With the rising demand for cloud computing certified professionals, pursuing an AWS certification can be a game-changer in 2023. With numerous certifications available, we have compiled our list of top AWS certifications ranging from foundational, associate to professional level and specialty credentials that will help elevate your career prospects beyond 2023.

Rise of the Cloud: The Essential Role of AWS Certifications in Business Transformation.

Over the last decade, there has been a significant rise in the utilization of public cloud, and this trend is justified by several reasons. As cloud computing skills are being listed as one of the top IT skills in 2023, the adoption of cloud technologies continues to grow rapidly. Compared to traditional infrastructure models, cloud computing provides a wide range of advantages, such as rapid deployment speed, agile resource allocation, advanced services, flexible pricing models, and more. Moreover, the implementation of cloud infrastructure has transformed the management procedures of IT, and it requires cloud teams to be able to adapt accordingly.

To enable their workforce to effectively adapt to this shift, organizations can facilitate certification attainment, such as the ones provided by AWS. AWS Certifications serve as a valuable means to verify that team members possess the essential abilities required to thrive in an IT environment that prioritizes cloud computing. Companies that have a considerable number of staff members who are AWS Certified can have confidence in their team’s competence to advance business transformation through AWS.

The value of AWS certifications.

According to an ESG Research commissioned by AWS, 97% of IT decision makers agree that:

• 90% agree that employing AWS Certified staff has made the cloud team more productive.
• 89% agree that employing AWS Certified staff has shortened the time it takes to complete cloud projects.
• 86% agree that employing AWS Certified staff has improved the security of cloud workloads.
• 89% agree that employing AWS Certified staff enables faster troubleshooting.
• 90% say that they trust AWS Certified staff to lead cloud projects more than staff who are not AWS Certified.

Certification is one of the best ways to validate your cloud skills and AWS Certifications, in particular, are industry-recognized credentials that showcase your expertise in the AWS Cloud.

AWS offers a number of industry-recognized certifications that validate your experience to help you go beyond training and highlight your skills. Earning an AWS credential allows you to showcase your cloud knowledge and abilities specific to roles or technical domains that help move your career forward.

AWS Certifications are built by AWS experts and updated regularly, so you can be sure the exams highlight current and fresh cloud skills. You can pursue Foundational, Associate, Professional, and Specialty certifications that align to your experience with AWS.

Why get AWS Certified?

There are many reasons to get AWS certified. Here are some of the most important ones.

In Demand Jobs

Having an AWS certification on your resume can make you more attractive to potential employers. It shows that you have the skills and knowledge needed to work with the AWS platform. And if you’re already employed, getting AWS certified can help you get promoted or move into a different role within your company.

Higher salaries

According to a study by Global Knowledge, professionals with AWS certifications can earn higher salaries than their non-certified peers. For example, the average salary for an AWS Certified Solutions Architect is $130,883 per year.

Job Satisfaction

Achieving AWS certification can also lead to increased job satisfaction. In a recent Global Knowledge survey, 80% of respondents said that their AWS certification had a positive impact on their job satisfaction.

Validate Your Skills

AWS certification is a way to validate your technical skills and knowledge. If you’re new to the AWS platform, it can help you get up to speed quickly. And if you’re an experienced user, it can help you stand out from the crowd.

Stay Current
AWS is always adding new products and features, so it’s important to keep your skills up to date. Getting certified can help you stay current with the latest changes and ensure that you’re using the best practices for working with AWS.

Which AWS Certification is for me?

How do you determine which certification is right for you? To answer that question, you’ll need to consider your role and evaluate your existing level of experience and knowledge across various areas of technical and cloud expertise.

AWS offers four categories of certifications, three of which correspond to the amount of experience you have with the AWS Cloud. For Specialty certifications, the amount of recommended experience varies by certification.

AWS certifications offer a range of options depending on your experience and goals. The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification is ideal for those just starting out, while Associate-level credentials are best suited to AWS professionals with more extensive experience under their belt. For even deeper insights into the platform, opt for one of the Professional or Specialty levels – perfect if you’re looking to demonstrate expertise in areas like Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Security etc

Let’s take a closer look at each AWS certification offered:

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner validates cloud fluency and foundational AWS knowledge. Earning AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner demonstrates you have an overall understanding of the AWS Cloud. This credential highlights your knowledge of core AWS services and use cases, billing and pricing models, security concepts, and how cloud impacts your business.

Level: Foundational

Intended for: Individuals who can effectively demonstrate an overall understanding of the AWS Cloud, independent of specific technical roles addressed by other AWS Certifications

The target candidate should have the following knowledge:

• AWS Cloud concepts
• Security and compliance within the AWS Cloud
• Understanding of the core AWS services
• Understanding of the economics of the AWS Cloud

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate validates the ability to design and implement distributed systems on AWS. Earn an industry-recognized credential from AWS that validates your expertise in the design, deployment, and evaluation of applications on AWS that are dynamically scalable, highly available, secure, cost-optimized, fault-tolerant, resilient, and reliable. Highlight your ability to design solutions that meet diverse, complex requirements.

Level: Associate

Intended for: Solutions architects with one or more years of practical experience designing available, cost-efficient,
fault-tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on AWS

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate validates the ability to deploy, manage, and operate workloads on AWS. Earning AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate shows you have the skills to support and maintain AWS workloads. Highlight your experience in AWS optimization strategies, network configuration, and security implementation and compliance policies.

Level: Associate

Intended for: Systems administrators in a SysOps role with at least one year of experience in deployment, management, and operations on AWS

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

AWS Certified Developer – Associate validates the ability to write and deploy cloud-based applications. Earning AWS Certified Developer – Associate shows you have the skills to develop, deploy, and debug cloud-based applications using AWS. Highlight your ability to write applications with AWS service APIs, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), and SDKs, use containers, and deploy with a CI/CD pipeline.

Level: Associate

Intended for: The AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam is intended for individuals who perform a development role and have one or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining an AWS-based application.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional validates the ability to design, deploy, and evaluate applications on AWS within diverse, complex requirements. This credential helps certified individuals showcase advanced knowledge and skills in providing complex solutions to complex problems, optimizing security, cost, and performance, and automating manual processes. This certification is a means for organizations to identify and develop talent with these critical skills for implementing cloud initiatives.

Level: Professional

Intended for: The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam is intended for individuals who perform a solutions architect role with two or more years of hands-on experience designing and deploying cloud architectures on AWS.

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional validates the ability to automate the testing and deployment of AWS infrastructure and applications. Earning this industry-recognized credential from AWS demonstrates your expertise in continuous delivery, security controls, governance, compliance, monitoring, metrics, and logging as well as automated operational processes. It also highlights your ability to increase velocity and agility with automated testing and deployment.

Level: Professional

Intended for: The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam is intended for individuals who perform a DevOps engineer role with two or more years of experience provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments.

Validate technical skills and cloud expertise to grow your career and business.

Earn credibility and confidence by obtaining an AWS Certification – a highly-valued industry credential with Trainocate, which was awarded the 2022 AWS Global Training Partner of the Year.

Be the individual that organizations turn to as they lead their cloud initiatives using trusted Amazon Web Services. Get started today!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why AWS training and certifications?

AWS Training and Certification helps you build and validate your cloud skills so you can get more out of the cloud. We offer both digital and classroom training—delivered virtually and in person—so you can choose to learn online at your own pace or learn best practices from an instructor. AWS Training and Certification offers prescriptive learning paths to get you started quickly. Progress along the path from foundational to intermediate training, and then dive deeper with advanced training to continue your learning.

We offer technical role-based learning paths for architects, developers, and operations staff. We also offer a Cloud Practitioner learning path for business decision makers who want to learn AWS Cloud fundamentals. Additional solutions-based learning paths focus on topics like machine learning, storage, data analytics, and security.

Will AWS training and certifications enhance my credibility?

You will learn directly from AWS experts who have domain experience and access to the latest AWS Cloud products, services, and teaching methods. These AWS expert-led courses will increase your credibility as someone who uses and makes decisions about cloud services.

Building clouds skills through high-quality digital training can also support the credibility of your entire organization. When your technologists and strategists are well trained in cloud skills, they can more easily project confidence about your cloud strategy.

Why should I consider AWS certified?

AWS Certification helps learners build credibility and confidence by validating their cloud expertise with an industry-recognized credential and organizations identify skilled professionals to lead cloud initiatives using AWS. Just like learning music theory enables you to jam, a strong grounding in cloud principles empowers you to creatively explore cloud options.

Having the skills and insight to act upon your creativity and inspiration is essential to discovering new business opportunities in the cloud and helping your organization innovate. You’ll be able to experiment with AWS Cloud services, quickly testing products and implementing strategies to determine what best delivers your organizational goals.

Are AWS training and certifications relevant?

You don’t need to be a technologist to benefit from learning cloud basics. By learning the AWS Cloud, you’ll gain first-hand knowledge of how the cloud can support greater efficiency, flexibility, and opportunity for both you and your organization.

You’ll also gain confidence in your ability to consider cloud options, so you’re better informed when making business and management decisions involving the cloud. By investing in training, organizations can accelerate cloud adoption, achieve business objectives sooner, and overcome concerns related to cloud adoption. Also, comprehensively trained organizations are nearly three times more likely to use the cloud to jump-start innovation. They’re also nearly four times more likely to meet cloud ROI requirements, and over four times more likely to overcome operational and performance concerns.