So, you've conquered the Associate exams. Maybe you’ve even survived the DevOps Professional. You might be thinking, "Is that it? Am I done?"
In the AWS universe, there is always another mountain to climb. These are the Specialty Certifications.
Unlike the broad Associate or Professional exams, Specialty exams go incredibly deep into a single vertical. For a DevOps engineer, two of these are particularly potent career boosters: Security and Advanced Networking.
1. AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C02)
In the modern world, "DevOps" is rapidly evolving into "DevSecOps."
Security is no longer a department at the end of the hall that says "No" right before launch. Security is now code. It is integrated into the CI/CD pipeline, the infrastructure templates, and the monitoring systems.
- Why It Matters for DevOps:
- As a DevOps engineer, you hold the keys to the kingdom. You have admin access to production. You build the pipelines that deploy code. If you don't understand how to secure those pipelines, you are a liability.
- Employers love this certification because it proves you know how to lock down the environment without slowing down development.
- What It Covers:
- IAM Policy Logic: You thought you knew IAM? This exam tests you on complex JSON policy conditions, cross-account roles, and identity federation.
- KMS (Key Management Service): Deep understanding of encryption keys, rotation, and envelope encryption.
- Incident Response: How to automate the isolation of a compromised instance using Lambda and CloudWatch Events.
- Logging: GuardDuty, Security Hub, and Macie.
- Difficulty: Harder than the Associate exams, but generally considered easier than the DevOps Professional.
2. AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty (ANS-C01)
If Security is the "shield," Networking is the "plumbing." And in the cloud, the plumbing can get incredibly complex.
This exam has a legendary reputation. Many architects consider it the single most difficult certification AWS offers—even harder than the Professional exams.
- Why It Matters for DevOps:
- Most large enterprises don't just use AWS; they use Hybrid Cloud. They have physical data centers connected to AWS via Direct Connect. They have hundreds of VPCs connected via Transit Gateways.
- When a packet drops between an on-premise database and an AWS Kubernetes cluster, the DevOps engineer is often the first person called. This cert gives you the deep packet-level knowledge to fix it.
- What It Covers:
- Hybrid Connectivity: Direct Connect (DX), VPNs, and BGP routing protocols.
- VPC Traffic Shaping: Transit Gateways, VPC Peering, and PrivateLink.
- DNS: Complex Route53 setups involving hybrid (inbound/outbound) endpoints.
- Warning: Do not attempt this unless you have a solid background in traditional networking (CIDR, TCP/IP, OSI Model). AWS knowledge alone isn't enough here.
The Verdict: Should You Take Them?
Don't collect certifications just to have a longer email signature.
- Take the Security Specialty if you want to pivot into a DevSecOps role or if you are the lead engineer responsible for compliance (HIPAA, PCI-DSS). It is a very high-ROI certification.
- Take the Advanced Networking Specialty only if you are working in a complex, hybrid enterprise environment where you touch network infrastructure daily. If you just deploy web apps to Elastic Beanstalk, this is overkill.
Summary of the AWS Path
If you have followed Part 2 of this book, your roadmap looks like this:
- Start: Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03).
- Next: Developer Associate (DVA-C02) OR CloudOps Associate (SOA-C03).
- The Goal: DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02).
- The Cherry on Top: Security Specialty (SCS-C02).
But what if your company doesn't use AWS? What if they are a Microsoft shop? It's time to cross the aisle. In Part 3, we explore the Azure path.
This book is write-in-progress.
Visit next week to read the next chapter.