AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
This training is for everybody. All you need is an Amazon account (free) and there is FREE training from Amazon. Granted, you can't just sit and watch a few hours of videos and walk into an IT job off the street, but if you're already in IT and you are going to do anything in AWS, you need to take the training.
The course will not make you an expert. However, it will give you a familiarity with the AWS platform. That's actually important. Granted, most people taking this course (or reading this post) will already have some cloud credential. I took this course after I attained the CCSP (Cloud Certified Security Professional) and found it very useful. Each cloud provider calls the same concept (or technology) by their own proprietary name. And you can spend a lot of time and effort describing a security control and when they say "oh, you mean _X_"... it places them in the "expert" chair instead of you. Learn the terms and know what the features and offerings can and cannot do. When you can use their specific terminology and point directly at what needs to be in place, it helps you to be more effective and eliminates a lot of excuses.
The course itself is not that long (6 hours) and is presented in an interesting manner. It's not 6 hours of "PowerPoint coma material" - but is broken into bite size chunks with interesting visuals. This is something you can go through on your lunch break each day and finish it up in a little over a week. The knowledge checks are short and simple. There is a 30 question knowledge check at the end of the course. It is entirely for your benefit and passing does not lead to anything. The course is marked "complete" when you finish all the videos.
If you need to pause the training, use the || button on the progress bar. Clicking on the video will pause the video, but the progress bar will continue to advance. If you click the continue button after pausing only the video, you will miss part of the video and it will resume at the point of the progress bar. Sometimes it will complete the progress bar and pop you into the next video (while you thought you were on pause). Use the button at the bottom and it will actually pause the training properly.
I'm not confident that this training alone will prepare you for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) Exam. The exam guide mentions this training along with the AWS Technical Essentials (classroom) course and AWS Business Essentials (classroom) course as recommended training. There are also several Whitepapers that are recommended along with six months of AWS experience in any role.
There is additional (not free) training at INE - a 2 hour course "AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner" taught by Rick Crisci. (I intend to take that next.) Searching (company provided) Skillsoft and Books 24x7 for Cloud Practitioner doesn't lead to any relevant courses. However, there are a number of hits for "AWS" which may be helpful. There are some "Live Lesson" videos and an official Study Guide on Safari Books Online (also not free). And there are a few Cert Guide books for this exam (if you do an Amazon search). For those who like to have a physical book in their hands, there are a few to choose from on Amazon.
Personally, I'm going to use the AWS training, Live Lessons training, Anthony Sequeira's Certification Guide and the INE training. [Anthony taught in quite a few CCIE videos for INE back in the day. His tips on exam taking were quite memorable, so I look forward to reading his book.] Then I'll follow the Whitepapers in the Exam Guide along with the content outline. Then I think I'm going to take a shot at the exam. It's going to be unsettling that the other two recommended training classes are not online and free like the Essentials class. But I'm guessing that actually reading the Whitepapers and the Cert Guide may make up for skipping that training.
Also note that this is an entry level exam/training. It was recommended in the introductory information for the AWS Security Fundamentals course. The AWS Certified Security Specialty (SCS-C01) Exam Guide also recommends two three-day courses that I do not intend to take. From my experience with IT certifications, there's always a long way around to the material. It takes a lot more effort, but you really can get the same information by going to the source material (documentation).
