I am a beginner in Cloud. Which training and certification should I take first?

techyneelesh

I recently had a career change from marketing. Looking forward to beneficial career paths.

JDMurray

Do you know what Cloud technology (e.g., Azure, Google, AWS, etc.) that you want to work in, or are you just looking for general Cloud knowledge?

chrisone

If the funds permit, I would suggest looking into acloudguru.com yearly subscription. ($31.58USD / month Billed yearly at $379 Personal Plan or Personal Plus $41.58USD / month Billed yearly at $499)

They also have an awesome article based on exactly what JDMurray was mentioning. 
7 Ways to Jump-Start Your Cloud Career

Additional resources to read. 
ACloudGuru Blogs/Articles

If you are looking for an easier route on your pockets, Microsoft has free Azure training for all their certifications. AWS has free training for their intro level certification. 

itdept

I personally would not recommend acloudguru.com but many are happy with it and have passed by using their training. I had a Linux Academy subscription and it was eventually taken over by acloudguru and I felt it was not up to the LA standard. I would recommend finding a $10 course on udemy and getting a start there. Stephane Maarek has a great course along with Neal Davis. Adrian Cantrill also has his own site he runs and that is more $$ but very good content as well.
I would start with Azure AZ-900 for Microsoft or AWS Cloud Practitioner.
AWS have a far larger market share and are the leaders in cloud. Many people just go with what their company uses

spiderjericho

If it’s exposure without labs, both Microsoft and Amazon have free courseware. It’s missing labs and some in-depth info. But you can’t hurt spending a week or two on the AZ900 or AWS Certified Cloud practitioner courses. If you’re really intrigued go down the ACG route so you have practice tests and labs. 

chickenlicken09

how do you decide between aws,azure and gcp as a starting point if you have zero exposure?

chrisone

chickenlicken09 said:

how do you decide between aws,azure and gcp as a starting point if you have zero exposure?

https://acloudguru.com/blog/engineering/jump-start-your-cloud-career

1. Choose the right cloud computing certification

If you’re wondering how to start a career in cloud computing, start by knowing what you want to accomplish and what you’re interested in. There are multiple providers out there you could get certified with, but here are the top three public cloud providers.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) 

• AWS cloud careers are plentiful. Like nearly all areas of cloud expertise, the demand for cloud skills outpaces the supply. (Which is good for those getting into entry-level cloud computing jobs.)
• AWS certifications are some of the highest-paying certifications in tech and they typically appear the most in job board search results for cloud careers. 
• Which AWS certification is right for you? There are four levels of certifications and specialties, all with different scopes and prerequisites. Do your homework to know what is expected for each one, and determine which one is the best fit for you. 

Microsoft Azure 

• Why should you get an Azure certification? AWS may be the public cloud frontrunner, but the gap is closing. Over the past couple of years, Azure adoption has been increasing in enterprises while AWS adoption remained relatively flat. Businesses continue to adopt Azure as Microsoft pushes hard into the enterprise space. 
• Also, Azure has historically been the preferred choice for hybrid deployments, and integrates easily with the Microsoft solutions businesses have been using since the days before cloud.
• Top-paying Azure certifications include the Azure Solutions Architect Expert and the Azure Administrator Associate. There are more than a dozen Microsoft Azure certifications to choose from, and the Azure Fundamentals certification is the starting point for most.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

• If you’re looking to start a career in cloud computing, it can be tempting to go with AWS as it’s the closest thing to a household name out there in cloud land. But focusing on other cloud providers (and specializing) can mean great things for your career. 
• Case in point: the Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect certification. For 2019 and 2020, it was the highest-paying IT certification out there. Money isn’t everything and probably shouldn’t be your sole motivating factor if deciding to pursue a Google Cloud career, but with an average salary of around $175,000 USD, it’s hard not to take notice.
• Which Google Cloud certification is best for you? GCP certs range from foundational level basics for beginners to role-based certs that tie to some of the most in-demand jobs in cloud.

Which certification route you pick, don’t worry about being locked into a single path. Multi-cloud skills are in high demand, so you can easily hop around between cloud providers and make yourself even more desirable to potential employers in the process. And there are plenty of tools and skills that work across clouds that are worth investing time in, like DevOps skills and Kubernetes.

For building the skills to get certified, make sure you choose a training program that provides hands-on cloud experience so you can put what you learn into action and keep developing your skills while you’re looking for a job.

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chickenlicken09 said:

how do you decide between aws,azure and gcp as a starting point if you have zero exposure?

What training course/cloud technology did you decide to study first?

DatabaseHead

Our company has entered into an agreement with Google, I am going to start looking at their material.  Thanks for providing the links!

beads

Depends on how you study. Generally, I find the AWS study guides to be more than adequate for my needs. I dislike being lectured and prefer to read and go through the labs as I learn. AWS practitioner took a couple of weeks of 20 minute study breaks and labbing before I completed the exam. I did listen to a couple of sub category task lessons provided by Tata or TCS,com looking for some specific advice but I could have easily found the same lecture on YouTube.

Combine with a good quiz book and my harshest self grading, I had no problem with the exam.

Best of luck to you and your exams,

- B/Eads