Course Spotlight: AWS Technical Essentials Training & AWS Business Essentials Training

Welcome to AWS Technical Essentials & AWS Business Essentials, the first article in our Course Spotlight series. Each of these articles will help you get acquainted with one (or in this case two) of the AWS training courses we offer. You’ll get a better idea of what the featured course covers, the skills you’ll learn and the job roles that benefit from taking it.

AWS Technical Essentials Training and AWS Business Essentials Training are the first step for those beginning their cloud journey. They introduce students to AWS products and services, presenting them as solutions. Both these courses share significant overlap, so we thought it would be easiest to cover them together.

Below is a list of all the topics we will cover in this blog post. Click on any of these links and you’ll be taken to the corresponding section:

• What is AWS Technical Essentials Training?
• What is AWS Business Essentials?
• How our AWS Technical Essentials Training and AWS Business Essentials Training Differ
• Course Outlines

What is AWS Technical Essentials Training?

AWS Technical Essentials is a foundation level course that takes one day to complete. AWS Technical Essentials takes foundational IT concepts and shows how they apply in a cloud environment. Like the word ‘technical’ suggests, this is an AWS primer for IT professionals.

How is the Course Delivered?

Content covered in our AWS Technical Essentials course is delivered through a combination of the following:

• Product demos: Live introductions to relevant AWS products and services
• Knowledge checks: Brief quizzes to ensure you are understanding the course content
• In-person and instructor led: An AWS Certified Instructor will teach you the content live and in-person
• Hands-on Labs: Your chance to get hands-on experience with AWS products under the guidance of an AWS Certified Instructor

Learning Outcomes

Now you have an idea of what to expect from the course, let’s take a look at learning outcomes. These can be divided into three categories: Terminology and Concepts, AWS Products, and Using AWS Products.

Terminology and Concepts

There’s no way around it; AWS is a jargon and abbreviation heavy environment. This can become overwhelming pretty quickly if you don’t understand the basics.

AWS Technical Essentials gives you a baseline knowledge of AWS products, what they do, and what they are called.

The other important element here is understanding key AWS concepts. Topics like data centre design, scalability and availability. Concepts relating to security are also covered.

An Introduction to AWS Products

AWS Technical Essentials will introduce you to foundational AWS services. This includes infrastructure services, database services and management tools. You will gain an understanding of what each of these products do and when you might use them.

Some of the specific products covered include:

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
• Amazon Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
• Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS)
• Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Using Specific AWS Products

One of the most directly applicable skills the course will teach you is how to actually use AWS products. This begins with understanding how to navigate the AWS management console. Although user friendly, the interface can be intimidating and it’s important you know your way around it. Without this knowledge you may not be able to access all that AWS has to offer.

Here are some of the other hands-on activities our course includes:

• How to use Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) to launch an application
• How to create a storage bucket in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
• How to use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS)
• This is also where hands-on learning is extremely important. Being shown how to use AWS products by an instructor isn’t enough. You need to be able to practice your new skills as soon as possible.
• As part of Technical essentials you’ll be given access to AWS so you can play around in the AWS sandpit and try out your new skills for yourself.

Who is AWS Technical Essentials Training for?

AWS Technical Essentials is the first step on the learning path for all three of the AWS learning tracks. Namely, Architecting, Operations and Developing. These translate into technical roles such as Solutions Architects, SysOps Administrators and Developers.

What is AWS Business Essentials Training?

AWS Business Essentials is a foundation level course that takes roughly 6 hours to complete. The course teaches business decision–makers the benefits of cloud and how a cloud strategy can help meet business objectives.

Who is AWS Business Essentials Training for?

For those not in a technical role, AWS Business Essentials is the way to go. The course empowers non-technical staff to better articulate the benefits of AWS Cloud and make more informed decisions in that space.

In particular, business leaders and C-level executives have a lot to gain from this course. Having a broad understanding of available AWS services will help them make informed decisions about IT solutions. It will also ensure the chosen solutions align with business goals.

What’s the Difference?

AWS Business Essentials is for professionals who need to know enough about AWS Cloud to make informed business decisions. AWS Technical Essentials on the other hand, is for professionals working directly with AWS Cloud.

In short, AWS Business Essentials explains why you should choose cloud, while AWS Technical Essentials explains how you can do it with cloud.

From a teaching perspective AWS Technical Essentials involves hands-on lab activities while AWS Business Essentials does not. This also means that Business Essentials doesn’t teach any of the learning outcomes associated with using Specific AWS products.

Not all Courses are Created Equal

As you may already know, there’s an overwhelming selection of introductory AWS courses available online, many available for free. Here are two you may have seen:

• AWS Cloud Practitioner training: This is a free online module offered by AWS and some third parties. It covers a condensed version of the information taught in AWS Technical Essentials and AWS Business Essentials. It provides newcomers with a broad overview of the AWS Cloud.
• AWS Technical Essentials light: Also offered by AWS, this is a shorter version of the AWS Technical Essentials course. It contains most of the content taught in AWS Technical Essentials but lacks a workbook and hands-on lab activities. The information delivered is geared toward a technical audience with an emphasis on what you will learn further down your relevant AWS learning path.

How Our AWS Technical Essentials Training and AWS Business Essentials Training Differs

Hands-on activities give students the opportunity to solidify skills they are taught by immediately putting them into practice. All of our AWS Technical Essentials classes feature hands-on labs.

In-person, instructor led training has been shown to deliver the best learning outcomes. All of our AWS Technical Essentials courses and AWS Business Essentials courses are conducted in-person by an AWS Certified Instructor.

Find out more about the different types of cloud training available.

Course Outlines

So, there you have it. A deep dive into the AWS Technical Essentials and AWS Business Essentials courses and what each has to offer.

If you would like to book in for one of our AWS Technical Essentials courses, you can view the course schedule here. All of our AWS Technical Essentials courses take place in-person with an AWS Certified Instructor and include hands-on labs.

If you are interested in learning more about the course your next step is to download the AWS Technical Essentials Course Outline. The outline covers everything you need to know about AWS Technical Essentials.

If you would like to book in for one of our AWS Business Essentials courses, you can view the course page here. All of our AWS Business Essentials courses take place in-person with an AWS Certified Instructor

If you are interested in learning more about the course your next step is to download the AWS Business Essentials Course Outline. The outline covers everything you need to know about AWS Business Essentials.