I've been thinking about career paths and a variety of other things the last few weeks. I think that in the past, I have lacked true focus in my studies, my certifications, and my career. As an IT instructor, a lot of my time is spent learning and relearning things that are important to my job but not my career. I don't want to be an instructor forever, so I've decided that from now on, I am going to institute a personal training philosophy that encompasses a year of learning toward one major IT topic. I want to eventually pivot over to a full-time security position but want to build on the more generalized foundation that I have (A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, CASP+, CCNA: Cyber Ops, among others). Since so much of our infrastructure is moving over to the cloud, I've decided to pursue "A Year of Cloud" training.
I took the CompTIA Cloud Essentials exam on the 15th and passed it and I already have CompTIA's Cloud+. I am currently studying for the JNCIA: Cloud exam. Besides AWS and Google, are there any other cloud certifications worth pursuing? I have a copy of the study guide for AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate and I am thinking about pursuing the SysOps Associate and the Security specialization. I might pursue the Google Cloud certifications, as well, but don't know if I will or not. Does anyone have the CCNA: Cloud certification? Are there adequate study materials available for it? I thought about adding Microsoft but I am waiting for them to hash out the changes to their certifications before I consider them. Lastly, I would like to add the CCSK exam, probably toward the end of the year, if time and money permits.
Thoughts? Words of encouragement?
