Continuous Education for Continuous Delivery

It's funny how we hate learning when we are kids and how we are desperately looking for learning opportunities when we grow up. We are willing to invest our own time and money hoping to become more skillful, professional and competitive. At the same time, these investments are very likely to bring high return, so we are always on the lookout for useful, focused and effective education.

EPAM Systems, in an effort to relieve you of the pains of searching for adequate education, maintains various learning platforms where everyone can find something new and interesting to use in creating unique EPAM products. You have the Adaptation Portal supporting you in your first days at EPAM, the Learn Portal with lots of special courses helping you to upgrade your skills, and the EPAM University offering more profound trainings on specific subjects.

In addition, you have plenty of opportunities to obtain education from external providers with which EPAM Systems has agreements for free or discounted education for its employees.

EPAM Cloud Education

Many EPAM teams welcome any opportunity to share their special knowledge with their colleagues. In this respect, EPAM Cloud clearly stands out, as its product is, in fact, a service for the rest of the company. EPAM Cloud, as all clouds, is self-service, this is one of its fundamental principles. This is why we, like nobody else, understand the value of education, as your cloud experience will only be pleasant and effective when you know what you are doing. Of course, there is Cloud Support and Consulting who are always ready to provide advice when something is not working as expected, but where can you get your cloud knowledge to get started? Don't worry, we have you covered here.

If you have never worked with EPAM Cloud before, you can be sure that you will not start unprepared. There is a Cloud module in the Adaptation program which can be requested for your project. It covers the basic Cloud knowledge you need to get started with project activities easily and with confidence.

If you think that the Adaptation program scope is not enough and you would like to learn more about EPAM Cloud to dig deeper into its possibilities and resources, there is a self-paced course on EPAM University. It is a large four-module program allowing to learn Cloud from all sides - its structure and basic principles, its use including tips and how-to's, its capacities as platform-as-a-service and its hybridization opportunities involving integration with as many as three cloud service providers. The course has recently been revised to correspond to the latest changes in functionality.

And, finally, there are online instructor-led courses. In 2016, we held two series of Effective Cloud Computing trainings leading you from cloud basics to creating your own virtual machines and working with external clouds. The second series was scheduled when we realized that the demand is much higher than the planned capacity. You can find the course recordings on Video Portal, if interested. In 2017, there will be more live courses - right now we are in the middle of preparing the AWS Cost Optimization program and there will be others, too.

Hybrid Cloud Education

However, EPAM Cloud is not just the private cloud. One of our advantages is integration with external cloud providers from within the familiar environment of EPAM Cloud. At the same time, however much we are trying to unify resource management in different clouds, there are still differences, sometimes significant. Which means that special education is in order. And again, EPAM has taken care of this, too.

Being a member of AWS Partner Network, EPAM has access to numerous training and certification opportunities provided by Amazon. We recommend taking the AWS Business Professional and AWS Technical Professional courses to learn the most important features and flows used in Amazon Web Services. Both courses give certificates to prove your AWS knowledge and expertise.

In January, 2017, EPAM Cloud launched integration with Google Cloud Platform. With its abundance of different services and resources, Google Cloud also maintains an own educational program consisting of various materials - tutorials, quick start documentation and very short how-to videos, the so-called Cloud Minutes. In one minute, Google Cloud experts show you how to perform certain simple operations. For example, see this video to learn how to sign up for a free Google Cloud trial.

We picked this video on purpose, as you will need your free trial account if you wish to complete the Google Cloud program on Coursera. The program consists of five courses - from the basics to technical details and best practices:

- Google Cloud Fundamentals. Core Infrastructure.

- Big Data and Machine Learning Fundamentals.

- Configuration Management on Google Cloud Platform.

- Computing, Storage, and Security.

- Google Cloud Program

At the same time, please pay attention to the fact that the certificates issued after passing AWS and Google Cloud free trainings only confirm your skills and knowledge received during the training. To become a certified professional of a certain provider, complete a more profound certification program from AWS or Google Cloud and receive a generally recognized certificate showing your proficiency and expertise. EPAM Systems supports you in this area by the possibility to compensate your certification expenses. For details on certification fee compensation, see the Employee Handbook which you can find in the EPAM Toolkit.

Cloud Expertise Appreciation

                         
We at EPAM Cloud always value the interest our colleagues show towards the Cloud, be it in the form of learning to use the Cloud, sharing knowledge or contributing to cloud development. With the help of the wonderful colleagues from the Heroes Portal, we have developed a whole line of Cloud badges which you can get for participating in Cloud trainings, completing self-paced Cloud courses or getting AWS or Google Cloud course certificates. Send your certificates to the Cloud Consulting Team, and we will send you a badge which you can show to prove your cloud expertise.