CompTIA Cloud Essentials+: Exam Overview, Objectives, Cost

The CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification is a vendor-neutral, internationally recognized credential, validating data-driven cloud recommendations using key business principles and fundamental cloud concepts.

The Cloud Essentials+ certification exam is an ideal start for business analysts and IT professionals who have fundamental cloud environment skills. This certification helps IT professionals to design, develop and implement robust cloud strategies in organizations.

This guide will discuss everything you need to know about the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam.

What is the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam?

The CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification helps both IT and non-technical business professionals make informed decisions about cloud vendors, cloud services, and cloud technologies. Cloud Essentials+ is a vendor-neutral IT certification that validates fundamental cloud concepts to increase efficiency, manage costs and reduce security risks across the organization.

A successful certified CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ professional will have the following skills:

• Understand the fundamental concepts of cloud computing
• Understand the business aspects and impact of cloud computing
• Be able to differentiate the types of cloud solutions and the adoption measures needed for each.
• Be able to identify the technical challenges and the mitigation measures involved in cloud computing.
• Be able to identify the steps to adopt cloud services successfully.
• Identify the basic concepts of ITIL and describe how the ITIL framework is useful in the implementation of cloud computing in an organization.
• Be able to identify the possible risks involved in cloud computing and the risk mitigation measures, as well as identify the potential cost considerations for the implementation of cloud and its strategic benefits.

What are the prerequisites?

The CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ credential is designed for business professionals and non-technical professionals who can make informed cloud decisions. To take the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam, IT professionals must have six months to one year of practical experience in business analysis in an IT environment, including fundamental knowledge of cloud technology.

Job opportunities with CompTIA Cloud Essentials+

You can land these job roles by taking the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam. Take a quick look:

• Sales and Marketing Staff in cloud product or service management
• Business Analysts
• Business Process Owners
• Managed Service Provider Personnel
• New Data Center Staff
• Technical Support Staff  

Who can take the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam?

The CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification is ideal for both business professionals and non-technical professionals. Here are the job roles for those who can take the Cloud Essentials+ exam.

• IT Management, Support Staff, and Consultants
• Business Managers and Analysts
• Small and midsized Business Owners
• Specialists (IT, Security, Infrastructure, Services, Systems, and Test)
• Business Process Owners
• IT Developers  

How much does it take to sit for the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam?

The CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam costs you 130 USD. However, the cost may vary depending on your situation and the options you choose to go with. Of course, there are many discounts and vouchers offered by third-party training centers. Also, the overall exam cost depends on the option you choose to study, such as self-study and instructor-led.

CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ exam details

Required exam: CLO-002  Number of questions: Maximum of 75  Type of questions: Multiple choice  Length of test: 60 minutes  Recommended experience: 6-12 months of work experience as a business analyst in an IT environment with some exposure to cloud technologies  Passing score: 720 (on a scale of 100 –900)

Is the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ worth it?

Undoubtedly, the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam is worth taking right now. To clarify a bit more, earning the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification is really worth the investment and time if you want to validate your fundamental knowledge of cloud services, cloud technologies, and cloud operations.

If you are in the position of a business analyst looking to enhance your skills in cloud credentials and earn a business-oriented certification, then in this case, too, the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification is for you.

CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ exam objectives (domains)

The table below lists the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ exam objectives or domains. The exam objectives are divided into four major categories. Here is a breakdown.

Domain

1.0 Cloud Concepts - 24% 2.0 Business Principles of Cloud Environments - 28% 3.0  Management and Technical Operations - 26% 4.0  Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Security for the Cloud - 22%

CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ exam objectives: Outlook

Domain 1.0 - Cloud Concepts

Cloud concepts are one of the most important domains in the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam. The domain includes the topics such as cloud principles, cloud networking concepts, cloud storage technologies, critical factors of cloud design, and more. The first domain is responsible for 24% of the questions in the exam. 

This exam domain is divided into four major parts of cloud concepts:

1.1 Explain cloud principles

• Service models  • Deployment models  • Characteristics  • Shared responsibility model 

1.2 Identify cloud networking concepts. 

• Connectivity types  • Common access types  • Software-defined networking (SDN)  • Load balancing  • DNS  • Firewall 

1.3 Identify cloud storage technologies.

• Storage features  • Storage characteristics  • Storage types  • Software-defined storage  • Content delivery network 

  1.4 Summarize important aspects of cloud design. 

• Redundancy  • High availability  • Disaster recovery  • Recovery objectives  

Domain 2.0 - Business Principles of Cloud Environments 

Business Principles of Cloud Environments, domain second the Essential+ certification exam validates the candidates’ knowledge and skills required to use appropriate cloud assessments, financial factors of engaging a cloud service provider, critical business aspects of vendor relations in cloud adoptions, benefits or solutions of cloud environment, cloud migration approaches, and much more. This domain is responsible for the highest score, which is 28%, in the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam. 

The domain is divided into five important areas of cloud environments:

2.1 Given a scenario, use appropriate cloud assessments. 

• Current and future requirements  • Baseline  • Feasibility study  • Gap analysis  • Reporting  • Benchmarks  • Documentation and diagrams  • Key stakeholders  • Point of contact

2.2 Summarize the financial aspects of engaging a cloud provider. 

• Capital expenditures  • Operating expenditures  • Variable vs. fixed cost  • Licensing models  • Contracts  • Billing  • Request for information  • Human capital   2.3 Identify the important business aspects of vendor relations in cloud adoptions. 

• Professional services  • Statement of work (SOW)  • Service level agreement (SLA)  • Training  • Evaluations  • Open-source vs. proprietary 

2.4 Identify the benefits or solutions of utilizing cloud services. 

• Identity access management  • Cloud-native applications  • Data analytics  • Digital marketing  • Autonomous environments  • IoT  • Blockchain  • Subscription services  • Collaboration  • VDI  • Self-service

2.5 Compare and contrast cloud migration approaches. 

• Rip and replace  • Lift and shift  • Hybrid  • Phased

Domain 3.0 - Management and Technical Operations 26

The management and technical operations, domain third of the Cloud Essentials+ exam covers the aspects of operating within the cloud, DevOps in cloud environments, and review and report on the financial expenditures related to cloud resources. The third domain makes up 26% of the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam questions. 

The domain is divided into three important areas:

3.1 Explain aspects of operating within the cloud. 

• Data management  • Availability  • Disposable resources  • Monitoring and visibility  • Optimization 

3.2 Explain DevOps in cloud environments. 

• Provisioning  • Continuous integration/ continuous delivery  • Testing in QA environments • Configuration management  • API integration 

3.3 Given a scenario, review, and report on the financial expenditures related to cloud resources.

• Storage  • Network  • Compute  • Chargebacks • Maintenance  • Instances  • Licensing type  • Licensing quantity

Domain 4.0 - Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Security for the Cloud

Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Security for the Cloud, domain four of the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification exam, covers a wide range of important areas of security. This includes determining the risk management concepts and cloud service, security policy or procedures, importance and impacts of compliance in the cloud, security concerns, measures, and much more. The domain is accountable for 22% of the questions in the Cloud Essentials+ exam. 

The domain is divided into the following four major parts:

4.1 Recognize risk management concepts related to cloud services. 

• Risk assessment  • Risk response  • Documentation  • Vendor lock-in  • Data portability 

4.2 Explain policies or procedures. 

• Standard operating procedures  • Change management  • Resource management  • Security policies  • Access and control policies  • Department-specific policies  • Communication policies 

4.3 Identify the importance and impacts of compliance in the cloud. 

• Data sovereignty  • Regulatory concerns  • Industry-based requirements  • International standards  • Certifications 

4.4 Explain security concerns, measures, or concepts of cloud operations. 

• Threat  • Vulnerability  • Security assessments • Data security  • Application and Infrastructure security