The Amazon Web Services would now include one more certification exam that would be included in its existing list of AWS certification exam. There would also be changes in two of the pre-existing AWS certification exams. Considering the relevance and importance of AWS certification exams it would be of value to get an insight into the changes that have been introduced.
There have been three changes in particular. One of the existing AWS certification exams, the AWS Certified Big Data- Specialty has been renamed to AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty. Certain other updates are also anticipated in the particular certification exam. Another AWS certification exam, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect- Associate exam has been updated with particular modifications and a new AWS certification exam, the AWS Certified Database- Specialty Certification has been introduced.
AWS Certified Database – Specialty Certification
One can very well determine by the name itself that the certification concerns those involved with the AWS databases. The certification requires candidates that they acquire an experience of at least five years in work pertinent to database technologies. Various skills and abilities would be evaluated in the certification exam and all related AWS services would be part of the certification test.
In particular, a candidate must be acquainted with areas of security, design, migration, troubleshooting, monitoring, access, maintenance and deployment. The relevant AWS Services would include Amazon RDS, Database Migration Service, Timestream, DynamoDB, RedShift, Aurora, Amazon Neptune, DocumentDB, Amazon Quantum Ledge Database, ElastiCache and Amazon RDS on VMware.
The certification exam would validate the ability of a candidate to recognize and distinguish the number of AWS Database services and their usage in the implementation and architecture of database solutions according to the requirements. The beta version of this newly added certification exam is anticipated around November 25 -January 10 of this year. The general availability of the certification is anticipated in April 2020. The exam would be patterned like the rest of the AWS certification exams and one can overview the content through the domains and their respective weight.
Workload-specific Database Design (26%)
Deployment and Migration (20%)
Management and Operations (18%)
Monitoring and Troubleshooting (18%)
Database Security (18%)
Updated AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Certification
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate certification exam is subject to updates that would bring significant changes to it. The beta model of the new exam model would be between 4 November to 29 November of 2019. The final updated version of the certification exam is anticipated in March 2020.
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate certification exam would remain pertinent to the currently involved professional Solution architects who are familiar with the implementation, security, and architecture of certain solutions that this certification would validate for use on the AWS platform.
The changes that would be introduced would thereby change the criteria and specificities of the exam. In essence, the parameters to qualify the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam would change.Candidates, however, can still register for the currently available version of this certification exam until the new version replaces it in March 2020.
The following changes could be observed:
The earlier five domains would now be reduced to four domains. The last domain that concerns the definitions of architectures that are operationally effective would be removed altogether.
The domain that dealt with designing resilient architecture would now weigh 30% instead of 34% in the exam.
Designing high performing architectures would be subject to evaluation in the second domain and would weigh 28%.
Instead of specifying, the designing of secure applications and architecture would be evaluated and it would weigh 24%
Domain four that concerns with the designing of cost-optimized architecture would now weigh 18% than the previous 10%. This would also make up as the last domain of the exam.
The assessment points of Domain 1 would fairly be retained in the new version as it is in the present version of the exam.
Domain 2 would observe the most changes be it the points of the elasticity or scalability, or the omission of caching and its application in the improvement of performance, the necessity of understanding how to use high performing networking solutions.
Instead of mere knowledge of the definitions of VPC, for the AWS resources, the Domain 3 would now require the understanding of defining secure access.
The assessment points in domain 4 are mostly retained however it would now include the design of optimized-cost network architecture.
Updated AWS Certified Data Analytics- Specialty
This particular AWS certification would be known by its updated name, replacing the current name of AWS certified Big Data – Specialty certification exam.
Much like the AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate certification exam, this renamed certification would also be subject to certain updates that would be of utmost importance to those who pursue it.
The beta version of the revised certification exam is anticipated from December 2 to January 10 of 2019.
The certification exam would be available in general from March 2020 after which the current version of this certification won’t exist.
The name change of this certification results in the changes that keep recurring to big data and data analytics in general. AWS also claimed that the revised name resonated better with what is meant by the work that it addresses and incorporates. The designing, securing, building and maintaining of analytics solutions would be evaluated in the revised version of the certification exam. A candidate would need knowledge and ability to collect, process and store data that would be used in the solutions. The ideal candidate for this certification would be one who concerns professionally with data analytics and has experience of at least one year with AWS services. The revised certification exam would retain only five domains instead of the existing six domains.
One of the major changes include the merger of two of the distinct domains of Analysis and visualization within one. In the updated certification exam this domain would weigh 18% of the exam replacing the current 17% and 12% for analysis and visualization respectively.
Domain 2 would also include data management along with storage in the revised version and the overall domain would weigh 22%.
These new changes that are anticipated in the AWS certification exam would also lead to new learning paths in AWS and that would be of utmost value to candidates who prepare for AWS certification exams. Therefore it would be useful that these changes are considered with a degree of seriousness and the functional purpose of these changes be comprehended well for the benefit of all who deal with the AWS certification exams.
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