Aaron and Brian talk with Ryan Kroonenburg (@acloudguru and @KroonenburgRyan, AWS Cloud Architect) and Anthony Stanley (@IamStan, AWS Cloud Architect) from A Cloud Guru about their passion for teaching, how they created A Cloud Guru, the framework for achieving AWS certifications and some examples of learners that got a big bump in pay after completing the courses.

This show is sponsored by Intel Cloud for All - http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/cloud-for-all/cloud-for-all.html

Some insight into how A Cloud Guru is using AWS Lambda to build their architecture to scale and reduce costs:

Topic 1 - Before we get into what A Cloud Guru does, let’s talk about your backgrounds. Where have you been and what made you want to start this business?

Topic 2 - Let’s talk about A Cloud Guru. What does the site offer and what can “learners” expect from the training courses?

Topic 3 - Ryan mentioned in the introduction video that he trained 30,000 people on AWS last year (or the last couple years) and you expect to reach 100,000 this year. That obviously means a lot of people using this platform to guide them. Tell us about the early feedback and things people want you to add?

Topic 3a - Every new business has a plan or a set of expectations. What has been the unexpected that you’ve seen and heard from the market?

Topic 4 - There was a recent survey from Global Knowledge that AWS Certified Solutions Architect is now the #1 Paying Certification. You mentioned that only 2000 people have that certification today, which feels a lot like the Cisco CCIE in 1997. Any ideas how much demand there is for that level of AWS certification?

Topic 5 - Obviously you’ll see a number of individuals taking the courses, but are you starting to see corporate update as well? Can companies buy bulk licenses from A Cloud Guru?