The AWS Heroes program celebrated its 10-year anniversary this year, having grown into a program of over 200 AWS experts recognized for sharing their knowledge and expertise of AWS technology with the community.
According to David Nalley, director of open source strategy and marketing at AWS, the program originally started because the company noticed that while there were a lot of excited customers using AWS, there were a select few that “really went above and beyond in terms of helping other people,” by writing blog posts, creating video content, contributing to open source projects, leading user groups, organizing workshops, speaking at events, and more.
For instance, Rossana Suarez, who has been a Hero since 2022, has hosted over 100 tech sessions about AWS reaching over 10,000 developers and has run almost 300 bootcamps about DevOps in general.
“These folks had really become natural leaders in the broader AWS user community, and so we decided to try and formalize that and give them some recognition and be able to work with them better because they were having huge impacts on our users,” he said.
AWS Heroes don’t work for Amazon, but rather represent many other companies. It is an individual award, meaning it doesn’t matter what company a person is employed by; the award will follow them throughout their career.
The Heroes also come from various backgrounds and cultures, with Heroes from 57 different countries currently.
“These folks are having a widespread impact, and they’re doing a lot of videos or podcasts that are reaching people all over the world, and in a lot of cases, in native languages that you might not see documentation from AWS in,” he said.
According to Nalley, becoming a Hero requires being nominated by someone from within AWS. The candidates are evaluated on many criteria, like how enthusiastic they are about engaging with the AWS community, how respected they are within the community, and their impact on the community.
The process is rather selective, with only 273 AWS Heroes to date out of millions of active AWS users.
“I think that alone is recognition of deep expertise and that not only has that expertise been validated, but also that the impact that they’re having has been tremendous,” said Nalley.
AWS Heroes are divided into two types: Community Heroes and Category Heroes. Community Heroes are experts on the entire AWS platform, while Category Heroes are experts on a specific area, like containers, data, security, or serverless.
In addition to AWS Heroes being recognized for their achievements, they also get a say in the future of the AWS technologies they are experts in.
“90% of the things that we deliver to customers as features or new services are actually requested by customers and the Heroes get a pretty loud voice,” said Nalley. “We’re looking at what they say because we recognize they have that deep level of expertise already. So they’re well qualified by us, and then they get the ability to influence the future of AWS.”
Being an AWS Hero
Rossana Suarez is Argentina’s first female Hero, and she’s been an AWS Container Hero since 2022. She started as an AWS Community Builder, which is another program that provides users with technical resources, education, and networking opportunities.
“My drive comes from seeing the transformative power of knowledge sharing in our Latin American community. Every time I see someone grow in their career, master a new technology, or gain confidence in their skills because of shared knowledge, it reinforces my commitment. I believe in ‘growing together’ – when we share knowledge, we all rise together,” Suarez said.
She says that being an AWS Hero has provided her with opportunities to connect with leaders in Latin America as well as the rest of the world. It also provides her a platform to amplify the talents of the Latin American tech community.
A couple of weeks ago at AWS re:Invent, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels presented Suarez with the Go Build 2024 award. She said that this achievement validated her community’s collective growth and impact.
Sharing knowledge in the way that AWS Heroes do can be time-consuming, but Suarez says she has found balance in combining her passion for community building with her professional work.
“It helps that my community involvement enhances my professional expertise and vice versa. I prioritize activities that create maximum impact and always make time for self-care and family,” she said.
For anyone looking to become an AWS Hero, her advice would be to “start where you are, with what you know.” She believes that engaging actively in local AWS user groups and sharing one’s unique perspective is important.
“Remember this important principle: We Fail > We Learn > We Become Better. The AWS community, especially the Builder and Hero programs, values authentic voices and diverse experiences,” Suarez said.