I was able to get through my first AWS certification yesterday with a successful pass. The test experience was quite a bit different from a Cisco or even Juniper certification. Typically when I sit for a test, the testing software has a bit of lag due to the low spec computers test centers use. This wasn't the case with the exam, it was very intuitive and no scary moments where I thought hitting the next button would cause the entire PC to melt down. Also unlike Cisco exams we have the ability to flag questions and go back to them to review, Juniper provides this same feature as well.
Overall the exam was fair but it is without a doubt a mile wide and an inch deep (maybe two). Also this exam is a recently released new version which focuses more on scenario based questions rather than true/false questions, etc. The biggest difficulty for me was answering questions around topics I was not familiar with due to my study process or technologies I wasn't uncomfortable enough around. Such as API security features within AWS.
If I had once piece of advise, it would be to take a look at the acloudguru course. That covered 80% of the material needed even for this new test version. My plans now are to focus time on family and my career for the remainder of 2018. Next year I'm going to take a hard look at continuing my college education. More specifically a Bachelor's in Cyber Security of some form.
With that said, what are your certification/education goals for this yeat?
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Monday, January 22, 2018
What is AWS Direct Connect?
As I study for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification
, one service that stood out to me was AWS Direct Connect. I didn't completely understand how it differed from a VPN connection or its use case. Here are a few high points about this service:
, one service that stood out to me was AWS Direct Connect. I didn't completely understand how it differed from a VPN connection or its use case. Here are a few high points about this service:- Provides a direct connection between your internal network and AWS environment.
- The connection is made using either 1Gb or 10Gb Ethernet Fiber.
- Uses both 802.1Q VLANs and BGP routing protocol
- Supports IPv4 and IPv6 addressing. However the maximum MTU size supported is 1522 bytes (14 bytes ethernet header + 4 bytes VLAN tag + 1500 bytes IP datagram + 4 bytes FCS).
Interesting, it seems as if this direct connection is some type of VRF connection between the on-premise environment and AWS. You essentially have your router directly connect to an AWS router in a specific region via Fiber. This seems to come with a lot of caveats as you can probably see. How do you go about running fiber from your router to an AWS router? Well one requirement is that your network is collocated with an AWS Direct Connect location. You can use this link for current Direct Connect locations:
AWS Direct Connect Geographic Locations
There's a good chance you're probably not collocated with AWS, so does that mean you're out of luck? Not at all, the easier solution is to use a 3rd party AWS partner that offers this service. Partners can provide additional flexibility such as cabling and location Independence for direct connect. Along with even offering lower speeds at a lower cost such as 100Mbps, 500Mbps, etc.
Direct Connect using AWS Partner
However if you're needing to traverse a Partner just to use Direct Connect, it may make more sense to use the many VPN options AWS offers. Direct Connect is a great solution for real-time data such as video and voice along with working with huge amounts of data between your network and AWS. It may be worth testing rather or not real-time data works sufficiently with AWS VPN as internet bandwidth is cheap now days.
Monday, January 15, 2018
How to Pass an IT Certification on your First Try
I've studied and passed multiple IT certifications from multiple vendors over the last 10 years. As time progressed, I've become more efficient on gathering the tools needed to pass an exam on the first try. This isn't to say that haven't failed or come close to failing an exam a few times along the way. As a matter of fact I seemed to learn the most when I failed exam. Today's quick topic I will discuss the process I use to study for an entry level to professional exam. I won't include the Expert level certification in this group as they're whole different beasts. Yes I'm talking to you CCIE
and F5-CSE!
WHAT DO I NEED TO LEARN?
For starters lets begin with what the exam objectives will cover. This is something I see quite a few colleagues skip over when they begin studying for a certification. Knowing what the objectives are will allow you to set goals that you can follow along the way before exam date. For example when you've touched on every objective and topic in the exam at least once, this is a goal you can use to assess how ready you are for the test. Every vendor typically has a page that lines out the objectives and topics you need to know before even picking up your first book.
For example Amazon has a PDF that lists what you need to know and the percentage each topic holds on Solutions Architect the test:
WHERE DO I FIND STUDY MATERIAL?
Now that you know what you need to study, next we'll need to find study resources for the exam. This is where using forums such as www.techexams.net or Reddit comes in handy. I usually spend a few days researching methods others used along with tools available to me. I'm lucky enough to have CBT Nuggets for videos and SafariBooks for cert books at my disposable, but even then that's sometimes not enough. You'll want to add labs and flashcards (Anki) to the mix as well. Vendors often times have free material as well. For example I was able to study for my Juniper certs using nothing but their free books and practice tests they offered, all in it only cost me $50 bucks to take their certification!
HOW DO I STUDY FOR THE EXAM?
Now that you have your blueprint and resources, the next and longest step is how to study for the certification. This really comes down for personal preference, but for me this is where my secret sauce comes into play. I use the following 3-step method when I study for a certification:
1. Start with the most high-level material, usually videos such as CBTNuggets. Take notes as you watch the videos, these will be placed into Anki flashcards once finished.
2. Once videos are finished, create initial flash cards then pop your head into the reading material. Hopefully the vendor has some type of official certification book, otherwise boring Whitepapers it is! Again take notes as you progress through the material. As you finish each chapter, this is where your labs come into place. Either attempt to recreate the examples listed in the chapter or even better, come up with your own scenarios and get the environment working as expected.
Along with labs add your notes to Flashcards at the end of each chapter. I should also mention that you should be studying flashcards EVERY SINGLE DAY until your exam date. Reading is a slog and rightfully so. That's where I really start to hone in and pick up most of my knowledge about the objectives at hand. I usually can't wait to take the exam because the repetition on the same topics start to get old at about this point. I consider this a good sign that it's about time to sit for the certification.
3. While I'm still studying flashcards EVERY SINGLE DAY, I go back to any high-level material I can find. I'll look for YouTube how-to videos, exam caveats, and any additional lab examples I can find on the interwebs. At the same time I'm also locking down and scheduling the exam date, usually 2-4 weeks away. During this crunch time window I usually feel overly prepared and actually slow down my studying a few days before the exam. The only thing I'm doing at this point is studying flashcards EVERY SINGLE DAY!
There you have it folks. For the very last step I walk into my nearest Pearson-Vue location on game day, ace the exam, and walk out calm and collected. As I head back home I put any thoughts of certification out of my mind for at least two months (otherwise my family would kill me).
So this was my method, how do you typically study for a certification? Let me know in the comments below!
and F5-CSE!WHAT DO I NEED TO LEARN?
For starters lets begin with what the exam objectives will cover. This is something I see quite a few colleagues skip over when they begin studying for a certification. Knowing what the objectives are will allow you to set goals that you can follow along the way before exam date. For example when you've touched on every objective and topic in the exam at least once, this is a goal you can use to assess how ready you are for the test. Every vendor typically has a page that lines out the objectives and topics you need to know before even picking up your first book.
For example Amazon has a PDF that lists what you need to know and the percentage each topic holds on Solutions Architect
the test:WHERE DO I FIND STUDY MATERIAL?
Now that you know what you need to study, next we'll need to find study resources for the exam. This is where using forums such as www.techexams.net or Reddit comes in handy. I usually spend a few days researching methods others used along with tools available to me. I'm lucky enough to have CBT Nuggets for videos and SafariBooks for cert books at my disposable, but even then that's sometimes not enough. You'll want to add labs and flashcards (Anki) to the mix as well. Vendors often times have free material as well. For example I was able to study for my Juniper certs using nothing but their free books and practice tests they offered, all in it only cost me $50 bucks to take their certification!
HOW DO I STUDY FOR THE EXAM?
Now that you have your blueprint and resources, the next and longest step is how to study for the certification. This really comes down for personal preference, but for me this is where my secret sauce comes into play. I use the following 3-step method when I study for a certification:
1. Start with the most high-level material, usually videos such as CBTNuggets. Take notes as you watch the videos, these will be placed into Anki flashcards once finished.
2. Once videos are finished, create initial flash cards then pop your head into the reading material. Hopefully the vendor has some type of official certification book, otherwise boring Whitepapers it is! Again take notes as you progress through the material. As you finish each chapter, this is where your labs come into place. Either attempt to recreate the examples listed in the chapter or even better, come up with your own scenarios and get the environment working as expected.
Along with labs add your notes to Flashcards at the end of each chapter. I should also mention that you should be studying flashcards EVERY SINGLE DAY until your exam date. Reading is a slog and rightfully so. That's where I really start to hone in and pick up most of my knowledge about the objectives at hand. I usually can't wait to take the exam because the repetition on the same topics start to get old at about this point. I consider this a good sign that it's about time to sit for the certification.
3. While I'm still studying flashcards EVERY SINGLE DAY, I go back to any high-level material I can find. I'll look for YouTube how-to videos, exam caveats, and any additional lab examples I can find on the interwebs. At the same time I'm also locking down and scheduling the exam date, usually 2-4 weeks away. During this crunch time window I usually feel overly prepared and actually slow down my studying a few days before the exam. The only thing I'm doing at this point is studying flashcards EVERY SINGLE DAY!
There you have it folks. For the very last step I walk into my nearest Pearson-Vue location on game day, ace the exam, and walk out calm and collected. As I head back home I put any thoughts of certification out of my mind for at least two months (otherwise my family would kill me).
So this was my method, how do you typically study for a certification? Let me know in the comments below!
Monday, January 8, 2018
The New Age Old Question, Will the Cloud Replace IT Workers?
This is one of the more controversial topics. As businesses look more towards the cloud to get rid of aging IT infrastructure, what happens to the workers who used to manage this infrastructure? As shown in the graphic below, company budgets for cloud services are increasing each year:
Now my personal opinion, I don't think us IT professionals will feel too much of a difference over the next 5-10 years. What I see happening is that we're no longer dealing with the heartaches of installing and racking physical hardware. Which can literally take hours per device depending on what you're needing to install. More lower skilled jobs such as rack & stacking may shrink but even the Amazon and Googles of the world still needs to install hardware in their data centers for their software.
I see cloud as a great opportunity for just about everyone in the IT field, rather you're on the database team, helpdesk, or network engineer. What cloud is doing is making your job more efficient, to focus on higher up tasks. Instead of me spending 3 days spinning up switches, VLAN's, etc.; this time used for more important duties such as design and documentation. No longer do you need to deal with a late night emergency change to increasing bandwidth to a SQL server for the DB team. Spend a few hours scripting your cloud environment to scale the database infrastructure and un-scale as needed. That's it, you're done, hand over the keys to the database manager!
Even as we start to automate server and network provisioning, rather in the cloud or on-premise; we still need techies to manage this. Jumping ahead of the game and learning how powerful and affordable these new tools are will set you a part for the years to come. How much longer can IT folk hide in their cubicles manually change Guest Wireless passwords or downloading and installing OVA's on VM hosts? I bet at least half of the tasks we do everyday could be eliminated or at the very least automated. It's up to us to keep pushing technology forward to make our day jobs easier and not being scared on loosing touch of the tech past.
Do you agree, disagree, not sure? Comment below, I would love to hear from my fellow IT folk and continue the discussion!
Now my personal opinion, I don't think us IT professionals will feel too much of a difference over the next 5-10 years. What I see happening is that we're no longer dealing with the heartaches of installing and racking physical hardware. Which can literally take hours per device depending on what you're needing to install. More lower skilled jobs such as rack & stacking may shrink but even the Amazon and Googles of the world still needs to install hardware in their data centers for their software.
I see cloud as a great opportunity for just about everyone in the IT field, rather you're on the database team, helpdesk, or network engineer. What cloud is doing is making your job more efficient, to focus on higher up tasks. Instead of me spending 3 days spinning up switches, VLAN's, etc.; this time used for more important duties such as design and documentation. No longer do you need to deal with a late night emergency change to increasing bandwidth to a SQL server for the DB team. Spend a few hours scripting your cloud environment to scale the database infrastructure and un-scale as needed. That's it, you're done, hand over the keys to the database manager!
Even as we start to automate server and network provisioning, rather in the cloud or on-premise; we still need techies to manage this. Jumping ahead of the game and learning how powerful and affordable these new tools are will set you a part for the years to come. How much longer can IT folk hide in their cubicles manually change Guest Wireless passwords or downloading and installing OVA's on VM hosts? I bet at least half of the tasks we do everyday could be eliminated or at the very least automated. It's up to us to keep pushing technology forward to make our day jobs easier and not being scared on loosing touch of the tech past.
Do you agree, disagree, not sure? Comment below, I would love to hear from my fellow IT folk and continue the discussion!
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