Top Big Data Certifications for 2020

        Data and big data analytics are the lifeblood of any successful business. Getting the technology right can be challenging but building the right team with the right skills to undertake data initiatives can be even harder — a challenge reflected in the rising demand for big data and analytics skills and certifications. 

If you’re looking to get an edge on a data analytics career, certification is a great option. Certifications measure your knowledge and skills against industry- and vendor-specific benchmarks to prove to employers that you have the right skillset. The number of data analytics certs is expanding rapidly.

Why Earn a Big Data Certification?

A Big Data certification can offer your career a big boost, whether you’re just getting started or you’re a seasoned professional. If you’re new to the field, a Big Data certification will get you trained so you can make the transition and land that first job. Those types of certifications can range from the very specific, such as a Big Data Hadoop Certification training, to wide-ranging, like a Big Data Engineer Masters Program that earns you several different certifications as part of the learning path.

If you’re already working in Big Data, a certification can help you to move up in your career or move into a specialized role. For example, if you need to know more about a particular aspect of Big Data such as MongoDB or Apache Cassandra, a certification both help you learn the necessary skills, plus give your current or future employer proof of your qualifications.

If you’re already working a Big Data role, certifications are invaluable during performance appraisals for demonstrating to your manager that you’re proactive about your career and that you can add value to the company, possibly leading to a promotion or a raise. According to Certification Magazine, 52 percent of survey respondents got a raise within a year of completing a Big Data certification.

In addition to those reasons, jobs in Big Data pay exceptionally well. A data architect can earn up to $184,000 per year, and a Big Data engineer up to $196,000. And according to DataJobs, a data scientist can earn up to $170,000 per year.

The top 11 data analytics and big data certifications :

• Associate Certified Analytics Professional (aCAP)
• Certification of Professional Achievement in Data Sciences
• Certified Analytics Professional
• Cloudera Certified Associate (CCA) Data Analyst
• EMC Proven Professional Data Scientist Associate (EMCDSA)
• IBM Data Science Professional Certificate
• Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate
• Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate
• Open Certified Data Scientist
• SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional Using SAS 9
• SAS Certified Big Data Professional Using SAS 9

Associate Certified Analytics Professional :

The Associate Certified Analytics Professional (aCAP) credential is an entry-level analytics certification that shows education in the analytics process though the individual may not have practical experience yet. The certification focuses on the seven domains of the analytics process: business problem framing, analytics problem framing, data, methodology selection, model building, deployment, and lifecycle management.

Certification of Professional Achievement in Data Sciences :

The Certification of Professional Achievement in Data Sciences is a non-degree program intended to develop facility with foundational data science skills. The program consists of four courses: Algorithms for Data Science, Probability & Statistics, Machine Learning for Data Science, and Exploratory Data Analysis and Visualization.

Certified Analytics Professional :

The Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) credential is a general analytics certification that certifies end-to-end understanding of the analytics process, from framing business and analytic problems to acquiring data, methodology, model building, deployment and model lifecycle management. It requires completion of the CAP exam and adherence to the CAP Code of Ethics.

Cloudera Certified Associate (CCA) Data Analyst :

A SQL developer who earns the CCA Data Analyst certification demonstrates core analyst skills to load, transform and model Hadoop data to define relationships and extract meaningful results from the raw output. It requires passing the CCA Data Analyst Exam (CCA159), a remote-proctored set of eight to 12 performance-based, hands-on tasks on a CDH 5 cluster. Candidates have 120 minutes to implement a technical solution for each task. They must analyze the problem and arrive at an optimal approach in the time allowed.

EMC Proven Professional Data Scientist Associate (EMCDSA) :

The EMCDSA certification demonstrates an individual’s ability to participate and contribute as a data science team member on big data projects. It includes deploying the data analytics lifecycle, reframing a business challenge as an analytics challenge, applying analytic techniques and tools to analyze big data and create statistical models, selecting the appropriate data visualizations and more.

IBM Data Science Professional Certificate :

The IBM Data Science Professional Certificate is a beginner-level certificate that demonstrates an individual’s skills in data science topics, including open source tools and libraries, methodologies, Python databases, SQL, data visualization, data analysis, and machine learning. Earning the certificate requires completing nine courses (taking roughly three months at 12 hours per week), during which the candidate will complete several hands-on assignments and build a portfolio of data science projects. At the end, candidates earn a Professional Certificate from Coursera and a digital badge from IBM recognizing proficiency in data science.

Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate :

The Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate credential is a measure of a candidate’s ability to define and prepare Azure development environments, prepare data for modeling, perform feature engineering, and develop models. The exam requires the candidate to use applications involving natural language processing, speech, computer vision, and predictive analytics. The credential does not expire.

Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate :

The Data Analyst Associate certification is one of several role-based certifications that replaces the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Data Management and Analytics certification that Microsoft will retire in January 2021. This certificate demonstrates subject matter expertise in enabling businesses to leverage their data assets using Microsoft Power BI. Holders of this certificate can design and build scalable data models, clean and transform data, and enable advanced analytic capabilities.

Open Certified Data Scientist :

The Open CDS is an independent global certification that qualifies the skills, knowledge, and experience of data scientists. Open CDS requires candidates demonstrate their skills and experience against a set of conformance requirements through written applications and peer interviews. It does not include training courses and there are no written exams. Attaining the certification follows three stages: First, the candidate must obtain four to five milestone badges; second, the candidate must complete the Experience Application Form; finally, the candidate must attend a board review. The certification lasts for three years, after which the holder may re-certify.

SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional Using SAS 9 :

The SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional Using SAS 9 credential validates the ability to analyze big data with a variety of statistical analysis and predictive modeling techniques. Candidates should have experience in machine learning and predictive modeling techniques and their application to big, distributed, and in-memory data sets. They should also have experience with pattern detection, experimentation in business, optimization techniques, and time series forecasting. The certification requires passing three exams:

• Predictive Modeling Using SAS Enterprise Miner 7, 13, or 14
• SAS Advanced Predictive Modeling
• SAS Text Analytics, Time Series, Experimentation and Optimization

SAS Certified Big Data Professional Using SAS 9 :

The SAS Certified Big Data Professional Using SAS 9 credential validates the ability to use open source and SAS Data Management tools to prepare big data for statistical analysis. The certification requires passing two exams:

• SAS Big Data Preparation, Statistics and Visual Exploration
• SAS Big Data Programming and Loading