According to cloud vendor statistics, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is still the leading cloud vendor, while Microsoft Azure is catching it up steadily.
Google Cloud following as third and then there are “others” that are not always listed, which are Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).
Given that these six cloud vendors are the most used and cover over 99% of the cloud infrastructure utilisation, how does one get some fundamental understanding how they differ and what are their individual benefits over each other?
Perhaps one way to look at it, which tends to be one of my hobbies, is to figure out what kind of professional certifications they offer and try to pass them. At least the free ones…
It is very common for a cloud vendor to provide the online self-paced training required for certification for free, but the exam itself will have a cost. It is only after passing the certification exam, will the certification be granted.
Certification tiers are approximately matching like the table below shows:
| Vendor | Free tier | Cheapest paid exam | Structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure | - | Fundamentals, 99 USD | Fundamentals -> Associate -> Expert |
| Alibaba | ”Event” | Clouder, 0.01 USD | Associate -> Professional -> Expert |
| Oracle | Foundations Associate | ||
| IBM | - | Advocate, 200 USD |
Links to certification starting locations in these cloud vendors:
- Alibaba Cloud Academy Certifications
- Getting certified in IBM Cloud
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Training and Certification
https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/learning-path/become-an-oci-foundations-associate-2024/139374