ICYMI: December 2020 and January 2021 news from AWS Training and Certification

Below is a summary of AWS Training and Certification news and updates for the months of December 2020 and January 2021. Dive in and explore more training content, stories, and resources.

Skills Development

Amazon Commits to providing free cloud skills training to 29 million people globally by 2025

At re:Invent 2020, we announced our commitment to provide access to free cloud skills training to 29 million learners globally by 2025 through AWS Training and Certification digital trainings, AWS re/Start, AWS Educate, and more. Learn how to access free cloud training whether you’re new to the cloud, in a non-IT role, or a skilled IT professional, in this blog.

AWS Certification

Beta Exam: AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

Registration for the new AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate beta exam is now open. The beta exam features a combination of three possible question formats, including multiple choice, multiple response, and exam labs. Exam labs allow you to showcase your skills by building solutions using the AWS Console and AWS Command Line Interface (CLI). Registered candidates can take the exam from February 16, 2021, to March 26, 2021. Learn more in this blog and find registration information on the AWS Certification site.

Research Shows More IT Professionals Are Investing in Professional Development

Each year, Global Knowledge conducts a worldwide survey of IT leaders and professionals to highlight trends in the technology industry. The 2020 results reveal that IT professionals are investing in their skill development, training support increased, and AWS Certifications are in demand. In fact, four AWS Certifications were in the top 10 IT certifications that IT professionals planned to pursue in 2020. Learn more about why you should pursue AWS Certifications in this blog.

New Trainings

New Twitch Series: AWS Dev Hour: Building Modern Applications

AWS Dev Hour: Building Modern Applications is a weekly livestream on Twitch designed for developers looking to enhance their AWS skills through a hands-on-learning approach. Over eight weeks, AWS experts will teach you about building modern, cloud-native applications and guide you through the end-to-end build of a severless application in the AWS Cloud using the AWS Free Tier. View the series Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. PST on the AWS Twitch channel and learn more in this blog.

Digital Courses: Amazon S3

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. You can use Amazon S3 to store and protect data for a range of use cases, such as data lakes, websites, mobile applications, backup and restore activities, archiving, enterprise applications, IoT devices, and big data analytics. We have released three new, free digital courses to help you explore how to configure, optimize, secure, and audit your Amazon S3 implementation: Getting Started with Amazon Simple Storage Service, Amazon Simple Storage Service Storage Classes Deep Dive, and Auditing Amazon Simple Storage Service Security. Each course is available for customers and partners. Learn more about the three courses in this blog.

Digital Courses: AWS Snowcone

AWS Snowcone is the smallest member of the AWS Snow Family of edge computing, edge storage, and data transfer devices, weighing in at 4.5 pounds (2.1 kilograms) with eight terabytes of usable storage. Snowcone is rugged, secure, and purpose-built for use outside of a traditional data center, and its small size makes it ideal for tight spaces and portable, when necessary. We just released three new, free, digital courses to help you learn more about how to use AWS Snowcone, including AWS Snowcone Getting Started, AWS Snowcone Logistics and Planning, and Using AWS Snowcone. Learn more about the three courses in this blog.

Digital Course: Configuring and Deploying VPCs with Multiple Subnets

Configuring and Deploying VPCs with Multiple Subnets is a free, intermediate course that teaches you how to create a secure AWS network environment. Designed for network engineers, solutions architects, and cloud architects, the course covers best practices and common use cases for networking technologies, such as subnets, route tables, and gateways. The course is available for customers and partners.

Digital Course and Lab: AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) Primer

AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) Primer is a one-and-a-half-hour course that teaches you how to model cloud applications using the CDK and is designed for intermediate-level developers who are familiar with AWS services, including AWS CloudFormation. After taking this course, you can reinforce your learning with our new, two-hour, hands-on lab. The course is available for customers and partners.

Digital Course: Introduction to Designing Data Lakes in AWS (Coursera and Edx)

Introduction to Designing Data Lakes in AWS is designed for learners ranging from solutions architects to DevOps professionals who want to explore how to create and operate a data lake in a secure and scalable way—without any knowledge of data science. Find the course on Coursera or edX, and read more in this blog.

Courses Designed for AWS Partners

• AWS Solutions Training for Partners: Migrating Your Application to AWS (Technical) is our first technical course designed specifically for AWS Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Partners. In this course, application developers and solutions architects will learn technical fundamentals and best practices for migrating applications from on-premises deployments to a single-tenant, highly available AWS Cloud solution. This course is available as  classroom or digital.
• AWS Solutions Training for Partners: Data Analytics on AWS (Technical) teaches pre-sales engineers about the technical fundamentals of running data analytics on AWS, how to successfully engage with data-driven customers, and how to make architectural decisions based on AWS-recommended best practices. This course is available as classroom or digital.
• AWS Solutions Training for Partners: Machine Learning on AWS (Business) teaches account owners and pre-sales representatives at Partner organizations how to have effective conversations with customers to drive opportunities in machine learning and artificial intelligence. This updated course is available as classroom or digital.
• AWS Solutions Training for Partners: Advanced Migrating to AWS (Technical) teaches solutions architects, systems operators, and application administrators prescriptive guidance on how to migrate workloads at scale, and covers common migration patterns and challenges of large-scale migrations. This classroom course is now available.
• AWS Solutions Training for Partners: Security Governance at Scale (Technical) teaches solutions architects and technical teams AWS-recommended cloud security best practices for establishing continuous governance and management at scale. Partners will learn how to help their customers scale with agility and innovation while providing visibility, control, and governance to protect sensitive data and systems. This course is available as classroom or digital.
• AWS Solutions Training for Partners: Security Governance at Scale (Business) teaches sales and business professionals about AWS account management, cost control, and security and compliance through automation, and AWS-recommended best practices for establishing an automated, simplified, and secure governance-at-scale framework. This course is available as classroom or digital. Read more about the migration and security governance courses in this blog.

Increase your cybersecurity skill set

AWS Training and Certification offers over 40 courses, self-paced labs, an AWS Certified Security – Specialty certification, and other resources to raise everyone’s security competence in IT and security departments. These training offerings are designed for a broad range of learners, such as DevOps engineers, cloud architects, solutions architects, developers, compliance personnel, auditors, IT business analysts, or existing security engineers looking to improve their knowledge. Explore cybersecurity training and certification offerings in this blog.

Workforce of the Future

AWS re/Start expands to three countries across Africa

AWS re/Start is a full-time, classroom-based development and training program that prepares individuals who are unemployed or underemployed for entry-level cloud positions. The program recently expanded to three countries across Africa—Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. These countries join existing program locations in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, US, and Australia. Learn more about the expansion on CAJ News Africa.

Miami Dade College prepares students for cloud careers

With AWS courses and learning resources, Miami Dade College is preparing students for success, including three recent graduates who were hired at Florida Power and Light Company. Learn how the institution is equipping its students to launch careers in the cloud industry in this blog.

AWS Training and Certification helps the builders of today and tomorrow leverage the power of the AWS Cloud. For more information, visit https://aws.amazon.com/training