Organizations are utilising cloud solutions at a rapid growth rate. Cloud Providers like Amazon (AWS), Google (Google Cloud), and Microsoft (Azure) have been taking advantage by providing some of the leading cloud platforms in the industry.
There are other available platforms such as Red Hat, VMWare, Rackspace, and others that offer platforms or specialised platforms as well. So with all of these platforms available, there is a strong and rapidly growing need for qualified and educated employees.
Before you start
About this post:
- 5 – 10 min average reading time
- Suitable for beginner through to advanced
What you will gain reading this post:
- A list of recommended cloud training providers
- An understanding of what each cloud training provider offers
- An understanding of which one to choose based on what you need
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Now, let’s get started.
Disclaimer – I am NOT associated or affiliated with any of the services and/or product mentioned in the post.
Update: Since publishing this article A Cloud Guru has acquired Linux Academy and can be read about here.
Linux Academy is a very popular, valuable and highly recommended cloud training provider. Linux Academy provides access to thousands of hours of in-depth courses, labs, flashcards, playgrounds and hands-on training for the various certifications plus many additional skills.
The skills you will learn from the course material and then test in the cloud providers playgrounds will be valuable in concreting the knowledge learned. The training instructors are very knowledgable in their area of focus, and as a bonus, as you progress through the training courses you can accumulate gems which in turn you can exchange for swag.
Pros
- Training for AWS, GCP and Azure
- Supports additional skills like DevOps, BigData, Containers, Security, etc
- Contains exam related courses, practice exam and cloud provider playgrounds to experience and practice exercises with hands-on labs
- Has quality videos and trainers
- Has a community channel to converse with trainers and students (http://slack.linuxacademy.com/)
- Provides a 7-day trial (https://linuxacademy.com/blog/linux-academy/try-linux-academy-free-for-7-days/)
Cons
- Cost, when you compare to the free material online it is quite a costly platform to learn on but the quality is much better, the prices are in USD and the conversion adds to the cost significantly if subscribing outside of the US.
Why Choose this provider?
- When you are studying for certifications on AWS, GCP or Azure
- For exploring in-depth technologies, for instance, Kubernetes, Linux etc
- If you want to have a cloud provider playground environment to experiment (very beneficial)
- To be part of a community to talk and learn from
- If you are not running on a budget
A Cloud Guru is a highly recommended cloud training provider, with hundreds of hours of cloud training courses to help you learn and prepare, with a strong focus on certifications. The training instructors are very knowledgable in their area of focus, and if you have previously purchased courses you have lifetime access to the content.
Pros
- Training for AWS, GCP and Azure
- Supports additional skills like DevOps, BigData, Machine Learning, Security, etc
- Contains exam related courses, practice exam, and practice exercises with hands-on labs
- Has quality videos and trainers
- Provides a 7-day trial (https://acloud.guru/membership)
Cons
- Lack of cloud provider playground environments to experiment
- Lack of community to talk and learn from
- Cost, when you compare to the free material online it is quite a costly platform to learn on but the quality is much better, the prices are in USD, EUR, or GBP and the conversion adds to the cost significantly if subscribing outside of the US, Europe or the UK.
Why Choose this provider?
- When studying for certifications on AWS, GCP or Azure
- For exploring in-depth technologies such as Kubernetes, Alexa etc
- If you are not running on a budget
PluralSight is a highly recommended cloud training provider, with hundreds of hours of cloud training courses to help you learn and prepare for the various certifications plus many additional skills. The training instructors are very knowledgable in their area of focus, and a broad range of skills are on offer.
Pros
- Training for AWS, GCP and Azure
- Supports additional skills like DevOps, BigData, Dev, Security, etc
- Skills and Roles IQ Tests
- Contains exam related courses, practice exam (depending on the plan), and practice exercises with hand on labs
- Has quality videos and trainers
- Provides a 10-day trial (https://www.pluralsight.com/pricing/free-trial)
Cons
- Lack of cloud provider playground environments to experiment
- Lack of community to talk and learn from
- Practice exams not available in all plans
- Cost, when you compare to the free material online it is quite a costly platform to learn on but the quality is much better, the prices are in USD and the conversion adds to the cost significantly if subscribing outside of the US.
Why Choose this provider?
- When studying for certification on AWS, GCP or Azure
- For exploring in-depth technologies such as Kubernetes, Angular, React etc
- When you want to test your skill or role IQ
- If you are not running on a budget
Udemy is a popular provider of online cloud training courses as well as many other topics. It has quite a lot of training material for the cloud, however, it also has a very broad range of topics you can learn about as well.
Pros
- Good cloud training courses by excellent training instructors can be found at a much smaller cost compared to purchasing on a different platform
- Cost, each course is a one-time payment and they are generally at a very discounted rate
Cons
- Course content is a hit and miss for the quality of training instructors
- Good when the target audience is a beginner to intermediate but for professional cloud courses, the course material is generally lacking.
Why Choose this provider?
- If you wish to purchase practice exams
- If you have a limited budget
Braincert is another popular provider of online cloud training courses as well as many other topics. It has a lot of training material for the cloud, however, it also has a very broad range of topics you can learn about as well.
Pros
- Practice exams are the same as or closely resemble the actual certification
- Cost, each course is a one-time payment and they are generally at a low cost
Cons
- Course content is a hit and miss for the quality of training instructors
Why Choose this provider?
- If you wish to purchase practice exams
- If you have a limited budget
Recommendation
I would highly recommend that you have a subscription to one or multiple of the popular instructed led cloud training providers such as Linux Academy, A Cloud Guru or Plural Sight, it is best to have a 7-10 days trial with each to determine what you get the most out off, in terms of instructor style, and deep-dive topics that the different services also teach about.
If you are purely focusing on the certifications, I also recommend that you also purchase certification practice tests from the other training providers as I have found them to be much closer to the actual exams then the practice tests supplied from the popular instructor-led cloud training providers.
- For GCP I would recommend the Braincert practice tests, you can find the link for this in a previous post of mine How I Passed my GCP Professional Cloud Architect Exam
- For AWS I would recommend the practice tests from Jon Bonso in Udemy or you can additionally follow my approach from a previous post of mine How I Passed my AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate Exam
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