How to become an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator?

AWS certifications have lately become one of the most distinguished tools to establish a career in cloud computing. It has now developed into a thought leader and has opened numerous career prospects for professionals around the world. The AWS SysOps Administrator certification will equip you with the knowledge of deployment, management, and operations. It will also teach you to execute and control the flow of information to and from the AWS platform. A great boon to your career, this certification validates your expertise and endows you with both, logistic and technical knowledge.

Significant characteristics of the AWS SysOps Administrator certification

The prime objective of the AWS SysOps Administrator certification is to validate your skills and proficiency in various important fields related to cloud computing. As defined by AWS, these skills are:

• Deployment, management, and operating scalable, fault-tolerant, and highly available systems on the AWS platform.
• Controlling and executing the flow of data
• Depending upon the data, compute, or security requirements, selecting the appropriate AWS service
• Recognizing the suitable use of the AWS operational best practices
• Migrating the on-premises workload to the AWS
• Estimating the usage cost of the AWS
• Classifying the operational cost control system

Steps to get your AWS SysOps Administrator certification

To get your SysOps Administrator certification authenticated by Amazon Web Services, you must register yourself and pass the certification exam at any Kryterion testing centers that are available internationally at over 750 locations.

While preparing for the exam, firstly, you must create a blueprint to manage the topics. Secondly, you are expected to go through the AWS concepts extensively. Thirdly, take practice tests and search for whitepapers and refer to other related papers. Mock tests will prepare you for the final test. Lastly, complete your syllabus and sit for the exam.

The preparation and the examination

To get the certification of the AWS  SysOps Administrator, you must  take training before the exam. This process will fully ramp you up with all the industrial skills and knowledge required to pass the exam.

During the training, a structured course is covered which is divided into seven domains, which are: Monitoring and reporting, high availability, deployment and provisioning, storage and data management, security and compliance, networking, and automation and optimization.

The first domain covers 22% of the questions in the exam. Here your ability to manage and examine would be assessed. In the second domain, your implementation and fault-tolerance skills based on requirements would be scrutinized. This section covers 8% of the entire paper. Domain three covers 14% of the questions. Your architectural design and management skills would be tested here. Domain four and five, cover 12% and 18% of the questions in the paper respectively. Skills related to disaster management, creating backups, enforcing compliance, implementation of security policies, data integrity, and preparing security models would be checked here. Domain six and seven incorporate the networking and the connectivity features of AWS. Here, skills related to optimizing the environment and identifying the application deployment potential would be analyzed. These two domains cover 14% and 12% (respectively) of the entire questions.

A candidate would get precisely 130 minutes to pass the examination. The exam has 60 multiple-choice questions with multiple-answers. The examination fee is $150 and is available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Korean. You can either opt for an online proctored exam or register at an AWS testing center. You have to get the certification renewed after every three years.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the test, you must be:

• Having an experience of one or more years as a system administrator where you were performing system roles with AWS
• Have an ability to monitor and audit the system performance
• Equipped with the knowledge to translate the architectural needs and requirements
• Decent understanding of the concepts of networking

Recommended pre-requisites

Having fundamental knowledge and skills before you take up the AWS SysOps Administrator certification, will turn out to be favorable for you. Following are the points that would be beneficial and need your contemplation:

• One-two years of minimum experience is required as a system administrator
• One year of the first-hand experience with the AWS is recommended
• Basic understanding of the AWS tenets and architecting for the cloud
• Experience with AWS CLI devices and SDKs/ADI is required
• Knowledge in system advancement and virtual technology would be helpful
• Awareness about the security controls
• Examining and observing the system experience
• Familiarity with the systems administration ideas
• Ability to translate the architectural needs would be beneficial
• Expertise in the networking concepts(firewalls, TCP/IP, DNS)

Salary and career openings

Reports suggest that the average income of those professionals who hold the AWS SysOps Administrator Certification is $130,610 per annum. Once you get your certification, you can expect gained credentials in deploying and managing product operations on AWS.

Reasons to get the AWS SysOps Administrator Certification

In case you are looking to advance your IT career, AWS certifications are a must. Following are some reasons which will compel you to get this certification:

• You can expect a boom in your cloud computing career through AWS certifications since AWS has been ruling the cloud infrastructure market for years
• You will get a first-hand highly scalable exposure on the AWS cloud platform
• Unlike other certifications, the AWS certifications will cover information on other AWS services too
• You are expected to have basic knowledge on storage, processing, and networking, no matter which AWS exam you take-up
• Test takers are expected to make a plan on how to take the test. This will enable you to think about various other aspects like, time, number of questions, retakes, etc.
• The certifications will qualify you with the all industry requirements, keeping you updated simultaneously

The crux

The road to get your AWS SysOps Administrator certification is simple but you need to have the right information so that you can choose the right path. The above-mentioned insights will enable you to take the appropriate steps. You must have accurate technical dexterity and knowledge but simultaneously, behavioral skills are imperative too. Collaboration skills and interpersonal communication would prove to be a real game-changer. In addition to this, you will also have a leading role in your firm as you will be more aware of the industry standards.