Cloud Certification Spotlight #7

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👋 Hello to our Cloud Learners! It’s always a joy to connect with this incredible community of cloud enthusiasts and professionals. We hope this week’s newsletter brings you fresh inspiration and practical insights for your certification journey.

Today, we have a Cloud Architect from Bangalore, India, sharing her inspiring journey into cloud computing. Without giving too much away, let’s hear from Priya as she walks us through her path from Associate to Professional AWS Cloud Architect.

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Personal Background 

Geographical Location: Bangalore, India — the Silicon Valley of India — has been an incredible place to grow my cloud career. The vibrant tech scene, constant innovation, and access to global opportunities have shaped my perspective as a Cloud Solutions Architect. I’m lucky to be part of a community that’s forward-thinking and always eager to adopt the latest in cloud technologies.

Educational Background: My journey started with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, but my true transformation began with the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification. It validated my practical experience and helped me shift from a support-heavy role to a more strategic, design-oriented path in cloud architecture. I'm currently working toward the AWS Solutions Architect – Professional certification to deepen my expertise.

Family Life: I live with my spouse and our young child in a quiet, tech-savvy neighborhood in Bangalore. Family time is sacred — we love watching animated movies together or taking short trips to the hill stations around Karnataka. Balancing cloud architecture with family life isn’t always easy, but working remotely two days a week has made a big difference.

Professional Journey 

Current Role: As a Cloud Solutions Architect, I specialize in designing, deploying, and optimizing secure, scalable cloud infrastructures on AWS. From EC2 to Lambda, I work across the stack — helping our development and operations teams modernize legacy apps, manage infrastructure-as-code, and ensure cloud spend is always justified.

Career Path: Three years ago, I led a critical fintech app migration from on-prem to AWS. It was high-stakes — uptime, cost, and compliance were all on the line. That experience pushed me into a new phase of my career, where I realized I didn’t just want to build cloud systems — I wanted to lead transformation.

Professional Level: I’m currently at a mid-level stage in my career, and in India, that means earning between $40,000–$60,000 USD depending on the organization. There’s huge potential as I continue to upskill and certify.

Outside Interests 

Hobbies and Passions: When I’m not troubleshooting IAM policies or deploying CloudFormation templates, I’m usually hiking the Western Ghats or strumming on my acoustic guitar at open-mic nights. It’s my way of staying grounded and connected with the world outside of tech.

Community Involvement: Right now I don’t do a lot of volunteering due to my growing family but I do participate in the AWS User Group Bengaluru events and love sharing war stories and solutions with fellow architects.

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Learning and Development 

Learning Techniques: I’m a hands-on learner. I don’t just read white papers — I build stuff. I set up sandbox environments, run chaos experiments, and test out edge cases. Practice exams help me assess knowledge gaps, and AWS documentation is my second home.

Passion Projects: I’m currently building a serverless personal finance tracker using AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB. I also contribute to open-source infrastructure-as-code projects using Terraform and CloudFormation — anything that helps others automate and innovate faster.

Cloud Certification Pursuits 

Motivation for Certification: For me, AWS certifications are more than digital badges — they’re a professional manifesto. They show my commitment to learning, give me an edge in interviews/promotion discussions, and help me speak the same language as senior stakeholders.

Specific Certifications: I hold the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate certification and I’m actively preparing for the Professional level. Once that’s done, I’m eyeing a specialty certification in Security or Machine Learning.

Study Resources: I rely on a combination of AWS Skill Builder, tutorials from community creators, and real-world experimentation. Practice tests and scenario-based questions are critical to simulate what the exam will really ask.

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Experiences and Insights 

Certification Journey: When I passed my Associate-level exam, I felt more than accomplished — I felt seen. It was confirmation that all the late nights troubleshooting EC2 networking or architecting VPC peering solutions weren’t just tasks — they were foundational knowledge.

Helpful Strategies: Simulate the job, don’t just memorize the facts. Create real projects. Break stuff. Fix it. That’s the best way to learn cloud technologies.

Other Advice: Don’t wait for permission to grow. Start learning, get certified, and reach out to others in the community. Cloud is a team sport — the more you contribute, the more you gain.

Future Aspirations 

Post-Certification Plans: Once I achieve the Professional certification, I want to take on lead architect roles for global transformation projects. Eventually, I’d love to lead a team that builds cloud-native solutions at scale for enterprise clients around the world.

Long-Term Goals: I want to help bridge the gap between technical engineering and business outcomes. My vision is to become a Chief Cloud Officer one day — someone who doesn’t just build the infrastructure, but builds the strategy.

Additional Thoughts 

Community Impact: The cloud community is my north star. Whether it's through open-source or blog writing, I believe we grow faster when we grow together.

Feedback: There’s a gap in practical cloud certification content. We need more scenario-based labs and contextual learning that reflects real-world problem-solving — not just multiple choice memorization.

That was great, thanks Priya! Wouldn’t be surprised to see you as a CCO (Chief Cloud Officer) some day!

We’re looking for more inspiring certification journeys like Priya’s to feature in our spotlight series this May (and summer months)! If you’d like to share your story and inspire our community, simply reply to this email. We’ll provide you with a simple template to guide you through the process. Your experiences make a huge difference, and the feedback from our readers has been incredibly positive!

Until next week, keep learning and building.

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