AWS

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #14 Domain 4-2 Cost Optimization — Cost Monitoring
4 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #14 Domain 4-2 Cost Optimization — Cost Monitoring

The final post of the SAA-C03 cost optimization domain. It covers Cost Explorer for analyzing and forecasting cost, AWS Budgets for alerting on budget overruns, CUR as the most detailed billing data, Trusted Advisor for checking cost , security , performance, Compute Optimizer for right-sizing recommendations, and how to manage multi-account cost with consolidated billing and cost allocation tags.

AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) #2 Domain 1-1 Development with AWS Services — Lambda Deep Dive
7 min read

AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) #2 Domain 1-1 Development with AWS Services — Lambda Deep Dive

The first post of the DVA-C02 development domain. It covers Lambda's execution model across three invocation types — synchronous, asynchronous, and stream polling — along with concurrency (reserved concurrency, provisioned concurrency) and throttling, environment variables and layers, cold starts, idempotency, and failure handling via destinations and DLQs, all at the exam level. The development domain carries the largest weight at 32%, and Lambda sits at its center.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #13 Domain 4-1 Cost Optimization — Pricing Models
4 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #13 Domain 4-1 Cost Optimization — Pricing Models

The first post of the SAA-C03 cost optimization domain. It reorganizes EC2 purchasing options from a cost perspective (Reserved Standard/Convertible, Compute/EC2 Instance Savings Plans, Spot), the cost structure of S3, data transfer costs (inbound , outbound , cross-AZ/region) and how to reduce them, and architecture choices that lower cost.

AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) #1 Exam Introduction — Exam Structure and Study Roadmap
5 min read

AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) #1 Exam Introduction — Exam Structure and Study Roadmap

The first post of the AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) series. It covers the exam structure (65 questions, 130 minutes, a 720 passing line), the weight and meaning of the four domains (Development 32% , Security 26% , Deployment 24% , Troubleshooting and Optimization 18%), how it differs from the Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03), and a study strategy that turns the hands-on feel built on the [AWS practical track](/en/posts/aws-basics-1-account-region-az) into exam questions from a developer's point of view. This 15-part series aims to help you pass DVA-C02, ending with a full-scale mock exam in #15.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #12 Domain 3-4 High-Performing Architectures — Choosing a DB
4 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #12 Domain 3-4 High-Performing Architectures — Choosing a DB

The final post of the SAA-C03 high-performing domain. It covers the decisive difference between RDS's Multi-AZ (high availability) and read replicas (read scaling), cloud-native Aurora (auto storage scaling , Global , Serverless), NoSQL DynamoDB (capacity modes , global tables , DAX), Redshift for analytics, and the criteria for choosing a database by workload.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #11 Domain 3-3 High-Performing Architectures — Choosing Storage
5 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #11 Domain 3-3 High-Performing Architectures — Choosing Storage

The third post of the SAA-C03 high-performing domain. It covers the distinction between block (EBS) , file (EFS , FSx) , object (S3) storage, EBS volume types (gp3 , io2 , st1 , sc1) and selection criteria, the use cases for EFS and FSx (Windows File Server , Lustre), and how to optimize cost with S3 storage classes (Standard , Intelligent-Tiering , IA , Glacier family) and lifecycle policies.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #10 Domain 3-2 High-Performing Architectures — Caching
5 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #10 Domain 3-2 High-Performing Architectures — Caching

The second post of the SAA-C03 high-performing domain. It covers the difference between ElastiCache's Redis and Memcached, DAX for accelerating DynamoDB, CloudFront for caching content close to users (edge , OAC , signed URLs), cache strategies (lazy loading , write-through), and storing sessions externally for stateless design.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #9 Domain 3-1 High-Performing Architectures — Choosing Compute
4 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #9 Domain 3-1 High-Performing Architectures — Choosing Compute

The first post of the SAA-C03 high-performing domain. It covers how to choose the compute that fits a workload: EC2 instance families (general , compute , memory , storage , accelerated) and selection criteria, the performance and cost trade-offs of purchasing options (On-Demand , Reserved , Savings Plans , Spot , Dedicated), and when to pick serverless compute (Lambda , Fargate).

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #8 Domain 2-3 Resilient Architectures — Backup Strategy
5 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #8 Domain 2-3 Resilient Architectures — Backup Strategy

The final post of the SAA-C03 resilience domain. It covers incremental storage of EBS snapshots and cross-Region , cross-account copy, snapshot automation with Data Lifecycle Manager, the difference between RDS automated backups and manual snapshots plus point-in-time recovery (PITR), AWS Backup and backup plans for centrally managing multiple services, and immutable backups (Vault Lock).

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #7 Domain 2-2 Resilient Architectures — DR Patterns
5 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #7 Domain 2-2 Resilient Architectures — DR Patterns

The second post of the SAA-C03 resilience domain. It covers the precise meaning of RTO and RPO, the cost and recovery-time trade-offs of the four disaster recovery (DR) strategies (Backup & Restore , Pilot Light , Warm Standby , Multi-Site Active/Active), and how to implement them with Route 53 failover routing and cross-Region replication (RDS , Aurora Global , DynamoDB global tables , S3 CRR).

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #6 Domain 2-1 Resilient Architectures — Multi-AZ , Auto Scaling , ELB
6 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #6 Domain 2-1 Resilient Architectures — Multi-AZ , Auto Scaling , ELB

The first post of the SAA-C03 resilience domain. It covers high-availability design using Availability Zones (AZ), the makeup of Auto Scaling groups and their scaling policies (target tracking , step , scheduled , predictive), the three types of ELB (ALB , NLB , GLB) and how to choose between them, the structure that automatically replaces failed instances via health checks, and cross-zone load balancing.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #5 Domain 1-4 Secure Architectures — WAF , Shield , Cognito , Secrets Manager
6 min read

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) #5 Domain 1-4 Secure Architectures — WAF , Shield , Cognito , Secrets Manager

The final post of the SAA-C03 security domain. It covers application-layer protection and credential management: WAF web ACLs and rules (SQLi , XSS , rate , geo), the difference between Shield Standard and Advanced, the role distinction between Cognito User Pool (authentication) and Identity Pool (temporary AWS credentials), and a comparison of Secrets Manager and Parameter Store.