

Changing careers to software development after my 40s, as an immigrant woman with no tech background, was not easy, and it still isn’t. So, feeling that pain on my own skin, I decided to support others who are fighting the same battle.

I started speaking at and supporting local meetups, and before long, I became an organizer myself. But I soon realized that talks alone couldn’t reach everyone who might need help. So, I started writing. From dev tutorials to career-change insights, my articles were scattered across different platforms and never published as often as I wanted.

I knew it was time to create one place to call home for my content, and I set a goal to build my own blog.

😵‍💫 Under the “overwhelmed” feeling

Every time I tried to start this project, I found myself overwhelmed with questions:

What programming language should I use?
Do I need a framework? Which one?
Where should I host it? What are the costs?
How do I handle CI/CD, SSL/TLS, and DNS?

Soon enough, my prototypes in JavaScript, React, and Next.js joined the pile of side projects sitting in my GitHub repositories.

🌟 The light at the end of the tunnel

It kept happening until I finally did what I always tell my mentees: Struggling? Ask for guidance!

That’s when I realized I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Allen Helton, AWS Hero and dear friend, shared his fantastic article, “Take the Leap! 10 Steps to Building Your Personal Blog With AWS + Hugo,” and that’s when my blog dream started coming true.

🧩 What is Hugo?

Hugo is an open-source static site generator that makes it incredibly easy to bring your ideas to life.

It offers multilingual support, great documentation, and can be used to build everything from documentation and landing pages to corporate, nonprofit, or event websites.

One of my favorite parts is the vast collection of customizable themes to help you get started quickly. Hugo also offers flexibility for hosting and deployment, including AWS Amplify.

⚡️ And what’s AWS Amplify?

The name really fits. AWS Amplify helps you build scalable, full-stack applications fast, without needing deep cloud expertise.

It’s a perfect solution for frontend and mobile developers who want to amplify their project’s capabilities and integrate AWS services without managing the complexities of cloud infrastructure.

Amplify offers features like Hosting, Backend Development, UI Components, DataStore, Analytics, APIs, Functions, Geo, AI, and Storage, all easy to add to your project.

What I loved most was how Amplify removed the technical friction that always overwhelmed me. Things like managing storage, CDN distribution, building pipelines, and SSL/TLS certificates.

🪚🔨 Building a static website

Even a simple blog involves several steps: preparing your HTML, CSS, JS, and assets; uploading them to a hosting service; and ensuring everything loads smoothly over the internet.

Behind the scenes, you need to link your repository, build static assets, handle the Domain Name System (DNS) to find the server’s IP address (so it can respond to the HTTP request from the browser by sending the requested static files), and distribute your content globally through a CDN, often managed via CI/CD pipelines.

If you’re using AWS, you’d usually deal with services like S3 Buckets, Route 53, CloudFront, and AWS Certificate Manager.

💞 Hugo & Amplify: the love story

Using Hugo and AWS Amplify Hosting together was refreshingly simple — a true tech love story.

When hosting a static site on Amplify, you let it take care of everything you’d otherwise configure manually. Your code is stored, distributed globally, secured with HTTPS, and automatically updated with each commit, all without you having to manage the infrastructure.

Amplify Hosting provisions:

Amazon S3 → stores and serves your static files.
Amazon CloudFront (CDN) → distributes your site globally with low latency and high availability.
AWS Certificate Manager → provides free HTTPS (TLS/SSL) certificates.

Amplify also integrates with CloudWatch and CloudTrail for monitoring, logging, and auditing, so you can easily track performance and activity.

And since Amplify is serverless, you only pay for what you use, and it's always ready when you are.

👩🏻‍💻 Building my blog — Step by step

From Hugo's side

Now that we’ve covered the whys and whats, let’s get to the best part: the building!

1️⃣ Choose a theme

First, I picked a Hugo theme (many include their own documentation that complements the Hugo guides) and started building the foundation of my blog — content and assets like articles, photos, and images.

Hugo offers a wide range of themes to suit different styles and needs. You can customize them by changing the default color palette, fonts, and layout, or even build your own from scratch.

2️⃣ Set up Hugo

Hugo’s Getting Started documentation gives you everything you need to begin. The Quick Start guide does an excellent job walking you through project setup: installing Hugo, adding content, building the site, and publishing it.

The Basic Usage guide explains how to use Hugo’s command-line interface (CLI) to perform basic tasks, and the Directory Structure provides an overview of the project skeleton that Hugo generates when you create a new site.

Hugo uses Markdown for content files, which made it easy to organize my articles in the content/ folder and store images in assets/.

I gathered my previous articles from Dev.to and LinkedIn, added images and logos, and tagged everything so readers can find content easily in one place.

3️⃣ Host and Deploy

Once I was happy with my site, it was time to host it. Using Amplify was seamless thanks to Hugo’s Host on AWS Amplify guide.

What I needed:

An AWS account (new customers can start with $100 credits through the AWS Free Tier).
A GitHub (or other Git provider) account.
A local and remote repository for my project.

Hugo provides an amplify.yml file with build commands that Amplify automatically runs during deployment, including installing Hugo, configuring Git, and building the site.

amplify.yml

version: 1
env:
  variables:
    # Application versions
    DART_SASS_VERSION: 1.93.2
    GO_VERSION: 1.25.3
    HUGO_VERSION: 0.152.2
    # Time zone
    TZ: Europe/Oslo
    # Cache
    HUGO_CACHEDIR: ${PWD}/.hugo
    NPM_CONFIG_CACHE: ${PWD}/.npm
frontend:
  phases:
    preBuild:
      commands:
        # Create directory for user-specific executable files
        - echo "Creating directory for user-specific executable files..."
        - mkdir -p "${HOME}/.local"

        # Install Dart Sass
        - echo "Installing Dart Sass ${DART_SASS_VERSION}..."
        - curl -sLJO "https://github.com/sass/dart-sass/releases/download/${DART_SASS_VERSION}/dart-sass-${DART_SASS_VERSION}-linux-x64.tar.gz"
        - tar -C "${HOME}/.local" -xf "dart-sass-${DART_SASS_VERSION}-linux-x64.tar.gz"
        - rm "dart-sass-${DART_SASS_VERSION}-linux-x64.tar.gz"
        - export PATH="${HOME}/.local/dart-sass:${PATH}"

        # Install Go
        - echo "Installing Go ${GO_VERSION}..."
        - curl -sLJO "https://go.dev/dl/go${GO_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
        - tar -C "${HOME}/.local" -xf "go${GO_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
        - rm "go${GO_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
        - export PATH="${HOME}/.local/go/bin:${PATH}"

        # Install Hugo
        - echo "Installing Hugo ${HUGO_VERSION}..."
        - curl -sLJO "https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/download/v${HUGO_VERSION}/hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_linux-amd64.tar.gz"
        - mkdir "${HOME}/.local/hugo"
        - tar -C "${HOME}/.local/hugo" -xf "hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_linux-amd64.tar.gz"
        - rm "hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_linux-amd64.tar.gz"
        - export PATH="${HOME}/.local/hugo:${PATH}"

        # Verify installations
        - echo "Verifying installations..."
        - "echo Dart Sass: $(sass --version)"
        - "echo Go: $(go version)"
        - "echo Hugo: $(hugo version)"
        - "echo Node.js: $(node --version)"

        # Install Node.js dependencies
        - echo "Installing Node.js dependencies..."
        - "[[ -f package-lock.json || -f npm-shrinkwrap.json ]] && npm ci --prefer-offline || true"

        # Configure Git
        - echo "Configuring Git..."
        - git config core.quotepath false
    build:
      commands:
        - echo "Building site..."
        - hugo --gc --minify
  artifacts:
    baseDirectory: public
    files:
      - "**/*"
  cache:
    paths:
      - ${HUGO_CACHEDIR}/**/*
      - ${NPM_CONFIG_CACHE}/**/*

🔗 Connecting the dots

Create a new app — In the Amplify console, I clicked Create a new app.

Choose a Git provider — I connected my GitHub repository.

Amplify supports other providers such as GitLab, Bitbucket, and CodeCommit, as well as manual deployment from S3 or ZIP files.

Authorization — I authorized the connection, selected my account (my personal account), and picked the repository I wanted to connect to.

Least privilege — Amplify also allows connecting to all repositories, but best practice is to apply the principle of least privilege and grant access only to the specific project you’ll use.

✨ How the magic happens

Once everything was connected, I reviewed the settings and clicked Save and Deploy, and that was it!

Amplify compiles your code, installs dependencies, runs your tests (if any), and provisions the infrastructure needed, creating roles and app/branch resources behind the scenes.

It built and deployed my blog’s static assets automatically. From that point on, every GitHub push triggers Amplify’s CI/CD pipeline, which rebuilds and redeploys the site for me.

🌍 Route 53

Amplify gives you a default domain, but I wanted a personal one — suzanamelo.com — which I registered with Route 53.

The process was simple, using the AWS guide for adding a custom domain.

I went to Custom domains in the Hosting section on the sidebar, clicked Add domain, and as I started typing, my domain already appeared. Amplify shows all the domains you have through Route 53.

You can also add a custom domain managed by a third-party DNS provider.

By default, Amplify automatically creates two subdomain entries for your domain — https://suzanamelo.com and https://www.suzanamelo.com — which you can customize. You can either use the default managed SSL/TLS certificate Amplify provisions for you or a custom third-party certificate imported into AWS Certificate Manager.

🚀 Why I think Amplify was great

Using Hugo with Amplify was perfect for my needs. It was quick to connect, effortless to deploy, and handled all the heavy lifting — monitoring, CI/CD, DNS setup, SSL/TLS, and global content delivery through CloudFront.

If you collaborate with others, Amplify also supports feature branches, branch password protection, and pull request previews, which are great for teamwork and testing before merging.

🤔 When Amplify may not be the best option

Amplify was perfect for my use case — a simple blog — but it’s not a one-size-fits-all tool.

It’s beginner-friendly with lots of ready-to-use solutions, and very opinionated, which means it may not suit projects that require heavy customization, complex backend configurations, or deep infrastructure control.

Amplify shines for solo developers and small teams who want to ship fast and abstract away AWS complexities.

Speaking of beginner cloud-friendly… Keep in mind that you won’t really learn cloud infrastructure deeply if that's your goal. Amplify does that work for you, so that you might miss out on that hands-on experience.

I also found its documentation a bit challenging at first (not surprising if you’ve used AWS docs before!). Having a mentor can really help when you hit confusing points.

💸 Pricing

If you’re testing a new idea like a blog or an MVP, you’ll likely stay within AWS Free Tier's $100 credits for new accounts, which is what I used for my blog. You get 6 months to experiment, and the credit balance automatically applies to your bills once you move to a paid plan.

The Amplify Pricing page includes examples, like a startup with five developers committing twice a day and 300 daily users, costing about $8.08/month. Pretty great for what you get!

🎉 Wrapping up

With just a few clicks, I made my dream come true and launched suzanamelo.com — a home for my articles on cloud, software development, career change, and soft skills.

I loved the whole experience. Using Hugo + AWS Amplify made everything so much easier than I expected. I got my project up and running super fast, with no time to feel overwhelmed.

Of course, it doesn’t replace the deeper learning that comes from configuring every single service and building your own infrastructure from scratch (and I highly recommend doing that at least once if you want to really understand what’s happening under the hood).

But if your goal is to test ideas, experiment, or launch an MVP, I’d absolutely use Amplify Hosting again, and I totally recommend a bit of ClickOps for these cases. It’s the perfect combo for moving fast and seeing results right away.

I’d love to hear your feedback, ideas, or suggestions for new topics. Have you tried hosting something on Amplify? Let me know. I’m always curious to hear other builders’ stories.

I hope this article helps you finally get that side project out of your “someday” folder and into the world. 💫

📝 Resources

Article - “Take the Leap! 10 Steps to Building Your Personal Blog With AWS + Hugo.” - Allen Helton
AWS Amplify - Host a Static Website
AWS Amplify - Hosting
Adding a custom domain managed by Amazon Route 53
AWS Amplify - Add a custom domain managed by a third-party DNS provider
AWS Amplify - Pricing
AWS - Free Tier
AWS - Route 53
Hugo - Themes
Hugo - Getting Started
Hugo - Quick Start
Hugo - Basic Usage (CLI)
Hugo - Host on AWS Amplify

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

The re:Invent Queens’ Guide: Tips You Should Know Before Landing in Vegas

Suzana Melo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:40:12 +0000

If you’re attending AWS re:Invent for the first time, get ready, and I mean really ready. The event’s massive agenda includes over 1,000 technical sessions, hands-on training, and more than 60,000 attendees. Learning from veterans’ experiences will definitely enhance your week and help you avoid rookie mistakes that could impact your best moments.

Besides finding tips about choosing and scheduling sessions effectively or navigating between venues, most re:Invent guides also remind you to stay hydrated and wear comfortable shoes. Seriously, don’t ignore this one!

Vegas is very dry, and keeping a bottle of water with you is essential. You’ll spend five full days walking between six hotel venues — The Venetian, Wynn, Caesar’s Forum, Encore, MGM Grand, and Mandalay Bay — easily clocking in 12+ hours a day on your feet. Trust me, your feet will thank you for your wise shoe choice.

However, there are a few extra steps you can take to make your experience even better, especially as a woman. Most guides are written by our male allies, but let’s be honest: they don’t always cover our kind of essentials. So here are a few “re:Invent Queens” tips from women who’ve been there and learned what’s really worth packing.

🎒 Packing light

Julia Furst Morgado, an AWS Hero living in the US, reminded us that Vegas can get a bit chilly around this time of year. So, along with comfortable shoes, pack a warm yet lightweight jacket. Julia suggests packing smart: bring versatile items you can mix and match from sessions to parties, and, importantly, pack light. You’ll be walking around all day, carrying your belongings.

“Many times you won’t have time to go back to the hotel before evening events, so it’s better to be prepared and travel light if that happens,” Julia says.

Monica Colangelo, AWS Hero from Italy, shares advice that’s especially relevant for women: practical over pretty!

“People go to these events in comfortable clothes, so don’t stress about looking fancy — nobody cares.”

Comfort is your best friend when you’re walking all day, hopping between sessions, and attending evening events. She also suggests saving luggage space for all the swag you’ll collect (and there’s a lot of it!). Monica packs a foldable bag in her suitcase to use as an extra carry-on for the trip back home.

🛍️ Where to buy

The desert air can be brutal. Monica mentioned that some Strip hotels rent humidifiers, but they’re pricey.

“A better option: buy a cheap one on Amazon and have it shipped directly to your hotel. Just check their package policy first, and leave it behind when you check out!”

For affordable snacks, toiletries, and bottled water, Monica recommends the Walgreens between The Venetian and The Palazzo, which is open 24/7 and far cheaper than hotel shops.

👟 More Practical Wisdom from the Road

Thembile Martis, Community Manager at AWS, has traveled to re:Invent from both South Africa and the Netherlands, and she’s learned a thing or two along the way. Her tips are a perfect blend of practicality and experience:

Choose shoes that allow your feet to stretch. After hours of walking between venues, your feet will swell.
Opt for long socks, not ankle ones. The constant walking can rub your ankle raw, so give your feet extra protection.
Keep a refillable water bottle. You’ll find water stations everywhere—use them and stay hydrated.
Pace yourself at parties. “Don’t go big on day one,” she says. You’ve got a whole week ahead with back-to-back sessions and evening events.
Carry small, energy-boosting snacks. Energy bars, crackers, or fruit roll-ups can save the day between sessions. Thembile always keeps a few in her purse.
Pack a small sling bag for party nights. Backpacks aren’t allowed, and a tiny crossbody bag is perfect for your phone, lip balm, and hotel key.

🗓️ Plan Smart, Save Battery

Amelia Hough-Ross, an AWS Community Builder in the US who has attended at least eight re:Invents, shared a genius tip for keeping your schedule under control, and your phone alive:

“Make a paper copy of your schedule with all your session times and locations. It’s so much easier to access than constantly checking your phone, and it saved me so much battery life. I also include the after-parties I’m registered for, so I can plan where I need to be in real time with people.”

This simple but brilliant habit can make a huge difference in keeping your days organized and stress-free while everyone else is frantically scrolling through their phones.

💡 My tip on top of that? A lightweight but good powerbank can help a lot!

💋 Skincare & Self-Care Must-Haves

After long days of walking, networking, and Vegas’ desert climate, your body will need a little extra care, and that’s where these next tips from our re:Invent Queens come in.

Paloma Lataliza, AWS Hero from Brazil, learned the hard way how harsh the dryness can be. Her survival kit to Las Vegas includes:

Lip balm with SPF
Moisturizer and sunscreen
Saline nasal spray

“They’ll be your best friends! The saline spray helped with my dry nose, and I also suffered from sunburn on my lips and skin. Moisturizer, sunscreen, and lip balm can prevent painful cracks and sunburn.”

Linda Mohamed, AWS Hero from Austria, reinforces the previous tips and adds that long days of sessions followed by parties can be exhausting. Her go-to trick for travelling to AWS re:Invent from Vienna?

“I always pack a few sheet masks. A 15-minute break with one, and I start the day looking fresh. It does miracles!”

She also has a fun suggestion for event organizers:

“Last year, Suzana and I hosted a Women in Tech meetup next to a stand offering haircuts for men. How about a space for women to get their nails done or blow-dry their hair for the event?”, asks Linda.

💄 My Personal Learnings

Speaking of hair… I started doing it in New Zealand and still do in Sweden, especially when going around in Europe: I never travel without a travel-size dry shampoo. This one’s for anyone whose hair isn’t “wash-and-go” (like mine!).

After washing, I usually blow-dry it (which is challenging when you have a packed agenda like re:Invent). Dry shampoo keeps it looking clean and fresh, and a satin sleep cap gives it an extra hand.

A facial moisturizer with SPF is a must, as I learned the hard way how perimenopause plus desert air can be a tough combo. If you relate, invest in a hydrating serum and a fast-absorbing, non-greasy hand cream, preferably easy to throw in your bag and carry with you.

And if you are a lipstick addict like me, choose moisturizing formulas so your lips stay hydrated while looking great. Your face (and lips) will thank you!

Finally, based on my own experience, don’t forget to pack your meds and eyedrops, especially if you have allergies or lactose intolerance like I do.

💡 Tips from an Expert

Farrah Campbell, Head of Modern Compute Community at AWS in the US, is heading to her ninth re:Invent, and she confirms: the dryness in Vegas is real.

She brings or rents a humidifier and uses it religiously every night, along with eye patches and face masks.

“Otherwise, my skin starts cracking by the second day,” she says.

For lips, she warns against ChapStick or lip gloss.

“Vaseline or beeswax is much better for preventing moisture loss.”

Farrah also swears by daily Vitamin C — not just for immunity, but for your skin — and always packs a ton of Throat Coat lozenges, tea bags, and even a mini kettle.

“I can barely speak by Wednesday, my voice is almost gone, and those are lifesavers.”

She recommends taking notes on your phone or in a small notebook instead of carrying a laptop when it’s not needed:

“I have one notebook for Summits, one for Community Days, and one for re:Invent. Laptops get heavy, and there’s soooo much walking.”

And one more gem:

“Bring an extra pair of shoes and change halfway through the day is a total game-changer. Oh, and don’t forget band-aids (bandage)!”

✨ Final Thoughts from a veteran

Farrah’s biggest advice? Don’t rush through re:Invent. Enjoy it.

“Take in the smiles, laughter, and celebrations. Meet the people you follow online and read the content. Find a friend. AWS re:Invent can be daunting, lonely, and overwhelming, but sharing it with someone makes all the difference.”

Her closing thought perfectly captures the spirit of the event:

“Be open to meeting new people. It’s easy to stay in our comfort circles, but re:Invent is the perfect place to expand your network globally. The first time I realized I had friends all over the world was after my 4th re:Invent.”

👯 Wrapping Up

These are a few lessons learned by amazing women who’ve attended re:Invent before, shared to make your experience easier and more enjoyable.

Do you have other tips to add to this list? Drop them in the comments. I’d love to hear them and keep this list growing! 🌟

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

How the AWS All Builders Welcome Grant Changed My Life Forever And Why You Should Apply

Suzana Melo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:11:15 +0000

The application for the AWS All Builders Welcome (ABW) Grant usually opens around June, and it's about to open again this year! 🎉

If you have less than five years of experience in the Cloud field, you seriously can’t miss this opportunity.

I’ll never get tired of saying this: AWS re:Invent is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There’s no way to fully capture the magnitude of it in words. You simply have to live it.

As an AWS User Group Leader and Community Builder, I’d heard all the hype about re:Invent. But let’s be honest: as exciting as it all sounded, it felt like a beautiful but unreachable dream to my junior-developer bank account.

As an immigrant woman who transitioned into software development after 40, with no previous tech background, I was and still am taking my first steps in the cloud space. I was passionate about helping others, but still struggling to find my place in the tech industry. AWS re:Invent? That felt totally out of reach, especially financially.

That is, until the ABW Grant opened for the 2024 intake.✨

Why I Applied And Why You Should Too

When applications opened in June 2024, I started receiving messages from some of my dearest AWS Community Builders and Heroes, encouraging me to apply not only for my work in tech but also for my efforts to empower women, mentor juniors, and support underrepresented groups. 💕

So I did my homework and checked the eligibility checklist:

✅ Be at least 21 years old.

✅ Be within the first 5 years of your tech career.

✅ Have faced barriers or disadvantages while pursuing opportunities in the technology industry or advancing your technology career, and your participation in this program would help you overcome these challenges.

✅ Have not accepted an ABW Grant for re:Invent before.

✅ Be able to travel to Las Vegas. The program is open worldwide; however, if you are applying for the grant outside the United States and require a visa to travel, you must secure your visa before applying.

The best part? The ABW Grant supports early-career professionals like me. You don't need any AWS certification or industry experience. Although I already had my Cloud Practitioner certification, it wasn’t mandatory.

Once I realized I ticked every box, I thought… why not?

The dream turned into hope. And on September 19, that hope became real. When I got the acceptance email, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. I needed a few minutes just to believe it was really happening.

Why was I so excited about it? What the Grant Covers 💸

Woohoo! I was about to attend the world's largest cloud event, with all my expenses covered by this incredible program!

The All Builders Welcome Grant removes the financial barriers to AWS re:Invent. It includes:

🌟 A full re:Invent conference pass

✈️ Flights to Las Vegas, from anywhere in the world

🏨 5 nights of hotel accommodation

☕️ Access to an exclusive grantee lounge

🪑 Reserved seating for keynotes

🎉 Special grantee-only events

🎁 Unique swags

🚕 Airport transportation (Uber support included)

And yes, it was as amazing as it sounds. However, even more impactful than the financial support was the experience itself. The part that truly changed my life forever.

The Real Game-Changer: Mentoring 💡

Supporting others' growth is my passion, so imagine my joy when I discovered that the ABW Grant program includes mentoring tracks designed specifically for grantees.

Alongside the massive re:Invent agenda (with hundreds of sessions), the grant offered tailored mentoring sessions on everything from technical skills to community building.

Unfortunately, some mentoring sessions overlapped with my other commitments (I was also mentoring, being mentored, and attending training during the event), but I highly recommend taking full advantage of this part of the grant. It’s gold.

Building Skills 👩💻

AWS re:Invent features over 1,000 technical sessions, games, and training options for all skill levels and interests. There's something for anyone.

My agenda was also full of lovely meetings and trainings as an AWS User Group leader and AWS Community Builder. I left re: Invent bursting with new ideas and practical tools.

I especially loved sessions on serverless and Amplify, which I’ve already put into practice in personal projects.

The Power of Networking 🤝

The AWB Grant gave me the opportunity to connect with builders from all over the world.

I finally met many AWS Heroes, User Group leaders, and Community Builders I’d only known online. These connections turned into mentorships, collaborations, and inspiration that I’ve brought back to my own community across Europe, the APAC region, and the Americas.

After re:Invent, I even became one of the organizers of the AWS Women’s User Group Sweden, alongside three other incredible community builders, Martina Della Corte, Jagoda Cubrilo and Caroline Cah.

Friends for Life ❤️

Let’s be real: community is everything!

Thanks to the ABW Grant, I met friends who now inspire me every day. Some were people I’d known virtually for years, others I met for the first time in Las Vegas. But each of them left a permanent mark on my journey.

Unforgettable Moments 💫

There were so many magical highlights at re:Invent, and I’m forever grateful for the ABW Grant (thanks, Norma Stevens and team 🥹) for those special moments. Here are just a few I’ll treasure forever:

🌟 Organized a Women In Tech pre-re:Invent Bus Trip, in partnership with my beloved AWS Hero Paloma Lataliza. We took a bus trip for women in the AWS Community with a beautiful lunch, thanks to María Encinar, Nelly Andrade, Carol Milanez, and Jason Dunn.

🔥 Hosted the Women in Tech Fireside Chat and Meetup alongside the amazing AWS Hero Linda Mohamed. It marked the beginning of many collaborations and Women in Tech workshops across Europe.

🎤 Was interviewed by another inspirational idol, Linda Haviv, and I'm still having highlights released on AWS Developers, like this one.

🏆 Received an AWS EMEA Community Award from Thembile Martis and Gunnar Grosch for my work advocating for women in tech and inclusion.

If you're curious about what AWS re:Invent 2024 was like for me, I shared my thoughts in this post and the article "Reflections on AWS re:Invent 2024: Why You Don’t Need to Be Senior to Make a Difference in Tech.

Helpful Resources to Craft Your Application 📝

If you’re fired up and ready to apply, great! But trust me, you’ll want to put in the time to craft a stellar application. Here are a few articles that can help you stand out from the crowd.

🔹 Maximize Your Chances: Your Guide to the AWS All Builders Welcome Grant by Maria Alexandra Radu – A step-by-step guide to help your application shine.

🔹 All Builders Welcome Grant: The Complete Guide (No Filters) by Francisco Javier Escobar Garcia – What your day at re:Invent could look like and how to make the most of it.

🔹 How to Apply for the AWS All Builders Welcome Grant - Tips by Dale Orders to make your responses truly stand out for re:Invent and re:Inforce.

🔹 The AWS re:Invent Experience as an ABW Grant Recipient by Karina Alvarado – A beautiful, heartfelt perspective that brought tears to my eyes.

✨ My final advice? ✨

Apply!

Don’t wait until you feel ready, because let’s be honest, we rarely ever do. Impostor syndrome is real, and I hesitated more than once before submitting my application.

You’ll never know unless you try.

That said, don’t go in blind. Prepare as much as you can. There are tons of resources, articles like the ones above, and amazing AWS community members out there offering the mentoring and guidance you need to craft a strong, thoughtful application.

And if it doesn’t happen this year? That’s okay. You’ll be better prepared next time because learning is never a waste of time.

The ABW Grant gave me more than a ticket to an event. It gave me knowledge, community, confidence, and career support that I’ll never forget.

If you're eligible, please don’t let this opportunity pass you by, and I hope to see you at AWS re:Invent! 🚀☁️❤️

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

How to get started with AWS (for absolute beginners)

Suzana Melo — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 21:31:34 +0000

Who hasn’t felt a stomach full of butterflies before diving into something completely new? 🦋
That was me when I realized I needed to learn about Cloud Computing to excel in my career, without a clue where to start.

If you're in the same boat, an absolute beginner like I was when I first started, I strongly recommend taking a quick detour to this article first: Cloud Computing: What it is and why should tech beginners learn it?. It’ll give you some background on why Cloud Computing is worth your time.

Back already? Or just eager to jump in? Awesome! Grab a seat, fasten your seatbelt, and let’s fly into the Cloud! ⛅️

How to get started? 🤔

With so many paths to the Cloud, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. But trust me, it doesn’t have to be. The first lesson I learned through my learning journey, and that I recommend to you, is not to skip steps. Building a solid foundation will give you the base you need to go higher.

As an absolute beginner, I lacked background and struggled to understand key definitions, products, and services. It was when the Cloud Essentials course on the AWS Skill Builder platform came in handy. 🥰

AWS Skill Builder ⚒️

AWS Skill Builder is part of AWS Training and Certification, offering a range of courses across various cloud specialties. While many labs and trainings are accessible by paying a monthly subscription of $29 USD, thankfully, the Cloud Foundations resources are completely free. 🙌🏻

To sign in and access the AWS Skill Builder resources, it is recommended by AWS that you create an AWS Builder ID, a free AWS personal profile that allows access to specific tools and services. You can read more about this credential here.

Once signed in to the AWS Skill Build, you can explore courses tailored to different learning pathways: Cloud Role, Product Domain, Certification preparation exams, and many more. But for now, let’s focus only on the Cloud Essentials Badge—your starting point.

Cloud Essentials Badge 🥇

Cloud Essentials Badge package includes five free, online, and self-paced courses covering foundational Cloud knowledge:

Job Roles in the Cloud
AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
Getting Started with Cloud Acquisition
AWS Billing and Cost Management
AWS Foundations: Getting Started with AWS Cloud Essentials

The AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials module, for example, provides an easy-to-digest introduction to Cloud infrastructure and services, using a coffee shop analogy to explain key concepts. The analogies between coffee shop operations and AWS services were a life-changing experience for me in understanding the new content.

AWS Billing and Cost Management is another crucial module that includes all the essential concepts needed to understand how AWS pricing works, including budgeting, cost optimization, and payment tools.

The package in the Cloud Essentials Badge also includes an assessment to earn the Cloud Essentials Badge, which you can proudly display on LinkedIn or your CV. 🏅

AWS Cloud Quest 🎮

Now that you have all the theory that you need, why not practice with real case scenarios and problems to solve?

AWS Cloud Quest is a 3D role-playing game to help you build practical AWS Cloud skills in an interactive and fun way. AWS Cloud Quest offers different tracks tailored for a variety of Cloud roles, but for beginners, start with the Cloud Practitioner role. The goal is to solve real-life Cloud challenges and gain hands-on experience while exploring AWS services.

Best part? It’s free and rewards you with another badge once you've completed all role assignments. One more achievement for your CV! 🔥

AWS Cloud Certification 👩🏻‍💻

By this stage, you’ll be on your way to your first AWS Cloud Certification, the AWS Cloud Practitioner. This cert validates your foundational Cloud knowledge and opens doors for deeper learning in specialized AWS domains.

📌 Want to know how I prepared for my first Cloud certification?
I shared my study tips and experience in this article: How I Prepared for the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate.

📌 In my GitHub repository, you can find more resources to start your journey in this list: Free AWS training courses.

Summary 📝

After reading this article, I hope there is no longer any reason to feel your stomach full of butterflies about starting your Cloud journey! 🦋

Now you know you can learn AWS for free and online from wherever you are, study at your own pace, and earn valuable badges along the way. Plus, you’ll build a solid foundation for your first AWS certification! ✨

Happy learning and to infinity and beyond! ❤️☁️🚀

Resources:

AWS Skill Builder
Cloud Essentials - Knowledge Badge Readiness Path
AWS Cloud Quest
Free AWS training courses.

Cloud Computing: What it is and why tech beginners should learn it?

How I Prepared for the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

Upskill and Accelerate Your Career by Volunteering

Suzana Melo — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 08:46:47 +0000

When you think of volunteering, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? 🤔

Many people think volunteering is tough, that they lack the knowledge, or that they just don’t have enough time. But here’s the thing: those are all myths. You can volunteer your time to support others in many different ways, and trust me, you have more than enough knowledge to do so. ✨

Let’s talk about something we all wish we had more of: time. ⏳

How often have you found yourself scrolling on social media or watching a TV show, only to realize that time flew by? And I am not saying you shouldn’t do it. Taking time for ourselves is essential. Go for a walk, read a book, watch a good movie, or why not? Do nothing at all. However, if you consider how much time you spend on things that aren’t super meaningful, you may find two or three hours a week to volunteer for something that matters to a lot of people.

Volunteering isn’t new to me. I had loved this since I was a teenager when I helped up a non-profit organization by making soup for homeless people and pitching in wherever needed. After changing careers to the technology field after my 40s - without any tech background -I developed a real appreciation for those who stopped to help me along the way. I needed and still need help—a lot! So, now, I try to return the favor. Ah, here is an interesting detail: I am still a beginner.

When I started helping other beginners, especially women like me with no tech background, I realized that you don’t need to be an expert to start sharing what you know. Each of us learns differently, and there’s always someone who could use your insights and guidance.

📍 If you want to upskill and boost your growth, volunteering can be an incredible way to do it. I will give my 2 cents by listing three reasons to get started:

1 - Build Your Technical Skills 👩🏻‍💻
Volunteering to teach or mentor forces you to brush up on your own knowledge. You often need to review concepts you didn’t remember or learn something new as you prepare content, answers, or explanations. Researching and/or organizing information can deepen your understanding of a topic.
As I mentioned, you don’t need to be a guru. Just by sharing what you know, you’re helping someone else succeed on their journey. It’s not about giving solutions or walking the path for them, but about facilitating their learning process.

2 - Strengthen Your People Skills 🫶🏻
People skills are crucial, and like any skills, they can be learned and developed. I can’t think of a better way to build your skills than volunteering to teach or mentor people.
It will develop your ability to express your ideas and explain technical content in a way that’s easy to grasp. Communication skills are gold, whether you are being interviewed, collaborating in teams, discussing projects, or presenting solutions.

3 - Experience Personal Growth 🤩
Volunteering exposes you to diverse life stories and challenges. You get to hear about others' struggles, failures, and successes, which can be incredibly inspiring. This exposure builds empathy, patience, resilience, and humility—qualities that enrich both your personal and professional life and make a difference wherever you go. We are all humans, after all.

🙋🏻‍♀️ Interested in volunteering? Here’s where you can start:

Mentoring 💻

If you are still a student, chances are there is some mentoring program in your school or university. Check out local Meetup groups in areas that interest you. There, you can make connections to offer mentoring and ask around about other mentoring opportunities for you to join. You can also post on LinkedIn to let others know you’re open to mentoring.
Creating a Calendly account or using another scheduling platform is a valuable tool for managing your available time for mentoring.

Teaching 👩🏻‍🏫

Nonprofits are wonderful places to volunteer and help others develop new skills. Volunteers are usually very welcome. Check your city council’s website or simply Google nonprofit opportunities in your area. Once you’ve decided to volunteer, there’s nothing stopping you from finding the perfect fit.

Tech community and content creation 📝

Tech meetups are excellent for networking, learning, and sharing knowledge. You can organize knowledge-sharing events or create content like talks and articles to volunteer your time and help others while you build confidence and technical knowledge as a bonus prize.

💡 I recommend starting from scratch—research, write, and organize your thoughts. Still, AI has infinite tools to support your content creation, so there is no shame in using it to review and refine your work. 🤖

These are just a few examples of how you can volunteer, but there are many other ways to give your time to help others. By doing so, you’re also fast-tracking your own growth.
If you have other ideas for volunteering, share them in the comments. That way, you’re already starting to volunteer your time by helping others.
For those who have followed me in this article until the end, what are you waiting for to start? ❤️

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

Cloud Computing: What it is and why tech beginners should learn it?

Suzana Melo — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:40:48 +0000

Cloud is everywhere, and we often do not even notice it, but it's part of our lives, whether we are aware of it or not.
Clearly, I'm not talking about an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of tiny liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body.

So, what is the Cloud?

Imagine you are working on some critical files on your computer when a meteor breaks your window and smashes your laptop!
Okay, maybe a meteor is too much, so let's change that to a golf ball.
I sincerely hope that at this moment, you can think: "At least all my documents, photos, and files are stored in the Cloud". Maybe something like Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud. Am I right?
If my wishes come true, it means your stuff is saved in servers in the Cloud instead of your computer.
When you upload your documents to tools like Google Drive or Dropbox, it is like having a hard drive that you can access anytime, even when connected to the Internet, and perform a backup of your files if something happens to your device, such as an unexpected meteor or a golf ball from the sky.
Cloud refers to servers accessed over the Internet and other stuff, such as the software and databases that run on those servers.

Before the Cloud

Having things running in the Cloud sounds very handy, huh? I can't imagine a world without tools like email and Google Drive. But can you imagine how the world was before the Cloud?
Companies must have a physical space to host their servers on-premises, meaning they need to spend money to ensure they are secured and powered up, and have teams to care about the hardware and software.
Well, there are situations nowadays when on-premises is the best solution for some companies. Still, when this is the case, they need to pay for the costs of the whole structure and are stuck with all of that, even when not using them.
Accessing these shared resources in the Cloud without needing a physical structure opened the doors and created new possibilities for many small businesses. Something almost impossible to happen in the past.

Back in time for a bit

The concept of sharing resources started in 1950 when multiple users could access the same data storage layer and CPU power using large-scale mainframes with high-volume processing power.

In 1970, the Virtual Machine (VM) era started with mainframes having multiple virtual systems, or compute environments, on a single physical node/hardware. Using a VM, a user could host guest operating systems, such as Windows or Linux, that behaved like they had their own memory, CPU, and hard drives, even though these were shared resources.

The cherry on top of the VMs was the hypervisor, also known as a virtual machine monitor or VMM. You can think of it as an orchestra conductor, a software that creates and runs virtual machines (VMs) and allows each host computer to support multiple guest VMs by virtually sharing its resources, such as memory and processing.

In 1991, the world started to change significantly with the creation of the World Wide Web, also known as the Web, WWW, or W3. Thanks to the WWW, users can now access public websites or pages on their local computers and other devices through the Internet. It was only a matter of time before VM concepts could also be accessed virtually.

Servers in the Cloud

It didn't take too long for some companies to realize they could make Cloud benefits accessible to users who didn't have an abundance of physical servers.

In 2006, Amazon Web Services launched the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), making accessible to anyone a service that lets you run virtual servers in the Cloud with the bonus of having a secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload.

By using an EC2, you can access your resources virtually at any time. You can choose the operating system (Windows, Linux, IOS) you want and what you want to run on your server (internal business applications, web apps, and databases). You can also define the size and configure them to scale up and down depending on your demand. You control the network and security (public or private access), who can access what, and the type (Memory, Storage, etc.).

Soon after, other companies launched their Cloud services, such as Google Compute Engine, Azure Virtual Machines, Elastic Compute Service (ECS), etc. Since then, users can run and control the configuration of their own servers from anywhere without needing to buy and maintain a physical data center.

Cloud Computing definition

Now that we have a better understanding of how it all started, let's review some key definitions of cloud computing to see how they become more clear.

Wikipedia - Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large Clouds often have functions distributed over multiple locations, each of which is a data center.

AWS - Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from a Cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS).

NIST - Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

Why Cloud Computing?

Without Cloud Computing, businesses need to pay for servers and hardware in advance and start with more capacity than they need, wasting money. If the demand grows too fast, and they don't cope accordingly, they can suffer performance issues or failures. I even mentioned all the costs associated with managing facilities, hardware, and infrastructure.

Cloud Computing services allow you to choose the deployment model that best suits your business needs. There are different ways to set up your Cloud environment depending on your goals.
Public Clouds are open to anyone and easy to access from anywhere online — great for scalability and cost efficiency.
Private Clouds, on the other hand, give you full control over your resources in a dedicated environment, perfect for businesses with strict security or compliance needs.
Some companies go for a Hybrid Cloud, mixing the best of both worlds — keeping sensitive data on-premises while still enjoying the flexibility of the public Cloud.
And finally, there’s the Community Cloud, where organizations with similar interests or requirements, like universities or government agencies, share resources in a secure space.

One thing all of them must have in common: Be self-service and on-demand. You pay only for what you use and use only what you need.

I know there is a lot of information to cover, but now we can better understand how versatile, accessible, and easy to adopt Cloud Computing is. Cloud technology's agility and flexibility enable new ways of working, operating, and doing business.

Growth📈

For these and many more reasons, Cloud Computing is irreversible and will continue to grow.

According to research published on websites such as CloudZero, Zippia, and Earthweb, 94% of all companies worldwide utilize cloud computing in their operations.
This high level of adoption is not a surprise. With Cloud Computing, resources are available in minutes, meaning companies can perform, scale, and respond to new market developments much more rapidly.
The impact is also financial.
Another survey by Deloitte showed that small and medium businesses that adopted Cloud computing made 21% more profit and grew 26% faster. Accenture revealed that moving workloads to the public Cloud led to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings of 30-40%.
Statistics published by Spacelift show that by 2026, the Cloud Computing market is forecast to be worth $947.3 billion.

Cloud Computing careers

The high level of Cloud Computing adoption also resulted in many Cloud-related jobs necessary to implement and maintain all those services working. Even though your job may not be specifically cloud-related, if you work for a company that has adopted cloud computing services, chances are you will have some contact with that.
A full-stack developer working in a small start-up will likely handle some API Gateways and write some AWS Lambda functions as I needed to do (without previous knowledge about the Cloud).
There are also other Cloud Computing roles I even heard about before starting to learn the Cloud, such as Cloud Consultant, Cloud Engineer, Cloud Support Engineer, Solutions Architect, and so on.

The great news is the Cloud is for everyone!
You don't need to wait to be a tech expert to start learning about the Cloud. Building a solid base and perhaps adding a foundational certification is a great way to begin upskilling and preparing yourself for the market. It can help you gain a general understanding of Cloud Computing before you decide which area to pursue.

Summary 📝

Now, you know a bit more about what Cloud Computing is, how it started, and the advantages of adopting this powerful technology. The flexibility, versatility, security, and cost savings are just a few of the benefits that make Cloud Computing so attractive to a diverse range of businesses, and this is why this technology is irreversible.

📌 Ready to take your first steps into this exciting area?
Check out my article How to get started with AWS (for absolute beginners).

📌 Want to know how I prepared for my first Cloud certification?
I shared my study tips and experience in this article: How I Prepared for the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate.

📌 In my GitHub repository, you can find more resources to start your journey in this list: Free AWS training courses.

Feedback and suggestions are always welcome. ❤️

Resources:

AWS - Cloud Computing
National Institute of Standards and Technology - NIST
AWS - EC2
Wikipedia - Cloud Computing
Guru99 - Cloud Computing
Cloudflare - Cloud Computing
Cloudzero - Statistics
Zippia - Statistics
Spacelift - Statistics

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

The challenge of “start” in Tech

Suzana Melo — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 22:50:19 +0000

Still buzzing about the fantastic discussion “Beyond the Code: Essential Skills for Success in Software Development”, I was invited to participate at the Dev Day Aotearoa 2023 conference a week ago.

Incidentally, the message delivered, mainly to graduates and junior developers, was not so different from my speech at the Migrants in Tech meetup event last month. Both talks focused on a central point that both audiences are handling at that moment of their lives: the challenge of the “start”.

The start phase is always challenging, especially as it is usually followed by uncertainty. It can be a new career, a new job, a new project, a new activity or a new relationship.
I moved to New Zealand in 2014, and since then, I had many significant “starts”. Start learning English. Start cleaning different houses with different products than in my hometown. Start driving a van and deliver food on the streets of a new city. Start operating a checkout in a supermarket. Start learning a programming language with no tech background.

Each time was as hard as any other start, but I also accumulated learnings to help me in the next one.
I learned that I will never be 100% prepared for a new start, but I also learned to be comfortable with that.

Here are some of the leanings that helped me to start a new career as a software developer:

Fundamentals are crucial - Build your foundations, prepare yourself and anticipate steps and knowledge as much as possible. It helps to handle uncertainty and build on top of what you already know.
However, it’s important to remember that no one knows everything, nor do you need to - Be comfortable with that.
Practice, practice, practice - Practice leads to perfection, but be kind to yourself. If you get only 1% better each day, you will be 365% better in one year.
Find your genius zone to shine and stand out of the crowd - Which skill, area or knowledge are you most comfortable with? There are many ways to show your work and value, as no “one size fits all” exists. You can build projects and link them to your profile, contribute to open-source projects, or mentor others (there is always someone who knows less than you and needs your insights). You can write articles about your projects, learnings or research or, if you can, discuss or give talks about them in meetups. Tell it to your network, and post it on LinkedIn and other channels.
Increase network - I already mentioned meetups, but I’m also including any other events you can make: conferences, workshops, webinars and job fairs. Use the opportunity provided by those events to connect with people, in person and online, and share what you are doing to them.
Improve your communication skills - Practise asking questions and clearly explaining your ideas, challenges, and points of view (Don’t forget that people don't read minds). A great way to achieve it is to write down what you want to say and read it to yourself first. Don’t forget to ask for feedback and suggestions on where to improve next time.
Have I said, "Ask questions"? - Curiosity and willingness to learn are crucial for growth. Be open-minded, and don’t hesitate to ask questions when necessary. It is likely that someone else already struggled in the past with the same problem you are struggling with now and already knows the answer that you spent hours looking for.
Don’t undervalue your previous experience - They matter and can help you excel in your next job. All kinds of knowledge are valuable and transferable, especially soft skills. I prefer to call them “Human Skills” as, at the end of the day, we all are humans relating with each other in teams, groups or families.
Compare yourself with you yesterday, not with others today - Take the time to look back and appreciate your growth because it is something to be proud of.

I'm an immigrant woman who moved countries, learned a new language, pursued a career in tech after my 40s and restarted many times. Learning software development is still hard, and I fight against impostor syndrome daily, but as I mentioned, there is always someone who knows less than you and needs your insights, and I'm sharing my learnings.

I can't wait to hear yours! ❤️

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

Tracking events effectively in Web Browsers with Mini Digital

Suzana Melo — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 07:31:22 +0000

Knowing your user's behaviour is life-changing for your product. It will give you insights to empower your product team to develop better solutions for your customers bringing benefits such as increasing fidelity and engagement and attracting new users.

Mini Digital comes into the market by offering a lightweight and privacy-focused library for collecting event data for product analytics from your entire stack: websites, web apps, mobile, backend services and decentralised apps, including sub-domains.

All in one solution. Bingo!

However, a tool is useless if you don’t know how to use it correctly.

Knowing how to track your data effectively is crucial for gaining the insights you need to plan and improve your products or marketing strategy.

This article will cover how to effectively integrate Mini Digital into your web browser using the SDK for accurate and insightful product tracking and what places you need to be in mind in your codebase to send your event data properly and achieve the desired outcomes.

Onboarding 📝

For this article, let’s assume that the onboarding process has already happened with Mini Digital. This means you already have an account, and the Mini Digital team have set their configurations to receive the events from your domain and subdomains.

If you are reading this article in the future, Mini Digital App will already be available, and the onboarding will be straightforward. Using the app, you can sign in, create your account and quickly set up your domains and subdomains.

The Library 📚

Mini Digital SDK is an open-source library built using TypeScript and the ESM module format, and it compiles to the ES2022 target. You can use it in Node.js or browser-based TypeScript/JavaScript projects (including frameworks like React or Vue). Backwards CommonJS compatibility is provided by the library.

Installation and use 💻

Based on the Mini Digital Docs, there are two main ways to track an event using Mini Digital and send your event payload to the Mini Digital API endpoint: using the SDK or submitting the raw payload with the required fields from the schema to the Mini Digital endpoint by HTTP request. I will cover this last option in another article, but you can find all information you need in the docs.

First, you must install the SDK using a package manager (either npm or yarn). To do that, run the following:

npm install @wunderbar-network/mini-digital-sdk

yarn add @wunderbar-network/mini-digital-sdk

The next step is to import the SDK to your project, destructuring the AnalyticsEvent type and EventTrackingService module.

If installed via a package manager, you can import it as so (TypeScript/ESM syntax):

import { type AnalyticsEvent, EventTrackingService } from "@wunderbar-network/mini-digital-sdk";

If referencing a file (either from the CDN or locally), you can import it as per the example below:

import { type AnalyticsEvent, EventTrackingService } from "../lib/mini-digital-sdk.v1.3.esm.js";

Now that you have the SDK ready to go, this is the moment to declare your events for tracking.

Declare and send events 📤

Once your initial set-up is done, it is time to think about what you want to track and, most importantly, where you will declare and send events to track the user behaviour you need.

The Analytics Event for the Mini Digital API Server expects a schema containing fields with properties to be supplied by the SDK consumer.

Mini Digital SDK provides pre-defined core schemas designed to keep your data consistent. Some are mandatory to keep the minimum information necessary for accurate tracking. There are also options for you to customise the data you want to send.

You can find more about Mini Digital Core Schema Properties here.

I will cover all the aspects and properties of the schema in the upcoming articles. In this article, let’s focus on the minimum mandatory fields you must fulfil, especially the use cases and best places for each event category in your codebase.

Mandatory properties ✅

const event: AnalyticsEvent = {
  eventName: "home_page_viewed",
  eventCategory: "screen_view_event",
  eventSource: "Website.MiniDigital.Router",
  entityType: "home_page",
  action: "viewed",
  anonymousUser: true,
};

eventName

This is crucial information for you to send when tracking an event. This property is a string that refers to the event name you are tracking, e.g., account_created, crown_minted, screen_viewed.

Note: Mini Digital Docs recommends you define your eventName by using the object+action framework, where the object is the system or service that the user interacts with, e.g., button, screen or a data entity (account, image, payment, etc.), and the action is the verb that describes how the user/system interacted with the object, e.g., clicked, created, viewed, etc.

Mini Digital also includes optional properties that cover objects and actions and help you to define your eventName.

entityType - Type of the entity or object this event relates to (e.g. "account", "crown", "IPFS resource", etc.).

action - refers to the action that this event represents in past-tense verbs (e.g. "visited", "created", "minted", etc.).

eventCategory

This property will drive most of our examples in this article. It can be one of the five categories below, and understanding its user cases is fundamental for accurate event tracking:

screen_view_event - It tracks when users navigate to a page/screen.
user_outcome_event - It tracks when a user has completed a significant action in the product (e.g. when a user completes sign-up or uploads a file).
system_outcome_event - It is used when an event happens within the system and is not immediately initialised by the user (e.g. when a scheduled task gets completed or a backend system has performed an action). Note: I will not cover examples of this user case in this article as I’m focusing on web browser integration, but remember that you can use this property to track events when they catch the server side.
interaction_event - It tracks events when users interact with UI elements (e.g., the user clicks a button ou in a link).
content_event - It tracks content that was interacted with (It is designed for more specific media (images, videos) or visual assets (logos, icons) than generic UI elements such as a button or a link - see interaction_event for those use cases).

eventSource

This property refers to the area in the product or source where this event occurred (e.g. "Website.WunderbarNetwork.Router", “AccountSettings”).

Anonymous user - a quick highlight 💡

The cherry on top of Mini Digital is its anonymous user property by default, which significantly minimises your privacy policy and makes many web3 users feel relieved. This subject is so relevant that it deserves its own article, but there is an important aspect to cover here related to the two following properties of the Core Schema that will inform the SDK about the user acting: primaryIdentifier and anonymousUser.

primaryIdentifier and anonymousUser are marked as optional in the AnalyticsEvent interface. However, at least one needs to be supplied.

There is a third property that also plays a vital role in this relationship, which is trackingId.

To understand the relationship between these three properties, let’s follow the behaviour of a user visiting a store website. In the first moment, when the user hits the store's landing page, and this event is tracked, you usually don’t know who the user is. This is when you include the anonymousUser property in your schema and set the field value as true.

Mini Digital SDK generates a trackingId (a random UUID) and makes the primaryIdentifier the same as the trackingId.

Suppose the user performs logging in and gets identified by the system (for example, by providing their username or customer number or after connecting using a wallet). In that case, you may want to replace the anonymousUser with the primaryIdentifier and fill the field with the identifier data. The same trackingId field will be attached to all events before and after that moment and can be used to link the actions performed before and after logging in, so you know that it is the same user all the time along.

Use cases by `eventCategory` 🖊️

Now that you have all the pieces of the game you need, it is time to start to play.

Let’s again follow the journey of a user visiting a store website to understand a bit more about how and where to track your event while developing your integration to the SDK.

screen_view_event

The first action of a user in your product is usually navigating to a landing/homepage page.

An effective way to track when a user hits a screen/page is when the page renders for the first time, like this example below of a website's homepage being mounted in a Vue.js app. You will also want to set eventCategory to screen_view_event.

onMounted(async () => {
  // Define event data for the homepage screen view
  const event: AnalyticsEvent = {
    eventName: "home_page_viewed",
    eventCategory: "screen_view_event",
    eventSource: "Website.MiniDigital.Router",
    entityType: "home_page",
    action: "viewed",
    anonymousUser: true,
  };

  // Send data to track when a user navigates to the homepage
  await EventTrackingService.postEvent(event);
});

interaction_event

It’s common to expect a user to explore a website before deciding to log in. Tracking how the user interacts with the website UI (User Interface) – clicking buttons and links or expanding sections, can provide your product team with helpful insights on how they can best improve the website. Tracking the Login button clicked, in addition to how the user interacted with the website before login, allows the team to have a complete picture of the user journey.

There are so many things your product team can do once armed with those insights. Suppose they notice that more people see the homepage than log in, and then the team creates a motivating fidelity points system. However, product teams can only plan improvement actions if they get the data. Otherwise, it will be only a guess. A dangerous land to walk on!

You can track this event category by sending your data when the user clicks the button and setting your eventCategory to interaction_event.

In my example below, I have a function called handleConnectWallet() to handle an event when the user clicks the button to connect their wallet. If successful, a list of accounts will be displayed, and the user can choose the one they want to use to connect their wallet.

async function handleConnectWallet(): Promise<void> {
    // Define event data for Connect Wallet button clicked
    const event: AnalyticsEvent = {
      eventName: "connect_wallet_button_clicked",
      eventCategory: "interaction_event",
      eventSource: "Website.MiniDigital.Router",
      entityType: "connect_wallet_button",
      action: "clicked",
      anonymousUser: true,
    };

    // Send data to track when a user connects to a wallet
    await EventTrackingService.postEvent(event);

    // Load account list
    await checkForWeb3Accounts();

    // If no accounts, show error
    if (accountList.value.length === 0) {
      throw new Error("No web3 accounts could be found. Please check your extension(s) and try again.");
    }
}

content_event

When you want to be even more specific about the content that the user interacts with, the content_event property comes in handy to give even more accurate insights to your product team. It is designed to track more specific media (images, videos) or visual assets (logos, icons) than generic UI elements such as a button or a link.

Where to declare it depends much on your codebase and the context where your image, logo, or icon is used - if it is a video played by the user or a banner used as a link and handled by a function like the above. However, you also want to send your event data when the user interacts with the content.

const event: AnalyticsEvent = {
    eventName: "mini_digital_banner_clicked",
    eventCategory: "content_event",
    eventSource: "Website.MiniDigital.Router",
    entityType: "mini_digital_banner",
    action: "clicked",
    anonymousUser: true,
  };

user_outcome_event

Our last example to explore is when the user completes a significant action in the product, and our user just performed a login in our store website by choosing an account and connecting with their wallet. At this moment, all the validations were performed, and the login is successful.

In my example, I have a function that handles the successful login, sends my event data to Mini Digital and takes my user to another page that he can only access once logged in.

This is when you want to send your event data with your eventCategory set to user_outcome_event. Also, this is when the business may decide to use the identifier provided by the user. Logins are a perfect example of actions performed that allows you to update your schema by removing the anonymousUser and setting your primaryIdentifier to the identifier provided by the user.

async function handleWalletAccountConfirmed(walletAccount: WalletAccount): Promise<void> {

    // Save the selected account to our state management tool
    await store.commitWalletAccount(walletAccount);

    // Define event data for account successfully logged
    const event: AnalyticsEvent = {
      eventName: "wallet_account_logged",
      eventCategory: "user_outcome_event",
      eventSource: "Website.MiniDigital.Router",
      entityType: "wallet_account",
      action: "logged",
      primaryIdentifier: store.walletAccount?.address,
    };

    // Send data to track wallets successfully logged
    await EventTrackingService.postEvent(event);

    // Navigate to the dashboard
    await router.push({ path: "/dashboard" });
}

Note now that my user is not anonymous. I have stored my user’s identifier detail and used it to provide a value for primaryIdentifier.

Closing up 💌

In this article, I covered how to install and import Mini Digital SDK to start integrating the SDK into your codebase. I explained how to declare and send the events using the minimum information necessary for accurate tracking. I also provided examples of what mandatory properties you must send, the perfect timing, and where to declare your event schema.

I hope this article helped you better understand how to track your events most effectively to empower your product team with accurate insights.

I look forward to your feedback, and stay tuned for more articles. 👋🏻

This article was originally published on my blog, suzanamelo.com, where I write about cloud, AWS, AI, and what it actually takes to change careers in tech.

DEV Community: Suzana Melo

AWS Amplify builds broken after a GitHub rename? Here’s the fix the console can’t give you

What happened

What Amplify doesn't tell you when you're starting out

The finding

When you need to use the update-app command

How to fix it

1. Prerequisites

2. Step-by-Step Fix

Step 1 — Generate a GitHub Personal Access Token

Step 2 — Find Your Amplify App ID

Step 3 — Set Up AWS CLI Credentials (aws login)

Step 4 — Update the Repository in AWS Amplify

Step 5 — Verify & Trigger a New Build

Step 6 — Delete the GitHub Token

Going further: managing multiple AWS environments

Useful Commands

Wrapping up

Resources

Bedrock vs SageMaker: a beginner’s guide to AWS AI — and where to start

Bedrock and SageMaker — what are they, exactly?

Thinking in layers

Amazon Bedrock

Amazon SageMaker AI

Can they work together?

Where to start as a beginner

Building your foundation for free

Getting hands-on with Cloud Quest

More good resources out there

If you want to understand what generative AI actually is before you touch any tools

If you want to build something before you feel "ready"

If you want a structured course that lives outside Skill Builder

Want to make it official? Certification is one option

Further reading & resources

AWS-specific:

Tutorials and hands-on:

Beyond the AWS stack:

New AWS Community Builder? Welcome! Here is How to Hit the Ground Running

Incredible Benefits

💫 Technical Growth & Career Opportunities

💫 AWS Promotional Credits

💫 AWS Certification Vouchers

💫 Exclusive Swag

💫 AWS re:Invent Discounts

💫 Community

The Structure and Ecosystem

💫 Tech Channels

💫 Events — To Speak At, Volunteer For, and Learn From

💫 Content Creation Boost and Support

And Much More…

Making the Most of Your CB Experience

💫 Learn & Grow

💫 Keep Contributing

💫 Embrace the Community Spirit

A Few Final Thoughts

Didn't Get In This Time?

Everything you need to know before applying to the AWS Community Builder Program and my golden advice

Why become an AWS Community Builder?

What is the program?

Who can apply?

Helpful resources before you apply

And finally… my golden advice 🌟

Wrapping up 🎁

🌎 Live sessions about the AWS Community Builders

🎤 In English:

🌐 In multiple languages:

📝 Some of my favorite articles:

From Procrastination to Publishing: How AWS Amplify Helped Me Finally Start Blogging

💡 How it all started

😵‍💫 Under the “overwhelmed” feeling

🌟 The light at the end of the tunnel

🧩 What is Hugo?

⚡️ And what’s AWS Amplify?

🪚🔨 Building a static website

💞 Hugo & Amplify: the love story

👩🏻‍💻 Building my blog — Step by step

From Hugo's side

1️⃣ Choose a theme

2️⃣ Set up Hugo

3️⃣ Host and Deploy

Step 3 — Set Up AWS CLI Credentials (`aws login`)

Use cases by `eventCategory` 🖊️