CompTIA Cloud Essentials - Overview of Certification

Katiusha

Hi Guys,

Did anyone take or plans on taking CompTIA Cloud Essentials certification?
It is a relatively new certification by CompTIA, and I was hoping folks who took the exam can share their experience and opinions about the certification?

Thank you!!

srabiee

Have you thought about going for the new Cloud+ certification instead? The "Essentials" certs are very entry-level IMO, even more so than the Microsoft MTA stuff. If at all possible, I recommend you skip them and start with the "+" certs.

CompTIA Cloud+ Certification

Training book is on Amazon.

Katiusha

@srabiee, thank you for your reply! I am not very familiar with Cloud computing so I thought Cloud Essentials would be a good intro for me. But I agree with your point, and I will def look more into Cloud+. Have you taken Cloud+ cert?

srabiee

Nope, not yet. I ordered the book from Amazon, which was released only recently. Cloud+ is a brand new certification. I'm working on MCITP: EA / MCSA: Server 2008 right now, but once I finish that I will go ahead and sit for the Cloud+ exam.

Cloud Essentials and Cloud+ may overlap in material, but having both certifications certainly won't hurt.

sigsoldier

I would skip the essentials exam and go straight for cloud+. I have the essentials cert and it's basically worthless. It is very much entry-level.

ThePawofRizzo

Although, if you're already studying for Cloud+, taking Cloud Essentials could be on the pathway to help assess your readiness, kinda like a practice exam. While Essentials is very basic - more of an exam seemingly geared to familiarize less techie managers or sales personnel in the basics of cloud computing - I still found it not to just be an easy exam. In my study for Cloud+ a lot of those same basic concepts are present. I have Essentials already, and if I hadn't taken it yet, I would have taken it as well. Many employers are looking for evidence that their employees will keep learning in order to maintain their skills, so having some additional "paperwork" on a resume, in my mind, can't hurt.

Katiusha

Thank you all for the info!
ThePawofRizzo, was the Essentials exam very technical or just conceptual? You mentioned that it was not just easy.. What study materials, if any, did you use to prepare for the exam?

Thank you!

ThePawofRizzo

Sorry Katiusha, just now seeing this. It's not that Essentials was super technical, rather more conceptual, it just wasn't necessarily as easy as I expected being it is a Strata exam.

I used the book below, which I found pretty useful, and I had recently had some ITIL Foundations training, which helped. Although the ITIL questions weren't extensive, so reading the book, and maybe reading some Wikis on ITIL:
Cloud Essentials: CompTIA Authorized Courseware for Exam CLO-001: Kirk Hausman, Susan L. Cook, Telmo Sampaio: 9781118408735: Amazon.com: Books

Since that time I found this CloudU on Rackspace, and it seems like it present some good foundational information in it's 10 lessons that would be helpful. It's free to sign up, and the lessons are free.

Cloud Computing University and Certification by Rackspace

Katiusha

Thank you for the advice!

Katiusha

I passed the exam today! Here is my impression of the exam.
It is relatively easy, I guess because there are only 50 questions and exam objectives are focused on business benefits rather than technical aspects.
However, exam requires good understanding of business-cloud connections, and I would not recommend taking it lightly (not only because it's almost $200 to take the exam, but also because it's not super-easy, just easier comparing to other exams).

Many questions were case-specific, where you are asked to identify the business project that would benefit the most from a certain type of cloud. These questions seemed a bit tricky for me. Otherwise, the exam is focused on all the objectives identified in the official guide.

For the prep, I used Kirk Hausman's book "Cloud Essentials" (ISBN: 978-1118408735), loved the content, very well-organized, easy to read, and covers about 90% of the objectives. I would still suggest reading additional info online if you don't have extensive knowledge in cloud computing.
Another book I used was "Cloud Ess. Study Guide" by R. Shimonski (ISBN: 978-0071800433). I don't recommend this book at all, the content is very limited, doesn't really cover all the objectives, very short chapters. Yes, in addition, the self-test is a joke. I would not suggest this book at all.

Hope this helps if you plan on preping for the CLO-001!

ThePawofRizzo

Cool! I used the Hausman book as well, and thought the material was worthwhile. I have similar thoughts about my own experience with the exam. I think I expected the metaphorical "walk in the park" ease, but the exam did require some thought - which I was actually pleased about.