Which is the best certification: Azure or AWS?
In recent years, increased adoption by organizations of all scales worldwide has resulted in an explosion of the cloud computing market. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure have emerged as the two most popular public cloud service providers. Both offer a range of tools under infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS). Likewise, the need for skilled professionals for both AWS and Azure cloud has skyrocketed. Both Amazon and Microsoft have a variety of certifications that aspiring or existing cloud professionals can opt for. These certifications are industry-recognized credentials of demonstrable cloud skill sets and can help you stand out from your peers.
What certification should you go for in today’s multi-cloud environment – Azure or AWS? Let’s find out.
Which certification to select?
It is confusing to understand which certification is more valuable. Generally, the competition lies between AWS and Azure certification. So what you need to know first is about both these cloud certifications.
- AWS: This cloud service platform is from Amazon, which started in 2006. It has provided services in diverse spheres like storage, computing, delivery, etc., which facilitate any business growth. Its services are planned to work together and create a scalable and well-organized result. Services of AWS are divided into 3 kinds. They are platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
- Azure: This is a cloud technology providing platform by Microsoft. It provides services in diverse spheres like database, networking, developer tools, storage, etc., to help enterprises mature their businesses. Initiated in 2010, Azure has become one of the major commercial cloud services providers.
Azure Certification
There are three Microsoft certifications for Azure. One for the architects, one for Linux certification and the third one for Visual Studio web developers. When it’s about a career in cloud technology, Microsoft cloud certification has appeared to be the most accepted one.This certification will lead to job positions like cloud architect, cloud administrator, and enterprise information security analyst.
The regular Azure certification cost (Level 2) is around 15,000 INR. Some websites and platforms conduct Azure certification training to prepare you with all required assessment objectives. Besides, these platforms offer a complete review of the examination and mock tests.
AWS Certification
AWS certification will require you to have an experience of at least two years in designing softwares with AWS technologies. The certification checks your aptitude to make architectural suggestions for operation as well as provisioning applications on AWS.
AWS certification can unlock a career path as an AWS Solutions Architect Associate. After qualifying for the AWS Solutions Architect examination, you can sit for the Developer Associate examination.
Azure versus AWS
For your ease to choose the cloud certification that you find best; here’s a comparative table:
Basis of comparison | Microsoft Azure | Amazon web services (AWS) |
Popularity | Azure holds about one-third of the market. | It is the most recognized platform in the present times. More than 41 per cent of applications and services employ AWS rather than other cloud services. NASA is their client. |
Difficulty level | Azure is comparatively harder to learn. | IT professionals assert that AWS is easier to train and obtain a certificate. |
Preference of the employers | The Indeed job portal has more than 16,000 job positions that require an Azure certification. | Indeed marks about 29,000 AWS positions. |
Azure is quickly gaining ground on AWS – and the demand for Azure Certifications are on the rise as a result. Both Azure and AWS offer entry-level cloud certifications that you can opt for to get the know-how of popular cloud services and tools in both public clouds.
When comparing their values, there’s no clear winner between AWS and Azure certifications. They both have tremendous traction in the industry, and the edge both cloud certifications provide to professionals are immense and diverse. Many organizations have started internal certification campaigns to get their employees cloud-aware and skilled. At this point, the choice rests solely on you. If your work involves Microsoft technologies like SQL Server, .NET and the likes, getting Azure certified may be the logical next step. AWS is largely technology agnostic, and hence one can decide to jump into the world of Amazon cloud certifications at any point in their career. Speciality certifications in both AWS and Azure – like security, big data, IoT, networking – provide a terrific opportunity for professionals in similar domains to get specialized in cloud-native versions of their technologies.