Following the Yellow Brick Road To AWS DVA Certification: Take 3
Tags: aws, amazonwebservices, awsdva, developer
Published: 2020-01-21 02:24:01

---
title: Following the Yellow Brick Road To AWS DVA Certification: Take 3
published: true
description: AWS Developer Associate Certification Exam Journey: Overview of Amazon Web Services
tags: AWS, Amazon Web Services, AWS DVA, Developer
---

# Overview of AWS Continued

I came to a realization that Phase 0 of this [Ramp-up Guide](https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/Learning_Paths/RampUp_Developer_122019_final.pdf) was the beginning of a long journey, since it took me quite a bit to review each of the AWServices Analytics. When I was going through the [Overview of AWS guide](https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-overview.pdf) the first few days, I was clicking on every link and making sure I read through the actual AWS page for that specific service. However, I have a limited time, since you know, I’m just a mere mortal, so I decided to switch my approach. Based on my 3+ years of experience working with your basic deployment infrastructure, EC2s, S3 buckets, Route 53 DNS rules, Cognito auth services, DynamoDB and RDS, SG rules, IAM policies, and the list goes on, I’m sure I will not be using ALL of AWS at once. It will come in waves.

Instead of being a type A perfectionist, I’m going to go with my innate type B personality and let the Ramp-up Guide take me through the phases without getting too deep into the documentation. I’m never going to know everything unless I play around with it, since I like to get my hands dirty (hands-on learner). 

**To hell!!!** with this nagging thought that keeps making me read every sentence of every documentation possible, but really, it’s a curse. Sarcastically or not, I’m going to read through the Overview of AWS guide, and then go to the next resource recommended on the Ramp-up Guide, phase by phase.

Hopefully my score doesn’t suffer due to my literal, quick overview of the Overview of AWS.

# Application Integration

## -- AWS Step Functions
Coordinate multiple AWS services into serverless workflows so you can develop and deploy apps quickly. Workflows are made up of a series of steps, and translates your workflow into a state machine diagram that is easy to understand and update.

## -- Amazon MQ
MQ is a managed message broker service for Apache ActiveMQ.

What are message brokers? They allow different software systems — often using different programming languages, and on different platforms — to communicate and exchange information. MQ reduces operational load by managing the provisioning, setup, and maintenance of ActiveMQ.

What is ActiveMQ? An open source message broker written in Java together w/a full Java Message Service (JMS).

## -- Amazon SQS
Simple Queue Service (SQS) is a fully managed SaaS to decouple and scale micro services, distributed systems, and serverless apps. SQS eliminates the complexity and overhead associated with managing and operating message oriented middleware.

Two types of SQS:
* Standard queues - offer max throughput, best-effort ordering, and at least-once delivery
* FIFO - designed to guarantee messages are processed exactly once, in the exact order that they are sent

## -- Amazon SNS
Simple Notification Services (SNS) is a highly available, durable, secure, fully managed publisher/sub messaging service that enables you to decouple micro services, distributed systems, and serverless apps. Using Amazon SNS topics, your pub system can disperse messages to a large number of subscriber endpoints for parallel processing. SNS can be used to send notifications to end users using mobile push, SMS, and email.

## -- Amazon SWF
Simple Workflow (SWF) is a fully managed state tracker and task coordinator.

# AR and VR

## -- Amazon Sumerian
With Sumerian, create and run VR, AR, and 3D apps quickly and easily without any specialized programming or 3D graphics expertise (disclaimer: expertise is not the same as experience, so some experience would definitely help). Sumerian allows you to create all the building blocks needed to build highly immersive and interactive 3D experiences including adding objects, and designing, animating, and scripting environments.

# AWS Cost Management

## -- AWS Cost Explorer
Interface that lets you visualize, understand, and manage your AWS costs and usage over time.

## -- AWS Budgets
Set custom budgets that alert you when your AWS costs or usage exceed (or are forecasted to exceed) your budgeted amount.

## -- AWS Cost & Usage Report
Lists AWS usage for each service category used by an account an its IAM users in hourly or daily line items, as well as any tags that are activated for cost allocation purposes.

## -- Reserved Instance (RI) Reporting
Visualize RI data at an aggregate level or inspect a particular RI subscription.

# Blockchain

## -- Amazon Managed Blockchain
Create and manage scalable blockchain networks using open source frameworks Hyperledger Fabric and Etherum. Managed Blockchain eliminates the overhead required to create the network, and automatically scales to meet the demands of thousands of apps running millions of transactions at once.

In addition, Managed Blockchain can replicate an immutable copy of your blockchain network activity into Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLD) to analyze the network activity outside the network and gain insights into trends.

# Business Applications

## -- Alexa for Business
With Alexa for Biz, employees can use Alexa as their intelligent assistant to be more productive in meeting rooms, at their desks, and even with the Alexa devices they already have at home.

## -- Amazon WorkDocs
A fully-managed, secure enterprise file storage and file sharing service with strong admin controls and feedback capabilities.

## -- Amazon WorkMail
Secure, managed business email, contacts and calendar service with support for existing desktop and mobile email client apps. 

Integrate WorkMail with existing corporate directory, use email journaling to meet compliance reqs, and control both keys that encrypt your data and the location in which your data is stored.

## -- Amazon Chime
Use Chime for online meetings, video conference, calls, chat, and to share content, both inside and outside the organization.

# Lessons Learned

It felt good just reading the overview as an, well, overview, and in all honesty, I just want to get to the hands-on practice because this theory part is the slowest part of any learning process. In the end, it is all worth it…It’s just that the end might be sooner than later, so time is of the essence.

Next up, my favorite AWServices of ‘em all, **Compute** services…

Peace Out.

irb___