AWS Learning Path and Strategy (2023)

Published:
  Lastmod: 2024-02-05
Learning
by Ernest Chiang

cat-learning-path (Illustration: A cat is required for happy learning, right? Let’s cats lead the way XDD Image source: Photo by hp koch on Unsplash。)

Volunteers of AWSUG Taiwan have always enthusiastically discussed how to lead newbies to get started with AWS more smoothly. Recently I organized all the AWS learning resources that you often discuss and some (unpopular?!) learning ideas that I found into an single article to share with you.

【(zh)2022 Video Edition】

Sharing by Wyne and Ernest at 2022-07 AWSUG Taiwan Taipei Meetup (in Chinese)

It’s hard to get started. As AWS cloud services grow from S3 and EC2 to one or two hundred cloud services, how should a new AWS novice go from outside the door, to introductory exploration, to grasp the context, and continue to improve? ?

AWS Learning Map by Heptabase (Illustration: This time I use Heptabase 1 to draw the learning map. The learning map portal is attached at the end of this article.)

Revision History

  • 2022-07: AWSUG Taiwan Meetup live streaming sharing
  • 2022-08: organized into a blog post in Chinese
  • 2022-09-04: extended to English version; published Heptabase Map with both English and Chinese content.
  • 2023-09: added external content.

Outline

  • Assumption
  • FAQ
  • About Learning
  • Modeling Tools
    • PDCA: Plan-Do-Check-Act
    • OGSM: Objectives-Goals-Strategies-Measures
    • SMART Goal Setting
  • Plan
    • 1. Determine your Location
    • 2. Set your Goals
    • 3. Identify your Resources
    • 4. Formulate your Strategy
  • Do
    • Go build…
  • Check
    • Errors, warning, logs, monitoring…
  • Act
    • Adjust, call for help, etc..

Before learning (Illustration: Before our learning journey.)

Assumption

  • Persona 1
    • I’m a novice, I didn’t write programming, I heard that AWS is good, want to come and learn
  • Persona 2
    • I have learned to code (on-premises), I want to see the cloud from the ground, and I want to learn AWS (which sounds like a much better cloud vendor)

FAQ

Q: There are so many nouns, but I don't know which one to start with?
  • Do children make choices?!
  • You can refer to the PDCA structure in this article to narrow the scope and make a simple learning plan that suits you.
  • For “too many nouns”, please refer to the “Notes” in the “About Learning” section.
Q: I am not an IT related major, can I study AWS?

Ernest, an AWS fan, is not an IT graduate himself. Thinking from another perspective, on the contrary, friends from non-information related departments can learn from the perspective of cross-domain learning, and have the opportunity to bring solutions to the application site faster. Giving yourself less constraints for now will create more flexibility in the future.

Here are a few examples. They are not graduates of IT-related departments, but they are all keen to learn AWS and even become cloud practitioners:

  • It’s never too late to re:invent yourself. | LinkedIn on 2016
    • During the global financial crisis 7 years ago, I was an unemployed immigration lawyer. After a lot of soul searching I decided to leave the legal world and pursue a career in IT. Today I have the honour of being named as an Amazon Web Services community hero.
  • An Australian Lawyer, Rejected by Amazon, Just Raised $9 Million for His Startup on 2017
    • The business is the brainchild of Australian expat Ryan Kroonenburg following a successful legal career in the United Kingdom, and his brother Sam.
    • He didn’t get the job with Amazon, but saw how expensive Amazon Web Services training was and thought it could be an opportunity to set up his online training.
    • Fast forward to 2017, and their startup, A Cloud Guru, has trained more than 250,000 students in 160 countries through courses costing as little as $US15.
Q: Have a problem and don't know who to ask?
  • No, actually you haven’t encountered a problem yet. You just find a good reason not to start learning first. —> Go back to 1234 of the Plan in the outline.
  • Write down the question.
    • Problem Solving
    • Notetaking
    • Decomposition
    • Essence
  • Community love
    • Find a AWS User Group (AWSUG) closes to you. e.g. AWSUG Taiwan
    • AWS re:Post gives you access to a vibrant community that helps you become even more successful on AWS
    • Open questions, open discussions, accumulate public knowledge, and grow together
  • Local service
  • Precision strike

About Learning

Plan

Plan 4 Phases (Illustration: 4-Phase Learning Plan.)

1. Determine your Location

Find your location with Maps

  • Grab the backbone first, then the details.
    • Recognize common nouns and write them down in your notes. —> Then draw the sequence, correlation, and dependency.
      • S3
      • Bucket
      • Object
      • File
      • Folder
    • With the integration of virtual and real, there must be a “real” landing in the end, and the last device must be installed in a certain geographical location. Use this principle to stack a frame, to link each other.
  • Map
    • Determine your location
      • Find something close to you to learn first, and then learn by analogy
        • 1️⃣ People who originally have computer system foundation and virtual machine foundation can consider learning from EC2, and then they will be exposed to EC2-dependent VPC, IAM, etc.
        • 2️⃣ People who originally have a container foundation can consider learning from ECS.
        • 3️⃣ People who have no computer system or container foundation can start learning from the application level, S3 or Serverless,
          • Don’t worry about how these desserts are made, try to taste them first,
          • The advantage is that you may be able to establish a good basic concept for yourself (of course, it may also be crooked).
    • outward
      • Cloud
      • Computer
        • Computing CPU + Memory —> Virtualization —> Container
        • Storage —> Data —> Database
      • Network
        • Open first,
        • then control.
      • Industrial application
      • Scale size
    • Inward
      • First scan the categories of all AWS services.
      • With the one line product description , quickly and roughly understand the possible use of each AWS service, have a brief concept first.
      • —> Search keyword: ernest aws list

Suggested artifacts outputs of this phase:

  • My AWS Map
    • When you draw a map yourself, your brain can feel it.
    • No matter it’s on a paper or a digital format, it generates a feeling after your drawing.
  • Examples

2. Set your Goals

Suggested artifacts outputs of this phase:

  • My Goal #1
    • S
    • M
    • A
    • R
    • T

3. Identify your Resources

Suggested artifacts outputs of this phase:

  • My Preferred Resource List (I mean, yours)
    • Someone likes to have more text format content
    • Someone likes to have more video format content
    • 80% of the content have similar coverage. Use those resources that you are willing to finish as higher priority.

4. Formulate your Strategy

  • The travel tips in the map
    • Tips for mountain climbing
    • Tips for finding great restaurants
  • Learning strategy —> according to each person’s physique, oh no, according to each person’s strengths and expertise
  • find correlation
  • find dependencies
  • Schedule time, step by step

Suggested artifacts outputs of this phase:

Bottom line

Most of the references are grouped together in the above paragraphs, and the References section is omitted here.

Finally, attach the entire AWS Learning Path & Strategy Knowledge Map portal. You can freely zoom the map by yourself, or open a card to flip through the content. If there is new content, I will continue to update it.

If you have tried to start your own AWS learning journey according to this map, welcome to meet me (or other volunteers) at AWSUG Taiwan Meetups or various community activities, and share your AWS learning journey with me (we), or let me know where this map can be improved further.

  1. Heptabase Visualized Notes ↩︎

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