Irrespective of whether you are a fresher who wishes to pursue a career in Cloud Computing or an experienced professional who aims to upskill to get ahead in the career, there is a Cloud certification that you can acquire to get to where you wish.
In this blog, you will come across some of the most valuable Cloud certifications, along with the respective Cloud certification salary ranges earned by professionals who have already acquired them as per PayScale and Glassdoor. This will help you figure out which cloud certification is best for you.
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Top 10 Cloud Certifications
In recent years, Cloud Computing has seen rapid growth in terms of career opportunities, research, and advancements. Cloud Computing is among the best options for IT professionals as the demand for experts in this domain is only rising. Most companies are shifting to the cloud, if they haven’t already, and to store, access, and perform various other operations on the business data, they require cloud professionals who have the required knowledge and skills.
As per LinkedIn, there are more than 216,000 jobs open for Cloud Computing professionals in the United States alone, while in India, there are about 53,000+ jobs available in top organizations such as Wipro, American Express, etc.
Now, let’s read about some of the best certifications in the cloud that you can go for depending on your skills, qualification, experience, etc.
1. Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect
The GCP Cloud Architect certification, known as the Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect, holds significant value for individuals aiming to demonstrate their expertise in utilizing a diverse array of technologies provided by Google Cloud. This certification evaluates your capabilities in designing, planning, implementing, and overseeing cloud solutions that prioritize security, scalability, and reliability for businesses.
Furthermore, the certification exam delves into your aptitude for crafting cloud-based services and applications, optimizing and analyzing key business processes, showcasing proficiency in software development methodologies, and more. Compared to its counterparts, this certification is considered relatively straightforward in terms of difficulty. Overall, achieving the GCP Cloud Architect certification is highly advantageous, particularly for those aspiring to pursue a rewarding career as a Cloud Architect within the realm of Google Cloud.
The average annual salary of a Cloud Architect is US$128,418 in the United States.
Sign up for our Cloud Architect Training, which is designed by experts in affiliation with top organizations such as Microsoft and IBM!
2. Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals is an Azure cloud certification that aims to validate your understanding of Azure, the fundamental concepts of the cloud, Azure pricing SLAs, Azure services, and more. Further, the certification exam will also test your knowledge of privacy, security, and compliance with respect to Azure. Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals is among the best Azure Cloud certifications that have lifetime validity.
This certification exam allows you to showcase your foundational knowledge of the cloud and how it works with Microsoft Azure. This certification exam can be taken by anyone, irrespective of if you have a technical background or not. Besides, by opting for this Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification, you can take your first step toward becoming an expert in cloud services. It is among the best Cloud certifications for beginners with no experience.
The average income of a certified professional in Microsoft Azure is US$96,649 per annum.
Apply for the best Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Course now!
3. Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
This is an expert-level Azure cloud certification that will allow you to demonstrate your expert skills in designing solutions on Azure, as well as your knowledge in storage, compute, and security. Those who appear for this certification exam must have excellent knowledge and practical experience across numerous sectors of IT operations, such as data management virtualization, networking, budgeting, disaster recovery, security, etc. Apart from these, you also need to have expertise in DevOps, Azure development, Azure administration, and other similar modules.
To clear this certification exam, you must also have in-depth knowledge and skills in deploying and configuring the infrastructure, implementing security and workload, developing and deploying applications, etc.
To attain this certification and become a Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect expert, you must crack two examinations: AZ:300 and AZ:301.
Azure Architects earn an average salary of US$98,921/year.
Enroll in the best Azure Solutions Architect Training today, which is in collaboration with Microsoft, and prepare for the certification exam. You will also gain hands-on experience that will act as a bonus to your resume while applying for jobs.
4. Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
The Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification is specially meant for professionals who are already working in the field of cloud using Azure. To get this certification, you need to be capable of managing Azure governance and identity, deploying and managing Azure resources, implementing and managing storage, and more.
It can be beneficial for you if you have at least 6 months of prior working experience in Azure administration and expertise in core services of Azure. Moreover, you must have practical experience working with the Azure portal, PowerShell, templates for Azure resource management, and Azure Command Line Interface (Azure CLI). Besides, a stronghold on managing virtual networks, virtual machines, and Azure application services can be helpful.
Azure Administrators earn US$64,886 per annum on average in the United States.
Register for our Azure Administrator Certification today!
5. Google Certified Professional Data Engineer
To achieve the Google Certified Professional Data Engineer certification, a minimum of 3 years of industry experience is required, along with at least 1 year of practical experience in designing and maintaining cloud solutions using the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This certification specifically targets Data Engineers with the necessary skill set to effectively work with GCP.
The primary objective of this cloud certification is to evaluate your abilities in designing, developing, securing, and managing data processing systems. It also assesses your proficiency in preparing data processing systems for operational readiness and developing Machine Learning models. Additionally, maximizing the potential of data processing in GCP entails the transformation of business data into a format suitable for meaningful analysis.
Data Engineers with skills in the cloud earn an average salary of US$92,385 per year.
6. AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator certification is for professionals with over 1 year of working experience as a System Administrator in the field of operations, management, and deployment on AWS. Further, this certification exam will validate your skills to implement and control the data flow, identify the best use cases of AWS operations, choose an AWS service depending on the requirements, and more.
Often, professionals such as Operations Managers, System Administrators, etc. opt for this certification to showcase their expertise and gain certification for the same. However, even if you are a programmer or a developer who wants to explore and diversify your skills, you can take the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator certification exam.
To appear for this certification, it is suggested you have over 1 year of working experience in auditing and monitoring systems, expert knowledge in networking and virtualization, an understanding of security concepts, and practical experience in working with API tools, AWS CLI, etc.
The salary earned by an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate is approximately US$108,995/year.
Learn about the roles and responsibilities of administrators in our blog on AWS SysOps Administrator Roles and Responsibilities!
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7. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification exam in 2013. It is specifically designed for Solutions Architects with more than 1 year of experience in building and designing AWS-based systems. The main goal of the examination is to test your understanding of the architecture of the applications and how to deploy secure apps on the cloud.
In this certification exam, you will also be tested based on your skills to come up with solutions as per the customer requirements and offer help in terms of the architectural design principles to implement during the project’s life cycle. This AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification is perfect for professionals who wish to pursue a career in designing reference architectures and cloud infrastructures or deploying applications. It is among the most popular AWS Cloud certifications.
On average, an AWS Certified Solutions Architect–Associate earns US$113,587 per year.
Enroll in our AWS Certified Solutions Architect Course today!
8. AWS Certified Developer – Associate
AWS Developer Associate is among the most sought-after certifications in the world, curated for professionals in cloud development with at least 1 year of industry experience in building and managing AWS-based apps. It validates your skills in various programming languages, AWS architecture, the core services of AWS, application lifecycle management, and more.
Further, you must be an expert in creating, deploying, and debugging cloud-based apps in the Amazon cloud and be capable of writing programs for serverless apps to clear this certification exam. You need to have all the required technical knowledge and skills to pass the AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification exam and become a professional in this domain.
The average annual salary earned by an AWS Certified Developer – Associate is US$101,078.
9. CompTIA Cloud+
The CompTIA Cloud+ certification aims to check whether you have all the required skills in maintaining and optimizing the services of the cloud infrastructure. This is a performance-based, vendor-neutral examination that involves numerous technologies to test your in-depth knowledge and skills in working with the services of cloud infrastructures. While preparing for the same, you will get a basic idea of all the three significant cloud vendors: Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS.
The CompTIA Cloud+ certification exam will test your skills in areas such as cloud resource management, deployment and configurations, system maintenance, security, and troubleshooting. Although not mandatory, it is suggested you gain 2–3 years of industry experience as a System Administrator before opting for this examination.
The average annual salary of CompTIA Cloud+ professionals is US$67,541.
10. Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)
The Certified Cloud Security Professional certification is one of the most popular IT certifications that validates your technical knowledge and skills in managing, designing, and securing cloud applications, data, and infrastructure. This certification is provided by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium or (ISC)². You must be able to perform the necessary tasks using the best policies, practices, and strategies given by (ISC)² to pass this exam. You can take a look at our CCSP study guide to successfully crack the exam.
The examination involves various Cloud Computing modules, design, architecture, risk compliance, and security. It is the best choice of cloud certification for cloud professionals, including Security Administrator, Security Architect, Enterprise Architect, Security Consultants, etc. It is recommended that you have more than 5 years of professional experience in the industry, out of which 3 years should be in the information security domain, along with 1 year of experience in at least one of the six sectors available in the CISSP Common Body of Knowledge.
(ISC)² Certified CCSP professionals earn an average annual salary of US$118,122 per year.
Become a Certified Professional in Cloud
In this blog on the top 10 Cloud certifications, you have read in detail about the various certifications that are available for you in Cloud and the opportunities these certifications can present you with. You have also learned about the eligibility criteria, skills necessary, experience required, etc., along with the salaries earned by professionals who have cleared the respective certifications. So, choose the Cloud certification that is best suited for you and become an expert in the cloud.
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