AWS provides enterprises with the broadest on-market range of Cloud migration and adoption services. However, businesses often struggle to understand which ones they need and how to implement them optimally. So, they partner with a trusted tech vendor and hire AWS developers – experts who can implement a cost-effective AWS Cloud strategy.
But how to find AWS engineers? What characteristics describe qualified AWS cloud engineers? As a company with solid Cloud experise, as well as dozens of successfully delivered AWS project, we want to share some tip for finding the top experts and the real-life AWS success story in this article.
Why do you need to hire AWS cloud engineers?
Hiring AWS engineers offers a wide variety of benefits, from avoiding redundant Cloud spending to enhancing infrastructure reliability and improving the app’s performance. Let’s tap into the other aspects AWS-certified engineers can help you with:
1. Build resilient and adaptable architecture
Adhering to architectural best practices is crucial for the sustainability and high scalability of your Cloud applications. To establish a robust foundation for your system, it is recommended to find and hire AWS engineers who implement the AWS Well-Architected framework, which encompasses six pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and sustainability. Measuring your system against this framework allows you to develop a unified approach to risk management that results in increased business value for your solution.
N-iX is a member of the AWS Well-Architected Program, which reflects our in-depth knowledge of AWS and allows us to provide comprehensive assessments and enhancements of Cloud workloads.
2. Achieve cost-effectiveness
By implementing the AWS best practices, you can pinpoint the mismanaged resources, optimize them, and take control of your expenses. With the AWS Advanced Consulting Partner status, N-iX stands out as a leading tech vendor with extensive technological expertise and a proven track record of customer success within the AWS ecosystem. Clients like Gogo, Lebara, and TuneIn have already reduced their spending by adopting AWS cost optimization strategies implemented by N-iX.
One of such practices we use at N-iX is ensuring that all your computing services are of the right size. Right-sizing involves evaluating and adjusting computing services to achieve the most efficient size possible. For example, AWS Compute Optimizer can optimize EC2, Amazon ECS on AWS Fargate, Amazon EBS, and Lambda and offer suggestions for Graviton migration. Amazon Redshift resize can improve price performance for analytics databases, while Amazon S3 Storage Lens can identify cost optimization opportunities and reduce Amazon S3 storage costs. Furthermore, Amazon S3 Intelligent Tiering can automate data lifecycle management.
3. Ensure stable system performance
Another reason to partner with AWS developers is the enhanced app stability – they can help businesses set up or optimize application performance management workflows. By collaborating with Cloud computing experts, you can implement autoscaling patterns to improve system stability during peak loads and reduce Cloud consumption.
Moreover, your team of AWS developers for hire will assist you in monitoring the system’s health. With effective error detection in place, your Cloud professionals are able to timely identify and troubleshoot the root cause of app performance issues.
It is a team of experienced AWS cloud engineers that can help you access those benefits and take your business to the next level. But how to hire them? Let’s take a look together.
How to hire AWS cloud engineers: your step-by-step instruction
No matter what tech expertise you require, the hiring process is rather standard when it comes to cooperation with a tech vendor. What you should do is:
1. Get clear on your staffing request
During the initial stage, you have to define the number of AWS professionals that will deal with your tech request. The level of qualification and experience in software development is another crucial factor to consider when hiring tech specialists.
2. Identify your technical requirements
Your next step is to determine what technical skills you will look for when hiring software engineers. To assist your IT vendor in selecting the most suitable candidates, compile a list of required hard skills, including professional certifications and domain expertise, to narrow down the pool of potential developers for your project. For instance, at N-iX we can help you define the size and composition of the team during Product Discovery.
3. Find the right software engineering company
When choosing a reliable vendor, pay attention to the company’s size. Enterprises with over 250 tech professionals typically have greater access to tech workforce and optimized development processes.
When evaluating a company, review its portfolio to determine if they have experience delivering solutions similar to the one you need. It's also important to check client reviews and testimonials on their website as well as trustworthy review platforms such as Clutch and GoodFirms. Lastly, verify that your tech vendor adheres to international industry standards such as ISO 27001:2013, ISO 9001:2015, PCI DSS, GDPR, and HIPAA. Partnering with a tech company that complies with these regulations will ensure safe access to sensitive information and effective data protection.
Learn how to choose the right software development partner: your outsourcing handbook
4. Decide upon the type of contract
Defining the legal aspects of cooperation is a crucial step when formalizing a partnership. The type of contract in IT outsourcing depends on various factors such as the vendor's initial business goals, the level of client control, and project flexibility.
For small and medium-sized projects with a predetermined budget, a Fixed Price model is often the best option. Under this agreement, you provide the tech enterprise with a fixed budget, project scope, and delivery time. The software development vendor takes full responsibility for meeting milestones within the allocated budget and time frame.
If you want to hire tech experts that will be able to handle a project without initially defined requirements, opt for the Time and Material model. It provides a high level of flexibility and allows for adjusting the team's size as needed during the project. T&M contracts are suitable for small to medium-sized projects.
In case your goal is to find professionals for a large project with evolving requirements, consider a Dedicated Development Team model. You can count on a technical team tailored to your business requirements. Similar to the T&M model, this approach offers flexibility and enables you to expand the team as necessary.
Skills you should look for when hiring AWS cloud engineers
The tech stack of AWS developers differs from project to project and depends on product complexity and specific requirements. However, your experts need to have a deep understanding of an array of tech domains. Let’s scrutinize these areas of expertise:
Practical tech competencies
If you plan to collaborate with experienced Cloud computing specialists, assessing their strong technical skills is a must. Let’s look through a checklist of essential expertise your AWS developers for hire should possess:
- Analytical skills that allow them to define tech requirements for an AWS-based solution and decide upon AWS services that match your business needs;
- Solid command of the AWS core services, namely, computing, networking, databases, storage, as well as Cloud infrastructure deployment and management;
- A thorough comprehension of network technologies, including AWS Direct Connect, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, DNS, and ELB services, is essential.
- Practical knowledge of the AWS security features, including encryption, key management, and threat detection;
- Hands-on experience with the Amazon Infrastructure as a Code tools, namely AWS CloudFormation;
- In-depth knowledge of the architectural best practices, such as AWS Well-Architected Framework.
AWS certifications and designations
If you want to find AWS developers with industry-recognized credentials, look for Cloud specialists with the “AWS certified” status. Obtaining accreditations from AWS is a validation of advanced technical skills and strong Cloud experience. Some of the most sought-after certifications among AWS experts are AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, and others.
Moreover, it is essential to research your potential partner’s AWS designations to ensure that they align with your desired competencies. N-iX, for instance, has received six AWS designations, including Public Sector, AWS Lambda Delivery, Amazon RDS Delivery, Amazon Kinesis Delivery, Amazon DynamoDB Delivery, and Amazon Gateway API Delivery, as of November 2022. These recognitions from AWS validate proven customer success in the field and guarantee successful project outcomes.
Qualification level
The average seniority level of your AWS engineers has a direct impact on your project’s outcome. Cloud experts with a strong background in AWS are more likely to systematically analyze the possibilities of Cloud setup and provide top-notch services. To obtain certain reputable professional certifications, such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, a developer must have at least two years of practical experience in designing and implementing Cloud architecture on AWS.
For instance, the average experience of a Middle AWS developer at N-iX spans over five years, while our Senior and Lead specialists have mastered their AWS competencies for around 12+ years.
Read more about partnering with AWS consultants
Success story: Building AWS-based big data analytics platform for a leading industrial supply company
N-iX helped a Fortune 500 industrial supply company, offering over 1.6M in-stock products and technical support to more than 3M customers, to migrate its on-premise data solution to the cloud. This transformation was aimed at achieving better scalability, improving reliability, and reducing costs.
N-iX helped the client by creating a cloud-agnostic plan for cloud migration and building a unified data platform on AWS. As a result, N-iX delivered significant value to the client by optimizing big data management and reducing costs.
The client needed to transform its existing on-premise data solution and move it to the cloud to ensure better scalability, improve reliability, and reduce costs. N-iX has helped the client develop the cloud-agnostic strategy toward cloud migration and built a unified data platform on AWS.
Value delivered by N-iX: saving costs and more efficient big data management
- Saving infrastructure costs with cloud migration.
- Improved efficiency of data management thanks to the unified data platform that stores all the data in one place.
- Predictive analytics capabilities of the platform. For example, the finance department will be able to predict inventory-related expenses.
- Using cloud-neutral technology to avoid vendor lock-in and benefit from different cloud providers.
- Reducing software development overhead by replacing expensive on-site contractors.
Why hire AWS developers from N-iX?
- N-iX has partnered with AWS since 2020 and achieved Advanced Consulting Partner status in 2021. The company has earned numerous AWS designations and competencies, so we can help you migrate virtually any workload, system, or solution to the Cloud.
- N-iX, with its team of 400 cloud experts, can help you optimize costs with a wide range of AWS cost-reduction services that ensure your cloud resources are always aligned with your business needs.
- Our extensive expertise in AWS has been acknowledged through various designations, including AWS Data and Analytics Competency, Amazon RDS Designation, AWS Kinesis Designation, AWS Lambda Designation, Amazon API Gateway Designation, AWS DynamoDB Designation, and more. These designations confirm N-iX's deep expertise and proven success in delivering high-quality solutions within these specific areas of AWS technology.
- With over 20 years of market presence, N-iX has helped dozens of companies, including midsize businesses, large enterprises, and Fortune 500 leaders, achieve their goals with cloud transformation. Throughout our history, we have successfully delivered over 200 cloud projects, including more than 30 migration projects in various sectors, such as manufacturing, telecommunications, fintech, automotive, and others.
