AWS User Group UK Meetup #52

Our first event of the year will again be online on our twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/awsuguk. Please remember to create a twitch account if you wish to ask questions to our speakers and panelists.

We are delighted to welcome Sandro Cirulli and Matt Jackson from The Scale Factory who will be sharing their insights on AWS Certification.

For our second session we have brought together Jason Gregson (@jasonGregson), Phil Basford (@philipbasford) and our very own Jon Topper (@jtopper) for a panel discussion on re:Invent.

Talk 1:

How We Passed Our AWS Certifications and Why You Should Too

AWS certifications come with a range of benefits. If you work with the AWS cloud and haven't yet considered obtaining an AWS certification, 2022 is the right time. But which AWS certification is right for you? And how do you study and pass an AWS exam? Matt and Sandro will give you an overview of the AWS certifications currently available, show you the benefits of getting your AWS skills certified, and tell you their stories on how they prepared and passed various AWS certifications. Whether you're thinking of getting an AWS certification, currently studying or already got one, join us for this deep dive in AWS certifications.

Sandro Cirulli is a consultant at The Scale Factory, a cloud infrastructure consultancy based in London and an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner. Sandro holds the AWS SysOps Administrator (Associate) and the AWS Security Specialty certifications and he's currently studying for the AWS Solutions Architect (Professional).

Matt Jackson is also a consultant at The Scale Factory. He passed the SA Professional just over 3 years ago and has recently completed his recertification during lockdown. Matt is also part of the Scale Factory hiring team where certifications are one of the measures used to evaluate candidates.

Talk 2:

Panel Discussion re:Invent

Jon, Jason and Phil will be chatting about what excited them from re:Invent and how it will impact us in the trenches. They will also be answering your questions on re:Invent so please remember to create a twitch account prior to the event.

Jon Topper is founder and CEO at The Scale Factory, an AWS partner consultancy working primarily with SaaS companies. He's worked for over 20 years in the world of infrastructure and operations, spinning up his first EC2 instance back in 2006. Jon is an AWS Partner Ambassador, recognised for his contributions to the AWS community.

Phil Basford is one of the Ipswich AWS User Group Leaders and contributes to the AWS Community by speaking at a number of summits, community days and meet-ups. He is a regular blogger, open-source contributor, and SME on Machine Learning, MLOps, DevOps, Containers and Serverless. Phil has over 6 years of commercial AWS experience and holds 12 AWS Certifications, including: AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional AWS DevOps Engineer Professional, Amazon Data Analytics Specialism and Amazon Machine Learning Specialism. Phil works for Inawisdom (an AWS Partner) as a principal solutions architect and head of practice. Phil has been Inawisdom’s AWS APN Ambassador and evangelist for the last 3 years and this year was awarded the #1 Ambassador in EMEA.

Jason Gregson is an opinionated serial geek that loves all tech, especially the promise of what Cloud can enable for their customers.

If you are interested in speaking at one of our events please check out our call for papers here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-x7wCrPgmgBvmldT095aAyu9gTm0JjE0ioJlhdG4c1EOUMg/viewform

We are advocates for greater inclusion & diversity in UK Tech and are especially keen to receive talk submissions from people in underrepresented groups. If you are interested in speaking at a future meetup but would like to discuss what to expect or need assistance please contact our Inclusion & Diversity Lead Natalie Gray at graynataliej@gmail.com or DM her @natjgray (https://twitter.com/natjgray)

Remember to follow us @AWSUserGroupUK (https://twitter.com/AWSUserGroupUK) and on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/aws-ug-uk) for the latest updates and you can find videos of our past meetups here (http://bit.ly/2dZnvEE).

A big thank you to our sponsors, Deloitte, eSynergySolutions and Sainsburys