10 Reasons to get your AWS Certifications in 2021

“Cloud is about how you do computing, not where you do computing.” — CEO of VMware, Paul Martiz

There is solid evidence that Cloud Computing industry is going to explode even more in the next few years. Just as an example, last August, ResearchAndMarkets.com (which is the world’s largest market research store) published a $2500-report in 371 pages on Cloud Computing Global Forecast to 2025. Here is a few highlights that shouldn’t leave any doubts in your mind about paying more attention to the Cloud:

• In 2020: The global market size was $371.4 billion
• By 2023: it is expected to grow to $623.3 billion
• and then by 2025: this mumber is expected to reach $832.1 billion
• In case you are wondering, the Annual Growth Rate is 17.5% which is insane!
• North America to hold the largest market size (45%), Europe (20%) and Asia Pacific (APAC) to grow at the highest rate (30%).

Now that we’re convinced that Cloud is worth paying attention to; But why AWS?

1. High Demand

AWS is the market leader by some margin. They own one-third of this huge industry and they have been leading it in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for 10 consecutive years.

Knowing how big of a trend the transition from on-premise infrastructure to Cloud is, it’s very clear that the majority of companies currently need or would need AWS professionals and the most straightforward way of showing your skills to potential employers and increasing your chances of securing your favorite position is becoming AWS certified.

The demand for AWS professionals is high and will stay high for quite some time. This is what Cloud Academy have published in their blog:

“Indeed has over 16,000 positions that you’d qualify for with an Azure certification. The number for AWS positions is much higher at 29,000 positions.” — Cloud Academy

2. Staying Relevant

Joe Paterno, the well-known American college football coach, has a quote that resinates with me:

“If you are not getting better, you are getting worse”.

Whether we like it or not, our beloved on-prem racks filled with our servers, NASes and SANs one by one are disappearing from data centers and showing up in our AWS Management Consoles. If we want to stay relevant and be able to compete in the job market, we need to know how to spin AWS instances in a matter of minutes, assign them the right resources and keep them running securely and cost-effectively. To be able to keep playing this cool game called Technology we need to keep getting better, otherwise, inevitably we become worse.

Plus, Not only getting AWS certified makes you learn it with its latest technology, but also, in order to stay updated, you’ll need to put efforts to get re-certified with the latest AWS trends and keep your status as an AWS expert.

3. Getting Recognized For Your Efforts

This one is pretty simple: Now that we know knowing the Cloud is very important for our career, and we know that AWS is leading in this game and we need to learn it, we might as well get recognition for our efforts.

As an AWS-certified professional you would receive a digital badge for each certification exam you clear and they show your AWS achievements; You can use them on your LinkedIn profile and in your email signature. Also, just a little pro tip: Putting these digital badges in your LinkedIn profile would put you on recruiters’ radar faster you think. You have no idea how many messages I got in the first month after getting my first AWS certification.

Being AWS-Certified you would receive invites to regional Appreciation Receptions (Scroll reinvent.awsevents.com) and use your digital badge to get exclusive access to Certification Lounges at AWS re:Invent (which is an annual AWS Conference) and select AWS Summit events.

4. Badge of Commitment!

This actually may not apply to everyone, but if you are like me, and your employer pays attention to your efforts to help their business beyond your day-to-day responsibilities, your AWS certification digital badge can also turn into a Badge of Commitment for providing them with more value than you already do without them even asking for it.

You can also look at it this way, even though it’s not pretty: The business you are working for might be struggling to keep a full-team onboard because of the whole COVID situation. You are more likely to stay around if you are equipped with a certification that enables you to show your employer how they can save money during these financially tough times by moving parts of your infrastructure to AWS. That’s pretty much what I did a couple of years ago. If you haven’t heard the story, you can click on that little card on the top-right corner of your screen to watch it.

5. Hanging out with the Cool Guys!

AWS certification opens new doors and opportunities in front of you to share insights, struggles and experiences with other AWS certified professionals. There are over 400 AWS-focused User Groups across the world. At the time of recording this video, here in Australia only, we have 18 different users groups covering different aspects of AWS; there are groups for Lambda, Security, Data Engineering, Serverless and also dedicated groups for Women interested and working in AWS technologies. You also gain access to the AWS Certification Community on LinkedIn which offers exclusive content and connections for AWS-certified experts.

6. Free Practice Exams

This one is also pretty simple, and instantly encouraging: Once you get your first AWS certification, to help you prepare for your next one, AWS gives you a practice exam voucher so you can take it for FREE!

7. Accessing AWS Gear Store

Getting AWS-Certified also unlocks access to exclusive AWS merchandise. The more certifications you get, the more items in the store get unlocked for you!

8. Becoming a SME (Subject Matter Expert)

AWS is searching for qualified and certified professionals to participate in AWS Certification exam development events and calls them Subject Matter Experts. If you become a SME, you would participate in events that focus on the creation and review of exam content. This program alone can provide you with lots of opportunities to learn and grow professionally.

9. Joining APN

This last one could interest both you and your organization. Companies with enough number of AWS-certified professionals could participate in a program called APN which is short for AWS Partner Network, which gives them access to different resources and training to provide better services to their clients. The higher the number of certified staff, the more benefits and business opportunities would be available.

10. Cha-Ching!

In February 2020, I wrote about this. Based on a recent estimate from the Global Knowledge Salary Survey, AWS certification can improve the salary of a certified professional by over 25%. The average salary estimate for an AWS-certified professional is about $114K while the same number for a non-certified professional is $90.5K.

Obviously, not all AWS certifications are created equal and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are gonna get paid over 100K as soon as you get your first certification; but it shows that by getting certified, you would very much stack the deck in your favor.

Bottom Line

You might be working for a company that is currently paying for a bunch of network racks in a few data centers to host your infrastructure. Every time you’re onsite to check on them, pay attention to everyones’ equipment sitting in those solid racks, — and I myself have experienced this first hand — the racks would look emptier than before and that alone should be alarming enough for all of us to go learn cloud and get certified!