Our guest today is Kevin Kelly, Director of Cloud Career Training Programs at Amazon Web Services. Those programs include AWS Academy and AWS re/Start, which collaborate with higher education institutions, non-profits, and government organizations to assist students launch into cloud careers. AWS re/Start is a part of Amazon’s commitment to provide 29 million people around the world with access to free cloud computing skills training by 2025.

As you’re about to hear, Kevin is on a mission to help close the cloud IT skills gap, which is growing year by year despite companies and schools dedicating enormous resources to training. We’re going to cover everything from the cloud as a growth industry, to the kind of knowledge technology professionals need to succeed in the cloud space, to whether certifications can have an impact on your cloud career.

Here are some additional key takeaways from the chat:

First, the cloud remains a growth industry. Whether they realize it or not, an incredible number of workers in virtually every industry rely on the cloud in some way. That’s helping drive the demand for those with cloud skills, and it means those who have cloud skills—and keep them up-to-date—will have lots of professional opportunities far into the future. If you can deploy, test, and maintain projects in the cloud, you’re valuable. 

Second: In order to be an effective cloud professional, it helps to have a working understanding of compute, storage, network, database, and security. From there, things get a bit more complicated. For example, knowing what object storage is and how it operates in the context of the cloud, or immutable storage if you’re building a cloud-based blockchain app of some kind.

Third: Certifications are useful. Pursuing certifications allows you to learn the skills that you’ll need throughout your cloud career. Certifications are also attractive to employers, which is why hiring managers and recruiters will ask you about them when you’re applying for jobs. If you’re just starting out, foundation-level certifications can demonstrate you have a working knowledge of the cloud.

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