Five Cloud Certifications in three months: The why, the what and the how.

As someone who has been working on various cloud platforms for nearly a decade, I've seen firsthand how important it is to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies in the cloud platform world. I recently completed a series of Cloud Service Provider Foundation certifications. As I shared them on LinkedIn, I received an influx of inquiries from both my IBM colleagues and industry connections asking about my experience.

To answer these questions, I wanted to share my insights with anyone who may be considering pursuing cloud skills. In this article, I'll answer the common questions about why I pursued these certifications, how I was able to complete them in the time I did, my preparation process, and which certifications I recommend.

Let's dive into the world of cloud skills together. The certifications I completed were:

1. Red Hat? Certified Specialist in Containers (EX188)
2. IBM Certified Advocate - Cloud v2 (C1000-142)
3. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01)
4. Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (EX-900)
5. Google Certified: Cloud Digital Leader

Let's start with the WHY and the timing.

IBM Consulting's Hybrid Cloud Services Business has deep advisory/delivery expertise and relationships with all the major Cloud Computing Providers that our clients work with. To be closely aligned with our client's needs, in March this year, there was a global ask for all senior leaders to be certified by the end of June on at least one of the four cloud providers: IBM Cloud, AWS, Azure and Google.

My curiosity got the better of me, and I took on the challenge of completing all four certifications that were on the list within that same time. I am glad I did complete them all as I got a high-level view of all the platforms, the similarities (there were many), their differences and focus on them, the language used (they all have different names for very similar offerings), their focus on what makes them unique - but most importantly, when I speak to a client about their cloud journey, I am more empathetic to their specific goals, skills, and concerns.

There were a lot of commonalities in the course and exams at this foundation level (other than the Red Hat one - more on that below) which made it easier to complete them in rapid succession as opposed to drawing them out over a longer period of time.

HOW I went about preparing for them and the exam experiences

Each of the Certifications had its own teaching materials provided by the cloud provider. I studied from the official training material for each of the certifications, and where available, I used a Udemy course and practice exams. For IBM Cloud there was a practice exam on the PearsonVue website. This approach was enough to get through the exams on the first go for each of them.

Finally, let's cover WHAT each of the exams was about.

1. The Red Hat? Certified Specialist in Containers (EX188) certification equips you with a deep understanding of containerisation technology. Right off the bat, I acknowledge that this is NOT a hyperscaler certification like the others. But, with containers forming the backbone of cloud-native development, I would put it firmly as a cloud platform certification. The Red Hat certification preparation and examination experience itself was also nothing like the other certifications. The DO188 course on the Red Hat Partner portal is thorough, and the labs provided were hands-on and detailed. If you have access to Red Hat Learning Subscription, then the DO188 also provides video training which is also very good, and I highly recommend it. The exam itself is not a website with multiple choice questions; rather, you need to boot into a Linux environment and spend three hours spinning up and fixing multiple containers that form n-tier microservices architecture based applications. I did end with a very solid foundation on the inner workings of containers and their orchestration benefits.
2. The IBM Certified Advocate - Cloud v2 (C1000-142) exam aims to improve your proficiency in understanding and articulating the benefits of moving to cloud platforms and the IBM Cloud. As the name suggests, it certifies you to be an advocate of IBM Cloud technologies as opposed to an architect or delivery person. The course material is good, and IBM uses PearsonVue for the certification exam. Like the next two certification exams, the IBM Cloud exam is a set of multiple-choice questions which you are likely to finish well within the time allocated.
3. The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) certification has enhanced my understanding of AWS' suite of cloud services. It covers the various computing, network, cost management, storage, etc., options AWS brings to its clients. I liked the coffee shop analogy that the AWS training used; it's sticky. The Udemy course made me more confident to sit for the exam. Like the IBM and Azure exams, I completed the AWS certification on the PearsonVue platform.
4. The Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (EX-900) certification is similar to the AWS one in terms of intent and content, but the course format differed. It was simple to click through the format with the labs that go with it. I struggled to get some of the labs working and raised support tickets. The issue was the separate personal and IBM profiles I have on Azure. It was a minor issue obviously as I did complete the exam successfully. Again, the Udemy course and practice exam helped complete the training.
5. The Google Certified: Cloud Digital Leader certification was more like the IBM Cloud certification in content, focussing on the "Why" of moving to the cloud. While the course did cover the GCP variants for things like compute options, storage options, databases etc., there was a large portion on containers, which was not a surprise given Google's history in Kubernetes. The other key difference with the Google exam was the usage of the Webassessor platform as opposed to the PearsonVue platform, and the usage of Credential.net as opposed to Credly for the badging.

All the course contents had a lot of commonalities. The materials covered compute options, storage options, migration options, support types, cost management options, IAM, databases, networking options, location/zones/regions etc. In the end, the hardest part for me was remembering the actual names of the same offerings from the different platforms. That said, if you have not worked in cloud architectures before, and you complete all four as I have, you will get a good view of the building blocks for your cloud platform and application needs.

If you haven't completed any of the certifications, which one should you do first you ask? The answer to that is: Whichever you or your organisation is using as your preferred cloud platform. I suggest you follow that up with at least one other certification.

Well, that's it from me. I do hope that the article provides you with some starting points on your cloud certification journey.

Have you completed any of the above certifications? Please do share your thoughts and journey in the comments.