Part of the Cybersecurity Skills Guide — This article is one deep-dive in our complete skills and certifications series.

Cloud Security Skills: AWS, Azure, GCP

By HADESS Team | February 28, 2026 | Updated: February 28, 2026 | 12 min read

Table of Contents

• Why Cloud Security Skills Are in Demand
• The Shared Responsibility Model
• AWS Security Skills and Certifications
• Azure Security Skills and Certifications
• GCP Security Skills and Certifications
• Multi-Cloud Security Skills
• Cloud Security Certifications Compared
• Container and Kubernetes Security
• Infrastructure as Code Security
• Which Cloud Provider to Learn First
• Building Cloud Security Experience
• Frequently Asked Questions

Why Cloud Security Skills Are in Demand

Cloud security certifications and skills top the list of what hiring managers search for in 2026. The reason is straightforward: organizations have moved to the cloud faster than security teams have developed the expertise to protect cloud workloads. This gap between cloud adoption and cloud security maturity creates persistent demand for practitioners who understand both.

According to ISC2’s Workforce Study, cloud security is the most sought-after skill area within cybersecurity. Job postings mentioning cloud security have grown year over year since 2020, and the salary premium for cloud security specialists over general security practitioners ranges from 15-25%.

The shift is not temporary. Organizations are not moving back to on-premises infrastructure. The demand for cloud security skills will continue growing as cloud environments become more complex — multi-cloud architectures, serverless computing, edge computing, and AI workloads all introduce security considerations that require specialized knowledge.

For a complete view of how cloud security fits alongside other in-demand skills, see our cybersecurity skills guide and the top cybersecurity skills employers want.

The Shared Responsibility Model

Before diving into provider-specific skills, you must understand the shared responsibility model. Every cloud provider operates under this model, and misunderstanding it is the most common source of cloud security failures.

The model in brief: The cloud provider secures the infrastructure (physical data centers, hypervisors, network fabric). The customer secures everything they deploy on that infrastructure (data, access controls, configurations, applications).

How responsibility shifts by service model:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): The customer is responsible for the operating system, network configuration, firewall rules, data encryption, access controls, and application security. The provider handles the physical infrastructure and virtualization layer. Example: EC2 instances, Azure VMs, Compute Engine.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): The provider manages the operating system and runtime environment. The customer is responsible for the application, data, and access controls. Example: AWS Lambda, Azure App Service, Cloud Functions.

Software as a Service (SaaS): The provider manages nearly everything. The customer is responsible for data, user access, and configuration. Example: Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Google Workspace.

Common shared responsibility mistakes:

• Assuming the cloud provider handles data encryption (it is the customer’s responsibility)
• Not configuring network security groups because “the cloud is secure”
• Failing to enable logging and monitoring on cloud resources
• Leaving storage buckets publicly accessible
• Not rotating access keys and credentials

Understanding where provider responsibility ends and customer responsibility begins is the foundation of all cloud security work.

AWS Security Skills and Certifications

AWS holds the largest cloud market share, making it the most frequently requested cloud platform in security job postings.

Core AWS security skills:

IAM (Identity and Access Management): The most important AWS security service. Master IAM policies, roles, users, groups, and service-linked roles. Understand the policy evaluation logic, permission boundaries, and the principle of least privilege applied to AWS resources.

VPC security: Security groups, network ACLs, VPC flow logs, VPC endpoints, and PrivateLink. Know how to design a multi-tier VPC architecture with appropriate segmentation.

CloudTrail and CloudWatch: CloudTrail logs API activity across your AWS account. CloudWatch provides monitoring, alerting, and log management. Together they provide the visibility needed for security monitoring and incident investigation.

GuardDuty: AWS’s managed threat detection service. Analyzes CloudTrail, VPC flow logs, and DNS logs to identify suspicious activity. Understanding GuardDuty findings and response procedures is expected for security roles.

Security Hub: Aggregates security findings from GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, and third-party tools into a centralized dashboard. Maps findings to compliance frameworks.

KMS and encryption: Key Management Service for encryption key lifecycle management. Understand envelope encryption, key policies, and encryption at rest across S3, EBS, RDS, and other services.

Config and compliance: AWS Config tracks resource configurations and evaluates them against desired settings. Use Config rules to detect non-compliant resources automatically.

AWS security certifications:

AWS Certified Security – Specialty: The primary cloud security certification for AWS. Covers incident response, logging and monitoring, infrastructure security, identity and access management, and data protection. Requires passing one exam ($300). Recommended experience: five years of IT security plus two years of hands-on AWS security work.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate: Not security-specific, but covers VPC architecture, IAM, and security best practices. A good stepping stone before the Security Specialty.

Azure Security Skills and Certifications

Azure is the dominant cloud platform in enterprise and government environments, particularly organizations already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Core Azure security skills:

Entra ID (formerly Azure AD): Microsoft’s cloud identity service. Conditional access policies, MFA enforcement, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), and identity protection. Entra ID is the identity backbone for both Azure and Microsoft 365 security.

Network security: Network Security Groups (NSGs), Azure Firewall, Application Gateway with WAF, Azure Front Door, DDoS Protection, and Private Link. Understand how to design hub-and-spoke network architectures.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) that assesses Azure, AWS, and GCP resources against security benchmarks. Provides recommendations and secure score metrics.

Sentinel: Microsoft’s cloud-native SIEM (covered in our SIEM tools guide). Deep integration with Microsoft products makes it the natural SIEM choice for Microsoft-centric environments.

Key Vault: Manages encryption keys, certificates, and secrets. Integration with other Azure services enables transparent encryption and certificate management.

Azure Policy and Blueprints: Policy-as-code enforcement for compliance. Blueprints package policies, role assignments, and resource templates for repeatable, compliant deployments.

Azure security certifications:

AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies: Covers identity and access, platform protection, security operations, and data and application security in Azure. The primary Azure security certification.

SC-100: Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert: Advanced certification covering zero trust architecture, security operations design, and security strategy. Requires AZ-500 or equivalent as a prerequisite.

SC-200: Microsoft Security Operations Analyst: Focuses on threat management using Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Endpoint, and Defender for Cloud. Good for SOC analyst roles in Microsoft environments.

GCP Security Skills and Certifications

Google Cloud Platform has a smaller market share than AWS or Azure but is growing, particularly among data-intensive and AI/ML-focused organizations.

Core GCP security skills:

Cloud IAM: Resource hierarchy (organization, folders, projects), IAM roles (basic, predefined, custom), service accounts, and workforce identity federation. GCP’s IAM model differs from AWS and Azure — understanding the resource hierarchy is key.

VPC Security: Firewall rules, VPC Service Controls (perimeter-based security for GCP services), Private Google Access, and Cloud Armor (DDoS protection and WAF).

Security Command Center: GCP’s security management platform. Provides asset discovery, vulnerability detection, threat detection, and compliance monitoring.

Chronicle: Google’s security operations platform for threat detection and investigation. Uses Google’s infrastructure for large-scale data analysis.

Cloud KMS: Key management for encryption across GCP services. Supports customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK) and customer-supplied encryption keys (CSEK).

Organization Policy Service: Centralized constraint management across GCP resources. Restricts resource configurations at the organization level.

GCP security certifications:

Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer: Covers configuring access, network security, data protection, security operations, and compliance in GCP. The primary GCP security certification.

Multi-Cloud Security Skills

Most enterprise environments run workloads across multiple cloud providers. Multi-cloud security requires provider-specific knowledge plus cross-cutting skills.

Cross-cloud skills to develop:

Identity federation: Federating a single identity provider across AWS, Azure, and GCP so that users authenticate once and access resources in any cloud. Understand SAML, OIDC, and cross-cloud trust relationships.

Consistent policy enforcement: Using cloud-agnostic tools (Open Policy Agent, HashiCorp Sentinel) to apply consistent security policies across providers. Reduces the risk of configuration drift between environments.

Centralized logging and monitoring: Aggregating security logs from multiple clouds into a single SIEM for unified detection and investigation. Understand the log formats and collection mechanisms for each provider.

Infrastructure as Code: Terraform is the primary multi-cloud IaC tool. Security teams need to review and secure Terraform configurations that deploy resources across providers.

CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management): Tools like Wiz, Orca, Prisma Cloud, and Lacework assess security posture across multiple cloud providers from a single platform.

Cloud Security Certifications Compared

ISC2 Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP): Vendor-neutral cloud security certification. Covers cloud architecture, design, operations, and compliance. Requires five years of IT experience with three years in security and one year in cloud. Good for senior professionals and those working across multiple cloud providers. More information on how CCSP relates to other ISC2 certifications is in our CISSP guide.

Cloud Security Alliance CCSK: Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge. Entry-level, vendor-neutral cloud security credential. A good starting point before pursuing provider-specific certifications.

Container and Kubernetes Security

Containers and Kubernetes have become standard deployment platforms, creating a specialized security domain.

Container security fundamentals:

• Image scanning for vulnerabilities (Trivy, Snyk Container, Prisma Cloud)
• Base image selection and hardening
• Runtime security monitoring (Falco, Sysdig)
• Registry security (access controls, image signing)
• Container network policies
• Secrets management for containers

Kubernetes security:

• RBAC configuration for cluster access control
• Pod Security Standards (replacement for Pod Security Policies)
• Network policies for pod-to-pod communication control
• Admission controllers for policy enforcement (OPA Gatekeeper, Kyverno)
• Kubernetes audit logging
• Service mesh security (Istio, Linkerd) for mutual TLS and authorization

Certifications: The Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) validates Kubernetes security skills. It requires the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) as a prerequisite.

Infrastructure as Code Security

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) defines cloud resources in configuration files instead of manual console operations. Securing these configurations prevents misconfigurations before resources are deployed.

Key IaC security skills:

Terraform security: Review Terraform configurations for security issues — public S3 buckets, overly permissive security groups, unencrypted databases, missing logging. Tools like tfsec, Checkov, and Terrascan automate this review.

CloudFormation / ARM Templates / Deployment Manager: Provider-specific IaC formats. Security reviews should be embedded in CI/CD pipelines to catch issues before deployment.

Policy as Code: Define security policies in code using Open Policy Agent (Rego language), HashiCorp Sentinel, or cloud-native policy services. Policies are version-controlled, testable, and auditable — unlike manual security configurations.

CI/CD pipeline security: Integrate security scanning into the deployment pipeline. Run IaC scans, container image scans, and SAST/DAST checks before deployment. Failed security checks should block deployment to production.

GitOps security: When infrastructure is managed through Git repositories, repository access controls become security controls. Protect IaC repositories with branch protection, code review requirements, and commit signing.

Which Cloud Provider to Learn First

Choose AWS if:

• You are targeting the broadest job market
• You want the most widely recognized cloud security certification
• Your target employers have not standardized on a specific cloud
• You are interested in startups and technology companies

Choose Azure if:

• Your target employers are enterprise or government organizations
• The organizations use Microsoft 365 and Active Directory
• You want to work in environments with strong Microsoft integration
• You are interested in identity-centric security (Entra ID)

Choose GCP if:

• Your target employers are data-driven or AI/ML-focused organizations
• You want a less crowded certification market (fewer GCP-certified professionals)
• You are interested in Google’s security tooling (Chronicle, BeyondCorp)

The practical approach: Start with one provider. Get hands-on through the free tier. Earn the provider-specific security certification. Then expand to a second provider. The concepts transfer — IAM, encryption, network security, and monitoring work similarly across all three providers. Provider-specific syntax and service names are what change.

Building Cloud Security Experience

Free tier practice: All three major providers offer free tiers that allow meaningful security practice.

AWS Free Tier exercises:
1. Configure IAM policies using the principle of least privilege
2. Set up CloudTrail logging and create CloudWatch alarms for root account usage
3. Deploy a VPC with public and private subnets, security groups, and NACLs
4. Enable S3 bucket encryption and public access blocking
5. Deploy GuardDuty and investigate sample findings

Azure Free Tier exercises:
1. Configure Entra ID conditional access policies
2. Deploy a virtual network with NSGs and service endpoints
3. Enable Microsoft Defender for Cloud and review secure score
4. Set up a Sentinel workspace with free data connectors
5. Implement Key Vault for secrets management

GCP Free Tier exercises:
1. Configure Organization IAM with custom roles
2. Set up VPC firewall rules and VPC Service Controls
3. Enable Security Command Center and review findings
4. Configure audit logging and export to Cloud Storage
5. Implement Cloud KMS for encryption key management

Beyond free tiers:

• Contribute to open-source cloud security tools (Prowler, ScoutSuite, CloudSploit)
• Participate in cloud security CTFs and challenges
• Write about cloud security topics — document your lab work, analyze cloud security incidents, or review new cloud security features
• Join cloud security communities (fwd:cloudsec, Cloud Security Alliance chapters)

Assess your current cloud security skills with our Skills Assessment to identify which provider and which skills to prioritize.

Related Guides in This Series

• Zero Trust Security: What It Is and Why It Matters
• Network Security Fundamentals: Complete Guide
• CISSP Certification: Complete Requirements Guide

Take the Next Step

Assess your cloud skills — Use our Skills Assessment to benchmark your cloud security abilities across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Plan your certification path — Visit the Certificate Roadmap to map out cloud security certifications that match your career goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I get AWS or Azure certification first?

Check job postings for your target roles and employers. If more postings mention AWS, start with AWS. If your target employers are Microsoft shops, start with Azure. If you are unsure, AWS has the broadest market applicability and the most recognized security certification (AWS Security Specialty). Either way, the concepts transfer across providers — learning one makes the second much easier.

How much cloud experience do I need for a cloud security role?

Entry-level cloud security roles typically expect one to two years of general cloud experience plus security knowledge. You can build this through a combination of certifications, home lab practice, and contributions to cloud security projects. Mid-level cloud security roles expect three to five years, usually including production cloud security responsibilities. Senior roles expect five-plus years with architecture-level decision-making experience.

Is the CCSP worth it without cloud experience?

The CCSP provides a strong theoretical foundation in cloud security but requires five years of IT experience (with one year in cloud) for full certification. If you lack the experience, ISC2 offers an Associate of (ISC2) designation while you accumulate the required years. The CCSK from the Cloud Security Alliance has no experience requirement and serves as a better starting point if you are early in your cloud security career.

— HADESS Team consists of cybersecurity practitioners, hiring managers, and career strategists who have collectively spent 50+ years in the field.