15 data science certifications that will pay off

Looking to get ahead as a data scientist? Earning one of these data science certs will help you stand out in one of the hottest careers in IT.

Data scientist is one of the hottest jobs in IT. What’s more, it’s the best job you can get, period, according to data from Glassdoor. If you’re looking to get into this field, or you want to stand out against the competition, look no further than data science certifications.

Data science is important to nearly every company and industry, but the skills that recruiters are looking for will vary across businesses and industries. Certifications are a great way to gain an edge because they allow you to develop skills that are hard to find in your desired industry. They’re also a way to back up your skills, so recruiters and hiring managers know what they’re getting if they hire you.

Whether you’re looking to earn a certification from an accredited university, gain some experience as a new grad, hone vendor-specific skills or demonstrate your broad knowledge of data analytics, at least one of these certifications (presented here in alphabetical order) will work for you.

Top 15 data science certifications

• Applied AI with DeepLearning, IBM Watson IoT Data Science Certificate
• Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)
• Cloudera Certified Associate: Data Analyst
• Cloudera Certified Professional: CCP Data Engineer
• Data Science Council of America (DASCA)
• Dell EMC Data Scientist Associate (EMCDSA)
• Dell EMC Data Scientist Advance Analytics Specialist (EMCDS)
• HDP Data Science
• IBM Certified Data Architect
• Microsoft MCSE: Data Management and Analytics
• Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate
• Microsoft Professional Program in Data Science
• SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional
• SAS Certified Big Data Professional
• SAS Certified Data Scientist

Applied AI with DeepLearning, IBM Watson IoT Data Science Certificate

To earn IBM’s Watson IoT Data Science Certification, you’ll need some experience coding, preferably in Python, but they will consider any programming language as a place to start. Math skills, especially with linear algebra, are recommended but the course promises to cover the topics within the first week. It’s aimed at those with more advanced data science skills and classes are offered through Coursera.

Cost: $49 per month for a subscription to Coursera
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Does not expire

Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)

CAP offers a vender-neutral certification and promises to help you “transform complex data into valuable insights and actions,” which is exactly what businesses are looking for in a data scientist: someone who not only understands the data but can draw logical conclusions and then express to key stakeholders why those data points are significant. If you’re new to data analytics, you can start with the entry-level Associate Certified Analytics Professional (aCAP) exam and then move on to your CAP certification.

Cost: $495 for INFORMS members, $695 for non-members; team pricing for organizations is available on request
Location: In person at designated test centers
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Valid for three years

Cloudera Certified Associate: Data Analyst

The CCA exam demonstrates your foundational knowledge as a developer, data analyst and administrator of Cloudera’s enterprise software. Passing a CCA exam and earning your certification will show employers that you have a handle on the basic skills required to be a data scientist. It’s also a great way to prove your skills if you’re just starting out and lack a strong portfolio or past work experience.

Cost: $295 per exam specialty and per attempt
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Valid for two years

Cloudera Certified Professional: CCP Data Engineer

Once you earn your CCA, you can move on to the CCP exam, which Cloudera touts as one of the most rigorous and “demanding performance-based certifications.” According to the website, those looking to earn their CCP need to bring “in-depth experience developing data engineering solutions” to the table, as well as a “high-level of mastery” of common data science skills. The exam consists of eight to 12 customer problems that you will have to solve hands-on using a Cloudera Enterprise cluster. The exam lasts 120 minutes and you’ll need to earn a 70 percent or higher to pass.

Cost: $600 per attempt — each attempt includes three exams
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Valid for three years

Data Science Council of America (DASCA)

The Data Science Council of America offers a data scientist certification that was designed to address “credentialing requirements of senior, accomplished professionals who specialize in managing and leading Big Data strategies and programs for organizations,” according to DASCA. The certification track includes paths for earning your Senior Data Scientist (SDS) and the more advanced Principal Data Scientist (PDS) credentials. Both exams last 100 minutes and consist of 85 and 100 multiple-choice questions for the SDS and PDS exams, respectively. You’ll need at least six or more years of big data analytics or engineering experience to start on the SDS track and 10 or more years of experience to qualify for the PDS exam.

Cost: $520 per exam
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: 5 years

Dell EMC Data Scientist Associate (EMCDSA)

The EMCDSA certification is an entry-level data science designation that is designed for those new to the industry or who want to make a career switch to work as a data scientist. While the exam is designed for those without a strong background in machine learning, statistics, math or analytics, it’s still a requirement for the more advanced certification. So even if you’re already an experienced data scientist, you’ll still need to pass this exam before you can move on to the Advance Analytics Specialist designation.

Cost: $230 per Proven Professional certification exam; you’ll also need to purchase any books or other course material
Location: Online via Pearson VUE
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Valid for two years

Dell EMC Data Scientist Advance Analytics Specialist (EMCDS)

The EMCDS certification builds on the entry-level associate certification and covers general knowledge of big data analytics across different industries and technologies. It doesn’t specifically focus on one product or industry, so it’s a good option if you aren’t sure where you want to go with your data career or if you just want a more generalized certification for your resume. The exam covers advanced analytical methods, social network analysis, natural language processing, data visualization methods and popular data tools like Hadoop, Pig, Hive and HBase.

Cost: $230 per Proven Professional certification exam; you’ll also need to purchase any books or other course material
Location: Online via Pearson VUE
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Valid for two years

HDP Data Science

The HDP Data Science certification course from Hortonworks covers data science topics like machine learning and natural language processing. It also covers popular concepts and algorithms used in classification, regression, clustering, dimensionality reduction and neural networks. The course will also get you up to speed on the latest tools and frameworks, including Python, NumPy, pandas, SciPy, Sckikit-learn, NLTK, TensorFlow, Jupyter, Spark MLlib, Stanford CoreNLP, TensorFlowOnSpark/Horovod/MLeap and Apache Zeppelin. The course includes a combination of lecture and discussion and the other half consists of hands-on labs, which you’ll complete before taking the exam.

Cost: $250 per attempt
Location: Online
Duration: 4 days
Expiration: 2 years

IBM Certified Data Architect

IBM’s Certified Data Architect certification isn’t for everyone — it’s geared toward seasoned professionals and experts in the field. IBM recommends that you have knowledge of the data layer and associated risk and challenges, cluster management, network requirement, important interfaces, data modeling, latency, scalability, high availability, data replication and synchronization, disaster recovery, data lineage and governance, LDAP security and general big data best practices. You will also need prior experience with software such as BigInsights, BigSQL, Hadoop and Cloudant (NoSQL), among others. You can see the long list of prerequisites on IBM’s website, but it’s safe to say you’ll need a solid background in data science to qualify for this exam.

The certification exam consists of 55 questions and five sections focusing on requirements (16%), use cases (46%), applying technologies (16%), recoverability (11%) — you will have 90 minutes to complete the exam. IBM offers web-based and in-classroom training courses on InfoSphere BigInsights, BigInsights Analytics for Programmers and Big SQL for developers.

Cost: $200
Location: Online
Duration: 90 minutes
Expiration: N/A

Microsoft MCSE: Data Management and Analytics

MCSE certifications cover a wide variety of IT specialties and skills, including data science. For data science certifications, Microsoft offers two courses, one that focuses on business applications, and another that focuses on data management and analytics. However, each course requires prior certification under the MCSE Certification program, so you’ll want to make sure you check the requirements first.

Cost: $165 per exam, per attempt
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Valid for three years

Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate

The Azure Data Scientist Associate certification from Microsoft focuses your ability to utilize machine learning to “train, evaluate and deploy models that solve business problems,” according to Microsoft. Candidates for the exam are tested on machine learning, AI solutions, natural language processing, computer vision and predictive analytics. The exam focuses on defining and preparing the development environment, data modeling, feature engineering and developing models.

Cost: $165
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Credentials do not expire

Microsoft Professional Program in Data Science

The Microsoft Professional Program in Data Science focuses on eight specific data science skills, including T-SQL, Microsoft Excel, PowerBI, Python, R, Azure Machine Learning, HDInsight and Spark. Microsoft claims there are over 1.5 million open jobs looking for these skills. Courses run for three months every quarter and you don’t have to take them in order; it’s self-paced with a recommended commitment of two to four hours per week.

Cost: Must purchase credits through EdX, some materials are free
Location: Online
Duration: 6 weeks
Expiration: Does not expire

SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional

This program covers machine learning, predictive modeling techniques, working with big data sets, finding patterns, optimizing data techniques and time series forecasting. The certification program consists of nine courses and three exams that you’ll have to pass to earn the designation. You’ll need at least six months of programming experience in SAS or another language and it’s also recommended that you have at least six months of experience using mathematics or statistics in a business setting.

Cost: $299 per month subscription
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Credentials do not expire

SAS Certified Big Data Professional

The SAS Big Data certification includes two modules with a total of nine courses. You’ll need to pass two exams to earn the designation. The course covers SAS programming skills, working with data, improving data quality, communication skills, fundamentals of statistics and analytics, data visualization and popular data tools such as Hadoop, Hive, Pig and SAS. To qualify for the exam, you’ll need at least six months of programming experience in SAS or another language.

Cost: $299 per month subscription
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Credentials do not expire

SAS Certified Data Scientist

The SAS Certified Data Scientist certification is a combination of the other two data certifications offered through SAS. It covers programming skills, managing and improving data, transforming, accessing and manipulating data and how to work with popular data visualization tools. Once you earn both the Big Data Professional and Advance Analytics Professional certifications, you can qualify to earn your SAS Certified Data Scientist designation. You’ll need to complete all 18 courses and pass the five exams between the two separate certifications.

Cost: $299 per month subscription
Location: Online
Duration: Self-paced
Expiration: Credentials do not expire

27 MARCH 2019 15:30 PT

During the second and last day of Oracle OpenWorld Asia in Singapore, Amy Hoe and Marson Ma talked about their successful digital journey

What do the radio and Pokémon Go have in common? Both are products that reached 50 million users at some point in their history. The main difference is that, whereas it took half a century for the radio to achieve this goal, Pokémon Go did it in just 19 days.

There’s no doubt that digital innovation facilitates technology progress and consumer reach at a much faster pace. During yesterday’s keynote at Singapore’s Oracle OpenWorld Asia (OOW), CIOs from different industries in Southeast Asia spoke about how the key to business success is innovation speed.

In the second day of OOW, two IT executives from Singaporean insurance company FWD Group spoke about how co-innovation has helped them achieve an unprecedented technological and business success in their industry. FWD Group is today the fastest growing insurance company in the world and a key sponsor of the Special Olympics.

Amy Hoe, Group Chief Technology and Operations Officer (CTOO), and Marson Ma, Head of FWD Technology Company (FWD Tech), participated in a panel with Benjamin Mah, Director, Digital Transformation and Innovation, at Oracle, and moderated by Esmond Tong, VP, Innovation and Cloud Solutions, also at the tech corporation.

As Group CTOO, Hoe is responsible for all aspects of operation services and technology functions across the nine markets where FWD operates, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and, since last weekend, also Malaysia.

In her role she leads the implementation of different IT and operational solutions which are cost-effective, customer-centric and innovative. She also drives digital initiatives and fintech investments which support FWD’s digitisation strategy on customer experience, operation efficiency and business model optimisation.

Ma leads the design of FWD Tech’s operation model by developing company strategy and delivering group strategy IT initiatives including the Regional Claim Platform, the Integrated Sales Management Platform, and the ecosystem for Ready Go!, a lifestyle app. He also supports the FWD Group overall strategy and digital transformation.

Why enterprise innovation projects fail?

Despite the promises that the word innovation carries with it, it’s a double-edged sword: it’s an opportunity and is also a threat. 90% of enterprise innovation projects fail. Why? According to Oracle, because there are many ideas on the table but they lack execution. And if your competitor is faster than you, you are in trouble.

“Today your competitor is always different so you have to keep innovating and avoid stagnation in your business model,” said Ho. “That’s why you have to find a partner outside your industry that can help you executing ideas and concepts fast. My boss says: is not tomorrow, is yesterday.”

In the big enterprise there’s an additional obstacle concerning lack of consensus among different departments and stakeholders, and we all know that without agreement, there’s no investment. Another problem is the length of time that it takes to visualise an outcome, with the sad conclusion that ideas never become a reality. Without resources there’s no capability, and capability is needed to bring co-innovation of ideas for the realisation of projects.

What’s the co-innovation model?

To overcome these barriers, FWD Group is implementing a co-innovation programme which represents a fundamental change in business approach, goals and relationships.

It provides a methodical approach which underpins digital transformation and customer experience design initiatives. The mindset for this concept is continuous innovation.

“We should continue to innovate and leverage the technology and ecosystem to drive different business models so that we can keep up with the changing digital world and meet our customers’ expectations,” said Ma.

FWD Group is creating a fresh customer experience through the use of digital technology. With over 2.6 million customers in the region, FWD Group is not a traditional insurance company.

As Hoe explained in the panel, their mission is to make people change how they think about insurance. “We help people life their lives to the fullest,” she said. In doing this, technology and digital play an essential key in supporting the organisation’s vision, which includes organising marathons and giving back to the community.

One of the platforms they have created using the co-innovation model is Ready Go!, a digital app that creates an ecosystem around lifestyle and sports using artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition and blockchain for health and racing records, as well as for seamless registration. The model proved successful since the idea became a reality in just ten weeks.

“But there are a lot of challenges,” added Ma. “One of them is that we have a lot of creative ideas but we want to ensure where should we start and what’s the value of each of them. Another challenge is that we know there a lot of technologies – AI, blockchain, cloud, internet of things (IoT), legacy platforms – but we were confused about how to best integrate these technologies to maximise our customer experience.”

Working with FWD Group as their business incubator and project lead, Oracle’s Benjamin Mah quickly realised that digital innovation and transformation for FWD is not good to have but a must to have. This applies to every single employee in the company, from office staff to the CEO.

“The discipline of having an outcome is essential,” Mah told the audience. “The second important discipline is the speed in which we work together in a very agile manner.”

“To enable such a rapid growth – we are the fastest growing insurance company in the world – technology and data play a very important role in supporting our organic as well as inorganic growth,” the CTOO said.

“Innovation is a journey. You don’t have to do everything yourself, with so much technology around. Partner and find a partner outside your industry who share the same passion as you.”

Online payments giant PayPal has made its first-ever investment in a blockchain technology company.

Announced today, PayPal has joined the extension of a Series A funding round in Cambridge Blockchain, a startup that helps financial institutions and other companies manage sensitive data using shared ledgers.

Neither PayPal nor Cambridge Blockchain disclosed the investment amount, but recent filings with the SEC indicate that Cambridge Blockchain has raised a total of $3.5 million in new equity from several investors over the past nine months. That follows the $7 million close of its Series A in May of 2018, and brings the total capital raised to $10.5 million.

That first $7 million consisted of $4 million of new capital plus $3 million of converted notes, and came from several investors, including HCM Capital, the VC arm of Foxconn, which manufactures the iPhone for Apple, as well as Digital Currency Group.

The subsequent $3.5 million came from PayPal as well as Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment firm started by the founder of eBay (PayPal’s former parent); Flourish, Omidyar’s financial inclusion investment spinoff; and Future/Perfect Ventures.

In this way, PayPal’s investment was modest but symbolically important.

Regarding its part in the funding, a PayPal spokesperson told CoinDesk via email:

“We made an investment in Cambridge Blockchain because it is applying blockchain for digital identity in a way that we believe could benefit financial services companies including PayPal. Our investment will allow us to explore potential collaborations to leverage blockchain technology.”

She confirmed that Cambridge is PayPal’s first investment in a blockchain company.

A match made in Luxembourg

Cambridge Blockchain CEO Matthew Commons said PayPal has been involved one way or another with his Massachussets-based identity startup for the past year or so. For instance, Cambridge was one of a small cohort of startups in the “Fintech Europe 2018” accelerator program, which was sponsored by PayPal.

Serendipitously, Cambridge Blockchain has been working with LuxTrust, which is backed by the government of Luxembourg and financial institutions in the region. PayPal had moved its European headquarters to Luxembourg and was granted a banking license there. So, there was a natural affinity there, Commons told CoinDesk, adding:

“We can’t talk specifically about anything commercially that we are doing because it’s all sort of exploratory now, but I think the fact that we are deployed in Luxembourg and they [PayPal] have a major presence there also helped to get things moving.”

Indeed, toward the end of 2018, Cambridge started working directly with PayPal’s corporate venture group out of San Jose which ultimately led to the investment, said Commons.

Stepping back, Massachusetts-based Cambridge Blockchain stores, shares and validates data using blockchains, and in this capacity, it can run on top of any flavor of distributed ledger, public or private. The startup now has 15 employees spread across offices in the U.S., Paris and a recently established base in Beijing.

Cambridge Blockchain’s bread and butter is around the onboarding of personal data and know-your-customer (KYC) vetting necessary to open accounts with banks and other financial services providers, although it has also been working with commercially sensitive supply chain data with Foxconn. The startup is part of the Decentralized Identity Foundation which counts the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, R3, IBM Blockchain, and Hyperledger among its members.

The firm has gained hands-on experience with tough European strictures such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and PSD2, the second European payments directive. By allowing compliant but efficient sharing of personal data, Cambridge claims it can help reduce the massive duplication of KYC-ing that goes on today.

This is an obvious use case for PayPal which has hundreds of millions of accounts around the world as well as other platforms like Venmo, Hyperwallet and Swift Financial.

Commons said that PayPal had certainly kicked the tires of many blockchain-based identity vendors out there and he was “honored” to have been selected for the investment and to go on to explore personal data use cases with the payments firm, concluding:

“If you are looking to help get some traction for a distributed identity system, it’s great to have a partner like that.”

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About Intuit

Intuit is a leading provider of financial management software for consumers, small businesses, and accounting professionals. When the lease for the on-premises environment running its TurboTax AnswerXchange application was due, the enterprise decided to move the application to Amazon Web Services (AWS). As a result, Intuit was able to reduce costs by a factor of six because it no longer had to maintain idle servers for an application that was only active during tax season. After this first success, Intuit subsequently moved 33 applications, 26 services and eight enabling tools to the AWS Cloud. Over the coming years, Intuit will move the rest of its applications to AWS to speed development, innovate faster, and better solve customers’ needs.

Intuit Moves to the AWS Cloud (6:15)

About General Electric

General Electric (GE) is migrating more than 9,000 workloads, including 300 disparate ERP systems, to AWS while reducing its datacenter footprint from 34 to four over the next three years. The company is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive, and predictive. Jim Fowler, General Electric’s chief information officer, noting that GE has been around for 140 years, says, "AWS is our trusted partner that is going to run our company for the next 140 years.” As an example, the GE Oil & Gas division has started this journey by migrating more than half of its core applications to AWS while achieving a 52 percent reduction in its total cost of ownership.

AWS re:Invent 2015 Keynote | Jim Fowler, CIO, GE (8:21)

About TCL Communication

TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd. (TCL Communication) manufactures and markets TCL and Alcatel One Touch mobile phones and Internet devices. TCL Communication is headquartered in Guangdong, China, and is part of the multinational TCL Corporation. TCL Communication’s products are available in over 100 countries worldwide.

The Challenge

In 2008, TCL Communication developed a new service, dubbed Firmware over the Air (FOTA), which allows users to upgrade the firmware in their mobile phone handsets using the Internet. The company has worldwide operations and needed a service provider that would be able to help TCL Communication deliver the FOTA service in several regions. “Updating firmware can require a user to download 200 megabytes of data in 15 minutes,” says Raffi Semerciyan, IS/IT Department Manager, TCL Communication. “To achieve the performance levels that we require, we need good coverage around the world.” The hosting service had to meet TCL Communication’s performance and security requirements and provide easy access to the infrastructure, all without required minimum usage commitments. Additionally, the company wanted to deliver FOTA as cost-effectively as possible.

Why Amazon Web Services

Initially, TCL Communication investigated leasing equipment with a traditional service provider. However, the company discovered that many data center providers didn’t bundle Internet connectivity with hosting services. This meant that TCL Communication would have to manage both the Internet service provider and the data center hosting company, adding both complexity and cost to the arrangement.

TCL Communication then considered cloud computing. The IT team at TCL Communication evaluated cloud service providers based on compute, storage and networking capacity. “We chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) because of the functionality and flexibility of AWS products,” says Semerciyan.

TCL Communication uses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) to run application servers for FOTA and for the MySQL database. The company’s IT team uses Elastic Load Balancing to distribute traffic across approximately 20 Amazon EC2 instances and help ensure that there is no single point of failure. Semerciyan says, “Elastic Load Balancing helps us ensure that the FOTA service keeps running.”

The Benefits

By using AWS, TCL Communication has been able to achieve near 100 percent availability for FOTA. “The availability increases user confidence in our ability to provide services,” says Semerciyan. The availability of AWS Regions around the world helps TCL Communication deliver FOTA from locations close to the service’s users.

“We calculated that using AWS to deliver FOTA costs us about 10 times less than using a traditional datacenter with physical equipment,” says Semerciyan. Using AWS also allows TCL Communication’s IT team to set up a new service in minutes. Before using AWS, it often took several weeks to get a contract signed and procure the hardware for a new service.

TCL Communication is so satisfied using AWS for its FOTA service that the company began to use AWS to host its customer-facing website. The website runs on roughly 10 Amazon EC2 instances, and uses Amazon Route 53 and Elastic Load Balancing to distribute traffic across Amazon EC2 instances. “Using AWS has allowed us to enhance the security and performance of the website,” comments Semerciyan. “We initially used a traditional web server located in Hong Kong. The website had a series of distributed denial of service attacks that caused our daily page views to fall from 30,000 per day to about 1,000. After migrating to AWS, the website can now support more than 1 million page views per day without difficulty.”

TCL Communication has also engaged AWS Support. “We believe the cost is worthwhile as we expand our use of Amazon Web Services,” says Semerciyan. The company is exploring using Amazon Route 53 and Amazon CloudFront for the FOTA service to improve download speeds for its global users.

Expedia is all in on AWS, with plans to migrate 80 percent of its mission-critical apps from its on-premises data centers to the cloud in the next two to three years. By using AWS, Expedia has become more resilient. Expedia’s developers have been able to innovate faster while saving the company millions of dollars. Expedia provides travel-booking services across its flagship site Expedia.com and about 200 other travel-booking sites around the world.

AWS re:Invent 2017 – Mark Okerstrom Shares How Expedia Has Become More Agile by Going All In on AWS