- Deirra Footman
#SecureTheBag - Free & Discounted Certifications & Training
Updated: May 2, 2020

As most of us enter our second to third month under stay home order, you may be looking for something to keep you occupied during this time. Many IT vendors are offering free certifications, trainings, and virtual conferences as they switch to online proctoring. Here are a list of opportunities you should check out:
Oracle
Cost: Free until May 15th (Training Material Free)
Oracle is offering the following certifications and training for the following exams:
Mircosoft Azure Fundamentals
Cost: Free Exam Voucher if you attend a Virtual Training Session (Training Material Free)
Register for a free Virtual Training session here. Be sure that you check with you employer if you're a government employee to be sure your participation is allowed, and in accordance with, applicable policies and laws. Additional training material is also free here.
Palo Alto Certifications
Cost: 50% Off Exams with codes PANWOP50 & PANW50WEB (Expires: June 30th) (Training Material Free)
You can combine these discount codes to get 1 exam free.
To celebrate their transition to Online Proctored exams, Palo Alto is offering a 50% discount on all exams. Enter the Promo Code on the Pearson Vue site at checkout. Palo Alto's study material is also free from their learning center.
Juniper Networks
Cost: Free Exam Voucher when you attend the Virtual Training Session (Training Material Free)
All (that's right, all) of the associate level exams are free.
VMWare Virtual IT Academy
Cost: Free
If you're looking to expand your VMWare Knowledge here are a few free courses you can check out:
Six Sigma & Lean
Cost: Free for White Belt, %50 off for other Belts (Training Material Free)
If you're interested in project management, the Six Sigma Certification exams are 50% off depending on the belt. The White Belt is free. All training material is available for free as PDFs on the site.
Salesforce Fundamentals
Cost: %50 off any $200 Exam using code SFAMERCERTDAYS0420200.
Service now is offering an exam voucher that's good for %50 off of various exams. Training is available for free on Trailhead.
Service Now
Cost: Free Exam Voucher when you complete the self-paced training by June 30th
To celebrate the launch of the Certified System Administrator (CSA) exam and Learning Path.
Please note that in order to take this exam online, you'll need an external webcam.
Conferences
Here's a list of a few Free Virtual Conferences you can check out:
IBM Think
When: May 5th - 6th
The conference will include educational opportunities for leadership, DevOps, Cloud, blockchain, infrastructure, security, mobile, and data and AI.
Microsoft Business Applications Summit
When: May 6th - 7th
This Conference will include various guest speakers and sessions on Cloud and AI
Juniper Virtual Summit
When: May 14th
This summit will feature keynotes related to AI and Networking. You also have the option of attending an AI Bootcamp.
Microsoft Build
When: May 19th - 21st
Microsoft's Annual Developers conference.
Cisco Live
When: June 2nd - 3rd
Cisco's Annual Event. This year's event will feature interactive sessions with the presenters.
WIT Connect
When: June 8th - 12th
The conference is aimed at Women in Tech and will feature various women leaders in the tech space from companies like Mircosoft, Google, and Amazon.
DevSecCon 24
When: June 15th
This 24-hour conference will feature panel discussions on the world of DevSecOps
International Conference of Machine Learning
When: July 12–18, 2020
Just as the title suggests, this conference is all about the developments in Machine Learning.
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UPDATE May 1, 2020 at 5:45Pm: This post has been updated to include the VMWare Virtual IT Academy recommend by @AJucartist on Twitter.