How to Gain Foundational AWS Knowledge

Over the last year I've worked on having my consulting firm become an AWS partner. In addition to the partnership, I've worked on becoming certified at both the Cloud Practitioner level and Associate level.

A common question I get is how to get started or how to gain the foundational knowledge with AWS. This article is meant to serve as a starting point for those interested in cloud computing and AWS.

For someone starting out, I recommend going through the Cloud Practitioner training offered by Amazon. This is a quick introduction on fundamental knowledge and cloud computing concepts.

After that, reading through the The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a great idea. The framework describes the key concepts, design principles, and architectural best practices for designing and running workloads in the cloud.

Once you've gone through the training and read the The AWS Well-Architected Framework it's time to get some hands on experience and familiarize yourself with some specific tools! For a good overview of AWS resources (Among other things), check out Tutorials Dojo. Here you'll find cheat sheets and several other resources on AWS and cloud technologies.

The final part is getting hands on experience. You can sign up and use the AWS Free Tier to begin some smaller projects. Some of the services are limited, but it's still a great feature to take advantage of to familiarize yourself with the AWS console.

An optional but recommended route is pursue the Cloud Practitioner exam. It is a foundational certification but can be valuable for those just starting out.

Good luck on your cloud journey!