With AWS re:Invent 2019 just around the corner, we can expect some early announcements to trickle through with upcoming features and services. However, AWS has just announced some big changes to their certification exams.
So what’s changing and what’s new?
In this article, we’ll take a look at each of these in greater detail, starting with probably the biggest news: the new AWS certification. If you’re interested in getting AWS certified, check out Cloud Academy’s AWS Training Library. Since the best preparation for certification exams is practical experience, our certification training is more dynamic than other learning paths. By mixing theory and practical work, you are able to absorb all the information you need to pass the exam and start gaining real-world experience.
As the name implies, this is suitable for those who have an active role working with AWS databases, and it’s recommended that you have at least five years of experience working with common database technologies. It has been designed to assess the candidate’s ability and understanding of the design, migration, deployment, access, maintenance, automation, monitoring, security, and troubleshooting across all database services (relational and NoSQL) offered by AWS. As a result, we could expect to see questions covering the following services:
This is aimed to prove and validate your knowledge in being able to identify and differentiate the differences between the AWS database services, and how to use those to implement and architect different database solutions to fulfill specific needs and requirements.
AWS is expected to have the beta version of this certification available between November 25, 2019 – January 10, 2020. As with all beta certifications, there will be a period of approximately 90 days between the beta end date and the general availability of the certification. With that in mind, this is expected to be available around April 2020.
The content of the exam itself is as usual as per all AWS certifications, defined by a series of domains. These domains are as follows and carry the associated percentage weighting for your final score:
The assessment points for each of these domains are as follows:
To gain further insight into this certification, please see the official AWS exam guide.
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification is arguably the most popular exam currently available with AWS, and so these changes will resonate with a lot of people looking to achieve this certification.
This updated exam is still designed for those who play an active role as a solutions architect and will still assess the candidate’s ability to be able to implement, architect, and secure applications and architectures across the AWS platform. By achieving this certification, it validates your expertise and knowledge in being able to define specific solutions using the appropriate services and features, maintaining best practices to meet the requirements of both business and customer needs.
For this update, AWS is going to refine the requirements needed to pass this exam. This includes updated domains and new assessment points within these domains.
For those who are looking to take this certification, you will want to know that the beta period for this new and updated exam is expected to be released on November 4, 2019, and run through November 29, 2019. As a result, the expected general availability of this new certification is March 2020.
However, do be aware that the current AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam will still be available to sit and take during this beta period and up to March 2020. The current exam, which is available today, will then cease to exist when the new updated exam for this certification is made generally available. This means, for a short period in November, you can either take the current exam or new beta exam version.
So what’s changing between the two exams? Looking at the exam guide issued by AWS, I can see the following changes:
Current Exam | Updated Exam (2020) |
Domain 1: Design Resilient Architectures (34%) | Domain 1: Design Resilient Architectures (30%) |
Domain 2: Define Performant Architectures (24%) | Domain 2: Design High-Performing Architectures (28%) |
Domain 3: Specify Secure Applications and Architectures (26%) | Domain 3: Design Secure Applications and Architectures (24%) |
Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (10%) | Domain 4: Design Cost-Optimized Architectures (18%) |
Domain 5: Define Operationally Excellent Architectures (6%) |
Looking at this table, the following points are the main domain changes to be made aware of:
The below table shows a comparison between the current and the updated exam assessment points.
Looking at these points, I can summarize the following changes:
To gain further insight into this certification, please see the official AWS exam guide.
There are two updates to this certification. Firstly, a new name. This certification is currently known as the “AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty” certification. Secondly, along with this name change comes an updated exam (much like I just discussed with the Solutions Architect – Associate).
AWS explained that the name has changed due to the fact that Data Analytics and Big Data currently represent a rapidly changing field within the cloud, and the term “data analytics” more closely aligns with language heard and discussed within the industry.
This updated certification has been designed to demonstrate that you have a clear understanding of how to use different AWS services to design, build, secure, and maintain analytics solutions. You will also need to understand how to collect, process, and store data to be used within your solutions. Therefore, it’s aimed at individuals who have a role that centers around data analytics with a minimum of one year of experience in designing available, cost-effective, fault-tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on AWS.
Again, this exam will go through a beta period, which is expected to start on December 2, 2019 – January 10, 2020, with a generally available date expected of April 2020.
Much like with the updated AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam, you will still be able to sit and take the AWS Certified Big Data during this beta period and up to April 2020. The current Big Data cert will then cease to exist when the new updated exam for this certification is made generally available.
Let me now take a look at what’s changing in the exam, starting with the domain structure:
Big Data Exam | Data Analytics Exam |
Domain 1: Collection (17%) | Domain 1: Collection (18%) |
Domain 2: Storage (17%) | Domain 2: Storage and Data Management (22%) |
Domain 3: Processing (17%) | Domain 3: Processing (24%) |
Domain 4: Analysis (17%) | Domain 4: Analysis and Visualization (18%) |
Domain 5: Visualization (12%) | Domain 5: Security (18%) |
Domain 6: Data Security (20%) |
The main changes include:
The below table shows a comparison between the current and the updated exam assessment points.
Looking at these points, I can summarize the following changes:
To gain further insight into this certification, please see the official AWS exam guide.
You should hopefully now have a better understanding of the AWS Certification changes that are coming into force. Here at Cloud Academy, we have already started building out new Learning Paths covering all assessment points in these new exam guides to ensure that you will be prepared to sit and take these certifications with confidence when they become generally available.
If you are looking to take any other Cloud Academy Learning Paths, check out our current list of all our Certification Learning Paths covering all major public cloud vendors.
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