Category: Education

The wait is over. September and October’s Partner Webinars have officially arrived! In case you missed the intro last month, the AWS Partner Webinar Series is a selection of live and recorded presentations covering a broad range of topics at varying technical levels and scale. A little different from our AWS Online TechTalks, each AWS Partner Webinar is hosted by an AWS solutions architect and an AWS Competency Partner who has successfully helped customers evaluate and implement the tools, techniques, and technologies of AWS.

September & October Partner Webinars:

SAP Migration
Velocity: How EIS Reduced Costs by 20% and Optimized SAP by Leveraging the Cloud
September 19, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Mactores: SAP on AWS: How UCT is Experiencing Better Performance on AWS While Saving 60% in Infrastructure Costs with Mactores
September 19, 2017 | 1:00 PM PDT

Accenture: Reduce Operating Costs and Accelerate Efficiency by Migrating Your SAP Applications to AWS with Accenture
September 20, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Capgemini: Accelerate your SAP HANA Migration with Capgemini & AWS FAST
September 21, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Salesforce
Salesforce IoT: Monetize your IOT Investment with Salesforce and AWS
September 27, 2017 | 10:00 am PDT

Salesforce Heroku: Build Engaging Applications with Salesforce Heroku and AWS
October 10, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Windows Migration
Cascadeo: How a National Transportation Software Provider Migrated a Mission-Critical Test Infrastructure to AWS with Cascadeo
September 26, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Datapipe: Optimize App Performance and Security by Managing Microsoft Workloads on AWS with Datapipe
September 27, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Datavail: Datavail Accelerates AWS Adoption for Sony DADC New Media Solutions
September 28, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Life Sciences

SAP, Deloitte & Turbot: Life Sciences Compliance on AWS
October 4, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Healthcare

AWS, ClearData & Cloudticity: Healthcare Compliance on AWS 
October 5, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Storage

NetApp: Give your SaaS Data Security with NetApp and AWS

September 20, 2017 | 9:00 am PDT

N2WS: Learn How Goodwill Industries Ensures 24/7 Data Availability on AWS
October 10, 2017 | 8:00 AM PDT

Big Data

Zoomdata: Taking Complexity Out of Data Science with AWS and Zoomdata
October 10, 2017 | 10:00 AM PDT

Attunity: Cardinal Health: Moving Data to AWS in Real-Time with Attunity 
October 11, 2017 | 11:00 AM PDT

Splunk: How TrueCar Gains Actionable Insights with Splunk Cloud
October 18, 2017 | 9:00 AM PDT

Welcome to mid-August, everyone–the season of beach days, family road trips, and an inbox full of “out of office” emails from your coworkers. Just in case spending time indoors has you feeling a bit blue, we’ve got a piping hot batch of AWS Online Tech Talks for you to check out. Kick up your feet, grab a glass of ice cold lemonade, and dive into our latest Tech Talks on Compute and DevOps.

August 2017 – Schedule

Noted below are the upcoming scheduled live, online technical sessions being held during the month of August. Make sure to register ahead of time so you won’t miss out on these free talks conducted by AWS subject matter experts.

Webinars featured this month are:

Thursday, August 17 – Compute

9:00 – 9:40 AM PDT: Deep Dive on Lambda@Edge.

Monday, August 28 – DevOps

10:30 – 11:10 AM PDT: Building a Python Serverless Applications with AWS Chalice.

12:00 – 12:40 PM PDT: How to Deploy .NET Code to AWS from Within Visual Studio.

The AWS Online Tech Talks series covers a broad range of topics at varying technical levels. These sessions feature live demonstrations & customer examples led by AWS engineers and Solution Architects. Check out the AWS YouTube channel for more on-demand webinars on AWS technologies.

– Sara (Hello everyone, I’m a co-op from Northeastern University joining the team until December.)

Imagine if you will, you have obtained a new position at Unicorn.Rentals, a company that specializes in LARM, Legendary Animal Rental Market. Given the chance, what child wouldn’t happily exchange anything for the temporary use of a unicorn? What parent could refuse the opportunity to make their children happy? Let’s estimate the year to be 2017 and Unicorn.Rentals continues to dominate in the animal rental market.

You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and lies at the beginning of man’s cloud knowledge. This is a journey into a wondrous land of imagination, a land of both shadow and substance. You are crossing over into the GameDay Essentials Zone.

Well, maybe not another dimension but almost as cool. Maybe, kinda? Either way, I am very excited to introduce the newest show on the AWS Twitch Channel named GameDay Essentials. The GameDay Essentials show is a  “new hire training program” for the aforementioned Unicorn.Rentals company scenario. You will step into the shoes of a new employee being ramped up and trained on cloud computing in order to work successfully for a company using Amazon Web Services.

With the GameDay Essentials show, you will get hands-on computing experience to help with the growth of the Unicorn.Rentals startup. The first episode, Recon, premiered on July 25^th and provided information on logging services with CloudTrail and Cloudwatch, as well as, how to assess the configuration and identify existing inventory resources in an AWS Account. You can check out the recording of Episode 1–Recon here. The rest of season one for this six-part series airs on Tuesdays at 11:30 AM PT, the next three episodes discussing the following topics:

• Episode 2 – Scaling: Learn how to scale your application infrastructure by diving into the how to of implementing scaling techniques and auto scaling groups. Airing on August 1 
• Episode 3 – Changes: Winston Churchill is quoted saying “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”. This GameDay episode is all about managing change as a key component to success. You will learn how to use native AWS security and deployment tools to track and manage change and discuss how to handle changes in team dynamics. Airing on August 8th
• Episode 4 – Decoupling: Most people in the technology industry understand that you should avoid creating tightly coupled systems. Therefore, you will discover how loosely coupled systems operate and gain knowledge on how to diagnose any failures that may occur with these systems. Airing on August 15th 

Summary

Our latest show, GameDay Essentials is designed to help you “get into the game” and learn more about cloud computing and the AWS Platform. GameDay Essentials joins our other live coding shows already featured each week on the AWS Twitch Channel: Live Coding with AWS and AWS Maker Studio.

Tune in each week to the AWS Twitch channel to visit another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of cloud. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area, which we call the GameDay Essentials Zone. Get it, like the Twilight Zone, still no? Oh well, check out the GameDay Essentials show on Twitch on the AWS Channel, it is a great resource for interactive learning about cloud computing with AWS, so enjoy the ride.

– Tara

It’s unbelievable that 2017 has flown by so quickly, yet here we are already in the month of July. A little-known fact about the 7^th month of the year is that its name, July, is in honor of the Roman general, Julius Cæsar. The Roman State named the month on his behalf since it the month of his birth. Prior to this designation, the month of July was called Quintilis.

I, also, thought it was interesting to learn that in the month of July, several countries celebrate their Independence Day. These countries are the United States, Bahamas, Kiribati, São Tomé, Príncipe, Liberia, Maldives, Algeria, Cape Verde, Venezuela, Burundi, Rwanda, and Somalia. Seems that the month of July was ripe for freedom and independence for all parts of the world.

Therefore, there is a lot to celebrate in the month of July and you are free to add the celebration of learning to your July festivities with AWS Online Tech Talks. This month’s sessions brings you great technical information about Serverless Compute, Security and Identity, as well as, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence running on Amazon Web Services.

July 2017 – Schedule

Below is the upcoming schedule for the live, online technical sessions scheduled for the month of July. Make sure to register ahead of time so you won’t miss out on these free talks conducted by AWS subject matter experts. All schedule times for the online tech talks are shown in the Pacific Time (PDT) time zone.

Webinars featured this month are:

Tuesday, July 11

Compute

9:00 AM – 9:40 AM: Managing WordPress on Amazon Lightsail

Big Data

10:30 AM – 11:10 AM: Building a Metadata Catalog for your Data Lakes using Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Databases

12:00 Noon – 12:40 PM: Convert and Migrate Your NoSQL Database or Data Warehouse to AWS

Wednesday, July 12

IoT

9:00 AM – 9:40 AM: Essential Capabilities of an IoT Cloud Platform

Storage

10:30 AM – 11:10 AM: Deep Dive on Amazon S3

Security & Identity

12:00 Noon –12:40 PM: Secure your Web Applications with AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) and AWS Shield

Thursday, July 13

Enterprise & Hybrid

9:00 AM – 9:40 AM: Decouple and Scale Applications Using Amazon SQS and Amazon SNS

Mobile

10:30 AM – 11:10 AM: Driving User Engagement with Amazon Pinpoint

Security & Identity

12:00 Noon – 12:40 PM: Integrating Security Assessments Into Your DevOps Cycle with Amazon Inspector

Tuesday, July 25

Hands On Lab

8:30 AM – 10:00 AM: Hands-on Lab: Windows Workload

Enterprise & Hybrid

10:30 AM – 11:10 AM: SAP Solutions on AWS for Large Enterprises and Mission Critical Applications

Serverless

12:00 Noon – 1:00 PM: Security Best Practices for Serverless Applications

Wednesday, July 26

Hands On Lab

8:30 AM – 10:00 AM: Hands-on Lab: Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server in AWS

Artificial Intelligence

10:30 AM – 11:10 AM: Deep Learning for Data Scientists: Using Apache MXNet and R on AWS

Thursday, July 27

Big Data

9:00 AM – 9:40 AM: Embrace Streaming Analytics and Transform Your Business (AWS Webinar featuring Forrester’s Mike Gualtieri)

Compute

10:30 AM – 11:10 AM: Serverless Orchestration of AWS Step Functions

Artificial Intelligence

12:00 Noon – 12:40 PM: Exploring the Business Use Cases for Amazon Polly

The AWS Online Tech Talks series covers a broad range of topics at varying technical levels. These sessions feature live demonstrations & customer examples led by AWS engineers and Solution Architects. Check out the AWS YouTube channel for more on-demand webinars on AWS technologies.

– Tara

As we see more customers transition their business to the cloud, we are also seeing increased demand in the market for skilled IT professionals who are capable of designing, deploying, and operating applications and infrastructure on AWS. IT certifications are considered a gold standard for validating technical proficiency and one’s ability to perform on the job. Obtaining certification is often a pathway for IT professionals to move into roles offering expanded responsibilities. Training that leads you toward earning IT certification is becoming more important as individuals look to grow their careers and customers build institutional knowledge and skills within their organizations.

Global Knowledge recently released their 2016 IT Skills and Salary Report (registration required). The report is based on input from more than 10,000 IT and business professionals in North America who responded to Global Knowledge’s ninth annual IT Skills and Salary Survey, one of the largest of its kind. Global Knowledge’s findings highlight the importance of training and also show the value of AWS Certifications for AWS Certified individuals.

Top 5 Findings
I’d like to highlight the top 5 findings that stood out in this year’s report:

1. Three-fourths of respondents said they participate in some form of professional development to build new skills, and half said preparing for a career certification or specialist exam is a top motivator.
2. Overall, 59% of IT professionals are currently working on, or plan to pursue, some form of certification within the current year.
3. Of respondents who pursued certification in the preceding year, 73% noted an increase in their job effectiveness because of related training.
4. 21% of those who reported a significant raise (11 percent or greater) attribute it to the development of new skills that were of added value.
5. Employees in organizations with training plans in place reported being less likely to leave their companies (78 percent versus 73 percent for those without a plan and 69 percent for those who were unsure if such plans exist).

These are some really interesting findings; here’s a summary in infographic form (please feel free to share it):

AWS Training & Certification
As a reminder, AWS currently has 5 certifications spanning roles of Solutions Architect, SysOps Administrator, Developer, and DevOps Engineer. AWS also offers several ways to help you prepare for exams, including a portfolio of technical training courses. Whether you’re looking to take a self-paced and online lab or dive deep with a technical instructor, we have training for everyone’s needs.

Global Knowledge is one of our many APN Training Partners which are authorized to deliver AWS Training around the globe.  You can find available classes in our Global Class Schedule or contact us to arrange for onsite training.

— Jeff;

We want to do our part to help educational institutions all over the world train and graduate students who are ready, willing, and able to power the cloud-powered world of tomorrow! The AWS Educate initiative will provide students and educators with four important resources:

• Grants of AWS credits for use in courses and projects.
• Free content to embed in courses or to use as-is.
• Access to free and discounted AWS Training resources.
• Online and in-person collaboration and networking opportunities.

Membership in AWS Educate is open to AWS-approved, accredited educational institutions, educators, and students.  Simply click here to apply!

School administrators (generally faculty or a member of the IT department) can sign up for AWS Educate and appoint themselves or another individual within the organization as the Central Point of Contact. This person is responsible for providing a list of valid domains that can be used to identify current students and faculty. They may also be asked to help verify student and/or educator participation in the program.

Benefits for Educators
All educators are eligible for the following benefits:

• Free access to the AWS Educate Educator Collaboration Portal.
• Free access to AWS Essentials eLearning.
• 50% discount on instructor-led training.
• 50% discount on AWS Certification.
• Access to free Online Labs.

Institutions that have joined AWS Educate are eligible for a grant of $200 in AWS credits per educator. If the institution has not joined, each educator is eligible for a grant of $75 in AWS credits (all amounts are in USD).

Benefits for Students
All students have access to the AWS Educate Student Portal and free Online Labs, along with a grant of USD $35 in AWS credits. If the student is a member of an organization that has joined AWS Educate, they are eligible for a grant of $100 in AWS credits.

AWS Educate on Campus
We are planning to conduct large-scale training, hackathons, and other on-campus events at some of the organizations that join AWS Educate.  The AWS Evangelists will also be opening up time on their calendars to visit and speak to events at these organizations.

Apply Today
As I noted above, this is a world-wide program; students and educators from all over the world are more than welcome to apply to the program today.

— Jeff;

We have recently broadened the AWS Training portfolio in order to do an even better job of meeting your needs. Here are the newest offerings:

• AWS Business Essentials is a new workshop for IT business decision makers.  It’s designed to help you understand the benefits of cloud computing and how a cloud strategy can help meet your business objectives.  We also address financial benefits of AWS and provide examples of successful cloud adoption frameworks.  AWS Business Essentials complements AWS Technical Essentials (formerly AWS Essentials) which introduces technical end users to core AWS services for compute, storage, database, and networking.
• Advanced Architecting on AWS builds on concepts covered in Architecting on AWS and replaces Architecting on AWS – Advanced Concepts.  We cover how to build solutions incorporating data services, governance, and security on AWS, and also discuss specialized AWS services, such as AWS Direct Connect and AWS Storage Gateway, which you can use as part of a hybrid architecture.  This new course will help you to prepare for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam.
• DevOps Engineering on AWS – this new course covers core principles of the DevOps methodology and common DevOps patterns to develop, deploy, and maintain applications on AWS.  We also cover the core principles of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment. This course replaces Advanced Operations on AWS and helps you prepare for the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam.

You can learn more about available AWS Training Courses and then consult our Global Schedule of Classes to find one near you.

— Jeff;

AWS Marketplace makes it easy for you to find, buy, and immediately start using software and services in a wide variety of categories including Software Infrastructure, Developer Tools, and Business Software.

Today we are enhancing AWS Marketplace with a brand new Education & Research software category. The products in this category are designed to meets the needs of the Education and Research industries, with solutions targeted at K-12 and higher education. Students, academic administrators, instructors, and researchers can now purchase software that has been tested, vetted, and approved. With free trials and hourly and monthly pricing models, launching and testing products for applicability is easy and cost-effective.

We’re starting out with a portfolio tracking and social networking tool (Mahara), a pair of Learning Management Systems (Canvas and Moodle), three virtual labs (MIMIC Virtual Lab, Cloud vLab, and MATLAB/Simulink), and three video collaboration and conferencing tools (Adobe Connect, Zoom Cloud Meetings, and Collaaj). Over time we hope to add additional categories such as e-portfolio systems, content management platforms, massively open online course platforms, student information systems, and all sorts of learning tools. If you are the developer or distributor of educational tools that fit one of these categories (or one that we didn’t think of), consider selling on AWS Marketplace.

— Jeff;

PS – Don’t forget the Education page on the AWS site or the AWS Education Grants Program.