AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam validates advanced technical skills & experience in designing distributed applications & systems on AWS platform
Introduction
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect –
Professional Level exam is intended for individuals who perform
a Solutions Architect
role. This exam validates an examinee’s ability
to:
-
Identify and gather requirements in order to define a solution to
be built on AWS
-
Evolve systems by introducing new services and
features
-
Assess the tradeoffs and implications of architectural decisions
and choices for applications deployed in AWS
-
Design an optimal system by meeting project requirements while
maximizing characteristics such as scalability, security,
reliability, durability, and cost effectiveness
-
Evaluate project requirements and make recommendations for
implementation, deployment, and provisioning applications on
AWS
-
Provide best practice and architectural guidance over the lifecycle
of a project
AWS Knowledge
- AWS
core services, including: Compute and Networking, Storage and CDN,
Database, Application Services, Deployment and
Management.
- Security
features that AWS provides and best practices
- Able
to design and implement for elasticity and
scalability
- Network
technologies as they relate to AWS networking, including: DNS &
load balancing, Amazon VPC, and AWS Direct
Connect
- Storage
and archival options
- State
management
- Database
and replication methodologies
- Self-healing
techniques and fault-tolerant services
- Disaster
Recovery and fail-over strategies
- Application
migration plans to AWS
- Network
connectivity options
- Deployment
and management
General IT Knowledge
- Large-scale distributed systems architecture
- Eventual
consistency
- Relational and
non-relational databases
- Multi-tier
architectures: load balancers, caching, web servers, application
servers, networking and databases
- Loose coupling and
stateless systems
- Content Delivery
Networks
- System performance
tuning
- Networking concepts
including routing tables, access control lists, firewalls, NAT,
HTTP, DNS, TCP/IP, OSI
model
- RESTful Web Services,
XML, JSON
- One or more software development models
- Information and application security concepts including public key encryption, remote access, access credentials, and certificate-based authentication
These training courses and materials will assist in exam preparation:
Architecting on AWS
(aws.amazon.com/training/architect)
Architecting on AWS – Advanced
Concepts
In-depth knowledge or training
in at least one high-level programming language
AWS Cloud Computing Whitepapers
(aws.amazon.com/whitepapers)
o Overview of
Security Processes
o Storage Options
in the Cloud
o Defining Fault
Tolerant Applications in the AWS Cloud
o Overview of
Amazon Web Services
o Compliance
Whitepaper
o Architecting for
the AWS Cloud
Experience deploying hybrid
systems with on-premises and AWS components
Utilization of the AWS
Architecture Center website
(aws.amazon.com/architecture)
Response Limits
The examinee selects from four (4) or more
response options the option(s) that best completes the statement
or answers the question.
Distracters or wrong answers are response options that examinees
with incomplete knowledge or skill would likely choose, but are
generally plausible responses fitting into the content area
defined by the test
objective.
Test item formats used in this examination
are:
Multiple-choice:
examinee selects one option that best answers the question or
completes a statement. The option can be embedded in a graphic where
the examinee “points and clicks” on their
selection choice to
complete the test item.
Multiple-response: examinee
selects more than one option that best answers the question or
completes a
statement.
Sample Directions: Read the
statement or question and from the response options, select only
the option(s) that
represent the most correct or best answer(s) given the
information.
Exam Syllabus
Domain
1.0: High Availability and Business
Continuity
1.1 Demonstrate ability to architect the
appropriate level of availability based on stakeholder
requirements
1.2 Demonstrate
ability to implement DR for systems based on RPO and
RTO
1.3 Determine
appropriate use of multi-Availability Zones vs. multi-Region
architectures
1.4 Demonstrate
ability to implement self-healing capabilities
Content may
also include:
High Availability vs. Fault Tolerance
Domain 2.0: Costing
2.1
Demonstrate ability to make architectural decisions that minimize
and optimize infrastructure cost
2.2 Apply the appropriate AWS account and billing set-up
options based on scenario
2.3 Ability to compare and contrast the cost implications of
different architectures
Domain 3.0: Deployment Management
3.1
Ability to manage the lifecycle of an application on
AWS
3.2 Demonstrate ability to implement the right architecture
for development, testing, and
staging environments
3.3 Position and select most appropriate AWS deployment
mechanism based on scenario
Domain 4.0: Network Design for a complex large scale deployment
4.1
Demonstrate ability to design and implement networking features of
AWS
4.2
Demonstrate ability to design and implement connectivity features
of AWS
Domain 5.0:
Data Storage for a complex large scale
deployment
5.1 Demonstrate ability to make architectural trade off
decisions involving storage options
5.2 Demonstrate ability to make architectural trade off
decisions involving database options
5.3 Demonstrate ability to implement the most appropriate
data storage architecture
5.4 Determine use of synchronous versus asynchronous
replication
Domain 6.0:
Security
6.1 Design information security management systems and
compliance controls
6.2 Design security controls with the AWS shared
responsibility model and global infrastructure
6.3 Design identity and access management
controls
6.4 Design protection of Data at Rest controls
6.5 Design protection of Data in Flight and Network Perimeter
controls
Domain 7.0:
Scalability and Elasticity
7.1 Demonstrate the ability to design a loosely coupled
system
7.2 Demonstrate ability to implement the most appropriate
front-end scaling architecture
7.3 Demonstrate ability to implement the most appropriate
middle-tier scaling architecture
7.4 Demonstrate ability to implement the most appropriate
data storage scaling architecture
7.5 Determine trade-offs between vertical and horizontal
scaling
Domain 8.0: Cloud Migration and Hybrid
Architecture
8.1 Plan and execute for
applications migrations
8.2 Demonstrate ability to
design hybrid cloud architectures