Four Major Updates of AWS Certifications Introduced from the Mid of 2020 & Start of 2021
Amazon Web Services, better known as AWS, never fails to prove itself in the race of upgrade and developments. Team of AWS always comes up with new and innovative ideas for years.
So, following the same trail, AWS started the year with the announcement of some huge changes till the year 2021. However, some have already been launched and some are on the way.
At the end of the further sections, you will be learning about some major changes launched by AWS by the end and start of February. These changes are related to the certifications provided by Amazon Web Services.
Before moving ahead with the upgrades, have a look onto AWS and AWS certification.
A glance at AWS and AWS Certifications
AWS is a big name in the IT industry for providing cloud computing and other cloud services. From cloud computing to cloud storage and APIs, AWS has established its trustworthy name in the technology world.
They have numerous products for, analytics, application integration, containers, cost management, blockchain, database, developer tools and so on which are used as a core tool in many organizations for storage and management of their data.
As a result, in the current scenario, many big companies and start-ups require professionals to manage their data on AWS cloud products. To validate the abilities for the same, AWS added AWS certifications in their list of services to certify individuals who possess the skills to deal with their products. This made the task of hiring people easier for employers and increased the chances of being hired for employees.
Adding to this, the products by AWS are easy to tackle when used at personal levels, AWS offers many guidebooks for using their products, but when it comes at commercial and professional levels, the infrastructure used are huge in numbers and require professionals to deal with the traffic and security.
Global Stand of AWS Certification
AWS certifications were launched in the year 2013, since then, these certifications managed to win the trust and authenticity of big organizations, increasing the credibility of the employees.
It has been years that AWS certifications have retained their top position in the list of reputed and skilled certifications.
AWS certified individuals have to undergo and qualify some relevant exams to get the title.
However, there are levels of certifications from a practitioner to associate and from this to expert level certifications, but with every certification, one can get a reputed and good-paid job easily.
AWS certifications allow the individual to be eligible for job roles like AWS Solutions Architect, AWS Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Cloud Architect and many more.
The 4 Major Changes in AWS certification
As mentioned earlier, AWS never failed to shock their users with innovative products and convenient changes in the certification process. This time, AWS has introduced the following four major changes only at the beginning of 2021.
The changes are as follows:-
- Beta AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02)
The AWS SysOps Administrator is an Associate level exam. However, there was already an exam for the same. But the systems have been updated in AWS, therefore, an updated version of SysOps Administrator- Associate has been launched.
Although the exam is still in beta form, which is expected to be generalized by the Q3 of 2021.
The beta version of SOA-C02 was made available for registration by the end of 2020 with a discount rate of USD 75. Adding to this, the exam will take place from 16th February 2021 to 26th March 2021. Also, the exam will be of 220 minutes and the results will be announced after 90 days of the end date of the beta exam. If someone has missed the date for SOA-C02 Beta, he/she can wait for the general exams of the same.
Meanwhile the New SysOps Administrator beta, the older version will still work in the same way as earlier. The SysOps Administrator validates the ability of one’s skillfulness in dealing, deploying, managing, networking and security related stuff on AWS.
- Get AWS Certified from home!
The biggest news of any AWS certification aspirant is here. Now they can enroll and appear in the exam from their home, office or any private space with good internet access, PC and a webcam. This new system is named as Online Proctoring on AWS’ official site.
AWS has introduced this online proctoring for every certification available to gain the title AWS certified.
Although there are some precautions that need to be followed during the exam. The candidate will be observed by the proctor remotely. The candidate will have to share the screen displaying with proctor and the web camera has to be on during the exam.
The registration for Online Proctoring can be done on the sites of the test conducting partners of AWS, i.e. Pearson VUE and PSI. It is recommended to schedule the test earlier for convenience. For now, the online proctoring test is available in English at PSI. Whereas, Pearson VUE offers the tests in English and Japanese both.
- Digital Badges of AWS Certified
AWS has come up with this new idea of Digital Badges for the convenience of employees and employers to showcase and verify easily.
The badge will be automatically generated after qualifying the AWS certification exam. Which can be showcased or published on public domains and resumes. These badges will have an easy path to verify the status of your acquired certification.
The badges will be provided by Credly’s Acclaim platform. It can be posted on social media and other platforms helping you to increase your network without disturbing your certificate authenticity or security.
Point to mention, if one has generated the badge earlier from CertMetrics for verification, then he/she has to update their badge from Credly’s Acclaim platform by 1st of August 2021.
- AWS IQ Certified
After acquiring the AWS certifications, it is not important to just go with the monotonous workflow. An AWS certified professional can register as an AWS IQ certified and help the customers to complete the projects faster in their free time.
It is like showcasing your skills and keeping on polishing it through freelancing of AWS cloud skills. However, there is a complete process to become an AWS IQ certified but it is completely worth it. One can find more details for the same on the official site of AWS for AWS IQ experts. (https://iq.aws.amazon.com/?utm=dp)
A point to note is, AWS is a non-stop developing company, they are constantly making updations in their pre-existing products to make it better and always try to come up with new innovative products. Maybe, during the time you are done with reading this, there is some new announcement made by AWS.