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How to Become an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator? Their Roles, Salary, and More cover image

The best thing about AWS is that it offers a wide variety of job options. So whether you are more on the management side or prefer technical tasks, there will always be a place for you in the vast universe of AWS.

The primary AWS careers include AWS Solutions Architect, AWS DevOps Engineer, AWS Certified Developer, and AWS SysOps Administrator. Today, we would like to talk more in-depth about the latter of those.

What are the key responsibilities of an AWS SysOps Administrator? What kind of job opportunities and financial gain can you expect by following this career trajectory? Last but not least, how do you become an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator?

You will find all the answers and more right here. By the way, if you're also interested in other positions and their prerequisites, you can always check our articles on what cloud architects or DevOps engineers do.

But let's dive into the universe of SysOps now.

What are AWS SysOps Administrators responsible for?

First things first: who are SysOps Administrators? These professionals are responsible for deploying, managing, and operating systems on the AWS platform. In addition to this, they maintain and manage the business's AWS infrastructure, optimize the organization's costs and manage the bills. In short, they participate in the entire lifecycle of a cloud project.

Let's discuss their responsibilities more in detail (the first two of them are the most significant, while the others are additional yet equally important):

  • Configure cloud management services on AWS in the company.
  • Manage and monitor various related AWS services.
  • Learn the metrics and monitor the total usage of AWS resources by using Amazon CloudWatch.
  • Maintain the backup of those resources: regularly perform AWS on-premise resources backup with different AWS services.
  • Reduce the time needed for the production by using AWS CloudFormation skills to deploy automation infrastructure.
  • Improve the resources and work on resource tagging to designate costs and plan the governance, budgeting, and reporting.
  • Efficiently monitor billing, develop and monitor strategies for cost optimization.
  • Create and be in charge of Bastion Hosts, Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) access points, and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

There are a few other duties that SysOps Administrators are expected to perform:

  • Manage the full AWS lifecycle, security, provisioning, and automation.
  • Configure and fine-tune cloud infrastructures.
  • Set up and administer the architecture of multi-tier systems.
  • Perform software upgrades as well as kernel patching and errata patching.
  • Create backups and manage disaster recovery.
  • Monitor performance degree and its availability.
  • Maintain access control and data integrity throughout the AWS application platform.

Now that we are all tired of the bullet points and mysterious job descriptions, why not move on to the more fun part of the game? And by that, we mean job roles and income.

AWS SysOps Administrators' job titles and salary

Today, there is a huge demand for certified AWS professionals around the world. AWS SysOps Administrators are undoubtedly one of them. Some of the most popular careers to follow are listed below:

  • AWS SysOps Administrator
  • AWS Admin
  • Senior SysOps Administrator
  • AWS Solutions Engineer
  • Server Administrator
  • AWS Cloud Admin
  • Cloud Engineer
  • AWS Certified Full Stack Engineer

These are just a few of the most desired job titles for AWS certified professionals. Besides, numerous companies hire them - including Nokia, Amazon, or Epsilon, to name a few most popular ones. You may now be wondering about the practical side of the matters, and we do too: what earning prospects can you expect by choosing one of those paths?

As per PayScale, the average yearly salary of an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate in the US in 2021 is $109,302. Of course, the income varies depending on the company and your experience. The top earners may get as much as $137,000, while the less experienced professionals may receive around $84,000. Just so you're aware, AWS Certified SysOps Administrators Associates are among the highest-paid certified professionals in general.

With all this in mind, it's up to you to choose which AWS career to follow. In any case, by knowing the average AWS salary, whichever path you choose, your hard work is definitely going to pay off in the long run.

Eager to become an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator?

We are willing to help you here. No matter your background or level of experience, there is always an option for you.

Let's start with the newbies. If you have never dealt with any AWS issues whatsoever, go straight to the AWS beginner trainingBitDegree Academy's experts designed this quality course according to the latest standards and can help you prepare for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. Passing it indicates that you have a solid overview of the leading AWS concepts and services and gives a fundamental understanding of the cloud concepts. This is a great starting point for building any AWS career, and the AWS SysOps administrator role is no exception. We guarantee that you are in good hands with this course!

If you're more advanced, though, there are other ways to become an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator. Consider taking the exam designed for SysOps Administrator Associates and getting your certification right away. This examination is intended for professionals with at least one year of experience in deployment, management, and operations on AWS. The best preparation for it is the actual hands-on experience. Besides, since this exam has the reputation of being the hardest of associate-level certifications, you may also need to find some relevant AWS Training courses to acquire additional knowledge and skills. We advise you to review the exam guide carefully and know which competencies are being evaluated during the assessment.

Following are the details of this exam:

  • Format: 65 questions (multiple-choice or multiple response).
  • Cost: 150 USD.
  • Language: it is now available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.

A quick wrap-up

Hopefully, this guide gave you a clearer image of what the SysOps Administrator role is about and what skills you need to succeed in the field. Let us conclude with a few critical statements.

The main responsibilities of AWS SysOps Administrators are configuring cloud management services on AWS in the organization as well as managing and monitoring numerous related AWS services. The job titles of those professionals vary a lot - you can choose from becoming an AWS Cloud Admin to a Senior SysOps Administrator and more. Besides, AWS certifications rank as one of the highest-paying certification categories in North America, and numbers speak for themselves: the average salary of an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate in the US in 2021 is $109,302.

So if you can't wait to kick-start your career in AWS SysOps and don't know where to begin, why not trust your education to us and join Bit Degree Academy's AWS training right now? We'll see you on the flip side!

 

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Written By

Miglė Stasiulionytė