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A Dive Into Xebia’s AWS Community Builders, Trainers, and Ambassadors
Xebia has a long history with Amazon Web Services (AWS), being a premier consulting partner. Aside from participating in various AWS events and initiatives (the AWS Community Day, re:Invent, and User Groups; just to name a few), many Xebians are directly involved in the AWS community programs.
This article shines a light on some of the AWS contributors within Xebia, who are actively involved in contributing to the AWS community. It introduces some of the AWS programs, in this case, AWS Ambassador, AWS Community Builder, and AWS Instructor. In addition, it explains how you as an AWS enthusiast can benefit from their involvement with these programs, exploring what it means for them to be part of the AWS community. Finally, this article is also for ambitious consultants who are looking for a good starting point to be more involved in the world of AWS and would like to test their skills.
Community Builder
Let’s start with the Community Builder program, which is the one with the most Xebians involved. Who is a Community Builder?
“It is someone who is specialized in sharing his knowledge, in whichever form that might be, from social media presence to technical blogs and talks for instance,” said Yvo van Zee, Cloud Consultant at Xebia. “The important thing is that builders generate content to help others evolve and enrich their AWS knowledge” added Yvo.
The AWS Community Builders program offers technical resources, education, and networking opportunities to AWS technical enthusiasts and emerging thought leaders who are passionate about sharing knowledge and connecting with the technical community. In order to become a community builder, you have to submit relevant content and demonstrate your impact and contributions to AWS-related content.
“It is actually quite selective of a program, not everyone gets accepted. Considering that around 3000 people applied this year and only 300 got accepted, that is a mere 10%” said Jacco Kulman, AWS Community Builder and cloud consultant at Xebia. “That is why I am very happy to be able to call myself one, it is a great personal achievement” Jacco added.
There are many benefits of being a Community Builder. We asked Xebia Community Builder Joris Conijn why he joined the community in the first place; “For me, it is such an advantage to be a part of a network of skilled like-minded AWS enthusiasts, who share and connect with each other, and this increases the visibility and reach of one’s work” said Joris.
Xebia Community Builder Bruno Schaatsbergen gives another reason why joining the AWS Community Builders program is quite helpful. “I decided to join the program because as a builder, I am able to gain access to exclusive content and services that have not yet been released. This allows me to preview upcoming features, which is very convenient for me”.
AWS Instructor
The second program is the AWS Instructor Program. The AWS community is made up of instructors with unique backgrounds and a wide range of experiences in the cloud and in the classroom. They come from all over the globe and share a passion for teaching as well as educating other AWS users.
“Being an AWS trainer is about helping companies train their team on AWS skills and knowledge. This way, the companies do not have to find outside people with a certain skill set already, which would be a long and costly process”, said Martijn van de Grift, AWS Authorized Instructor at Xebia.
One of Xebia’s AWS Authorized Instructors, Elvin Luff, shared his reasons for applying and what it means to be a certified instructor. “I mean, for me, it's about sharing my passion. I love what I do, and if I can show other people how they can best use the tool that I provided for them, then that's a win in my book”, said Elvin.
AWS Ambassador
Finally, we have the AWS Ambassador Partner Program. This program enables employees of AWS partners to become technical experts in multiple domains by obtaining AWS certifications and developing publicly consumable content such as technical write-ups, blogs, and open-source projects that drive thought leadership.
So who is an AWS Ambassador? Well, it is someone who possesses multiple AWS certifications and in-depth AWS knowledge further to evangelize AWS and their partner organization to customers.
Xebia has not one but two AWS Ambassadors, Michał Brygidyn and Steyn Huizinga. Becoming an Ambassador is quite an intricate process that requires certain requirements:
- The company you work for must be an AWS partner
- You have to re-qualify yearly in order to remain an AWS Ambassador
“Being an Ambassador is definitely something that encourages me to write more blogs and publish more material”, said Michał Brygidyn.“Because we need to have active certificates, we constantly need to learn and grow our skills” he added.
“Because you can not become an ambassador without any knowledge, everybody who is one is really skilled. So if you have a question or you want to have a discussion with someone on a specific topic, the community is there to help and share knowledge which is extremely valuable” Steyn Huizinga also added.
Conclusion
This article explored a few of the Xebians who are extremely passionate about the AWS community and contributing to its growth. AWS is an important partner for Xebia, and it is very well-represented throughout the company. We have been a premier partner since 2018, we collected hundreds of AWS certifications and we attend yearly AWS community events such as AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. We are excited about what the future holds for us and AWS, as we continue to work hard for our clients and partners to deliver the best products we can.
Below you can find the links to the official programs: