ICCA - Exam Review

My review of INE's Certified Cloud Associate (ICCA) exam: how I prepared, what the exam was like, and the notes and resources that got me certified.

I started my ICCA exam prep on June 25, 2024 and gave my exam on July 7, 2024. And received a much awaited email the same day stating:

Hello Abdullah, Congratulations on receiving your INE Certified Cloud Associate Certification

Background:#

I was basically preparing for the eJPT exam and was waiting for the right discount to buy the voucher. When the June Sale arrived I thought this is the right time to buy the INE Fundamentals Annual. At that time it was coming with free eJPT and ICCA exam vouchers. So without any further a do I bought the INE Fundamentals Annual bundle.

So, after I bought the bundle I kept my eJPT prep on hold for a few days and started the preparation for ICCA. I took the preparation seriously because I didn’t wanted to waste this chance.

About the exam:#

The INE Certified Cloud Associate certification serves as an entry-level accreditation, providing a comprehensive overview of fundamental cloud computing principles.

What sets this certification apart is its vendor-neutral approach, steering clear of tying candidates to a single provider like AWS or Azure. Instead, the course covers general cloud concepts and their implementation across the three major cloud platforms:

• Amazon (AWS)
• Microsoft (Azure)
• Google (GCP)

As one of the few, if not the only, entry-level multi-cloud courses with both theoretical and hands-on components, it covers essential concepts and practical aspects across the three leading cloud providers.

Preparation:#

For my preparation I choose the provided ICCA Learning Path. The course was okay. I wouldn’t say it was the most impressive one out there but it was enough to make you exam ready. It covered the following topic:

• Cloud Basics
• Cloud Deployment Models
• Cloud Management
• Cloud Shared Responsibility Model
• Cloud Services & Providers
• Cloud Identity & Access Management (IAM)

It took me around 10 days to complete the whole learning path. I was studying two to three hours at night along side 9 to 5 onsite internship in the day. So, yes I guess 10 days is still pretty fast xD.

Pros & Cons:#

Pros:

• Short course (16h) compared to other INE courses (eJPTv2 is 156h!).
• ICCA now includes free access to AWS/Azure/GCP to practice the labs.
• Tracy Wallace is a highly knowledgeable and engaging instructor with a great sense of humor. You won’t get bored of him.
• The course effectively guides you from a basic to a solid understanding of foundational cloud knowledge.
• Additionally, the open-book exam allows you to refer to your notes or cloud provider documentation.

Cons:

• The included slides lack substantial material coverage, with approximately 80% of the content being verbally explained and presented on a whiteboard by Tracy Wallace.
• Consequently, a concerted effort is needed to actively listen and meticulously note down the crucial concepts he explains.
• Some questions in the exam caught me off guard, and I couldn’t recall them being covered in the course material. Fortunately, my preparation involved going through supplementary resources, which proved beneficial, along with consulting the appropriate vendor documentation.

Notes That I Took:#

ICCA-Notes repository (GitHub)

Following repo has the Lab Walkthroughs.

INE-Labs repository (GitHub)

Resources:#

• How I passed the INE Certified Cloud Associate (ICCA) Exam
• ICCA Study Notes by SystemElement
• ICCA references by SystemElement
• Microsoft Shared responsibility in the cloud
• AWS Shared Responsibility Model
• NIST Cloud Computing Definition*

I hope this blog is enough to provide you the guideline you needed. At the end here is my shiny certificate xD.

THANKS MUHAMMAD ABDULLAH