AWS Certification: Why It’s Important to Us – and to You

There’s an old adage in aviation – “a good pilot is always learning.”  At Blue Sentry, we apply this to engineering and architecture in the cloud. Since its inception, Blue Sentry has placed a high premium on technical excellence.  Customers depend on us to help them get the most from the AWS platform, which is why gaining deeper technical knowledge and always staying current is our stock in trade. It’s also why all of us at Blue Sentry engage in regular learning through AWS trainings, accreditations, webinars, AWS summits, consumption of AWS Blogs and Podcasts, and, of course, our favorite learning opportunity – attending re:Invent.

Of all these learning channels, AWS Certification is by far the most important to us. This is because AWS Certification is an opportunity to distinguish ourselves. AWS certification exams are specifically designed to challenge the best engineers; indeed, the consensus is that they are difficult to pass.

John F. Kennedy once said in his famous moon landing speech: “We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are difficult.”  Every engineer at Blue Sentry must achieve at least one AWS certification within six months of their hire date, to actively work on client accounts in the cloud.

Additionally, we strongly encourage sales team members to become certified, and many of our sales professionals have achieved at least associate level certifications on AWS. Most of our engineering team members have multiple certifications, and currently three members of our team (soon to be four) have all five certifications. This is something I am very proud of, since there are but a handful of engineers in the world with this distinction.

In the end, the important thing is not bragging rights – but winning outcomes for our clients. This is the reason we take on these difficult learning challenges while still carrying on with all of our day-to-day work – to make sure our customers win on AWS.