2020 was an interesting year. A big thing happened, changing the world as we known. Working from home became the standard and I finally had some time to take a deep dive into the world of IT related certifications.
“The pandemic validated cloud’s value proposition,” said Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner. “The ability to use on-demand, scalable cloud models to achieve cost efficiency and business continuity is providing the impetus for organizations to rapidly accelerate their digital business transformation plans.'
The cloud is no just a data center anymore. In an upcoming post I will discuss what cloud computing actually entails. But for now, let’s look at the most interesting cloud specific certifications that will bring you the most value in 2021.
General
- CCSP - Certified Cloud Security Professional
CCSP is from the widely recognized (ISC)². The CCSP Certificate shows you have the advanced technical skills and knowledge to design, manage and secure data, applications and infrastructure in the cloud using best practices, policies and procedures established by the cyber security experts at (ISC)².
To qualify for this cyber security certification, you must pass the exam and have at least five years of cumulative, paid work experience in information technology.
- CCSK - Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge
The CCSK certificate is widely recognized as the standard of expertise for cloud security. It gives you a cohesive and vendor-neutral understanding of how to secure data in the cloud, which will prepare you to earn cloud credentials specific to certain vendors or job functions. The main difference with CompTia Cloud + and CCSK is that the CCSK focuses more on the architect and solutions side whereas Cloud+ is aimed at data center administrators.
Cloud+ covers the increased diversity of knowledge, skills and abilities required of system administrators to validate what is necessary to perform effectively in data center jobs.
Cloud provider specific
Earning the Solutions Architect certifications demonstrates that you posses the knowledge of how to architect and deploy secure and robust applications on AWS technologies
The AWS developer certification validates an understanding of core AWS services, uses, and basic AWS architecture best practices. On the development side it demonstrates proficiency in developing, deploying, and debugging cloud-based applications using AWS.
The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator examination is intended for systems administrators in a systems operations role. It demonstrates the ability to deploy, manage, and operate scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant systems on AWS.
The cloud market is dominated by Amazon. But Microsoft and Google bot offer fantastic cloud platforms. Not every company wants to or is able to work with AWS. A reason as simple as having easy access to an Azure Expressroute in your current data center could force you to pick Azure. The Azure administrator certifications demonstrates the ability to work in the Azure environment and deploy and operate applications.
According to Google: With a thorough understanding of cloud architecture and Google Cloud Platform, this individual can design, develop, and manage robust, secure, scalable, highly available, and dynamic solutions to drive business objectives.
Conclusion
Whatever your choice will be for 2021, I can almost guarantee that you will learn something new (this could even be to never take advice from a strangers blog) :).
I made the deliberate choice to exclude certificates that focus on the essential or foundational level. Foundational courses should be used only as an introduction to the topic. In my opinion these courses do no deliver any added value except for vaguely knowing what the topic is about. For someone with a background in IT, these courses are nothing more than a refresher on the topic.