AWS certifications won't make you senior. We will.
Real AWS judgment — the decisions, cost traps, and war stories certifications skip. Written by two engineers who ship production AWS every day.
Read by Jeff Barr (AWS), Alex DeBrie, Andrew Brown, and 12.6k+ engineers.
The problem
You've set up AWS ten times. You still can't defend half your choices.
Not because you're bad — because nobody teaches this. Docs describe knobs. Certs test trivia. Tutorials assume greenfield. You're left piecing it together from incidents and Stack Overflow.
You pick a database and keep second-guessing it
DynamoDB? Postgres? Aurora? Every tutorial picks for you — none explain why the other option was wrong for your case.
Your bill spikes and you learn from Slack
NAT Gateway egress, CloudWatch ingestion, data transfer between AZs — the traps nobody mentioned until finance forwarded the invoice.
PagerDuty fires, but the fix isn't in the docs
Throttling, cold starts, EventBridge retries — AWS docs describe the knobs, not when to turn them. You learn by breaking prod.
Certifications don't translate to your job
Associate-level multiple choice is not the same as 'should this be a Step Function or an SQS queue?' at 11pm on a Friday.
What changes
Imagine AWS stops feeling like a maze.
Not because you memorized more — because you built the mental model. The one you use every time you open the console.
- You pick DynamoDB or Postgres and can defend it in a review
- You predict your AWS bill before you hit deploy
- You spot cost traps before your CFO does
- You explain trade-offs without hand-waving
- You ship to prod without the 3 a.m. anxiety
- You push back on a bad architecture — with receipts
The solution
Three ways in. Start wherever you are.
Free on the newsletter. Self-paced with the books. High-touch in the cohort. Same mental model — different depth.
One 5-min email, every Thursday
One real AWS decision, one cost trap, one war story. Read it on the train and apply it on Monday.
The visual map you wish you'd had
AWS Fundamentals & the CloudWatch Book — infographics, patterns, sample code. Yours forever.
Your real architecture, reviewed
6 weeks, live calls, AI-assisted 1:1 reviews on your actual project. From duct-tape AWS to production-grade.
How it works
Start in 10 seconds. No funnel, no upsell trap.
Most readers start on the newsletter. Here's what actually happens.
- 01
Drop your email
One field, one click. No checkbox gauntlet, no credit card.
- 02
Get a reader-favorite issue
We send a first issue instantly so you know what Thursdays will feel like.
- 03
Thursdays, 5 minutes
One decision, one cost trap, or one war story. Read it on the train.
- 04
Go deeper — if you want
Pick up a book when you want the visual map. Join the cohort when you want eyes on your architecture.
“Focused on AWS usage in the real world — goes deeper than simply providing the information needed to obtain certifications.”
Is this for you?
We'd rather you leave than stay and be disappointed.
Good fit if
- You ship code to AWS (or want to)
- You're past "what is a VPC" and want real judgment
- You want why, not a 40-step screenshot tutorial
- You're OK with 5 min/week — or 6 focused weeks
Not for you if
- You're brand-new to programming
- You want AWS certification prep
- You want a replacement for AWS docs
- You want us to pick your architecture without context
Why us
Two engineers. 20+ years on AWS.
We write every newsletter, infographic, and chapter ourselves. Startup speed meets enterprise rigor.
Tobias Schmidt
Cloud Engineer & Educator
Tobi has migrated production workloads for startups and large enterprises. He's fallen into every AWS trap so you don't have to.
Sandro Volpicella
Fullstack Developer & AWS Specialist
Sandro helps startups build scalable, serverless-first architectures. AWS Community Builder and regular speaker at Community Days across Europe.
Wall of love
Kind words from AWS leadership and peers.
This upcoming AWS book — AWS Fundamentals — looks really interesting. It is intended to focus on AWS usage in the real world, and goes deeper than simply providing the information needed to obtain certifications. The per-service infographics also look amazing!
👏 This is awesome, Tobias!
Keep an eye on this release if you are interested in learning about AWS fundamentals.
I'm excited about this one. We get a lot of web dev and JS around here, and we're missing more cloud, infrastructure, and engineering fundamentals. I think this will be great!
Jezzzz this is amazing and I'll love to translate it.
You've been killing it, Tobias. Not many do AWS/Cloud content around here. It's been a pleasure following you!
Nice thread Sandro!
I am excited for the book! Your infographics are always helpful.
Amazing!
A very useful thread for anyone who is ready to learn more about AWS.
Thank you for sharing — the contents are crisp and clear.
Two of my favorite AWS content creators. This is going to be absolute fire. Subscribe now!
Our guarantee
Zero-regret pricing.
Newsletter
Free forever. Unsubscribe in one click.
Books
30-day refund, no questions asked.
Cohort
Complete it or redo the next cohort free.
FAQ
Questions we get a lot.
Is this just cert prep in disguise?
No. Certs teach trivia. We teach the judgment calls and cost traps certs skip. If you want AWS SAA prep, we'd rather point you to Stephane Maarek — he's excellent at that.
Is the newsletter actually free forever?
Yes. One email every Thursday, free. Unsubscribe in one click. We make money from the books and the cohort, not from the newsletter.
What if I already read cloud newsletters?
Read one free issue. If it tells you something the others didn't — stay. If not, unsubscribe. We won't be offended.
What's the difference between the book and the cohort?
The book gives you the mental model at your own pace. The cohort gives you our eyes on your real architecture for 6 weeks. Most people start with the book.
What if the cohort doesn't fit my level?
We screen applications. If it's not a fit, we'll tell you and refund. If you finish and don't feel it delivered, you can redo the next cohort free — no questions.
Can I switch paths later?
Yes. Most cohort students started on the newsletter. Most book readers were newsletter subscribers first. Start wherever you are.