AWS For Admins For Dummies - Mueller John Paul

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administrator might normally perform. In addition, PaaS relates to development, not production setups, so the host may take care of all administration tasks locally.

Determining Why You Should Use AWS

      Even though AWS has a lot to offer, you still need to consider how it answers your specific needs. This consideration goes beyond simply determining whether you really want to move to cloud-based services, but also taking into account other offerings that might serve your needs just as well (if not better). Even though this book is about AWS, you should compare AWS with other cloud services. You may choose to use AWS as part of your solution rather than as the only solution. Of course, this means knowing the areas in which AWS excels. The following sections address both of these possibilities: using other cloud services instead of AWS, or in addition to it.

       Comparing AWS to other cloud services

      You have many ways to compare cloud services. One of the ways in which companies commonly look at services is by the market share they have. A large market share tends to ensure that the cloud service will be around for a long time and that many people find its services both useful and functional. A recent InfoWorld article (http://www.infoworld.com/article/3065842/cloud-computing/beyond-aws-the-clouds-next-stage.html) points out that AWS currently corners 70 to 80 percent of the cloud market. In addition, AWS revenues keep increasing, which lets Amazon continue adding new features while maintaining existing features at peak efficiency.

      

Large market share and capital to invest don’t necessarily add up to a cloud service that fulfills your needs. You also need to know that the host can provide the products you need in a form that you can use. The AWS product list appears at http://aws.amazon.com/products/. It includes all the major IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS categories. However, you should compare these products to the major AWS competitors:

      ❯❯ Cisco Metapod (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/cloud-systems-management/metapod/index.html)

      ❯❯ Google Cloud Platform (https://cloud.google.com/products/)

      ❯❯ Joyent (https://www.joyent.com/)

      ❯❯ Microsoft Azure (https://azure.microsoft.com/)

      Of the competitors listed here, Google Cloud Platform comes closest to offering the same feature set found in AWS. However, in looking at the Google offerings, you should note the prominence of machine learning services that aren’t found in AWS. On the other hand, AWS has more to offer in the way of the Internet of Things (IoT), applications, and mobile services.

      Each of the vendors offering these services is different. For example, Joyent offers a simple setup that may appeal more strongly to an SMB that has only a few needs to address and no desire to become involved in a complex service. Microsoft, on the other hand, has strong SQL database-management support as well as the connection with the Windows platform that businesses may want to maintain. The point is that you must look at each of the vendors to determine who can best meet your needs (although, as previously stated, most people are voting with their dollars on AWS).

       Defining target areas where AWS works best

      In looking at the services that AWS provides, you can see that the emphasis is on enterprise productivity. For example, Google Cloud Platform offers four enhanced machine learning services that you could use for analysis purposes, but AWS offers only one. However, Google Cloud Platform can’t match AWS when it comes to mobile service, which is an area that users most definitely want included for accessing applications. Unless your business is heavily involved in analysis tasks, the offerings that AWS provides are significantly better in many ways. Here are the service categories that AWS offers:

      ❯❯ Compute

      ❯❯ Storage and content delivery

      ❯❯ Database

      ❯❯ Networking

      ❯❯ Analytics

      ❯❯ Enterprise applications

      ❯❯ Mobile services

      ❯❯ IoT

      ❯❯ Developer tools

      ❯❯ Management tools

      ❯❯ Security and identity

      ❯❯ Application services

Understanding the AWS Certifications

      A certification doesn’t make you an expert. However, it does provide a quantified description of your minimum level of expertise – a textbook look of what you know, but not an assessment of real-world knowledge. In other words, you get a certification to prove that you have a given level of provable expertise and most employers will probably assume that you possess expertise in addition to what the certification tests.

      The pursuit of a certification can also help you better understand areas in which your current education is weak. Going through the learning and testing process can help you become a better administrator. With the need to obtain the guidelines to achieve proficiency and later demonstrate proficiency in mind, the following sections discuss the various AWS certifications so that you can get a better idea of where to spend your time when getting one.

      

Getting a certification is generally useful only when you want to apply for a new job or advance in your current job. After all, you likely know your own skills well enough to determine your level of proficiency to some degree without a certification. Filling out your education and then demonstrating what you know to others for specific personal gains are the reason to get a certification. Some people miss the point and discover later that they’ve spent a lot of money and time getting something they really didn’t need in the first place.

       Gaining an overview of the certifications

      AWS currently provides a number of certifications, which you can see at https://aws.amazon.com/certification/. You can expect Amazon to add more as AWS continues to expand. The following list provides a quick overview of the levels of certifications:

      ❯❯ AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate: Tests the ability of a developer to perform basic AWS design and development tasks. Before you can even contemplate taking this exam, you need to know how to program and have experience designing applications on AWS. A number of sources also recommend this certification for administration because many of the administration tasks build on the knowledge you get here.

      ❯❯ AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional: Tests the ability of a developer to perform the next level of development tasks on AWS, such as migrating complex, multitier applications to AWS. The exam still focuses on development tasks but depends on the developer’s having already passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam and mastering new skills. (The resources specify a minimum of two years of hands-on AWS programming.)

      ❯❯ AWS Certified Developer – Associate: Determines whether the developer can perform specific levels of application development using AWS. For example, you need to know which of the services to use to add specific features to an application. Rather than have you actually use AWS to host the application, this exam focuses more on using AWS in conjunction with existing applications.

      ❯❯ AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate: Determines whether an administrator has the skills required to deploy and manage applications on an AWS setup. In addition, the administrator must show proficiency in operating various AWS services and in determining which service to use to

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