Are Cloud Computing Certifications Worth it in the IT Industry?

We’ve all been in that position where we were told that a degree isn’t enough to secure you a job. We graduate at the age of 22, and a 3.5 CGPA no longer carries enough weight in your resume to land you a job, so students are now arming themselves with professional certificates before they graduate. From an employer’s standpoint, a relevant professional certificate does add a lot of credit into a resume. However, do students actually perform sufficient research to know which professional certifications are suitable for their career or simply…taking exams for the sake of cert?

Computer Science students may pursue an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certification on top of their default degree certification to boost their resume, while the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification is suitable for students heading towards general project management, followed by a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. Students tend to acquire professional certificates to improve their knowledge while corporate workers attend trainings to receive a salary increment or to get more qualified in their technical expertise.

The Average Salary

“Cloud Computing” — a rapid-growing industry that has created a great deal of job demands in this downfalling economy. Why the high demand? There is one reason and one reason only — not everyone is capable in getting certified in cloud computing. Thus, the average salary for cloud-certified individuals is considerably high, theoretically ranging from RM8,000 to RM15,000+ per month.

Source: payscale

Interested yet?

Nevertheless, approximately 3 companies are dominating the cloud-market, known as Amazon Web Services(AWS), Microsoft Azure and Alibaba Cloud. While some of them have different certifications, the most common names include Solution Architect and App Builder/ Developer. A solution architect translates requirements developed by analysts into the architecture for that solution and describing it to developers. On the other hand, certified app builders/ developers are able to develop cloud solutions.

Cloud in Universities

To this day, the cloud industry has yet to set up any degree certifications in Malaysian universities. However, several companies has begun to capitalize on this growing industry and liaised with universities in providing cloud certifications to students with heavily discounted fees. Programmers, web developers, networkers and students from diverse IT backgrounds began participating in these cloud computing programs with the intent of adding another certificate to their resume once they graduate, invoking the real question — do these certifications really add weight to their resumes?

As students, we tend to naively take in any advice given by lecturers, consultants, counsellors etc. If a lecturer says this certification is valuable, students will participate; they won’t think otherwise. Don’t take this wrongly — a professional certificate immensely boosts a resume in the right industry. However so, determining which industry that you’ll enter before graduating ain’t easy, especially for the norm.

This strategy might seem obvious, but it takes a great deal of courage and motivation from an individual to execute it properly. To strategize and gain knowledge on different fields and industries, you have to step out of your comfort zone.

Top of the Food Chain

Venturous students begin their lust for knowledge by stepping out of their comfort zone — participating in activities, hosting events, socializing with a lecturer, or anything that gives them the space to learn. Once out of their comfort zone, valuable insights are forged by themselves towards all sorts of industry, thus allowing them to decide on which industry suits them best before they graduate. If they’ve decided on evolving themselves in the IT industry, then it would be worth it to get certified for any cloud computing expertise.

Conversely, cloud computing shouldn’t be an alternative if they’re searching for an exit route from computer science or networking. However so, Microsoft and AWS both provide Solution Architect certifications — a solid alternative for students who indulge themselves in sales.

Cloud and its Monarchs

If you are looking to excel in the tech industry, then both AWS and Azure offer the best salaries. Both certifications will easily offer you USD100,000 per year in America. Why? The demand for both skills is high in various countries.

AWS and Azure offer very similar services as both support CDN’s, Databases, Auto Scaling, and several other common functions. Google Cloud Platform is currently rising to the leading ranks, while AWS dominates the IaaS global cloud market according to a public survey. Alibaba Cloud mainly supports China users, and has began expanding worldwide.

The cost of each certification is about the same. Even though Amazon provides fewer Solution Architect exams, the high tier is more expensive to account for its longer duration and additional questions. Furthermore, Microsoft has a set price for every exam across the board. Probing into details, if you’re a Visual Studio developer, integrating with Azure instances and the bonus of Azure SQL makes Azure an obvious selection. In addition to that, PHP and Java experts should go for AWS certifications instead to utilize the better support for Linux builds.