AWS Solutions Architect Associate Course

Cloud is now the default way Australian organisations run their technology, and Amazon Web Services is the most widely used platform in the country. Banks, government departments, retailers and startups are all building on it, which means the people who can design well on Amazon Web Services are in steady demand and are paid accordingly.

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate is one of the most recognised cloud certifications in the Australian job market. Employers list it by name in job ads, because it tells them you can design systems that are secure, reliable and cost-aware, not just spin up a server. For someone moving from a support, networking or development background into cloud, it is one of the clearest ways to show you are ready for an architecture role.

Roles this certification supports in Australia include solutions architect, cloud architect, cloud engineer, AWS engineer, infrastructure engineer and DevOps engineer. Cloud architecture sits among the better paid roles in IT, and demand has held up even when other parts of the market have softened, because organisations keep migrating and keep optimising what they already run.

According to Seek, cloud and AWS professionals in Australia typically earns an average annual salary of $150,000, depending on their specific role, location, and seniority.

Candidates can achieve AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification by passing the following exam.

AWS Solutions Architect – Associate Exam (SAA-C03)

The exam is not included in the course fee. It is booked and paid separately through Pearson VUE. As an authorised test centre, you can sit the exam at our premises, at another VUE centre, or online.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate course material is included, provided in digital format for flexibility and ease of use.

• Design systems on Amazon Web Services that stay available when an availability zone or component fails
• Secure a workload properly, controlling access with Identity and Access Management and protecting data with encryption and sensible network controls
• Choose the right compute, storage and database service for a given requirement, and explain why
• Loosely couple the parts of an application using queues, notifications and events so it scales and recovers well
• Scale capacity automatically with demand and distribute traffic with load balancing
• Plan backup and disaster recovery to meet a stated recovery time and recovery point objective
• Improve performance with caching and content delivery
• Estimate what a design will cost and apply pricing models, storage tiering and right sizing to bring that cost down
• Review an architecture against the Well-Architected Framework and justify the trade-offs you have made

This course is likely to add to the employment related skills of the participants. The skills developed are likely to be used in the course of being an employee or working in a business.

This course is intended for people who design solutions on Amazon Web Services, including:

• Solutions architects and solution-design engineers
• Cloud engineers and systems administrators moving into architecture
• Developers who want to understand how to architect on Amazon Web Services
• Anyone working towards the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate certification

• How Amazon Web Services is structured around regions, availability zones and edge locations, and why that structure matters when you design for availability and latency
• The shared responsibility model, what Amazon Web Services secures and what stays your job
• How you reach and manage services through the console, the command line and infrastructure as code
• The Well-Architected Framework and its pillars, used throughout the course as a way to judge whether a design is sound
• Controlling who can do what with Identity and Access Management, including users, groups, roles and policies, and why roles are preferred over long-lived keys
• Protecting data at rest and in transit, including encryption with the Key Management Service and certificate management
• Securing the network with Virtual Private Clouds, subnets, security groups, network access control lists and private connectivity
• Keeping credentials and application secrets out of code using services built for that purpose
• Practical patterns for least privilege access and for separating workloads across accounts
• Spreading workloads across multiple availability zones, and when a multi region design is worth the extra cost and effort
• Loosely coupling the parts of a system using queues, notifications and event services so one failure does not bring everything down
• Distributing traffic with load balancing and scaling capacity up and down automatically with demand
• Backup, restore and disaster recovery, including how to set realistic recovery time and recovery point objectives and how to choose a recovery approach to match them
• Designing for graceful failure rather than assuming nothing will break
• Choosing the right compute for the workload, comparing virtual machines, containers and serverless functions
• Selecting storage that fits the need, comparing object, block and file storage and matching each to the right use
• Picking the right database, comparing relational, in-memory and key value options and understanding when each one is the better choice
• Improving speed and reach with caching and a content delivery network
• Designing networking and data flows that perform well as load grows
• Understanding the pricing models, including on demand, reserved capacity, spot and savings plans, and when each one saves money
• Matching storage classes and lifecycle rules to how often data is actually used
• Right sizing resources so you are not paying for capacity you do not need
• Monitoring and controlling spend with cost reporting, budgets and alerts
• Reducing avoidable costs such as unnecessary data transfer between services and regions
• Working through realistic scenarios where you weigh competing priorities, such as availability against cost, or performance against simplicity
• Reviewing a design against the Well-Architected pillars and explaining the trade-offs you made

We recommend setting aside time for self study during the course to review and consolidate each topic, so you are well prepared for the exam.

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• AWS Business Essentials Course
• Media Essentials for IT Business Decision Makers Course
• AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Course
• AWS CloudOps Administrator Associate Course
• AWS Developer Associate Course
• AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty Course
• AWS Certified Machine Learning Specialty Course
• AWS Certified Security Specialty Course
• Advanced Developing on AWS Course
• Planning and Designing Databases on AWS Course
• Deep Learning on AWS Course

Get our expert trainers at your premises. Logitrain can tailor the AWS Solutions Architect Associate course to your team’s skills, your systems and your goals, delivered at your office or live online anywhere in Australia.

Contact us on 1800 159 151 to discuss in-house training for your organisation.

What is the AWS Solutions Architect Associate course?
It is a hands-on course that follows the Architecting on AWS curriculum and prepares you for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam, SAA-C03. You learn to design and deploy secure, scalable and cost-effective solutions on Amazon Web Services.

Is the certification exam included?
No. The SAA-C03 exam is booked and paid separately through Pearson VUE. Logitrain is an authorised test centre, so you can sit the exam with us, at another VUE centre, or online.

What are the prerequisites?
Basic familiarity with AWS, common networking concepts, multi-tier architectures and general cloud computing ideas. You do not need to be an expert, and the course starts with the fundamentals.

How long is the course and how is it delivered?
It runs over three days full-time, or across three weeks part-time. You can attend in person in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, or live online across the rest of Australia, delivered live in real time with a trainer.

How much does it cost?
From $1,699. We also offer a price beat guarantee, so if you find the same course advertised for less we will beat the price.

What is the difference between Architecting on AWS and the Solutions Architect certification?
Architecting on AWS is the name of the training course. AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate is the certification you earn by passing the SAA-C03 exam. This course is the training that prepares you for that certification.

What jobs does this certification support?
Roles such as solutions architect, cloud architect, cloud engineer and solution-design engineer. It is one of the most widely recognised AWS certifications in the Australian market.

What is included in the course fee?
A certificate of attendance, digital course material, mock and practice questions, access to our authorised test centre and our price beat guarantee.