Amazon Web Services (AWS) certifications have become a leading credential, partly because the need for cloud professionals is so great today and these certifications provide an excellent way of validating one’s proficiency in a specific domain.
Just behind cybersecurity, cloud computing
experiences the widest skills gaps across all disciplines, meaning not enough
professionals have the skills to successfully do the job. According to the IT
Skills and Salary Report, IT decision-makers say cloud computing is the second
hardest area to hire for (cybersecurity is no. 1).
To make matters worse, the demand for cloud
services continues to rise, leaving many organizations between a rock and a
hard place when it comes to sourcing and keeping skilled talent.
For these reasons, AWS certifications are also
associated with some of the highest salaries in the industry. A primary
example, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate ranks highly on our
15 Top-Paying Certifications List. In 2021, professionals with this
certification reported making an average of $159,033, ranking it in the top
three.
In compiling this list, we found that hundreds of IT Skills and Salary survey respondents in the US and Canada hold AWS certifications. So, we dug into the data to learn about the people who hold these certifications, how much they make (on average), and what makes them successful.
The data shows that on average these
professionals make $141,540 — ranking as one of the highest-paying
certification categories in North America.
But what goes into a salary like that? What skills or knowledge do you need to reach these levels of expertise? We break it down.
Snapshot: Top-Paying AWS Certifications
|
Certification |
2021 Average Salary |
|
AWS
Certified Solutions Architect – Professional |
$161,409 |
|
AWS
Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional |
$154,548 |
|
AWS
Certified Solutions Architect - Associate |
$153,142 |
|
AWS
Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate |
$158,777 |
|
AWS
Certified Developer – Associate |
$159,767 |
You Must Stay Dedicated to Earning AWS Certifications
When it comes to earning any certification, you
can count on it taking time and resources (perhaps several cups of coffee), to
acquire the knowledge or skill that will help you pass the exam.
Not only is it important to study the material,
but it also helps to reinforce these concepts with everyday tasks, hands-on
labs, or even with a colleague. By constantly challenging yourself and training
on new practices and principles, you separate yourself from the rest.
As it relates to cloud roles, this means fully
embracing and committing to the cloud, ensuring you have redundancy in
mind, and planning for all scenarios to keep data secure and available (and
costs down).
The Value of AWS Certifications Continue to Rise
As interest in AWS continues to increase, the
need to validate AWS skills through certification will continue to grow and
shine a light on the IT professionals who achieve these top-paying
certifications. From 2019 to 2021, the reported average salary of those with
the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate level increased by 17%. For
others on this list, the percentage is higher.
Learning the skills and practicing the concepts
helps pave the way to success. AWS offers resources such as hands-on practice
labs and quests prior to sitting for the certification exam.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT AWS CERTIFICATION FOR YOU
Depending on what career you want to pursue, it
will depend on which certifications are right for your goals. Let’s look at the
twelve current AWS certifications, what they cover, and what you need to do to
earn them.
Foundational Level Certification
The beginning of AWS certifications, this serves as
a highly recommended step before moving towards Associate level certificates.
AWS Cloud Practitioner
The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is designed
to validate one’s understanding of the Amazon Web Services Cloud. It is
recommended not only for technicians, but also those who work in a
non-technical role, who need to communicate about AWS to clients, like those in
finance, management, or business positions.
- Prerequisites: It
is recommended you have six months of general AWS cloud experience and
industry before taking this exam.
- Format: Multiple
choice questions Deployment and operating principles.
- Exam Length: 90
minutes.
Areas covered in this certification include:
- Basic
AWS architectural principles.
- Business
use cases and AWS value proposition.
- Key
AWS services and common use cases.
- AWS
security and compliance, including shared responsibility model for
security.
- Deployment
and operating principles.
- AWS
billing, support, and pricing.
Associate Level Certifications
It is recommended that you have about a year of
hands-on experience using AWS Cloud before taking the Associate level
certification exams.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
This certification verifies that you know how to
design, build, manage, and deploy systems in the AWS cloud. This exam is suited
for candidates with experience in designing distributed applications. You
should be familiar with AWS security and compliance guidelines before taking
this exam.
- Prerequisite: One
year of experience or equivalent study.
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer.
- Exam Time: 130
minutes (SAA-C02).
Some of the areas that will be covered in the
certification exam:
- Network
technologies in AWS Cloud, including configuration and management.
- Designing
and deploying AWS-based applications, how client interfaces connect to
AWS.
- Building
secure applications on AWS.
- Deploying
systems with on-premises data and AWS components (hybrid).
- Disaster
recovery and data security.
- AWS
infrastructure and concepts.
AWS Certified Developer – Associate
The AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam is
for individuals in a development role with one or more years of hands-on
experience developing and maintaining an AWS-based application. If you have
already earned the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certificate,
it is recommended that you study for this certificate, as many of the same
topics are covered in each.
This certification starts covering services like
Dynamo DB, Elastic Beanstalk, SQS, and SNS, as well using them with APIs and
SDKs.
- Prerequisite: One
year of experience
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer
- Exam Time: 130
minutes
Some of the proficiencies you must demonstrate in
this certification exam are:
- Using
core AWS services, uses, and basic AWS architecture best practices.
- Developing,
deploying, and debugging cloud-based applications using AWS.
- In-depth
knowledge of at least one high-level programming language.
- Ability
to use the AWS service APIs, AWS CLI, and SDKs to write applications.
- Ability
to identify key features of AWS services.
- Understanding
of the AWS shared responsibility model.
- Understanding
of application lifecycle management.
- Ability
to use a CI/CD pipeline to deploy applications on AWS.
- Ability
to use or interact with AWS services.
- Ability
to apply a basic understanding of cloud-native applications to write code.
- Ability
to write code using AWS security best practices (e.g., not using secret
and access keys in the code, instead using IAM roles).
- Ability
to author, maintain, and debug code modules on AWS.
- Writing
code for serverless applications.
- Understanding
the use of containers in the development process.
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator –
Associate examination is designed for system administrators. You will need one
year of hands-on technical experience and conceptual knowledge of AWS Cloud
operations. Having real world experience with deployment, management, and AWS
operations will help immensely when taking this certification exam.
- Prerequisite: One
year of technical experience with AWS.
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer.
- Exam Time: 130
minutes.
Some of the skills that will be verified by this
certificate are:
- Deployment,
management, and operation of scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant
systems on AWS.
- Implementation
and control of data flow to and from AWS.
- Selecting
the appropriate AWS service based on compute, data, or security
requirements.
- Familiarity
with appropriate use of AWS operational best practices.
- Estimating
AWS usage costs and identify operational cost control mechanisms.
- Migrate
on-premises workloads to AWS.
It is recommended that you have these
proficiencies before taking this exam:
- Understanding
of the AWS tenets – architecting for the cloud.
- Hands-on
experience with the AWS CLI and SDKs/API tools.
- Understanding
of network technologies as they relate to AWS.
- Understanding
of security concepts with hands-on experience in implementing. security
controls and compliance requirements.
- Understanding
of virtualization technology.
- Monitoring
and auditing systems experience.
- Knowledge
of networking concepts (e.g., DNS, TCP/IP, and firewalls).
- Ability
to translate architectural requirements.
Professional Level Certifications
Amazon recommends to years of full-time
designing, operating, and troubleshooting solutions using the AWS Cloud. You
should take the Associate level exams before moving on to the Professional
exams.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
The Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
certification requires a high degree of technical skill and experience
designing AWS-based applications.
A professional AWS architect can examine an
organization’s business and technological requirements and make recommendations
for their cloud architecture. The Cloud Solutions Architect can then design,
deploy, and maintain cloud applications for an organization.
It is recommended that a candidate have two or
more years of hands-on experience managing and operating AWS systems.
- Prerequisites: Already
earned AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification.
Recommended: two years of real-world experience designing and deploying
AWS cloud architecture, including multi-application architectural design.
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer.
- Exam Time: 180
minutes.
Here are some of the aptitudes this exam will
verify:
- Best
practices for designing and architecting AWS applications.
- Diagnosing
and selecting the best AWS services for the requirements of an organization.
- Migration
of complex, multi-tier application systems to AWS.
- Knowledge
of cost optimization and cost-control strategies.
- Ability
to design and deploy dynamically scalable, highly available,
fault-tolerant, and reliable applications on AWS.
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
exam is designed for individuals performing DevOps engineering duties, with at
least two years of experience provisioning, operating, and managing AWS
environments. This certification places emphasis on continuous delivery (CD)
and automation of processes, which are two primary concepts of DevOps.
- Prerequisites: One
year of experience
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer
- Exam Time: 180
minutes
Here are some of the skillsets this certification
will verify:
- Understanding
of the basics of modern continuous delivery methodologies.
- Implementing
and managing continuous delivery systems on AWS.
- Set
up, monitoring, and logging systems on AWS.
- How
to implement highly-available and scalable systems on AWS.
- How
to design and manage tools that automate operational processes.
- Implement
and automate security controls, governance processes, and compliance
validation.
Specialty Level Certifications
Each of the Specialty AWS certifications focus on
one area and require a deeper understanding and experience with that area of
focus. The Specialty certifications have a similar difficulty level as the
Professional certifications, but their focus is less broad and more specific,
in areas like big data, networking, databases, machine learning or other
focuses of AWS Cloud.
AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
The AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
certification is for IT professionals with a background in data analytics, who
has experience using AWS to design and architect big data solutions. The
certificate will verify the candidate can extract value from data sets using
AWS services. This exam validates your ability to build, secure, and maintain data
analytic solutions on AWS that are efficient, cost-effective, and secure.
- Prerequisites: At
least 5 years of experience with data analytics technologies, at least 2
years of hands-on experience working with AWS services to design, build,
secure, and maintain analytics solutions.
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer.
- Exam Time: 170
minutes.
This certification will validate you have these
skills and knowledge sets:
- Ability
to define AWS data analytics services and understand how they integrate
with each other.
- Explain
how AWS data analytics services fit in the data life cycle of collection,
storage, processing, and visualization.
AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
The AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
certification is designed for individuals performing complex networking tasks.
The certificate validates a candidate’s skills in enterprise networking on AWS
and hybrid IT networking architecture at scale. Candidates should have a
background in architecting and implementing network solutions and advanced
knowledge of networking on AWS.
- Prerequisites: Holding
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner cert, and one of the Associate certs: AWS
Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified Developer –
Associate, or AWS Certified SysOp Administrator – Associate. At least five
years hands-on experience architecting and implementing network solutions.
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer.
- Exam Time: 170
minutes.
It is also recommended that you have advanced
experience with these skills:
- Advanced
knowledge of AWS networking concepts and technologies.
- Advanced
networking architectures and interconnectivity options (e.g., IP VPN,
MPLS/VPLS).
- Networking
technologies within the OSI model, and how they affect implementation
decisions.
- Development
of automation scripts and tools.
- CIDR
and sub-netting (IPv4 and IPv6).
- IPv6
transition challenges.
- Generic
solutions for network security features, including WAF, IDS, IPS, DDoS.
protection, and Economic Denial of Service/Sustainability (EDoS).
Some skills validated by this exam are:
- Designing,
developing, and deploying cloud-based solutions using AWS.
- Implementation
of core AWS services using basic architecture best practices.
- Design
and maintenance of network architecture for all AWS services.
- Leveraging
tools to automate AWS networking tasks.
AWS Certified Security – Specialty
The AWS Certified Security – Specialty
certification is for individuals performing a security role with at least two
years hands-on experience securing AWS workloads. The certification covers
fundamentals of security, best practices for security in an organization, and
how security is implemented in AWS instances and environments. You will be
tested on your knowledge of data safety and encryption, infrastructure
security, incident response, access and user management, monitoring, and
security logging.
- Prerequisites: Two
years of hands-on experience securing AWS workloads; at least five years
of IT security experience designing and implementing security solutions.
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer.
- Exam Time: 170
minutes.
These abilities and skills will be validated when
you pass this certification:
- An
understanding of specialized data classifications and AWS data protection
mechanisms, data encryption methods and implementation.
- Practical
understanding of secure Internet protocols and implementation of AWS
security mechanisms.
- Working
knowledge of AWS security services and features that help create a secure
production environment.
- General
security competency gained from two or more years of production deployment
experience using AWS security services and features.
- Decision-making skills regarding cost, security, complexity of deployment and
maintenance, for a given set of application requirements.
- Knowledge
of security operations and risk assessment.
AWS Certified Database – Specialty
The AWS Certified Database – Specialty
certification shows that you can design, recommend, and maintain the optimal
AWS database solution for a use case. It also validates your understanding of
all the AWS database solutions offered, database architecture, integration, and
optimization. If you work with databases, and have at least two years of
experience with AWS Cloud databases, relational databases, and NoSQL databases,
then this is a certificate for you.
- Prerequisites: 5+
years of experience with databases; At least 2 years of hands-on
experience working on AWS. Experience and expertise working with
on-premises and AWS-Cloud-based relational and nonrelational databases.
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer.
- Exam Time: 180
minutes.
Here are some of the competencies this
certification will validate:
- Ability
to understand and differentiate the key features of AWS database services.
- Analyze
needs and requirements to recommend and design appropriate database
solutions using AWS services.
AWS Certified Alexa Skill Builder – Specialty
The AWS Certified Alexa Skill Builder – Specialty
certification validates technical experience in designing, testing, and
deploying Amazon Alexa skills. Anyone who works as an Alexa Skill Builder can
take this exam.
- Prerequisites: at
least six months of hands-on experience building Alexa skills using the
Alexa Skills Kit and should be proficient in a programming language.
Some of the topics you will be validated on
include:
- The
value of voice search.
- User
experience design.
- Proactively
implementing AWS and Alexa best practices for security.
- Creating,
testing, and validating for the skill.
- Working
with the Alexa Developer Console.
AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty
The AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty
certification validates a candidate’s ability to design, implement, deploy, and
maintain machine learning (ML) algorithms and solutions for a business case
use. The exam is for candidates who perform data science or algorithm
development. You should have at least two years of machine learning or deep
learning experience in AWS Cloud before taking this certification exam.
- Prerequisites: 1-2
years of experience developing, architecting, or running ML/deep learning
workloads on the AWS Cloud.
- Format: Multiple-choice,
multiple-answer.
- Exam Time: 180
minutes.
These are also things that you should have
possess before taking this certification exam:
- Ability
to express the intuition behind basic ML algorithms.
- Experience
performing basic hyperparameter optimization.
- Experience
with ML and deep learning frameworks.
- Ability
to follow model-training best practices.
- The
ability to follow deployment and operational best practices.
Here are some of the abilities and competencies
this exam will validate:
- Candidate
can choose and justify the best ML approach for a given business problem.
- Identifying
the relevant AWS solutions to create and deploy your ML solution.
- Designing and implementing cost-optimized, scalable, reliable, and secure ML solutions.