Matt | 03 October 2022

Accelerate Your AWS Skills With Hands-On Learning

If you are an AWS user, there is no escaping the fact that the cloud can be a complex place. To ensure that you are using it to its full potential, it is important to take the time to further your skills and teach yourself new ways to use the AWS system. AWS is a complex platform and can be overwhelming when it comes to advancing your skills.

AWS or Amazon Web Services can more succinctly be described as a secure cloud services platform. This platform will help you scale your business by providing services like database storage and content delivery, among other functionalities. Still, it’s a massive learning curve to make it part of your everyday software. Luckily, there are plenty of resources available to help accelerate your learning process in a way that’s more interactive.

Launch a static website

If you don’t have much experience with the AWS platform yet, one of the simplest things to do to get more familiar with AWS is to launch a static website. Deployment of a static website on AWS is also more affordable than a traditional hosting provider.

Launching a static website will help you get to know more about core services like Amazon S3, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Route 53, and AWS Certificate Manager. It may seem like there are many components involved, but if you follow tutorials and take the time to read up about each component, then it’s easy to follow.

Amazon S3 will allow you to create a container that holds your website files, while Amazon CloudFront will serve as a way to distribute your website. Amazon Route53 is a domain name registrar, and the AWS certificate manager will manage your SSL/TSL certificates.

Broken down into its component parts, it’s simple to understand and a great way for AWS beginners to get more hands-on experience.

Create a translating ChatBot

This project will give you a chance to practise your AWS skills in a different setting while also creating a useful tool. Architecting is an invaluable part of AWS, so it’s something that you need to learn, but why not make it fun?

The first step is to create a simple chatbot with the AWS console. You’ll need to create two separate Lambda functions: one to handle requests and another one for responses. The first function will be used by Alexa, and the second one will be used by Google Assistant or other tools like it.

Once your chatbot has been created in the console, you’ll need to add some code for AWS Lex, which allows you to take advantage of machine learning technologies such as natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision.

Google Translate is easy-to-use, fast and reliable enough for day-to-day use cases without being too expensive, so it’s great for a beginner AWS user.

Check Amazon’s Learning Centre for easy-to-follow guides

Amazon Learning Centre is one of the best places to find hands-on tutorials and project ideas for learning. It’s a free resource that’s packed with helpful learning content, easy-to-follow tutorials, guides and explainers for every part of the AWS platform, as well as offering project ideas to test and advance your skills.

The Learning Center contains tutorials for AWS services, such as AWS CloudFront and AWS CodeDeploy, or core AWS concepts like VPCs and Security Groups, but it also offers guides on how to use tools that integrate with AWS services.

Other topics like DevOps tools (Jenkins and Chef), continuous integration systems (Travis CI), source control management tools (GitHub) and popular programming languages like Python and Ruby are all included in Amazon’s free learning resources.

It’s something that all technology professionals should know about, even if you’re not planning on learning AWS. Simply keeping on top of the latest tools, technologies and procedures can help you to advance in your career.

Learn better with TSG Training

TSG Training offers a range of courses to help you excel in AWS. By learning to integrate Amazon services with other non-native products across the web, TSG Training offers up-to-the-minute training to give you real-world practical training so you can apply your knowledge in the real world.

We offer easy-to-follow guides and practice exams for all levels of AWS certification. These practice exams are a great way to prepare for the real exam, as they cover the same concepts that are tested on it.

If you want to gain formal learning experience, AWS courses can really help to advance your career in development. AWS skills include Cloud Practitioner Essentials, Data Warehousing on AWS and Security Engineering on AWS.

AWS can be a daunting platform to learn in the beginning, but it’s one of the most valuable tools to learn. It’s widely used in most technology companies and supports a large part of the websites that you access on a daily basis. Through a combination of formal training courses and hands-on practical experience, you’ll be able to maximise your skills and get the most out of the system.