Get CCP certified with CertVista

As cloud computing has exploded in use and popularity, so has the demand for employees who understand how it works and its key aspects. AWS has long been a leader in cloud and is the most synonymous platform with it. The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CCP) was designed for individuals to show they have a broad understanding of AWS, its key services, and how to operate within its environment and tools.

Why Get Certified?

Obtaining a widely known and respected certification demonstrates to employers that you have a certain level of understanding and education about the material it encompasses. With cloud computing growing so rapidly, many jobs will look for employees with an understanding and familiarity with AWS, and the CCP is an excellent way to independently show that you have this. The AWS CCP will serve individuals who work in IT and those outside of IT who want to demonstrate that they understand AWS and can offer value to themselves, their employers, prospective clients, and others through this knowledge. The AWS CCP serves as the first AWS certification that can start you on your path to more advanced and specialized certifications offered on the AWS platform.

How to Get Certified

As a first certification for the AWS platform, the AWS CCP does not require work experience time as a prerequisite. However, it is highly recommended that you have six months of experience working with AWS in some capacity. This can range from IT professionals to students, business professionals, project managers, marketing specialists, and even legal professionals. Candidates should also have a basic understanding of IT and IT services to relate these concepts to the AWS Cloud environment.

To successfully pass the AWS CCP exam, a candidate will be expected to demonstrate the following:

• Explain the value of AWS Cloud services
• Understand and be able to explain the AWS Shared Responsibility Model and how it would apply to their business or job
• Understand and be able to explain security best practices for AWS accounts and management consoles
• Understand how pricing, costs, and budgets are done within AWS, including the tools that AWS provides for monitoring and tracking them
• Be able to describe the core and popular AWS service offerings across the major areas of network, compute, storage, databases, and development
• Be able to recommend and justify which AWS core services would apply to real-world scenarios

AWS CCP Domains

The AWS CCP is divided into four domains. The following table shows the distribution of those domains and their weight in the overall exam content.

Domain 1: Cloud Concepts

Domain 1 will introduce you to AWS and the value it can bring to your organization. Before you attempt to sell your stakeholders the value AWS can bring to your organization, you need to fully understand what AWS is, its value, how it is structured and designed, and how it differs from the traditional data center model. Learning the cloud concepts will give you a sound basis and show you how to get started with using AWS from the ground up by giving you an understanding of cloud concepts.

Domain 2: Security and Compliance

Domain 2 focuses on how security is a primary focus for AWS across all services and one of the most prominent benefits of using a cloud provider. AWS can implement extremely robust security through economies of scale that can far exceed what any organization could have the finances and experience to implement on their own. This domain will introduce you to the Shared Responsibility Model that cloud providers employ, as well as the key concepts used with cloud security.

Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services

Domain 3 covers the technical aspects of the AWS Cloud. This includes the tools and utilities to get users up and running in AWS, as well as code development. The core AWS services are highlighted, along with their key features and how they can improve the on-premises hosting and operating models that most companies already use. Many support options are available for AWS technical aspects, including support plans, documentation, and user forums.

Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support

Domain 4 covers the many different pricing models that AWs offers across all of their services, focusing on the unifying fact that costs are only incurred for resources that are provisioned and only while they are being used. With the complexity of services and all the possible cost points, AWS provides management tools to estimate, plan, and track usage of both services and budgets to allow users to stay on top of their costs. This includes both the AWS Free Tier and paid services.