If we had to choose one cloud certification in 2017 for beginners to seasoned pros, these would be our picks.

What’s hotter than putting cloud skills on your resume? How about adding a certification or two to validate that you really have cloud chops. The cloud is truly ubiquitous and it touches almost every facet of our experience with technology. And therefore it’s safe to say, that the jobs serving this function won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

With so many certifications, we went out on a limb to choose only one cloud certification for each level in a person’s professional career. Once again, we’re not saying these are the only ones you should go after but it’s a pretty good place to start. So here’s our 3 picks for the best cloud certifications in 2017.

For newbies: CompTIA Cloud Essentials

A great entry-level certification for someone looking to jumpstart a career in the cloud is CompTia Cloud Essentials. After you plow through this course, you should have a solid understanding of how the cloud works from a technical and business perspective. Keep in mind that this certification is an introduction so you won’t necessarily know how to deploy anything but you’ll sound like the resident cloud expert among your non-technical colleagues.

Cost: $209
Questions: 50 questions
Type: Multiple choice
Length: 60 minutes
Vendor: CompTIA Cloud Essentials

For mid-level pros: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

You may be asking yourself why we chose a vendor specific cert for our next pick? Risky you say? We think not. Let’s face it, Amazon AWS is not going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, Cisco recently shuttered its cloud business because it couldn’t compete. With such a large head start over Microsoft Azure and Google, we know the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification has employer pull and salary security.

Cost: $150
Questions: 50 questions
Type: Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
Length: 80 minutes
Vendor: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

For experts: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional

We’re assuming at this point you’ve already taken our advice and passed the younger sibling of this next cert, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional. As we stated above, AWS is just leaving everyone in the dust and so having this cert and becoming an AWS expert means you’ll be at the top of food chain.

This test, however, is not for the fainthearted. You’ll need to know everything from costing, network design, security, and 5 other disciplines. You can find the breakdown here. For those who pass, you’ll join a small group of less than 20,000 who have passed this exam worldwide. This means that employers will find your candidacy more attractive which in turn means you can have your pick of the litter.

Cost: $300
Questions: 80 questions
Type: Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
Length: 170 minutes
Vendor: AWS Certified Solutions Professional – Associate

Happy studying!