Kickstart your Cloud Career with 7 different Introductory Certifications

Do you want to get started in the world of Cloud Computing and do a certification, but you don’t know which one? Look no further! In this article I will describe my experience with seven cloud providers where I did at least one certification.

Disclaimer: The information provided is considered recent in August 2023, but of course things like exam prices may change in the future, so with time, the information might be partially outdated. The information here is merely for informational purposes, please always check the linked direct source for the most accurate information.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS is the oldest and the biggest cloud provider there is, being the market leader with a 32% global market share in 2023. It doesn’t have a particular focus, and could be well considered as a general-purpose all-round cloud provider for most commercial use cases. For many people, learning about AWS will be a good start in the cloud computing world. You will get to know the platform, learn about cloud computing in general and be introduced to the various services the platform offers.

• Certification: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CCP)
• Price: 100 USD + Taxes
• Number of questions: 65
• Time: 90 minutes
• Validity: 3 years, afterwards renewal required, or upgrade

Learn more here: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-cloud-practitioner/

Experience

This was my very first cloud certification that I did in late 2020. I knew nothing about cloud, although having a Computer Science background myself did help to understand most of the concepts easily. I think it is a very valuable certification for anyone who wants to obtain knowledge about the cloud, even if you are not a technical person.

I wouldn’t say it was too difficult, I remember in my case most of the questions were about knowing the services on a superficial level, and you would for example be asked which service to use for what purpose.

Training

I solely used ACloudGuru for my training, which got acquired by Pluralsight recently. I personally think doing just this training course is going to be enough. I also recommended to register an AWS account yourself, but you don’t have to do much experimentation.

Of course there are more learning platforms available too, such as Udemy which offers à la carte courses that you can book without having to subscribe for a membership like on ACloudGuru. For AWS you will find plenty of options there.

Outlook

AWS offers many more certifications, at this point around 11 more. Typically, after completing the CCP certification, you would move on the Associate certifications to learn more about AWS and how to use. You can find an overview of the other certification here.

Microsoft Azure

The biggest competitor of AWS is undoubtedly Microsoft Azure. With a 22% market share, Azure makes for a good second place. Just like AWS, Azure is pretty much general-purpose all-around, with only some minor differences in most of the tools. Probably one key differentiator is that it offers broad support and integration for Microsoft applications that you might use on-premises. After all, it’s Microsoft.

Azure allows us to learn extensively about cloud computing in general. In particular there will be a bit more focus on differentiating SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS tools.

• Certification: Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
• Price: 99 USD + Taxes
• Number of questions: 40–60
• Time: 85 minutes
• Validity: Lifetime, does not expire

Learn more here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/exams/az-900/

Experience

The exam outline was pretty similar as to AWS, as you are mainly being tested on high-level knowledge of the services that you have to learn about for the exam. In particular it is important to understand SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, as well as other concepts like CapEx vs OpEx and how it relates to the cloud. Personally I found it even easier than the AWS exam, although maybe it did help that I already had some experience in cloud computing in general.

Training

For this exam I solely used ACloudGuru. I’m not sure if the courses they offer are still updated, but if they did, then there is a good chance that it will suffice.

Outlook

Azure has dozens of certifications that you can attempt after clearing this first one, including a couple of other foundational certifications that do not expire. Find the overview here.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

The Bronze medal goes to GCP to round off the “big three”, which combined make up a solid majority of the market share, and even higher in the western world. Compared to AWS and Azure, GCP largely shares most of the features, although it should be slightly more suitable for data analysis, containerization, Kubernetes and Machine Learning use cases.

• Certification: Google Cloud Certified Cloud Digital Leader (CDL)
• Price: 99 USD + Taxes
• Number of questions: 50–60
• Time: 90 minutes
• Validity: 2 years

Learn more here: https://cloud.google.com/learn/certification/cloud-digital-leader

Experience

Actually CDL was published only a few years ago. Before, the Google Cloud Associate was the ‘beginner’ certification that GCP offered, but in practice it was very hard. Hence, a more beginner-friendly certification was introduced. I would still consider CDL to be relatively hard compared to the AWS and Azure counterparts, but it is easier than the Associate exam and if you study well then you should be able to pass it. It should be noted that the exam can only be taken in proctored mode rather than going to a test center. I was able to pass it with an unknown score, because your score will not be disclosed. You will only hear if you passed or failed.

Training

I must admit that I originally studied for the Associate certification, which I failed miserably. The courses that were offered on ACloudGuru severely lacked content, and I was not well prepared. For the CDL certification the courses there may be useful, but I ended up taking a course on Udemy which I felt was good enough to help me pass.

Outlook

As mentioned, there is one Associate certification that you can attempt after passing CDL. Beyond that, there is a number of Professional certifications that you can attempt. Find an overview here.

Salesforce

Maybe you didn’t expect it, but Salesforce is actually a Cloud Provider, with 3% market share. That looks little, but at the same time it is pretty large. It is a bit of a special player because it only focuses on SaaS-solutions in the context of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). If you want to pursue a career as a sales administrator, then this cloud is for you. But even if you don’t like that, it can still be useful to have a look and learn about the number one CRM tool in the world, by pursuing their beginner certification.

• Certification: Salesforce Certified Associate
• Price: 75 USD + Taxes
• Number of questions: 40
• Time: 70 minutes
• Validity: Lifetime

Learn more here: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/de/help?article=Salesforce-Certified-Associate-Exam-Guide

Experience

The exam was in my experience pretty easy. Almost as if they don’t want you to fail. And if you do, you are eligible for a free retake. Yet you will still have to study and also play around a bit with the functionalities of the Salesforce platform in order to familiarize yourself with its features. This is actually important because you might also get questions like “under what section can you do X?” Furthermore, the exam can only be taken remotely.

Training

To train for this certification, I took two courses. Salesforce offers their own so-called Trailmix with theory lessons, practical labs and quizzes which will prepare you for the exam. Furthermore, you can also take a course on Udemy which I also found to be useful. You can probably pass the certification by just doing the Trailmix and practising yourself, but in the Udemy course the instructor will also do some demonstrations that I personally found useful because it is very easy to get lost and confused.

Outlook

Similar to Azure, Salesforce has a whole array of certifications, organized per role. Personally I don’t think pursuing more certification is worth it, unless you plan doing more with Salesforce. You could say that going into Salesforce is a whole career of its own. You can find an overview of the certifications here (select the other roles to view the other corresponding certifications).

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

An older but somewhat smaller player is Oracle, which is mainly known for developing Java and several Database solutions. Despite its only 2% market share, it is still a considerable player and can be useful to learn about. Oracle offers multiple certifications, and it also has a beginner certification

• Certification: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Certified Foundations Associate
• Price: Free
• Number of questions: 35
• Time: 60 minutes
• Validity: Lifetime

Learn more here: https://education.oracle.com/oracle-cloud-infrastructure-2023-foundations-associate/pexam_1Z0-1085-23

Experience

Although it is a full-fledged exam, it is actually free and non-proctored, meaning that no one is watching you. And you can of course take multiple attempts to pass it. The questions themselves were neither easy nor hard per se, but if you study the training contents and keep your notes besides you (for example on another screen), then you should be able to pass without problems.

Training

Oracle offers its own training path that I recommend you to do. It is also free and covers most of the content well.

Outlook

After passing the Foundation Associate exam, you can consider taking up other certifications, both on the Associate and the Professional level. Find an overview here.

Alibaba Cloud

And then we get to a more exotic Cloud Provider: Alibaba Cloud. Although this China-based provider only has a global market share of 4%, it has a significantly higher market share in Asia, to which it gradually expanded after its initial launch in China in 2009. Feature-wise, Alibaba Cloud has pretty much the same to offer as other providers such as AWS, and should cost around the same, although it is generally hard to compare prices between cloud providers.

If you are interested in doing business in Asia, it can definitely be worth it to check out Alibaba Cloud and start off with a certification to learn the basics. You will also learn about some specific requirements that apply when doing business in China. Did you know that before you can host a server in mainland China, you need to apply for a mandatory ICP License from the Chinese government? (Don’t worry though, Alibaba Cloud will do it for you on your behalf)

• Certification: Alibaba Cloud Certification Associate (ACA)
• Price: 120 USD + Taxes
• Number of questions: 50
• Time: 90 minutes
• Validity: 2 years

Learn more here: https://edu.alibabacloud.com/certification/aca_cloudcomputing

Experience

ACA is the first certification in the Alibaba Cloud world and comes with an exam. Unlike exams at other Cloud Providers, the exams are centrally scheduled meaning you can only sign up for an attempt every once in a while. Here, you will be “proctored” by having to attend a Zoom meeting on your phone, that you need to set up and position in such a way so that you can be seen in front of your laptop while you take the exam. (I wonder whether you are really checked, but let’s assume you are watched). Then, you will take the exam online. After completing the exam, you will immediately get your result.

Personally I found the exam to be pretty easy, although I would recommend to first take an exam of the aforementioned “big three” to get yourself more familiar with Cloud Computing in general.

Training

Alibaba Cloud offers its own training courses. I recommend taking the course listed on their website which covers general Cloud concepts, Computing, Databases, Storage, Load Balancing and Autoscaling. This is also pretty much what you need for the exam.

However, Alibaba Cloud also offers something called Clouders, which are mini-courses of mostly 30 to 60 minutes about a certain topic and a quiz to test to your knowledge. Each Clouder costs 0.01 USD. I personally used these Clouders to prepare myself, which were part of a package action I signed up for where I obtained a free voucher for ACA after participating in a couple of online classroom trainings. Alibaba Cloud indeed sometimes gives away vouchers for exams. If you want to get your hands on one, I suggest following them on LinkedIn.

Outlook

If you complete ACA, you can continue to take more certifications, which are subdivided into Professional certifications and Specialty certifications.

Tencent Cloud

The little brother of Alibaba Cloud is Tencent Cloud, which is the Cloud platform of Tencent, which is one of China’s leading telecommunication providers, with a 2% global market share. Similar to Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud was launched in China and is mainly focused on the Chinese and Asian market.

• Certification: Tencent Cloud Practitioner
• Price: 100 USD + Taxes
• Number of questions: 80
• Time: 90 minutes
• Validity: 2 years

Learn more here: https://www.tencentcloud.com/dashboard/training_detail?detailId=2831

Experience

Of all introductory certifications and exams so far, I would argue that Tencent’s exam was actually the toughest. You get a whopping 80 questions that you have to answer within 90 minutes. 60 of them are multiple-choice, and 20 are multiple-select, which are worth 2 points each. Some questions are easy, but there were also some very specific questions about the pricing of services for which you had to study meticulously. Nevertheless I managed to pass it. After completing the exam you get your result right away (without a score) and I obtained my Credly badge after 4 days.

Training

Tencent offers a good and compact training course of around 8 hours on Coursera, during which all of the subject matter is covered that you need. I personally found the quality of the course to be very good and I felt that it prepared me very well for the exam. It is quite a lot, but it is doable. That said, it is pretty much the only (proper) training there is.

One caveat though is that the course does assume some general IT-knowledge, and it will be hard if you are new in IT. For example it is assumed that you already know what relational and NoSQL databases are, and the differences between them. These topics are only briefly (but well) recapped before the database services are introduced.

Another problem is the platform itself. Coursera has a bit of a complicated and sometimes unclear pricing model. However, you can sign up for a 7-day free trial and do your best to clear the course within this timeframe

Outlook

In a remarkably similar format as AWS, Tencent offers three Associate certifications and one professional certification, which you can find listed here. You can also find the trainings here.

Bonus

IBM

Another significant player in the cloud world is the good old IBM, which has a global market share of around 3%. IBM also offers cloud certifications which can be found here. The IBM Cloud Advocate as the starter certification is definitely on my shortlist but until I have actually done it, I will not be able to comment on its contents.

Huawei

If you’re not tired of Asia yet, you might also want to have a look at Huawei, which also seems to offer a range of certifications. It is unlikely that I will do any of these in the near future, but it is noteworthy anyway.

Open Telekom Cloud (OTC)

Then there is the Germany-based Open Telekom Cloud, the cloud platform of internet provider Deutsche Telekom that is trying to become a big player in Cloud Computing. It is particularly popular under German and European clients due to its native and strict adherence to EU data protection laws.

OTC also offers certification programs. I actually completed the first ‘Essentials’ certificate (which I don’t actually consider a certification, read more about certificates vs certifications here), but I wanted to just to get a rough idea of the platform. It is likely that I will study for more OTC certifications in the future. Find the certification overview here.

Other

Although most of the aforementioned cloud providers are pretty known, there are actually dozens of cloud providers that also exist. Yet most of them, for example DigitalOcean and Linode, do not seem to offer certifications at this point. A list of other but still largely unknown Europe-based cloud providers can be found here that for the most part (I haven’t checked all) don’t offer certifications either.

Logically, for most small cloud providers it simply doesn’t make sense to create a certification program if there is going to be little demand from the users. You may however find some online trainings here and there and if you already have Cloud Computing experience with other cloud providers, you may understand by now that most cloud providers share a lot of similarities and you can switch and adapt to a new provider pretty quickly.

Aviatrix

And if you thought we were done, then finally there is the phenomenon of Multi-Cloud Networking. How can we connect two clouds together and divide our workloads in a smart way? Aviatrix is a tool that can help with you this. And more importantly: You can achieve certifications! Read all about it in my article about Aviatrix.

Conclusion

If you are new to Cloud, you may not realize how big the Cloud actually is, and understand that there are so many players active in the Cloud Computing world. Even apart from the “big three”, there are many other players active that may be able to obtain an even bigger global market share in the future.

Apart from that, there are complete careers you can pursue in Cloud Computing and the best way to get started is to study for a certification from one of the known cloud providers. If that goes well, you can either study for a follow-up certification or take up studies for a certification from another provider.

Although the possibilities are pretty limitless, you will likely have limited time and energy to study for everything. I personally took an interest in learning about multiple cloud providers out of curiosity, but I would not recommend you to do the same in most cases. It would be best to focus on the cloud provider that is used in your project and study their certifications in depth. If you switch projects to a project where another cloud provider is used, you can then study for the other provider’s certifications.