Honest 'A Cloud Guru' Review

Posted by SensitiveFirefly@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 24 comments

TLDR: Not worth it. Watch Udemy or YouTube courses and read documentation instead. I purchased an ACG subscription a few weeks ago (despite reading poor reviews online) as I have a few exams booked in over the next few months. The primary feature that drew me to the platform was the 'Cloud Sandbox' which allows exploratory access to Azure, AWS and GCP. However, I quickly discovered severe drawbacks with the Azure offering: \- I deployed a dev/test AKS cluster with a pool of 2-5 nodes. Immediately after deployment my sandbox was terminated for suspected abuse with the termination reason stated as "**You had too many managed clusters**". I had **one**. \- I attempted to deploy a Windows Server 2025 VM, only to find that image procurement from Azure Marketplace is blocked: `Offer with PublisherId: 'cloud-infrastructure-services', OfferId: 'windows-core-2025' cannot be purchased due to validation errors. For more information see details. Correlation Id: 'b683da30-0bbe-47c0-834a-d1462ee621c0' Cannot complete purchase as your enrollment for this subscription doesn't allow purchase of marketplace products.` \- The [AZ-400 Azure DevOps Engineer Expert](https://learn.acloud.guru/course/az400-azure-devops-engineer-expert) course is missing labs, despite being recorded in 2021. Specifically: Lab: Use deployment groups in Azure DevOps to Deploy a .NET App and Lab: Integrate GitHub with Azure DevOps Pipelines. I raised a ticket with Pluralsight support and the response was: *"I can see* [*Use deployment groups in Azure DevOps to Deploy a .NET App*](https://app.pluralsight.com/hands-on/labs/c77d0fb0-ccff-41b0-97e2-d62f9a797132) *lab is currently in progress and will be published soon. However, not able to locate Integrate GitHub with Azure DevOps Pipelines lab. I have submitted this course to our Content Production team for review and it has been added to their queue. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a timeline for resolution"* \- You are not permitted to create resource groups. \- You cannot register resource providers on subscriptions. I have raised tickets for all the issues I have outlined but support is slow to respond. The monthly subscription price for the Personal Plus plan retails at £39, which is egregious considering the platforms limitations.

24 Comments

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bluescreenfog@reddit

We get it through work. It's meh at best. A lot of the course authors don't seem to actually know their stuff in any real depth. This became clear to be in the AZ-104 course. The sandbox is nice but it's incredibly restrictive.

MoonDogEar@reddit

I can only comment on my own experiences. I can from Linux Academy all the way through to the pluralsight merger. It used to be very good, got taken over, was still good, then the exams refreshed, then it became bad. I had numerous occasions going through Azure learning modules and comparing that to the study framework that relevant sections were missing. Same with your GitHub and ADOP. Various modules out of date and no longer accessible on public Azure. In some cases had completely changed (Classic VMs for example). Some of the video learning materials were quickly out of date too, I found the CompTIA materials to be very iffy compared to the exam requirements too. Eventually I used a mix and match of different materials to get me through the exams. [https://www.amazon.co.uk/CompTIA-Certification-Guide-220-1001-220-1002/dp/1260454037](https://www.amazon.co.uk/CompTIA-Certification-Guide-220-1001-220-1002/dp/1260454037) Should out to Mike Meyers and Professor Messer [https://www.professormesser.com/](https://www.professormesser.com/) . I found both their study guides to be a lot better and a lot more relevant. I also noticed the offline add-in study material was either out of date or missing on ACG. Not to mention the billing issues I've had with them after they got purchased. Somehow billing failed with the merger with Pluralsight, I was still getting access despite billing failing and then got hit with a massive bill. I cancelled after that experience.

throwaway0000012132@reddit

Every offer just went downhill after 2020. Some good authors created their own platform, but most of the cloud courses just went deprecated or not even be revised at all. This is very unfortunate, because udemy and ACG (also pluralsight) were good back in 2019; now it's a very big hit or miss. More misses, I guess. Good training is necessary but after the crazy of the free training during COVID, the whole market just went numb.

_snaccident_@reddit

Any other platform suggestions?

6Bee@reddit

I recommend trying [engineer.kodekloud.com](http://engineer.kodekloud.com) , and to check out any discussion about katacoda alternatives. Here's a good one [https://github.com/kubernetes/website/discussions/38878](https://github.com/kubernetes/website/discussions/38878)

Solid_reddit@reddit

Hate when I don't find that pricing button...

Keep an eye out for promo deals, they have a few throughout the year!

Thanks!

Gotchu, community is key 💪🏾

Keystroke13@reddit

Easily [Adrian Cantrill](https://learn.cantrill.io/) and [James Lee](https://learn.cloudlee.io/p/home).

Cool, thanks!

mixmatch314@reddit

Most Udemy content is also pretty low quality IMHO.

lart2150@reddit

When I got my first aws cert I bought the a cloud guru course via udemy 🙃.

I didn't realize that was possible. Are they still available?

I don't think they have posted any recent videos. the course I bought was like 5 years ago.

awkwardnetadmin@reddit

There are a few decent trainers with content there, but there is a lot of poor quality content too. It is all over the map.

SensitiveFirefly@reddit (OP)

It varies, but I would rather spend £10 on a course with the posibility of a refund.

Ellippsis@reddit

Or get access to Udemy for free through your local library.

Right, but that doesn't really leave any good options for high quality content that is worth a higher price tag, like we had with linuxacademy and the old ACG...

Snowdeo720@reddit

It depends on the person that created the course. I’ve taken a couple of disappointments. I’ve also passed numerous certifications with some specific people’s courses.

panzerbjrn@reddit

Yeah, they used to be great back in the day, but the continuing enshittification of everything ruined them. Pluralsight was always low quality and Udemy is incredibly hit & miss. Mostly miss if I'm honest...

Fatel28@reddit

Acg was great to me when I got my AWS solutions architect associate. But a year later when I was ready to start the professional, it was extremely clear their SAP course was nowhere near what it should be. Most of it was recorded in 2019, then random newer videos were shoehorned in. It wasn't cohesive at all. I cancelled and went with cloud academy, and it sucked too but it was just enough to pass when paired with the TD practice exams.

I think the coined term is 'enshittification'. Pluralsight bought ACG and QA bought Cloud Academy. Shortly after quality suffered.

I used it when it was Linux academy and it was amazing for my cloud practitioner. Then acg bought it, and a lot of the material was just ported over from Linux academy so it was still great. But the new stuff they started putting out.. no bueno.

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24 Comments