1. Foundational Level

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

• Entry-level certification for beginners in cloud computing.
• Covers basic AWS services, cloud concepts, billing, pricing, and security.
• Best for: Non-technical professionals, managers, sales, and new AWS learners.

2. Associate Level

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

• Focuses on designing scalable and cost-efficient AWS solutions.
• Covers core AWS services, architecture best practices, and security.
• Best for: Cloud architects, developers, and system engineers.

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

• Covers AWS application development, deployment, and debugging.
• Focuses on serverless applications, AWS SDKs, and APIs.
• Best for: Software developers working on AWS-based applications.

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

• Focuses on deployment, management, and operations on AWS.
• Covers monitoring, logging, automation, and networking.
• Best for: System administrators and operations professionals.

3. Professional Level

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional

• Advanced-level certification focusing on designing large-scale, complex AWS applications.
• Requires deep knowledge of hybrid cloud architectures and migration strategies.
• Best for: Experienced cloud architects and engineers.

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

• Focuses on CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, automation, and security.
• Covers infrastructure as code (IaC) and operational best practices.
• Best for: DevOps engineers, cloud automation professionals.

4. Specialty Certifications

For individuals with deep expertise in specific AWS domains.

• AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty (For network architects, security engineers)
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty (For security experts, compliance teams)
• AWS Certified Database – Specialty (For database engineers, architects)
• AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty (For AI/ML professionals, data scientists)
• AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty (For big data analysts, data engineers)
• AWS Certified SAP on AWS – Specialty (For SAP experts managing SAP workloads on AWS)

Choosing the Right AWS Certification

• If you're new to AWS → Start with Cloud Practitioner
• If you're a developer → Go for Developer Associate
• If you're in operations → SysOps Administrator Associate
• If you design cloud solutions → Solutions Architect Associate → Professional
• If you're into DevOps → DevOps Engineer Professional
• If you specialize in a field → Choose a Specialty Certification

Hosting a Modest Static Website on AWS S3

Introduction

Having a personal website for sharing pictures, videos, or information with family and friends is a great idea. While platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn offer sharing options, a personal static website provides greater control and customization. In this article, we will learn how to host a static website using AWS S3.

Naresh I Technologies is a leading computer training institute in Hyderabad and ranks among the top five computer training institutes in India. We provide comprehensive AWS training for all AWS certifications.

AWS offers multiple ways to create and host a website based on your needs:

AWS Lightsail

• Ideal for simple websites using platforms like WordPress, Moodle, and Joomla.

• Simplifies website deployment without requiring in-depth AWS knowledge.

AWS Amplify

• Best suited for Single Page Applications (SPA).

• Provides dynamic user interactions without frequent page reloads.

AWS S3 (Focus of This Article)

• Used for simple static website hosting (audio, video, images, and HTML pages).

• Offers a serverless hosting model where AWS manages resource scaling automatically.

Staging Virtual Servers (AWS EC2)

• Used for launching virtual servers and manually configuring necessary software.

• Best suited for organizations with complex infrastructure and high traffic.

• Requires expertise in AWS services like EC2, Route 53, RDS, and EBS.

Each method has trade-offs between flexibility and ease of use. AWS Lightsail is the easiest but offers limited customization, while EC2 provides maximum flexibility but requires advanced knowledge. AWS S3 is the simplest way to host a static website with minimal setup effort.

S3 (Simple Storage Service) is one of AWS’s oldest services. It is primarily used for:

• Storing database backups

• Media storage (videos, images, documents)

• Big Data Analytics

• Object storage with an easy-to-use bucket and folder structure

S3 eliminates the need for capacity planning, as it automatically scales based on demand. It offers different storage classes optimized for varying access frequencies, managed via S3 lifecycle policies. AWS CloudFront (CDN) can also be used for faster content delivery.

AWS S3 Free Tier

• 5GB storage free for the first year.

• 20,000 GET requests & 2,000 PUT requests per month.

• Pay-as-you-go pricing model beyond the free tier.

Now, let's walk through the process of creating and hosting a static website using AWS S3.

Step 1: Create an S3 Bucket

1. Open the S3 Management Console.

2. Click on Create Bucket.

3. Enter a unique Bucket Name.

4. Choose an AWS Region.

5. Click Create to finalize bucket creation.

Step 2: Grant Public Access to the S3 Bucket

1. By default, all buckets are private.

2. To make the website publicly accessible:

   • Navigate to the Permissions tab.

   • Click Edit Public Access Settings.

   • Uncheck "Block all public access" and save the changes.

   • Confirm the changes when prompted.

3. Add a Bucket Policy to explicitly allow public access:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "PublicReadGetObject",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": "*",
      "Action": "s3:GetObject",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*"
    }
  ]
}

4. Replace your-bucket-name with the actual bucket name.

5. Click Save.

Step 3: Enable Static Website Hosting

1. Go to the Properties tab.

2. Scroll to Static Website Hosting.

3. Click Edit and enable website hosting.

4. Enter:

   • Index document: index.html

   • Error document: error.html

5. Save the changes.

Step 4: Upload Website Files

1. Navigate to the Overview tab.

2. Click Upload → Add Files.

3. Select index.html and error.html.

4. Click Upload to store the files in S3.

Step 5: Access the Website

1. Copy the Website Endpoint URL from the Static Website Hosting section.

2. Paste the URL in a browser to access your website.

3. If required, use AWS Route 53 to assign a user-friendly domain name.

Congratulations! ? You have successfully hosted a static website using AWS S3. This method provides an affordable and scalable solution without requiring server management.

Naresh I Technologies is a premier computer training institute offering training in AWS and various other technologies. Our AWS training covers all AWS certifications through online, classroom, and corporate training sessions.

AWS Glue - Simplifying the ETL Process

Introduction

We primarily use the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process for data transformation from a database source to a data warehouse. However, the complexities of ETL can make successful implementation challenging for enterprises. To address this, AWS introduced AWS Glue. This article explores AWS Glue, its benefits, key concepts, terminology, and how it works in detail.

Naresh I Technologies is the leading computer training institute in Hyderabad and one of the top five institutes in India, offering AWS training in Hyderabad, the USA, and worldwide through online courses and digital materials. If you are looking for the best AWS training institute in Hyderabad or India, feel free to contact us.

AWS Glue is a fully managed ETL service available under the Analytics section in the AWS Console. It allows users to categorize, clean, and move data efficiently between various data stores. Key components include:

• AWS Glue Data Catalog - A centralized metadata repository.

• ETL Engine - Automatically generates Python and Scala code for transformations.

• Flexible Scheduler - Handles job monitoring, retries, and dependency resolution.

Since AWS Glue is serverless, users do not need to set up or manage infrastructure.

AWS Glue is useful in several scenarios:

1. Building a Data Warehouse

• Organize, cleanse, validate, and format AWS Cloud data for storage in a data warehouse.

• Load data from various sources for real-time analysis and reporting.

• Store processed data to create a unified data source for business decision-making.

2. Running Serverless Queries on AWS S3 Data Lake

• Catalog S3 data for AWS Athena and Redshift Spectrum queries.

• Keep metadata synchronized with data using AWS Glue Crawlers.

• Analyze data from a unified interface without loading it into different silos.

3. Creating Event-Driven ETL Pipelines

• Trigger AWS Glue ETL tasks when new data arrives in S3 using AWS Lambda.

• Register new datasets in the AWS Glue Data Catalog.

4. Understanding Data Assets

• View combined data stored across different AWS services through AWS Glue Data Catalog.

• Quickly search and discover datasets with a central metadata repository.

• Use AWS Glue Data Catalog as a drop-in replacement for Apache Hive Metastore.

1. Less Operational Overhead

AWS Glue integrates with multiple AWS services and supports data in AWS Aurora, RDS, Redshift, and S3, along with VPC-based databases.

2. Cost-Effective

• Serverless architecture eliminates infrastructure management.

• Automatically scales resources for Apache Spark-based ETL jobs.

• Pay only for the resources used during job execution.

3. Automated and Efficient

• Crawls data sources and detects data formats.

• Suggests schemas and transformations.

• Generates ETL scripts automatically.

To perform ETL tasks, AWS Glue requires jobs that extract, transform, and load data. Here’s how it works:

1. Define a Crawler:

   • Collects metadata and creates table definitions in AWS Glue Data Catalog.

   • Identifies data schema and formats automatically.

2. Create a Job:

   • Uses metadata to generate an ETL script.

   • Supports both automatic and manually written scripts.

3. Execute the Job:

   • Can be triggered manually, on a schedule, or based on an event.

   • Runs within an Apache Spark environment inside AWS Glue.

• Data Catalog: Metadata store containing table and job definitions.

• Classifier: Determines the data schema for various file types (JSON, CSV, AVRO, XML, etc.).

• Connection: Stores properties for connecting to data sources.

• Crawler: Extracts metadata from a data store and creates tables in Data Catalog.

• Database: Logical grouping of related tables in Data Catalog.

• Data Store: Persistent storage for input/output of transformation processes.

• Development Endpoint: Testing and development environment for AWS Glue ETL script

How AWS Glue Works

We will explain AWS Glue by creating a transformation script using Python and Apache Spark.

Step 1: Create a Data Source

AWS Glue reads data from S3 buckets or databases. For example:

• Create an S3 bucket (e.g., glue-bucket-Naresh).

• Inside the bucket, create two folders: r1 (input) and w1 (output).

• Upload a text file with sample data into the r1 folder.

Step 2: Crawl Data Source to Data Catalog

• Navigate to the AWS Glue console → Crawlers → Add Crawler.

• Name the crawler and select S3 as the datastore.

• Choose the r1 folder in your bucket.

• Configure an IAM Role with necessary permissions.

• Create a database in AWS Glue for storing cataloged metadata.

• Run the crawler to extract metadata and create tables.

Step 3: Create an AWS Glue Job for Data Transformation

• Go to AWS Glue console → Jobs → Add Job.

• Assign a name and select the IAM role used for the crawler.

• Choose Spark 2.4 with Python 3.

• Specify job parameters (e.g., max capacity = 2, timeout = 15 min).

• Save and edit the script.

Step 4: Edit AWS Glue Script

• Use Python and PySpark to extract, transform, and load data.

• Sample code will be covered in a separate blog post.

AWS Glue simplifies ETL workflows by offering a serverless, scalable, and cost-effective solution for data processing. By integrating seamlessly with AWS services, it enables efficient data transformation and analysis, making it a powerful tool for businesses.

For expert-led AWS training, contact Naresh I Technologies – the best AWS training institute in Hyderabad, India, and the USA. Join our AWS online training to master AWS Glue and other AWS services!