The cloud is changing the way businesses store, manage, and interact with data. With the cloud, businesses can prioritize essential operations and outsource the rest to helpful enterprises on the Internet who are equipped to pick up the hard labor.
In return, businesses like yours save precious time and energy and often money as well. AWS is one of the willing cloud services wishing to set the foundation for your business’s success.
Trio excels in software knowledge and South American developer connections. Discover our exceptional Chilean developers, Mexican developers, and Brazilian developers for outsourcing excellence.
What Is AWS?
Amazon Web Services – simply called AWS by those who are familiar – is a proudly Amazon-sponsored cloud computing service for not only businesses but individuals and entire governments.
The service works on a pay-as-you-go model, meaning you only pay for the services you need for as long as you need them. There’s no sly-worded, lengthy contracts or licensing involved. Compare this payment plan to monthly utilities, if you will.
Quite literally, AWS is a monster in the e-commerce industry, pulling in $10 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2020. AWS takes up over 30% of the market share with Microsoft Azure coming in second place with just over half of those metrics at 18%.
With 175 cloud services from data centers around the world, AWS is helping millions of customers, some of which are startup businesses trying their best to hold their own.
Some of its most notable features include cloud servers, storage, networking, email, security, remote computing, and mobile app development. AWS is composed of three principal structures: EC2, S3, and Glacier.
EC2
EC2, otherwise known as the Elastic Compute Cloud, is Amazon’s virtual machine service. Using the EC2 web interface developers can create instances of virtual machines. Developers can use these machines to test and run applications on their preferred operating systems.
The primary use of EC2 is to build scalable applications and deploy them on virtual servers. In this way, businesses can avoid buying hardware upfront and developers can focus on the software itself.
S3
S3 is Amazon’s storage system. Formally named Amazon Simple Storage Service, S3 provides highly scalable and redundant object storage.
Object storage is a bit different than a traditional file system. The storage system that your computer uses, for instance, might entail folders upon folders, and a hierarchical path that leads to a single individual file.
In object storage, or object-based storage, data is managed as singular units – or objects – with metadata attached.
Because of object storage, S3 is virtually unlimited when it comes to speed, reliability, and flexibility. Through S3’s simple web service interface developers can store and retrieve any amount of data.
Glacier
Amazon Glacier is a long-term storage cloud storage solution. While it might seem similar to S3, Glacier is designed for archiving inactive data and not meant for quickly accessible data retrieval.
Cold storage is the technical term for storing goods to prevent decay for a long period of time. Given that denotation, Amazon came up with Glacier, a clever play-on-words. You can use Glacier to store old data that might be of later use, or if anything, as part of your backup and recovery plan.
Besides these chief services, there are nearly 200 other services that AWS has to help you with your business needs.
Jeff Bezos compares AWS to how utility companies were used more than a century ago. In the 1900s, when a factory was built the owners would have to build a power plant as well to manage their electricity and other utilities.
This, of course, was a hassle and why the public utility companies we have around today are immensely useful. In the same vein, cloud service companies like AWS help businesses by adding in a layer of support so you don’t have to worry about the odds and ends.
What Is an AWS Developer?
AWS developers have the knowledge and skillset to set up and manage relevant cloud services for the businesses they work with. To that end, AWS developers are familiar with S3, EC2, and Glacier, and know how to use such services at full capacity.
Officially, AWS has twelve distinct certifications that help others recognize the expertise of an AWS developer. These are maintained under four experience levels – Foundational, Associate, Professional, and Speciality.
Foundational
AWS developers at the foundational level have at least 6 months of experience. They are not at the level of implementation for AWS services but understand it quite a bit.
Cloud Practitioner
AWS Cloud Practitioners have an understanding of foundational cloud concepts but not much else. This is at the introductory level.
Associate
Those certified at the associate level have likely been working with AWS for a year or more. They should be able to recognize and solve problems easily.
Solutions Architect
This certificate has been the most popular for several years. It guarantees a broad overview of AWS and a strong enough foundation to build on thereafter.
The Solutions Architect certification hones in on core AWS services like Identity and Access Management, Virtual Private Cloud, S3, and EC2.
Developer
At this level, the certified party may not be a developer in the traditional sense. Rather, this certification simply means that the developer has a deeper comprehension of niche AWS services like DynamoDB, Elastic Beanstalk, SQS, and SNS. The certification also tests for the familiarity with APIs and SDKs.
SysOps Administrator
Certified SysOps Administrator has the ability to run AWS services. The certification requires an in-depth grasp of CloudWatch, a cloud monitoring service, as well as a strong grasp on other elements of the AWS architecture. Most consider this to be the hardest certificate to acquire.
Professional
AWS certified professionals have two years of experience typically and know how to design, operate, and troubleshoot solutions in AWS.
Solutions Architect
A Solutions Architect at the professional level of certification is at the peak of knowledge in regards to generalized AWS expertise. At this level, an AWS developer should be able to take any AWS service and make the best of it.
DevOps Engineer
DevOps engineers should not only be able to deploy applications and cloud services but manage them over time. This certification goes into further detail with services like CloudFormation and OpsWorks and narrows the scope to the management of dynamic systems.
Specialty
AWS developers with specialty certifications may have nearly five years of experience working with AWS. Their knowledge base is advanced.
Advanced Networking
Services like Direct Connect, Border Gateway Protocol, and routing are covered under this certification. AWS developers certified in Advanced Networking work on hybrid and AWS-only setups with attention to cost optimization and multi-regional operations.
Database
AWS Certified Database developers manage databases. Databases are often the most significant and widely used part of software development.
AWS has both SQL and no-SQL database services that certified developers at this tier should be overtly familiar with.
Analytics
At this certification level, AWS developers know about all the data services. To name a few, Analytics certified developers demonstrate familiarity with RedShift, Kinesis, DynamoDB, and Elastic MapReduce.
A couple of extras are also covered, namely the internet of things, machine learning, data security, Key Management Service, and Hardware Security Modules.
Security
AWS developers with a Security certification have a broad sense of how security works across all domains.
This is by far the most general of all the specialty certifications and combines a variety of security-related services such as Identity and Access Management, Virtual Private Cloud, Key Management Service, Cloud Trail, AWS Config, and Web Application Firewall.
Machine Learning
Machine learning is the newest of the AWS certifications. Naturally, the certification focuses on machine learning. This focus involves concepts like data collection and analysis, modeling, algorithms, as well as a few services like SageMaker and Kinesis.
Alexa Skill Builders
While you may not need an Alexa Skill Builder for your business, AWS does have certification in case interested developers want to devote their time helping Alexa mature and grow for the better.
Why Use AWS
The main reasons why anyone uses cloud services are for ease of use and cost-effectiveness. As far as ease of use goes, your business can benefit from enhanced flexibility and efficiency. And the consequence of cost-effectiveness is strategic value.
Flexible
In the absence of hardware, cloud infrastructure permits businesses to be scalable without having to bother with equipment upgrades and storage space.
Similarly, any storage is kept secure with apt data encryption and redundancy built-in. This is clearly advantageous over physical systems that can be tampered with and destroyed in the event of a natural disaster.
Most cloud services, AWS included, have many different features for almost every facet of cloud computing.
Efficient
Businesses can access their data from anywhere with an internet connection, meaning you’ll have your most important developments available to you at all times.
You’ll also save time building physical infrastructure and in turn, focus on software development. Your applications will hit the market faster and you can start gathering feedback in record time.
Strategic
For most small businesses that are struggling with startup costs, cloud services are the only way to go. Cloud services work like utilities and there are little to no upfront costs.
You won’t have to rent out space to hold servers or hire a maintenance team to keep your hardware up-to-date. AWS handles it all.
Not to mention, the cloud is also the easiest way to collaborate with co-workers, and even go fully remote if you so desire.
Advantages of Using AWS
AWS being the preferred cloud service for more than 30% of the market, you can assume that businesses choose AWS for good reason. Let’s see what some of those reasons could be.
Availability
As of 2020, AWS operates in 60 availability zones and 20 geographic regions globally with plans for further expansion. Availability zones are data centers available for regional customers to use.
Security
AWS supplies a diverse range of backup methods and disaster recovery tools including AMIs images and EBS snapshots which backup instances and volumes respectively. Your business can also opt to store your critical data in multiple geographic locations.
Reliability
When any service experiences downtime, it can jeopardize the work of all the customers who use that service. In effect, the reputation of the service will be ruined as well. Thankfully, AWS is known for being consistent and suffers from less overall downtime than its competitors.
Pricing
The pricing structure of Amazon Web Services might be its most attractive feature. While most cloud services including Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud also utilize a pay-as-you-go pricing model, AWS lets you start and stop instances as necessary with an automated schedule.
You can use your cloud services in a more practical manner if you wish and shut off service on off-hours or weekend breaks. With AWS, you pay only for what you need.
Customizability
AWS is a highly customizable platform. It can complement your individual business needs nicely with customization options for cost tracking, security, organization, automation, and more.
Companies That Use AWS
- Netflix
- Twitch
- ESPN
- Adobe
Reasons to Hire an AWS Developer
You’ve gotten a glimpse of what AWS can do for you. You can manage data, networks, applications, and even artificial intelligence with AWS.
As you can see, AWS is a complex platform with many things to offer. And most professional developers need at least two years to even come close to mastery.
The role of your developer will depend on your business objectives. AWS being the tool that it is, you have many options.
For example, an AWS developer can build and deploy your apps or migrate your current data to the cloud.
At any rate, you’ll need an AWS developer to get it done. AWS is hardly for amateurs.
Hire an AWS Developer
The employability of an AWS developer is largely dependent on the criteria you set out for your applicant pool. You’ve learned of twelve certifications that AWS developers can receive.
Using this as a base can ensure that the developers you hire are dedicated enough to have taken exams and obtained certification to prove their expertise. At the same time, many skilled developers have not followed this path.
The only way to make sure you’re looking for the right developers is to strategize your business plan and figure out how your goals can be reached with a developer at hand. Narrow down the playing field accordingly.
How do you hire an AWS developer?
For those who wish to take the high road and hire AWS developers on your own, we’re still here to help.
Hiring a developer on your own is a very focused and hands-on process that requires considerable knowledge about software development in general.
The last thing you want to do is trust your hiring process to someone with no technical ability. If you are a non-technical manager looking to learn a thing or two, we have a great resource here for you to learn more about the hiring process in detail.
What should you look for in an AWS developer?
High-level AWS developers should have the following abilities and skillsets:
- Can demonstrate a fully comprehensive knowledge of AWS technologies especially EC2, S3, and Glacier
- Has at least two years experience using AWS, with certification preferred in applicable areas
- Capable of developing applications using different API interfaces
- Proficiency running code in Amazon Lambda
- Familiarity and development background for building APIs with the Amazon API Gateway
- Expertise in migrating data to the cloud
How much do developers cost in the U.S.?
According to Zip Recruiter data, on average an AWS developer in the United States makes $122,799 a year. In general salaries for AWS developers range between $92,000 and $158,000.
How much do developers cost in South America?
Due to economic differences between the United States and South America as a whole, the cost of offshoring software development is significantly lower than hiring full-time with U.S talent. For Senior AWS Developers in South America, the average salary is currently around $100,000 whereas a mid-level developer costs around $76,000.
How much do developers cost in Ukraine / Eastern Europe?
Eastern Europe shares very similar rates to South America, again due to the economic differences. When looking at salaries in Eastern Europe, data shows that a Senior AWS Developer costs around $100,000 on average.
Hourly Rates for Developers
Another way to look at developer costs is through hourly rates. While salaries are good to understand for hiring developers for full-time and long-term, you might just need a developer for a period of 3-6 months or 6-12 months. In these types of situations, it’s best to calculate your costs based on the hourly rates of a developer.
Below is a table that lists the various hourly rates of developers in different locations based on their job title.
Why Hire an AWS Developer?
Trio AWS developers are pre-vetted, interviewed, and then trained further to become true software professionals, capable of adapting to situations that are both within and outside of the scope of their general expertise.
At Trio, we hold our developers to a higher standard. Much like how elite special forces units recruit only the best from main branches of the military, we recruit developers who either show amazing potential or demonstrate exceptional skill. We then take their talents and sharpen them even further.
Another benefit of hiring a Trio developer is that you won’t incur the costs of hiring, which can add up to be around 30% of a developer’s salary on average, as well as overhead costs associated with full-time employment.
By working with Trio, you can enjoy a highly experienced full-time developer for a fraction of the cost, along with the added project management assistance.
To learn more, tell us about your project and we’ll get you started.
