Alibaba Cloud Academy vs Google Cloud Skills Boost

Alibaba Cloud Academy is Alibaba Cloud’s training and certification division for clients, partners, and developers. Programs include Clouder, Specialty, and short video courses, with certification routes across Associate, Certified, Expert, Professional, Capability and Competency, Clouder, and developer credentials. The listed Academy Membership costs $19.90 a year and includes unlimited access to 130+ online training courses, free Apsara Clouder certifications, and up to four attempts for each Apsara Clouder and Specialty certification. Other courses, specialties, credentials, vouchers, and subscriptions may require payment. Academy activities require a main Alibaba Cloud account; RAM accounts are unsupported. Pearson VUE exams can be taken at test centers or online, except online-proctored exams are unavailable in the Chinese mainland. Professional certifications last two years, and status can be verified through a one-step process. Badges can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, but not through Credly.

Google Cloud Skills Boost, also called Google Skills, is a web learning platform for building skills including Google Cloud and AI. Its catalog combines courses and labs with videos, documents, practical activities, and quizzes. Cloud labs provide temporary credentials for practice using real cloud resources. Guided learning paths bring together selected courses or labs around a role, use case, or solution. Completing learning content can earn learners shareable skill badges and certificates. Subscription content includes material from Google Cloud, Google DeepMind, Google for Education, Google Marketing, and more. Labs require a laptop or desktop, an internet connection, and a supported browser, and a subscription permits one lab at a time. Current versions of popular browsers are supported; Firefox or Chrome are recommended. GEAR participants can claim 35 monthly learning credits at no cost. Google Cloud customers can request access to the Google Skills for Organizations catalog and other exclusive learning resources and programs.