AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner VS. Google Cloud Digital Leader
Are you exploring the idea of acquiring an entry-level public cloud certification? Are you unsure which one to opt for? In this article I discuss the foundational certifications of AWS and Google Cloud.
If you are working in the information technology (IT) industry, acquiring certifications is an ongoing task on your to-do list. When it comes to the public cloud, there are three major cloud providers that offer certifications which boost your skills and career options. The entry-level certifications are as follows:
· AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
· Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
So far, I have studied and passed the exam of the first two certifications. In the following sections (1) I describe and compare both courses based on my personal knowledge and experience (2) I provide some hints on how to decide in the conclusion (3) I also end the article with a more comprehensive list of the content subjects of each certification.
Factors to consider before making your decision
- What are your expectations out of the certification?
- Which cloud is your company partnering with?
- Which cloud is dominant in your country or region?
- How do you rate your technical skills around the subjects of cloud computing, storage, databases, networking, data analytics, and modern applications?
High-level comparison of Google Cloud Digital Leader (CDL) and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CCP)
Content:
- Google Cloud Digital Leader is more solution-oriented whereas AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is more product-focused. For example, the Google course would focus more on the security aspects in the cloud whereas AWS certification would discuss several security services and their features. The Google certification does discuss some products, but the focus is more on the solution or the function.
- Google CDL sheds light on innovation as well as company culture transformation that accompanies the move to the cloud whereas AWS CCP doesn’t.
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner covers a more comprehensive list of cloud services whereas Google Cloud Digital Leader mentions a few per category.
Please find a more detailed description of the content at the end of the article (after the conclusion).
Target Audience:
While both certifications advertise themselves as relevant for technical and non-technical professionals, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner dives into the features of a long list of services which make it more technical. I believe people with a business background will find the AWS entry-level more difficult than Google’s.
Cost:
- Course: Both courses are offered for free from the public cloud provider training portals. However, there are paid courses from other online course providers such as acloudguru and Udemy. I went for the acloudguru course since I already had an active subscription and they provided six practice exams which helped boost my confidence and proved I am ready.
- Exam: AWS CPP costs USD 100 and Google CDL costs USD 99
Exam Difficulty:
Given my background as a solutions engineer with more 5 years of experience, the Google CDL was easier for me as it was more solution-focused than product-focused. Most of the new information I acquired were related to their products which were discussed less often. In contrast, AWS CCP presented a more in depth discussion of their AWS services which are new to those embarking on their AWS journey so it was more difficult for me.
Conclusion
To reiterate, you should really consider the factors described earlier such as cloud availability in your country, the cloud provider of choice for your employer, and your depth of technical skills.
If all clouds are equally equal, I would say it depends on how technical you want to go. If you expect to come out of the course with a more comprehensive understanding of the services/products that a cloud offers, you can either go with AWS CCP or a more advanced certification for Google.
If you are more into how the cloud changes an organization’s operating model, the solutions that the cloud brings about, and how to innovate to benefit from the cloud, Google CDL is the best fit for you.
Topics Covered in Details
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- Foundations of Cloud Computing
· Understanding cloud computing and its benefits
· Cloud computing deployment models
· AWS global infrastructure
· AWS account
2. Technology
· Compute Services: EC2, Lamda, Fargate, LightSail, Outposts, Batch, and more
· Storage Services: S3, EFS, EBS, Storage Gateway, and more
· Content Delivery Services: CloudFront, Global Accelerator
· Networking Services: VPC, Route 53, Direct Connect, AWS VPN
· Databases: relational (RDS, Aurora), non-relational (DynamoDB, Document DB), In-memory (Elasti-cache), and more
· Migration and Transfer Services: database migration, server migration, storage migration
· Analytics Services: Redshift, Kineses, Athena, and more
· Machine Leaning: SageMaker, Rekognition, Comprehend, Transcribe, Lex, and more
· Developer Tools: CodeBuild, CodeCommit, CodeDeploy, and more
· Deployment and Infrastructure Management Services: CloudFormation, OpsWorks, Elastic Beanstalk, and more
· Messaging and Integration: Simple Queue Service, Simple Notification Service, Simple Email Service
· Monitoring and Auditing: AWS Config, CloudTrail, CloudWatch, and more
3. Security and Compliance
· AWS Shared Responsibility Model
· AWS Well-Architected Framework
· IAM users and permissions
· Security Services: Firewall, WAF, Shield, Macie, GuardDuty, Secrets Manager, KMS, and more
4. Pricing, Billing, and Governance
· AWS Pricing: drivers of cost, EC2 Pricing, S3 Pricing, RDS Pricing
· Billing Services: CostExplorer, Budgets, Cost and Usage Report, and more
· Governance Services: AWS Organizations, Control Tower, Trusted Advisor, and more
· Management Services: Managed Services, Partner Network, Professional Services, AWS Marketplace, and more
· Support Plans: Basic, Business, Developer, Enterprise
Google Cloud Digital Leader
- Why Cloud Technology is Revolutionizing Business
· Innovations throughout history
· Cloud and digital transformation
· Trends in compute power and data science
· Exponential business value of cloud
2. Digital Transformation with Google Cloud
· Modernization Focus areas: Infrastructure Modernization, Business Platforms, Applications
· Google Cloud Shared Security Model
· Google Cloud Solution Pillars:
o Infrastructure Modernization: Virtualization, containers, serverless, and solutions such as Compute Engine, VMware Engine, CloudRun, Cloud Function, and more
o Application Modernization: AppEngine, Google Kubernetes Engine, and more
o Database and storage solutions: types of data (structured, unstructured), data warehouses, data likes, Big Data, Google Solutions (Cloud SQL, BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Dataflow, Cloud Storage, and more)
o Business Applications and Business Intelligence: Looker, Apigee, APIs, and more
o Artificial Intelligence: TensorFlow, Vertix AI, AI Hub, Document AI, and more
o Security
· Google Cloud Adoption Framework
3. Scale the Innovation Mindset
· Transformation of the company culture (talent environment, structure, strategy, empowerment, innovation)
· Scaling the innovation mindset (think 10X, how to, and more)