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10 Best AWS Books for Beginner and Advanced Programmers
Table of Contents
What is AWS?
AWS or Amazon Web Service is the most popular cloud computing platform. It currently offers about 175 fully featured service centers. AWS is secure and offers to compute power, database storage, analytics, IoT, content delivery, and other features to help businesses grow.
AWS first launched its services in 2002. As of 2019, it offers nearly 100 cloud services. AWS's cloud computing services are EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), LightSail, Elastic beanstalk, AWS Lambda, EKS.
AWS is used for various applications like application hosting, website hosting, media sharing, search engines, storage, backup and disaster recovery, social networking, mobile applications, etc.
Many top companies, like Pinterest, Netflix, Dropbox, Instagram, use AWS.
Learn more about AWS through these courses.
AWS Learning Approach
AWS is vast, and you might get overwhelmed with the host of features and services offered. You should know that as a beginner, you only need to learn a few core services. Practice a lot and be focused on your learning—for example, EC2, S3, and IAM. Focus your learning in these three areas first and then move on to other topics. This will give a direction to your learning and make it easier.
Best AWS Books
Here we have listed 10 best AWS Books for beginners to advance level developers:
Beginners to Intermediate
1. Learn AWS Serverless Computing
This is a great book for beginners as well as intermediate cloud learners. It starts with foundational concepts and then quickly moves to build complex solutions. The author’s tone is easy to understand, and you will get the feeling of ‘oh, that’s all AWS is about?’ while reading. The book mainly focuses on AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, and a few services from AWS.
Level: Beginner
Rating: 5.0
Features:
- The book starts with serverless computing and goes into details of event-driven applications using AWS Lambda.
- The author explains writing Lambda functions in all the top languages like Java, C#, Python, and Node.js.
- The book goes into technical details, so it is intended for developers and architects more than business users.
- You should be familiar with Node.js, Python, and have some idea of public cloud architecture patterns, IaaS, and preferably a working knowledge of AWS.
2. Amazon Web Services in Action 2nd Edition
This is one of the best books for beginners. It covers cloud computing in general and then moves into AWS in detail. The book is well-structured, and you can jump to any chapter as per your requirement. However, moving from one chapter to another sequentially will help you gain more knowledge and concepts. This book is not for experienced AWS users, as it covers all the services only on a high-level.
Level: Beginner
Rating: 4.5
Features:
- Good information about most services of AWS with example (WordPress).
- The author has an amiable tone and starts with their personal experience, making it quite interesting.
- Provides a lot of good and relatable examples for each concept.
- The book has dedicated chapters for each of AWS's important features and advantages, for example, flexibility, ElastiCache, DynamoDB, etc.
- If you are completely new to cloud computing and don’t even know the jargon, this book is the right place to start.
3. Programming AWS Lambda: Build and Deploy Serverless Applications with Java 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
This is an extensive book covering AWS Lambda and its integration with serverless AWS services (S3, DynamoDB, etc.). It is for both beginners and intermediate users of AWS Lambda. The author focuses more on the explanation of concepts than the code itself. Every chapter does have exercises for hands-on experience at the end.
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Rating: 4.4
Features:
- The examples given in the book use Java, XML, Maven, and REST-based services, so it is recommended to know these.
- The author also explains best practices and the tools necessary to build a reliable and stable application.
- The author explains many approaches and solutions using Lambda and compares them using various aspects like cost, performance, and other best practices.
4. AWS Certified Advanced Networking Official Study Guide: Specialty Exam 1st Edition
Although the book is primarily written for clearing certification exams, you can use it as a reference. It explains the core principles of AWS very well and provides insights on networking fundamentals as well. You can supplement the reading with some online (YouTube) videos for detailed learning of the concepts explained in the book. You also get access to online practice tests, and if you are not giving an exam, they will help test and enhance your knowledge.
Level: Intermediate
Rating: 4.4
Features:
- A lot of exercises and practice questions at the end of every chapter.
- Explains the key exam topics with thorough explanations and expert insights.
- You also will get 1-year full access to Sybex’s online interactive learning environment and study tools, featuring chapter tests, flashcards, practice exams, test banks, and glossary to make your preparation easy and track your progress.
- Every chapter has review exercises, example scenarios, and specific points to remember for the exam.
- Straightforward navigation as there are clear objectives and goals for each chapter and also a detailed index.
You can buy this book here.
5. Learning Amazon Web Services (AWS): A Hands-On Guide to the Fundamentals of AWS Cloud
This is a comprehensive foundational book that helps beginners as well as intermediate professionals. The author also gives tips and tricks to get the best results from AWS. The book is supplemented by online training videos that help you set up AWS compute, storage, scale, security, automation, networking, etc. The book is mostly technical, so you should be focused on your reading and grasp the contents slowly.
Level: Beginner
Rating: 4.3
Features:
- Online training videos support the whole content.
- This book is also a good buy if you are planning for AWS certification.
- Practical case-studies for the operation of AWS services, integration, and security.
6. Amazon Web Services For Dummies
The book is good for those who have absolutely no idea about AWS and learn it from scratch, but in-depth. It assumes that the reader is a newbie. If you have a working knowledge or know about AWS products, it might be a slow read, and you can skip some sections, which the author also mentions in the book. For newbies, Amazon's AWS documentation is not much clear, and the same information is presented in a neat and easy-to-understand manner by the author.
Level: Beginner
Rating: 4.1
Features:
- AWS is vast, but this book provides a good introduction and explains even the dry topics interestingly.
- Even though the edition is not very new, and some concepts may be outdated, the core principles remain valid, and that’s why this book is still good for beginners.
- The book follows a step-by-step approach, where the first two parts are a bit theoretical and explain cloud computing and AWS concepts and offerings. Part 3 goes into using AWS, and Part4 explains the benefits of AWS and cloud applications.
7. Learn Amazon Web Services in a Month of Lunches 1st Edition
This book is for beginners, but you should have some database, networking, and understanding of how the file system works. This book covers a lot but at a high-level. So, you can complement your learning with online materials like blogs & videos. The book focuses only on the core tools. The author doesn’t spoon-feed or load you with examples; instead, he tries to guide you to think and figure out how to do things.
Level: Beginner
Rating: 4.1
Features:
- The chapters are short, fast-paced, and provide a good reference.
- Each tool and its features are explained as a chapter, along with exercises (lab).
- The book is well-structured and moves step by step, introducing topics one by one.
- This is not a purely technical book and provides a lot of hands-on for you to start working on AWS projects.
8. AWS Automation Cookbook
This book provides a practical approach to learning AWS and the author encourages you to practice whatever you learn side-by-side. The book also focuses on some DevOps concepts like CI/CD practices and their benefits. You will be able to learn how to deploy applications using EC2 and integrating AWS to the CodePipeline. This is a comprehensive book for AWS developers, system administrators as well as DevOps engineers. It would be advisable to have some working knowledge of Jenkins and AWS.
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Rating: 3.9
Features:
- A good mix of technical knowledge and practical explanations.
- Fast-paced; no verbose language used throughout, the author’s tone is to the point.
- Covers one full chapter on Git and why it is more beneficial compared to other VCS.
- The author covers important best practices and troubleshooting tips in the last chapter.
- Readers need a Linux system (Red Hat) and AWS account to fully practice the book’s contents.
Advanced AWS Books
9. Mastering AWS cost optimization
This is a very well-structured practical book with real-life examples and tips on cost control and optimization. The book provides a good balance of technical and operational aspects and details how best to optimize the cost of the cloud infrastructure and customer both. The author focuses on computing storage and networking services provided by AWS.
Level: Advanced
Rating: 4.7
Features:
- Rather than just explaining what each service is, the book also emphasizes making better architectural choices.
- The book introduces readers to a foundational methodology named ‘KAO,’ which helps understand how to optimize cloud services costs.
- This book is less theory and more practical implementation.
- Great book for architects, developers, administrators, managers, business users alike.
10. Cloud Computing Solutions Architect: A Hands-On Approach
Although this book focuses on the AWS cloud certification exam, it is a great guide for step-by-step conceptual learning. AWS is vast, and this book is a great way to start because the author knows exactly what is needed to start a project on AWS and implement it successfully. There are many practical case-studies and in-depth coverage of cloud technologies, architectures, and applications.
Level: Advanced
Rating: 4.6
Features:
- Very rich in detail, exhaustive in content.
- The author gives a lot of illustrations and examples throughout the book.
- The case studies are excellent and provide AWS practical usage in various healthcare, education, transportation systems, etc.
- Part I completely focuses on the core concepts and technologies, including Python, Django, REST, etc. and Part II covers more advanced concepts of security, storage, and analytics. Part III covers AWS's well-architected framework, including best practices for operations, security, reliability, performance, and cost optimization.
Conclusion
We have discussed some of the best books to learn AWS. And we repeat it, be focused on what you want to learn in AWS; else, you would be lost with so many services provided by Amazon. If you are a beginner and have less time for study or need to start working on a project immediately, “AWS Automation Cookbook” or “Amazon Web Services For Dummies” are a great start. If you are more into learning and want to read extensively, Cloud Computing Solutions Architect: A Hands-On Approach and Learning Amazon Web Services (AWS): A Hands-On Guide to the Fundamentals of AWS Cloud are good options to start. Which is your favourite book to learn AWS? Comment below!
Related Course
Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03
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