Expedition into the Cloud: My Exciting AWS Solutions Architect Certification Journey
Welcome back, tech enthusiast! In this series of blog posts, I’m excited to document my journey toward earning the AWS Cloud Solutions Associate (CSA) certification. Although I missed the chance to record my experiences during my AWS Cloud Practitioner journey, I’m committed to sharing what I learn each week and the resources I utilize this time around. As part of my certification quest, I’ve enrolled in the AWS CloudUp Program, a program specifically designed to aid women in earning their CSA certification.
WEEK 2: An Insightful Review of Simple Storage
I’m thrilled to share my adventurous journey toward becoming a dedicated FinOps engineer. Finally, I’ve made my decision! As an avid learner, I’m filled with immense joy as I delve deeper into the intriguing world of cloud computing. Today, I’m eager to share a slice of my journey with all of you.
Diving into S3
My week began with studying AWS S3, an incredibly simple yet impressively scalable object storage system. Whether it’s photos, videos, text files, and more, S3 can accommodate a variety of data types. However, it’s not designed for running operating systems or databases. One fascinating feature of S3 is its capability to provide unlimited storage for objects, each up to 5 TB in size!
The way S3 operates is somewhat similar to folders, maintaining a globally unique namespace. This uniqueness is strictly enforced that it can’t be duplicated. The concept of version IDs and metadata also formed a crucial part of my learning, playing vital roles in data management and understanding AWS S3’s functionalities.
The Technical Aspects of S3
Interestingly, I had the opportunity to upload a static website to an S3 bucket, which allowed me a first-hand understanding of versioning, offering an added layer of data protection to our files. I explored the various storage classes and understood the significance of options like frequent and infrequent access, along with Glacier options for long-term storage.
Understanding the difference between governance mode and compliance mode, the concept of a retention period, and legal holds in Glacier Vault were also part of my learning curve this week. This in-depth understanding of AWS services equips me to drive financial efficiency in cloud environments.
Finally, I studied various encryption types like encryption in transit, encryption at rest, server-side encryption, and client-side encryption. The enforcement of these policies for enhanced security formed an important part of my learning journey.
Conclusion
All these experiences have been instrumental in my development as I strive to become a FinOps engineer. Cloud computing, with its numerous solutions, provides myriad opportunities to explore and learn, and I’m truly relishing every moment of this journey. My aim is to apply these learnings to enhance financial efficiency and operational excellence in the cloud computing realm.
Stay tuned for week 3 — I’ll be taking on EC2! As I progress on this enriching path, I promise to share more of my explorations and learnings in future posts. Until then, keep learning and keep innovating!
Resources
To prepare for the AWS CSA certification, I am leveraging the following resources:
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- . Cloud Guru
- 2. AWS Skill Builder
- 3. AWS Educate
- 4. Coursera
- 5. Adrian Cantrill’s CSA Course
- Please feel free to comment, share, like, retweet, and follow me on Twitter at @NicoleTalksTech.
