9 Benefits of AWS for Students and Education

WRITTEN BY

Corrin Jones

POSTED ON

January 12, 2022

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Categories: AWS, Education

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9 Benefits of AWS for Students and Education

Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominates cloud market share at over 30 percent of the industry. AWS is used to drive sites such as Netflix, Twitch, LinkedIn, Facebook and Baidu. But AWS isn’t just useful for large enterprise sites — it can also be beneficial for students and education. From learning the ins and outs of AWS to taking advantage of cloud resources, AWS can be an excellent tool throughout the educational industry. In this blog, we’ll look at how to use AWS in education, what the benefits of AWS are for students and educators, and how to best leverage AWS for students.

AWS for Students

  • AWS Educate provides AWS Educate Cloud Career pathways, a guide to building a career in the cloud. For IT students, AWS education can be an invaluable resource — both in learning more about AWS and more about the cloud.
  • AWS certification can help students grow. Not only can the certification process teach students more about a key technology, but students can also improve the competitiveness of their resume. With AWS certifications, tech students will have their foot in the door when building their careers — and they can continue developing their careers with additional certifications as they move forward.
  • AWS can be used as a learning environment. Through virtualization, AWS can be used as a virtual learning environment. Students can learn to develop apps, program for the web and orchestrate infrastructure applications and tasks. Virtualization leaves no danger that the students could damage a live environment — and students can always restore their backups if they make an error or need a clean slate.
  • AWS includes a large array of tools. Most of the tools that students would need for learning application development, management, maintenance and orchestration are already included in AWS. Through AWS, students can develop comprehensive knowledge of cloud computing resources — whether they’re studying networking or they’re studying the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions.

Many students can benefit from AWS — and not just those who are in IT. Students who are performing statistical analysis, mathematics or other highly technical procedures may find that a familiarity with AWS can help them succeed. Helping students learn AWS will benefit them greatly in their lives to come.

AWS for Education and Educators

For educators and educational institutions, AWS provides an ideal platform not only for learning but also for infrastructure. Benefits of AWS for educators include:

  • AWS is an excellent place for educators to teach students about cloud computing and virtualization. Many students learn best from doing. By having an AWS account, educators can encourage students to learn in a real, live environment, without potential damage to any systems. Students will also be able to learn from wherever they are, which is increasingly helpful as remote-learning environments flourish.
  • AWS can be used to drive educational apps. Educational apps can be built on a foundation of AWS, making it possible for students to learn through the cloud. Educational apps can be developed directly on AWS or ported there, to take advantage of the cloud computing resources of the system.
  • AWS can be used to support an educational portal that is accessible from anywhere. Even after the pandemic, many schools are embracing remote learning and hybrid learning. New educational portals will need to be designed and existing portals will have to be augmented and improved.
  • AWS virtualization can be used in the classroom for better learning outcomes. Rather than students needing to use and deploy physical machines, they can instead virtualize a wide array of machines for their practice scenarios. Computer labs will need fewer physical, on-premises devices, and students will be able to work from home.
  • AWS can support a complete, customized online infrastructure. Organizations are able to build their infrastructure on AWS and even have it managed by a managed services provider, rather than having to manage their own educational tech tools and resources.

Organizations can build their infrastructure with the same power as Netflix or Facebook — but only pay for the resources and features they need. Using AWS for education gives organizations exceptional flexibility and reliability in their online systems.

Getting Started with AWS

AWS is useful. But it can also be complicated. Not only is AWS a complex technology platform — including everything from domain management systems to virtual private servers — but its pricing system and setup can have a substantial learning curve.

When first using AWS, many entities find that the pricing system, in particular, can be complicated. Rather than paying a flat monthly fee, you pay for what you use — and you save money while doing so. But it may take an expert to fine-tune your usage and spending to determine the packages and tools that are right for you.

If you’re interested in transitioning your students or your educational institution to AWS, the time to start is now. Contact Red River to find out more.