The Advanced Cloud Engineer Bootcamp certification from the Linux Foundation, analysis and thoughts
NB: Before you read this post I highly recommend you read this one first. There are couple arguments and analysis in the article about the Cloud Engineer Bootcamp that are valid for this one. Especially around the questions of “Is it worth it” and “Will this make me a Cloud Engineer”.
You are Back ? Good let’s get started
The Linux foundation released back in July a new bootcamp called the Advanced Cloud Engineer. This is a new, more elaborate version of The Cloud Engineer Bootcamp (will refer to it as basic in this post) I reviewed few months ago. The structure is the same for both bootcamps, a combination of online self-paced trainings and certifications spaced over a period of 6 months. The content of the advanced version is different however. And similar to the Cloud Engineer Bootcamp.
So i spent sometime reviewing this new bootcamp and i’m sharing my thoughts here.
What is this bootcamp ?
A 6 months online combo of trainings and 1 certification (CKA). LF (short for Linux foundation) estimates you will need 10 hours per week to complete this, the bundle gives you 12 months access to the trainings and a 12 months exam Eligibility (1 year from when you purchase the bundle to when you book the exam). The bundle at the moment of this writing costs 999$, LF estimate it’s total worth at 2300$ (see below for the breakdown). They usually have discounts so keep an eye on the web page or signup to the newsletter, or better follow me on twitter to keep up with my publications and random tweets :)
What’s included ?
6 trainings:
- Containers Fundamentals (LFS253)
- Kubernetes Fundamentals (LFS258)
- Service Mesh Fundamentals (LFS243)
- Monitoring Systems and Services with Prometheus (LFS241)
- Cloud Native Logging with Fluentd (LFS242)
- Managing Kubernetes Applications with Helm (LFS244)
And the CKA certification (Certified Kubernetes Administrator).
Immediately when I looked at what’s included I thought: Wow this is quite an interesting and advanced set of trainings, a lot of which i’m not familiar with. I might actually take one or two of these trainings in the upcoming months (I have my eye on the Service Mesh one)
One major difference in comparing the basic and Advanced Bootcamps is that the advanced one is tailored more toward Cloud with focus on a lot of components that are typically found in modern Cloud setups (Containers, Container Orchestration, Service Mesh, Prometheus, Fluentd, Helm…) while the basic one is focused more on Linux concepts.
The content of both bootcamps is quite useful to anyone who works or is planning to work on some Cloud Technologies it’s just a matter of where you are in your learning journey. Hence me calling the first release Basic and LF calling this one Advanced. The Basic one is a great starting point for people with no prior experience working on containers and Linux.
Is it worth it ?
The simple answer is YES IF YOU ARE COMMITTED.
The content is quite diversified, the value is quite good and the overall line-up of learning objectives look good to me.
And as we did before for the Basic bootcamp, here is a financial breakdown (what’s included and how much they individually cost).
- Containers Fundamentals (LFS253) 299$
- Kubernetes Fundamentals (LFS258) 299$
- Service Mesh Fundamentals (LFS243) 299$
- Monitoring Systems and Services with Prometheus (LFS241) 299$
- Cloud Native Logging with Fluentd (LFS242) 299$
- Managing Kubernetes Applications with Helm (LFS244) 299$
- CKA certification retails for 300$
Adding up to a grand total of ~2100$ if each of these training is purchased individually. I spoke to LF and they told me their listing price of 2300$ includes a 200$ estimation for instructor support that you only get via the bundle. Considering you will want to get the combo CKA and LFS258 the actual total cost will be ~1999$. So the bundle with the current price of 999$ is of great value considering you’ll have 1 year access to the online trainings and 1 year to take the CKA exam.
Final words
I just wanted to share a little bit of context on why i’m reviewing these bootcamps. Part of my job at Google offers me the opportunity to try out Google Cloud certifications before they become public and sometime take part of committees that writes of reviews questions before they make it to the exam. So i care deeply about trainings and professional growth in general. The Linux Foundation content have been of great help to me when i was learning (Linux, Kubernetes, Docker…) and i took few certifications along the way. I think i do have some experience in these topics and i like to help people out by reviewing and sharing my thoughts on new content.
I hope you find these useful, and as usual let me know in the comments or DM me on twitter.com/boredabdel if you have any follow-up questions :)
