Third Time Around -A Cloud Journey through AWS SA Pro Exams

Last month, I needed to recertify as an AWS Solutions Architect Professional. This is the third time that I have recertified, as it is required every three years. The test has always been one of the most intensive tests that I have ever taken. I found it more difficult than getting my Series 24, for those familiar with financial licenses. What makes the test difficult is the breadth and depth of knowledge needed. Personally, I have always been focused on networking and security within the cloud. However, to pass the Solutions Architect Professional exam, you also need depth within infrastructure, database, storage, and high-performance computing, amongst other things. Going through my notes over the last three tests, I found that the content has changed. These changes reflect the focus of AWS and where they see the market of digital transformation.

My first AWS Solution Architect Professional exam was six years ago. When reviewing the notes, the main focus I noticed was right-sizing cloud products and building resilient architectures to take advantage of autoscaling and blue green deployments. This makes sense, because at that time, cloud was new and AWS’ main value-add was reducing an operation’s total cost of ownership (TCO) by providing a scalable, resilient architecture.. Infrastructure on demand was the key to making the most of AWS for an organization. From a security and networking perspective the focus was proper role-based access control (RBAC) through identity and access management and best practice virtual private cloud setup through network security groups and load balancers.?

My second exam showed a big shift. Instead of understanding sizing and resiliency, there was a strong shift to well-architected setups and cloud native services. Where previously cloud-native services were primarily PaaS services like S3, Redshift, and DynamoDB, this expanded to CloudFormation, Elastic Beanstalk, Kinesis, Cognito, and CloudFront. AWS was creating an ecosystem not only for infrastructure but also DevOps and IT operations. The networking piece grew with Transit Gateway and the Network Load Balancer. Direct Connect also became more prevalent. In terms of security, AWS WAF was available as well as heightened focus on CloudTrail and CloudWatch.?All in all, this test showed a shift in focus away from IaaS migration to CloudOps.

This last test showed a shift as well. The focus was on Organizations and Serverless architectures. Between Fargate, Elastic Container Service (ECS), and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), AWS has made massive strides toward enabling distributed workloads with Kubernetes and Containers. Organizations let you consolidate multiple accounts into an organization to centrally manage. AWS also has more advanced Data Tools that allow for better processing of data batches and searches. AWS has also developed more advanced networking with service end points, direct connect, and SD-WAN enablement within the Transit Gateway. AWS now is focused on enabling agile development for Enterprises to secure.

Each test required me to update my skills and knowledge, not only for AWS, but for the modern realities of digital transformation. As AWS services the market, it requires the Solution Architects to understand modern practices. I am happy to share that these tests do have practical applications. For instance, one project I did with Vandis was actually the basis of a test question on the SA exam that I was able to put into practice for our client, Leveraging AWS to Reduce Latency in Microsoft 365 for Global Organization.

?As we see infrastructures shift into containers and serverless architectures it is important to see how cloud service providers as well as service orchestrators approach and develop tool-sets to help customers. If you are looking to discuss new trends with cloud or looking to secure your current cloud, please reach out at [email protected]