AWS (Amazon Web Services) is the most widely used cloud platform in the world today. With many organisations migrating their infrastructure to the cloud, there is a high demand for professionals with expertise in AWS services. With this in mind, AWS Cloud Engineers are highly sought after! Meanwhile, the average salary for AWS Cloud Engineers is around $122,357 per year, according to Glassdoor.
In this guide, we’ll look at everything you need to know to become an AWS Cloud Engineer, and how TryHackMe can help you get there.
What is an AWS Cloud Engineer?
An AWS (Amazon Web Services) Cloud Engineer is a professional responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining cloud infrastructure solutions using AWS services.
AWS is a leading cloud computing platform, and a Cloud Engineer specialising in AWS works with various AWS products and services to help organisations migrate to the cloud, optimise their infrastructure, and leverage the benefits of cloud computing!
Responsibilities of an AWS Cloud Engineer
The key responsibilities of an AWS Cloud Engineer include:
- Architecture Design: Designing scalable, reliable, and cost-effective cloud architectures based on the specific requirements of the organisation.
- Implementation: Implementing and deploying cloud solutions using AWS services, ensuring that the infrastructure meets performance, security, and compliance standards.
- Automation: Writing scripts and utilising automation tools (e.g., AWS CloudFormation, Terraform) to automate the deployment and management of infrastructure and applications.
- Security: Implementing security best practices, configuring identity and access management (IAM) policies, and ensuring data protection within the AWS environment.
- Monitoring and Optimisation: Setting up monitoring tools to track the performance of AWS resources, identifying areas for improvement, and optimising costs by selecting the right types and sizes of instances.
- Troubleshooting and Support: Diagnosing and resolving issues related to cloud infrastructure, collaborating with support teams, and providing technical support.
- Collaboration: Working with cross-functional teams, including developers, system administrators, and other IT professionals, to ensure seamless integration of cloud services with existing systems.
- Documentation: Creating and maintaining documentation for the implemented AWS infrastructure, configurations, and procedures.
How do I become an AWS Cloud Engineer?
To become an AWS Cloud Engineer, you will need a range of technical and coding skills, along with a strong knowledge of cloud computing and AWS. To become an entry-level AWS Cloud Engineer, you’ll also need a combination of education and hands-on experience.
Here are the steps you can follow:
Laying the foundations
If you’re at the beginning of your learning journey, you’ll want to start with the basics to ensure you have a strong foundation. We recommend that you brush up on some general fundamentals first, which include:
Mastering AWS fundamentals
Of course, mastering AWS fundamentals is key! This includes the core fundamentals required to use Amazon Web Services, understanding how permissions work, security misconfiguration, Serverless components, AWS Lambda functions, Step functions, and the key concepts required to enumerate, exploit and persist across IAM.
With TryHackMe’s NEW AWS Attacking & Defending Security Training, we’ll walk you through all of the above! When you purchase our training, you’ll gain hands-on access to various attack scenarios, immersed in a real sandboxed AWS environment. Our training is created and approved by leading AWS professionals, ensuring you access the very best training for your money.
Geared towards individuals seeking to master the intricacies of AWS security, the training is promised to be a game-changer in the realm of cloud-based cyber security. TryHackMe provides an interactive and practical platform to enhance your skills, making your transition into the world of AWS both educational and enjoyable.
You’ll be able to take advantage of:
- Full access to AWS training
- Five different training modules
- Simulated real-world environments
- Gamified labs
- AWS training certification
So if you’re looking to embark on a new career as an AWS Cloud Engineer, this training is for you!
Staying updated
The cloud landscape evolves rapidly. Stay informed by participating in the AWS community, reading AWS blogs, and attending webinars. TryHackMe's discussion forums are a great place to connect with like-minded learners.
What better way than keeping up with everything AWS, than keeping up with news articles from Amazon Web Services? Featuring daily news stories, you’ll be able to keep up with the latest in the AWS world. We also advise you to regularly review the official AWS documentation, which is updated continuously with new features, best practices, and guides - perfect to deepen your current knowledge!
Another way to stay updated is by monitoring industry publications and blogs related to cloud computing and AWS. Websites like The New Stack, Cloud Computing News, and TechCrunch often cover industry trends and news.
Gaining experience
If you intend to become an entry-level AWS Cloud Engineer, we suggest ways to gain experience to maximise your chances of securing a role.
For this particular role, you can gain experience by applying your knowledge through real-world projects. TryHackMe's AWS Cloud Security Training provides practical scenarios where you can deploy, manage, and troubleshoot AWS environments. With this training, you can even launch simulated attack scenarios on AWS environments, in an environment that replicates the level of access that users would have in the real world!
Alongside our training, we also recommend exploring our helpful guide, ‘9 Ways to Gain Experience in Cyber Security’, which lists some fantastic ways of building your portfolio to stand out from the crowd.
Preparing for interviews
Preparing for an AWS Cloud Engineer interview involves combining technical knowledge, hands-on experience, and effective communication skills. Although it goes without saying, you must have a solid understanding of core AWS services such as EC2, S3, RDS, IAM, VPC, Lambda, etc - all of which are taught in-depth with our AWS Cloud Security Training.
To cover all bases, it also really helps if you have worked on practical projects to gain hands-on experience with AWS services, and if you keep up to date with the latest AWS services, features, and best practices.
Some popular AWS Cloud Engineer interview questions may include:
- What is AWS, and how does it differ from traditional hosting?
- Can you explain the difference between EC2 and S3?
- What is the significance of Availability Zones in AWS?
- How do you launch an EC2 instance, and what are the different instance types?
- Explain the difference between on-demand, reserved, and spot instances.
- What is a VPC, and how does it work?
- What is the difference between a Standard S3 bucket and an S3 Glacier bucket?
- Explain the concept of IAM roles and policies.
- How do you troubleshoot performance issues in an AWS environment?
Of course, all of these areas are covered in our AWS Cloud Engineer course, ensuring you are up-to-speed and prepared for an AWS Cloud Engineer interview. So, what are you waiting for? Check it out!
Ben Spring