How to prepare for AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional certification exam

Recently, I have passed the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer-Professional Certification. In this post, I will share how to prepare for this certification. Introduction AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Certification is a professional certification for those who runs and manages application systems distributed on the AWS platform. This is a great certification to demonstrate your knowledge. Prerequisites Prior experience and knowledge of the foundation of AWS is recommended to start your path to professional certification. Recommended SysOps requirements include obtaining certifications such as AWS Certified SysOps administrator associate or AWS Certified Developer Associate. Additionally a thorough understanding of AWS's core services and best practices is essential to the success of this certification. Overview exam The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional exam is designed to help you gain acceptance in a variety of areas including SDLC automation, configuration management, monitoring, and multiple choice and multi-purpose questions. Research sources Official AWS documentation: Official AWS documentation serves as a comprehensive resource for exam preparation. To gain in-depth knowledge of AWS services and exam-related practices, it is essential to review the AWS white paper, frequently asked questions and documentation is indispensable. Specific documentation recommended for exam preparation includes AWS Well-architected framework, AWS CloudFormation user guide, and AWS security best practices. You can also use the following methods:

Online courses and training: reputable online platforms such as Udemy , A Cloud Guru, Linux academy and Coursera offer courses focused on AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - professional exams. Several DevOps courses are available. I personally used the Udemy course "AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional Certification" by Stephane Maarek .

Practice exams: practice exams play an important role in getting used to the exam format and assessing your level of preparation. The Official AWS practice test provides high quality practice tests to measure efficiency. We recommend that you book some practice tests to identify areas of improvement and improve your testing strategy. Experience To pass the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer-professional qualification exam, in addition to theoretical knowledge, practical experience in the actual AWS environment is very important. By setting up a personal AWS project and actively participating in practical exercises, you will further deepen the conceptual understanding by gaining experience applying DevOps exercises to AWS, this will improve your understanding of your business. Breakdown of test objectives

Domain 1: SDLC automation: in this domain, you need to master the principles of SDLC automation, which are focused on continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, this will help you understand it better. Key topics: AWS CodePipeline、AWS CodeBuild、AWS CodeDeploy。 Domain 2: configuration management and infrastructure as code (IAC): knowledge of tools such as AWS CloudFormation and infrastructure, it is important to respect best practices for managing your business. Key topics: AWS CloudFormation、AWS CLI、AWS SDK。 Domain 3: monitoring and logging: in this domain, it is important to understand AWS monitoring and logging services, effective installation and configuration of logging and monitoring solutions is a key area of focus. Key topics: Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Domain 4: automating AWS implementation policies and standards automating security best practices and policies and standards is the key to this domain. Key topics: AWS Identity and access management (IAM)、AWS configuration Domain 5: events and feedback: this domain focuses on the event feedback strategy and the efficient use of AWS CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail. Key topics: AWS CloudTrail, AWS Config, AWS CloudWatch event.

Exam day tips On exam day, it is important to effectively manage your time and solve the problem with a calm and focused mindset. Improve exam performance with strategies such as carefully reading questions, eliminating wrong choices, and reviewing difficult questions. Stay focused and calm during the exam and don't spend too much time on any specific questions, just mark them for later review. There are many easy questions, tackle them first. Conclusion Obtaining AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional Certification is an important milestone on the DevOps path and professional development and success of resources in the dynamic DevOps field requires constant learning, manual practice and the latest development of AWS services to maintain control over information.

Which AWS certification is suitable for me?

Many people have asked me which AWS certification should they do that can help in their career in near future.
AWS provides below certifications
Beginner
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Associate level
AWS Certified Developer – Associate
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Professional level
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
Specialty Certifications
AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty
AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
Now coming to the point which AWS certification is best for you.
If you are a fresher you should go for either AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner or  AWS Certified Developer – Associate . These are easiest of all AWS exams and will give you a good base.
If you have less than 5 to 6 years of experience in IT industry and you are from development background in that case you should go for AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification.
Similarly, if you have less than 5 to 6 years of experience in IT industry and you are from system admin background you should go for AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate certification.
If you have 8 to 9+ years of experience in IT industry you can go for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification. Reason for more experience in Architect certification is that generally you can’t send a 2-3 years experience person in front of the client as an Architect. Because client may not accept such a young person to be given responsibility of designing their environment. However, exceptions are always there but this is generally the trend we have seen.
Also, if you are from pre-sales and sales background you can go for AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and later to Architect exam.
If you are from Database Admin background then going for AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty certification will be a natural progression and a big plus in your resume.
If you are from networking background then AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty certification will be a good choice and natural progression for you.
Once you have gained approximately 2 years of experience with AWS you can go for professional certifications. Dev and SysOps guys can go for AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional and Architects can naturally move to AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional.
Learning about all of the above certification will be a huge advantage but to start with above approach should be a good beginning.
We have recently seen a trend where jobs are being posted only for Redshift Architect or IAM Architect so things may change in future when people will look for specialists in only one or two AWS services.
If you want to have a quick snapshot of AWS services you can refer to our free AWS Crash Course.
Do let me know what you think about this and if you have any query or suggestions ask in comments section.

Review of 70-532 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions Certification preparation course by Scott Duffy

In our earlier post we have described steps about how you can prepare for Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions Certification. But, if you have just started your journey in Azure than it will be a good idea to start with the Azure developer certification which is 70-532 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions .
If you are an absolute beginner you can start with free Azure account.  It will help give a good understanding of Azure. But, be careful while using the resources because as we get free hand access to resources, we tend to spin up lot of instances and forget them running. This may end up with a huge bill. Best practice is that you setup a billing alert to avoid any shocks at month end.
To further hone your skills you can either go for Azure classroom training or go for online courses. The classroom training will cost you from USD 800 to USD 2000. While the online courses can cost you from USD 10 to USD 300, depending on which course you choose.
As mentioned in the last post since my experience with online courses was good as it give you good foundation, so I prefer to go the online way.
When I started my search for a suitable course I zeroed in on 70-532 or renamed AZ-203 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions Certification  course by Scott Duffy on Udemy.
Scott himself is a certified architect and got a rich industry experience. Going through the course content I found that it covered almost all exam topics. Also Scott keeps on updating the content as the syllabus changes. And if you buy from Udemy you get free life time access to the course so I went with this one.
As of Dec-18 the course contents 10 hours of video and a practice test. Also, you get lifetime free access to the course on Udemy.
It’s a good idea to follow all the labs with the instructor and once you get confidence redo the labs independently. Don’t forget to complete the practice quizzes to check your knowledge.
You can also supplement your preparation with practice Tests for 70-532 Developing MS Azure Solutions  .

AWS certification exam cheat sheets

AWS certification exams grill you on vast topics and lot of services. In this post we have consolidated major services and topics of different exams so that you can access them from a single location.

Below links will give you better info on which topics and services are important for each exam and how to best prepare for them.

Which AWS certification is suitable for me?

How to prepare for AWS Certified Developer - Associate

How to prepare for AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

How to prepare for AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

How to prepare for AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

Once decided on which certification you want to pursue you can take a quick look of services in these cheat sheets for each service.

Services

How to prepare for AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

Hello!
In this post we will discuss how to prepare for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification.
Pre-requisite
Only pre-requisite to appear for the professional exam is that you clear  AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification.  You can check here about how to prepare for associate certification.
Once you have cleared the associate exam you can start preparation of  AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification.
Many of the topics in the professional exam are same as that of the associate exam. So in professional exam you may actually see few questions are repeated from associate exam itself.
But still it has a lot of new topics also. Below are the topics on which you can expect most questions in exam.
Exam Topics

• VPC
• EC2
• S3
• Amazon Elasticache
• Redshift
• Cloudfront
• Elastic Transcoder
• AWS Data Pipeline
• RDS
• Cloudsearch
• EMR
• DynamoDB
• SQS
• CloudTrail
• KMS
• Kinesis
• Opsworks
• Auto Scaling
• ELB
• VPC peering
• Direct Connect
• Cross Account Access

Preparation
As you can see the list above contains a wide range of topics and reading about them can be overwhelming. You can also see the official exam blueprint here . It is good if you have at least 1 year of experience with these AWS technologies.
You can start your preparation by attending AWS  classroom training or you can go for online courses. I personally liked the contents of two online courses one was from acloudguru and  other from linux academy .
Both the courses are good but I chose acloudguru course as the course allowed you lifetime access. While for linux academy you have to pay monthly fee. I knew that with full-time job it may take me more than a month to prepare for this exam so I decided to opt for the acloudguru course.
The acloudguru course is comprehensive and the trainer Ryan covers the topics in a decent way. The course alone is not enough to clear the exam but it will give you a good understanding of the exam topics.
Apart from the course you should also refer to the AWS FAQs  which are very helpful during scenario based questions.
Also Linuxacademy gives you 7 days free trial so you can use that period to do their practice exams which also has lot of good questions.
Exam pattern

• Multiple choice and multiple answer questions.
• You will be given scenarios and questions will be based on that. Only few will be direct questions.
• Exam will be of 170 minutes
• And you can expect approx 80 questions

Cost
Exam cost is USD 300
You also have an option to appear for practice exam from Amazon. It costs you USD 40. Many people have told me that the actual exam is easier in comparison to the practice exam. So, if you score good in practice exam you can be sure about your preparation.
Sample Questions
You can refer to some sample exam questions here and on Udemy.
Hope the above info is helpful to you. Do let me know if you have any query.
Best of Luck for the exam!

How to prepare for AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

In one of our earlier post we have detailed about which AWS certification is suitable for you ?
If you are from System Admin or DevOps background the  AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate certification will be a good plus for you.
If you are  an absolute beginner on AWS you can start with free labs from AWS . To practice further you can create free AWS account. These two actions will get you started on AWS.
Beware that if you go beyond free tier limits you will be billed. Best practice is to create a billing alert.  This alert can save you from unexpected bill shocker.
If you want to learn further you can opt for either classroom course or online course. The classroom course is generally expensive and range between USD 600 to 2000. While the online course can cost you anything between USD 10 to USD 300 depending on which course you choose.
Our personal opinion is that you should go for online courses as they are cheaper and if you follow their labs honestly(yeah not just seeing him do it but actually doing the labs yourself 😉 ) they can be as good as classroom training.
In online courses we found courses from two providers acloudguru and linux academy  to be good. Earlier the Linux Academy course was only available through their site using a monthly plan but the same course is now available on Udemy too. The acloudguru course is already available on Udemy from longtime.  Though both these courses are available to purchase from their respective site under monthly subscription but, if you buy these courses from Udemy you pay only once and get lifetime access to same courses.  And many times Udemy provide heavy discounts on courses which can get you a good bargain.
The acloudguru course is delivered by Ryan who is enthusiastic and teach you really well. Though sometime he can get a bit click happy and can quickly zip past few topics. But, you always have the option to rewind and go through the topic again 🙂 .
The labs in the course are very useful and helps you get deep understanding of topic. The course also has quizzes to check your knowledge.
Overall we found the acloudguru course to be beneficial in getting you exam ready.
However do note that the course alone is not enough to clear the exam. You should go through whitepapers and FAQs of atleast below services .

• EC2
• S3
• VPC
• Route 53
• CloudWatch
• OpsWorks
• Billing

Exam pattern
Exam has Multiple-choice and multiple-answer questions. Exam is of 80 minutes. You can download the exam blueprint here.
Practice Exam Questions
To get a good evaluation of your preparation you can go through another course  for sample exam questions on Udemy  .
Exam Cost
Exam will cost you USD 150. AWS also gives you an option to book a practice exam for USD 20 before you go for actual exam.
How to book exam
To book an exam you will have to create an account in AWS Training and Certification Portal .
Passing score
AWS doesn’t reveal minimum passing score and it keeps on changing. But we have observed that generally people who score above 70% passed the exam. You will immediately see the score on you screen once you finish the test and will also get a report on your mail within 1 hour.
Exam Tips

• Get good sleep and keep calm during the exam.
• You won’t get more than 3 mins per question.
• You may find some very long questions in exam. Best strategy to tackle them is to read the answer options first and then check for relevant info in question.
• Since it’s an AWS exam so look for AWS related options in the answers.  Chances are high that  Non-AWS related option in answer will be wrong.
• AWS exams generally don’t focus on mugging their datasheets. So you won’t get a question like “How much RAM does a C3.xlarge offer?” .

That’s all folks! Best of luck for the exam!
Do let us know in comments section if you have any query.

How to prepare for AWS Certified Developer - Associate certificationexam

In one of our earlier post we have detailed about which AWS certification is suitable for you ?
If you have decided to go for AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification this post is for you.
If you are  an absolute beginner you can start with free labs from AWS . To practice further you can create free AWS account. These two actions will get you started on AWS.
Beware that if you go beyond free tier limits you will be billed. Best practice is to create a billing alert.  This alert can save you from unexpected bill shockers.
To further hone your skills you can either go for AWS classroom training or go for online courses. The classroom training will cost you from USD 800 to USD 2000. While the online courses can cost you from USD 10 to USD 300, depending on which course you choose.
Our personal opinion is that you should go for online courses as they are cheaper and if you follow their labs honestly they can be as good as classroom training.
In online courses we recommend two providers acloudguru and Linux Academy.  Both have monthly plans to buy the courses but they can become bit costly if you can’t complete the course in 1 month.
We have observed that acloudguru also provide the same course on Udemy where you get lifetime access to course with just one time payment. Also, Udemy provide heavy discounts on courses during sale which can get you a good bargain.
Thus, we recommend this AWS Certified Developer – Associate course  of acloudguru on Udemy . Also, once you buy this course on Udemy you will get access of the same course on acloudguru website also.
The acloudguru course instructor Ryan is an industry expert and deliver the course really well. The course will cover almost all the main topics which are asked in exam.  (Though we have observed that as of Apr-18 it was missing a session on AWS lambda for which the questions have started appearing in exam. Hope they update the course soon.) Currently you can learn about lambda from Ryan’s other course on AWS Lambda .
It’s a good idea to follow all the labs with the instructor and once you get confidence redo the labs independently. Don’t forget to complete the practice quizzes to check your knowledge.
This course will give you good base for the exam. But, the course itself is not enough to clear the exam.  You should go through whitepapers and FAQs of atleast below service .

• EC2
• S3
• SQS
• RDS
• DynamoDB
• Lambda

Exam pattern
Exam has Multiple-choice and multiple-answer questions. Exam is of 80 minutes.
Practice Exam Questions
To get a good evaluation of your preparation you can go through another course of  acloudguru sample exam questions on Udemy  .  Many test takers have said that they got similar questions in exam.
Exam Cost
Exam will cost you USD 150. AWS also gives you an option to book a practice exam for USD 20 before you go for actual exam.
How to book exam
To book an exam you will have to create an account in AWS Training and Certification Portal .
Passing score
AWS doesn’t reveal minimum passing score and it keeps on changing. But we have observed that generally people who score above 80% passed the exam. You will immediately see the score on you screen once you finish the test and will also get a report on your mail within 1 hour.
Exam Tips

• Get good sleep and keep calm during the exam.
• You won’t get more than 3 mins per question.
• You may find some very long questions in exam. Best strategy to tackle them is to read the answer options first and than check for relevant info in question.
• Since it’s an AWS exam so look for AWS related options in the answers.  Chances are high that  Non-AWS related option in answer will be wrong.
• AWS exams generally don’t focus on mugging their datasheets. So you won’t get a question like “How much RAM does a C3.xlarge offer?” .

That’s all folks! Best of luck for the exam!
Do let us know in comments section if you have any query.

How to prepare for Certified Scrum Master exam

Hello!
Below we are sharing the detailed steps for becoming CSM.
In the current fast paced and rapidly evolving software industry it’s very important that you immediately respond to changes and adapt  accordingly. This requires you to be aware of the latest Agile and Scrum practices and follow them. During the last few years, demand for Scrum Master has increased substantially.
What is a Scrum Master?
A Scrum Master is someone who understands the Agile and Scrum concepts and help the team to apply them, so that they are more open to change and respond quickly. His role involves removing any impediments to progress of the team, facilitate meetings, and work with Product Owner. A certification of Scrum Master will help you gain a recognition that you are well versed with the Scrum practices.
Certified Scrum Master certification is conducted by Scrum Alliance.
Requirements and Preparation
Below are steps you will have to follow for becoming CSM.
Step 1:- Before you appear for the exam you will have to attend the mandatory CSM training from a Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainer. Training is a 2 day workshop which covers all aspects of Agile and Scrum needed for clearing the exam. Generally the training cost includes the exam fee and 16 Scrum Education Units(SEUs).
Step 2:- Once you have completed the training appear for the online exam. To clear the exam you will have to correctly answer 24 out of 35 questions.
Exam Pattern
It’s an open book exam which you can give from your home also. You just need a desktop/laptop and access to internet. Exam is objective based. Around 70% is the passing score for exam. Most of the questions you will get will be covered in the class room training under different scenarios. Questions in exam are based on the Agile and Scrum best practices. Some questions are direct while many are scenario based.
Cost
Total cost of exam + training comes to around USD 1299 in USA and around Rs 25000 in India.
Practice Questions
You can refer to some good practice exam questions here.

Review of 70-534 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure SolutionsCertification course on Udemy by Scott Duffy

As I mentioned in my earlier post that I had a good experience with Udemy’s online course while preparing for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam.
So for preparation of Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions Certification also I wanted to buy an online course.
When I started my search for a suitable course I zeroed in on  Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions Certification  course by Scott Duffy on Udemy.
Scott himself is a certified architect and got a rich industry experience. Going through the course content I found that it covered almost all exam topics. Also Scott keeps on updating the content as the syllabus changes. And if you buy from Udemy you get free life time access to the course so I went with this one.
Now coming to the course.
After buying the course as I went through it I found the content to be good but the content delivery of Scott is not as good as Ryan of acloudguru whose AWS course I have completed.
Scott mixes many Developer course topics with this course which can be good if you are from development background but not essential for the exam.  For the exam you need the basic understanding of coding so that you can read and understand the code.
Course has many quizzes after the modules which are helpful in testing what you have learnt. It covers hands on exercises which you can follow in your own MS Azure free trial account.
It has mock exam at the end of sections but when I gave them I found that no matter how many times you give the mock exam it reflects the same score that you got when you appeared for the mock exam first time. I informed Scott about this on the forum page and he said he will get it sorted. Hope it’s fixed now.
Overall this course covers most of the exam topics and if you are a beginner in Azure it will give you a good base.  Also as of Apr-18 this is the only course on Udemy which covers most topic and get you exam ready.
If you already have background in AWS then I recommend that you also go through the course Microsoft Azure for AWS Experts by Microsoft(Update: This is now a paid course).  Few of the Azure terminologies are confusing and if you relate them to AWS it will help you understand them quickly. You can also refer to our post where we have compared the services of AWS vs Azure .
Read the post Azure exam pattern to know more about  what’s asked in exam. You can supplement your preparation with sample exam questions by Scott.
Scott also got a good course on 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions .
Do share your queries or opinion with us.

###Pendit ai checks####How AI Is Changing Cloud Computing in 2025: The Future Unfolds

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud computing are two of the most transformative technologies of our time. In 2025, their convergence is reshaping how businesses operate, developers build, and IT professionals manage infrastructure. But how is AI changing cloud computing exactly? From smarter resource management to enhanced security and cost savings, AI is unlocking new possibilities in the cloud. In this guide, we’ll explore the key ways AI is revolutionizing cloud computing, why it matters, and what it means for you—whether you’re a DevOps engineer, a cloud enthusiast, or a business owner.

1. AI-Powered Resource Optimization in the Cloud

One of the biggest ways AI is changing cloud computing is through intelligent resource management. Traditional cloud setups often waste computing power due to over-provisioning or inefficient scaling. AI changes that by predicting demand and optimizing resources in real time.

• How It Works: Machine learning (ML) models analyze usage patterns—think CPU loads, storage needs, or network traffic—and adjust resources dynamically. Tools like AWS’s SageMaker or Google Cloud’s AI Platform make this seamless.
• Example: A company running an e-commerce site on Azure can use AI to scale servers during Black Friday sales, then scale down afterward, saving costs.
• Impact: Reduced waste, lower bills, and greener cloud operations.

For cloud professionals, this means mastering AI-driven tools is now a must-have skill. (Check out our AWS Certification Guide for tips on getting started!)

2. Enhanced Security with AI in Cloud Computing

Security remains a top concern in cloud computing, and AI is stepping up to the plate. By analyzing vast amounts of data, AI detects threats faster than any human could.

• How It Works: AI algorithms monitor logs, flag anomalies (e.g., unusual login attempts), and even predict breaches before they happen. Platforms like Microsoft Azure Sentinel use AI to provide real-time threat detection.
• Example: If a hacker tries to access your AWS S3 bucket, AI can lock them out and alert you instantly.
• Impact: Stronger defenses and fewer sleepless nights for IT teams.

3. AI-Driven Automation for Cloud Management

Manual cloud management is becoming a thing of the past, thanks to AI. Automation powered by AI is streamlining everything from deployments to maintenance.

• How It Works: AI integrates with DevOps tools like Kubernetes and Terraform, automating tasks like load balancing, patch updates, or container orchestration.
• Example: Google Cloud’s Anthos uses AI to manage multi-cloud environments, reducing human error and freeing up engineers for higher-value work.
• Impact: Faster deployments and lower operational costs.

For hands-on learners, our Kubernetes Basics Guide walks you through setting up an AI-optimized cluster.

4. Cost Reduction Through AI in Cloud Computing

Cost management is a perennial challenge in the cloud, but AI is flipping the script. By analyzing spending patterns, AI helps businesses get more bang for their buck.

• How It Works: AI tools like AWS Cost Explorer or CloudHealth by VMware predict future expenses and suggest optimizations—like switching to reserved instances or shutting down idle resources.
• Example: A startup using GCP might save 20% monthly by following AI-recommended instance types.
• Impact: More predictable budgets and higher ROI on cloud investments.

Curious about cloud costs? Grab our DevOps Skills Checklist .

AI isn’t just optimizing the cloud—it’s powering the apps that run on it. From chatbots to data analytics, cloud-hosted AI applications are booming.

• How It Works: Developers use cloud platforms like AWS Lambda or Azure Functions to deploy AI models (e.g., for image recognition or NLP) without managing servers.
• Example: A retailer might host an AI chatbot on Google Cloud to handle customer queries 24/7.
• Impact: Faster app development and better user experiences.

Interested in coding AI apps? Start Python with our extensive guides .

Why This Matters in 2025

The fusion of AI and cloud computing isn’t just a trend—it’s the future. As of February 2025, companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are doubling down on AI-cloud integration. X posts from tech leaders show buzz around “AI-native clouds” and “self-healing infrastructure.” For CloudVedas readers, this means:

• Career Growth: Skills in AI and cloud (e.g., AWS Certified Machine Learning) are in high demand.
• Business Edge: Leveraging AI in the cloud can set your projects apart.

How to Get Started with AI in Cloud Computing

Ready to ride this wave? Here’s a quick roadmap:

1. Learn the Basics: Start with free tutorials on AWS SageMaker or Google Cloud AI (see our Free DevOps Tools post).
2. Experiment: Spin up a cheap instance on DigitalOcean or Linode to test AI workloads.
3. Certify: Boost your resume with an AI-cloud cert. Check out how I prepared for AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes and many other certs.

Conclusion: AI and Cloud Computing—A Perfect Pair

So, how is AI changing cloud computing? It’s making it smarter, safer, cheaper, and more powerful. Whether you’re optimizing resources, securing data, or building next-gen apps, AI is the game-changer you can’t ignore in 2025. For CloudVedas readers, this is your chance to level up—both in skills and passive income. Add this knowledge to your toolkit, and watch your cloud projects (and earnings) soar.

What’s your take? Drop a comment below or tweet us at #CloudVedas with your AI-cloud experiences!

Comparing AWS, Azure and Redhat exams

In last couple of years I’ve given certification exams of multiple cloud providers. While AWS and Azure exams are more theoretical and based on multiple choice questions. Redhat Openstack is practical lab exam. In this article I’ll be discussing the pros and cons of the different exam patterns.
AWS
Passed AWS CSA – Associate and Professional
Pros:-

• You can refer to any question any time you want during the exam.
• Exam tests you on a wide range of topic.
• Even if you have made mistakes in the beginning you can recover by reviewing the questions later.
• No datasheet type questions like “How much RAM does C3.Xlarge offers?”
• You get 1 Year free tier which is great to learn about AWS.

Cons:-

• Exams are expensive in comparison to Microsoft Azure (at least in India)
• In many question it just tests your reading speed.
• No version, so you don’t know if you should answer as per recent announcement or old method available.

Azure
Passed Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions.
Pros:-

• Azure exams are not very expensive in comparison to AWS or Red Hat.
• Exam tests you on a wide range of topic.
• Even if you have made mistakes in the beginning you can recover by solving correctly other answers in later sections.

Cons:-

• No version, so you don’t know if you should answer as per recent announcement or old method available.
• It’s a race against time.
• The most insane thing I found in the exam is that with each case study you get 5 to 6 questions. But, for about 2 to 3 questions in that case study you can’t refer back to case study. I don’t understand why Microsoft expects you to remember the whole 2 page case study.
• 30 days free tier is too less to know about azure.

Update:- Azure is now(Oct-17) offering 12 months free trial.
Redhat Openstack
Passed  RHCSA in Redhat Openstack
Pros:-

• The difficulty level of the exam is medium.
• You generally get questions on tasks which you will be doing in real life.
• You get only 15-20 questions (tasks) and even if someone knows those questions beforehand he will have to do the tasks practically to pass the exam. So even if anyone has dumps, they are useless.
• It has versioning so you know you have to answer as per Redhat Openstack version 6 or 8.
• Can play with Redhat Openstack by installing it in your desktop or laptop. Good Learning!

Cons:-

• Exams are expensive in comparison to Microsoft Azure.
• If you have made a mistake at the beginning or in the middle of exam chances are you will mess up the whole exam or waste lot of time correcting it.
• If your machine doesn’t work properly you may lose time. But generally examiners take care of this.

In the end, I’d like to say that professional exams should not be like your college entrance exams where they mostly test your reading speeds and cramming abilities. But it’s OK for them as the undergrad and grad have limited practical experience.
Professional exams should be more practical, that makes you sure that if a person has cleared the exam, he definitely know how to do that stuff in real life.
If you want to know how to prepare for these exams refer my post for AWS , Azure and Redhat Openstack .

How to become a Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect

In this post I'll be giving tips on how to prepare for Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect exam. This will also be helpful for people who are currently working on other cloud platforms like AWS or Azure and looking for broadening their skills to Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

As many of you who are following this blog knows that I am already working on AWS and Azure. About a couple of years back we got heavily into Kubernetes. Being a curious techie when I started digging further about Kubernetes, I found that it was initially designed by Google. One thing led to another and I ended up exploring more about google cloud. In parallel, we started getting traction on multi-cloud strategy and GCP is also considered a good option with many features which are helpful for both startups and big Enterprises.

So, I decided to get more knowledge and expertise on Google Cloud. When I compared AWS with GCP I felt that most of the technologies are similar but obviously with different naming convention and some technical setting differences. Thus, if you have worked on AWS it won't be very difficult to grasp the Google Cloud as well. But even if you don't have background in other clouds then also learning about google cloud is not very difficult, you just need to spend extra time on the basics.

If, you are from AWS background you can get a good comparison of AWS and GCP services here and that's what I did as a starting point.

Next I went through the Udemy course Google Cloud (GCP) 2020: Zero to Cloud Architect. This course covers the GCP services in detail starting from basics. So, it is useful even for someone who is starting from scratch.

Since our company is a partner of Google so, I supplemented my preparation by enrolling in the online training labs of QWIKLABS. These labs are really helpful in getting you good hands-on practice on the various GCP services.

AWS background folks will find that the GCP services are not very different but it still has some differences for e.g. in AWS a subnet is restricted to an AZ but in GCP the subnet can span to multiple AZs in a region. You have to keep these subtle differences in mind when designing in GCP.

If we talk specifically about the certification exam it mainly focuses on below topics:-

• Managing and provisioning cloud infrastructure.
• Designing and planning a cloud solution which is scalable, resilient and cost effective.
• Security strengthening using IAM, Firewall, Security Groups etc.
• Analyzing and Monitoring the application behavior using GCP Operations Suite.
• Managing HA and DR.

The exam is in multiple choice questions format. You will also get 2-3 case studies and you have to select an answer which is most suitable considering the scenario mentioned in case study. 

You can choose to appear for an exam at the test center or go for an online proctored exam from home. Considering the Corona situation I appeared for an online proctored exam. You just have to follow the guidelines mentioned in the link I have shared above and with good internet connection it is pretty easy to appear for the exam from home.

Overall I found the exam to be very engaging covering wide ranging of topics.

If you have any queries regarding the exam preparation or GCP in general please post them in the comment section below.