Once a novel term used as a metaphor for the internet, it is now a household term used by the seasoned and the young. It is often used to describe where your data lives, where you work, where you play, and/or where you study. With such a large-scale adoption comes extensive employment opportunities in the cloud space.
If you have ever used the storage services provided by Apple, you’ve enjoyed the benefits of the cloud by having your pictures off loaded from your phone to free up space and back them up online, in the cloud.
But, what is the cloud? It is a collection of computers working together to store your data on remote servers or offer apps, services and resources online for pretty much any project or activity you can conceive of. Examples of cloud services include Yahoo mail, office productivity tools available via Microsoft 365 and Adobe products for your creative self.
Some benefits of using the cloud for both small and large organizations include data security, ability to access your data and apps from anywhere, data analysis capabilities, backups, scalability, flexibility, and resiliency, along with reduced IT, business and operating expenses. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are the top two cloud service providers. They each offer over 200 services to help you build, run and manage applications across a variety of boundaries including on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid environment.
Opportunities abound in the cloud space. But to take advantage of them, you need the proper training and/or industry certifications — you need two out of three things to get a job in information technology: education, experience and industry certifications.
A four-year college degree is not essential; a certificate in cloud computing, networking or security will suffice.
Alternatively, an associate degree from a two-year college, such as FTCC, is a sound option as you will pick up some academic certificates along the way and get a lot of valuable hands-on exposure.
Industry certifications are credentials you earn by passing an exam that is typically administered by a third party such as Pearson VUE. The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) and Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) are examples of cloud certifications sponsored by AWS and Microsoft respectively.
FTCC has a Pearson VUE testing center at the Fayetteville campus that proctors a vast and wide variety of industry certification exams.
If you only have one of the three (education, experience or industry certification), it may be a bit more difficult to land an opportunity, but not impossible.
Having two out of three dramatically improves your chances and will certainly help you earn an excellent salary (averaging between $50 and 65,000) for an entry-level position.
Having all three means there’s a very good chance you’ll land an opportunity that pays an excellent salary (six figures not uncommon).
If you are looking for a career change or want to turbo-charge your earning potential in the exciting field of cloud computing, FTCC is your smart choice.
To learn more, visit www.faytechcc.edu/.