Learning AWS as a Java developer: where I'm starting and why
For the past few years I've been building Spring Boot microservices in an enterprise setting. I know how to ship services, but I've rarely made decisions about where and how they run in the cloud. I want to change that. This is the first post in a series where I document how I'm learning AWS as a Java developer: where I'm starting, why, and what I plan to build along the way. Where I'm coming…
Over the past few years, I have been developing Spring Boot microservices in an enterprise environment. I am familiar with deploying services, but I rarely make decisions regarding where and how they run in the cloud. This is the first installment of a series where I will document my journey of learning AWS as a Java developer, including my starting point, motivations, and future projects.
My day-to-day work involves Java, Spring Boot, and microservices, using Kafka for messaging and Kubernetes for deployment. Most decisions about the underlying platform (networking, permissions, environments) are made by others. I use these tools, but I am not confident in designing them from scratch. My goal is to become a solutions architect, requiring an understanding of where services run, how they are secured, how they scale, and their associated costs.
AWS is the most widely used cloud platform, making it an ideal choice for building this foundation. Additionally, I am preparing for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam, and this series will help me structure and share my learning process.
Currently, I am not starting from scratch. So far, I have learned about IAM and the AWS CLI, as well as the fundamentals of EC2. This has given me a basic understanding of how permissions work and how to create and manage resources through the terminal rather than the console. I am using a free-tier account with a billing alert set up from day one, ensuring that my experiments do not result in unexpected costs. I build small projects, tinker with them, and document what I learn.
In the next four weeks, I plan to follow the Solutions Architect Associate path, with each week focusing on a specific aspect of AWS:
Week 1: EC2 at the Solutions Architect level. I will delve deeper into instance setups and choose the appropriate configuration for various workloads.
Week 2: EC2 instance storage. I will explore EBS, instance store, and EFS, understanding when each option is most suitable.
Week 3: High availability and scalability. Elastic Load Balancers and Auto Scaling Groups will be essential components in building resilient systems.
Week 4: Databases and caching. I will examine RDS, Aurora, and ElastiCache, comparing managed databases with those I would set up myself.
After these four weeks, I will move on to S3, VPC, and serverless technologies such as Lambda. I also plan to examine how existing tools I use map to AWS offerings. For instance, Kubernetes will be replaced with EKS, and Kafka will be replaced with MSK or SQS.
In conclusion, I am eager to learn AWS from the ground up, focusing on the Solutions Architect Associate track. I would appreciate recommendations on which topics or resources would be most beneficial for someone transitioning from Java development to AWS.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
