When I first started looking into IT certs, this was the question I kept running into. Everyone has a strong opinion. Here's mine, based on actually going through both paths.
When I first started looking into IT certs, this was the question I kept running into. Everyone has a strong opinion. Here's mine, based on actually going through both paths.
Depends where you're starting from. If you have zero IT background, A+ and Network+ give you a foundation that makes cloud concepts make actual sense. When AWS starts talking about subnets and routing, you know what those things mean in the physical world first.
If you've already spent time understanding how computers work at a hardware level, like from building one yourself, you can probably skip straight to AWS Cloud Practitioner without feeling lost. That's what I did. The PC build gave me enough context that the cloud stuff clicked pretty quickly from day one.
Honestly they work well together. CompTIA gives you the ground floor. AWS teaches you how to operate at scale. If you're aiming specifically at cloud roles though, AWS certs carry more weight with employers right now, so it depends what you're optimising for.