Working with financial institutions in the cloud comes with unique challenges, compliance, risk, and strict security requirements
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The IBM Cloud for Financial Services v2 Specialty certification is designed to validate your ability to navigate those challenges. I recently completed it, and in this blog, I’ll give an overview of the certification and walk through how I prepared.
1. Certification Overview
The IBM Cloud for Financial Services Specialty is designed for professionals who want to support the creation or migration of regulated workloads to IBM Cloud in the financial services domain.
This certification covers:
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Understanding the IBM Cloud for Financial Services framework
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Identifying compliance and risk factors
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Supporting the migration of customer workloads to IBM Cloud
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Designing technical solutions using modern cloud-native architectures
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Implementing strategies aligned with IBM’s compliance controls framework
2. Exam Details
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Detail
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Value
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Number of Questions
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45
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Passing Score
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29
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Time Allowed
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75 minutes
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You’ll be tested across six key domains:
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Section
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Weight
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An Introduction to IBM Cloud for Financial Services
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15%
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Components, Risk, and Compliance
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20%
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Customer Workload Environment
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18%
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Technical Solution Design
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20%
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Implementation Considerations
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16%
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Compliance, SLOs, and SLAs
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11%
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Source: IBM Cloud for Financial Services Specialty Certification Overview
3. Recommended Skills
So, what do you need to understand and be skilled at before taking the exam?
You’ll need a strong grasp of compliance-focused cloud architecture and migration strategy, especially for financial workloads.
Knowledge of:
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IBM Cloud for Financial Services framework and its components
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Key risks and compliance controls in regulated environments
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Dependencies and challenges in migrating financial workloads
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Modern cloud-native architecture patterns
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Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Service Level Objectives (SLOs)
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IBM’s controls framework for financial services
Ability to:
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Support regulated workload migrations
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Evaluate customer environments and identify migration dependencies
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Design secure and compliant cloud solutions
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Align implementations with IBM’s compliance and risk frameworks
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Communicate benefits and risks to stakeholders in financial institutions
Source: IBM Cloud for Financial Services Specialty Certification Overview
4. Official Learning Path
IBM offers an official set of short, targeted courses to prepare for this certification. Each asset is designed for quick, focused learning.
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Course
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Duration
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An Introduction to IBM Cloud for Financial Services
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1 hour
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Components, Risk, and Compliance
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1 hour
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Customer Workload Environment
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1 hour
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Technical Solution Design
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0.5 hours
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Implementation Considerations
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1 hour
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Compliance, SLOs, and SLAs
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0.5 hours
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Essentials Badge
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0.5 hours
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Total Time to Complete: ~5.5 hours
Source: IBM Cloud for Financial Services Specialty Learning Path
5. One Week Study Plan
Day 1: Foundation
🔹 An Introduction to IBM Cloud for Financial Services
Day 2: Risk & Compliance
🔹 Review Day 1 content
🔹 Components, Risk, and Compliance
Day 3: Customer Workload
🔹 Review Day 1 and 2 content
🔹 Customer Workload Environment
Day 4: Solution Design
🔹 Review Day 1–3 content
🔹 Technical Solution Design
🔹 Review IBM Cloud architecture documentation
🔹 Earn the Essentials Badge by passing the quiz
Day 5: Implementation
🔹 Review Day 1–4 content
🔹 Implementation Considerations
Day 6: Compliance Focus
🔹 Review Day 1–5 content
🔹 Compliance, SLOs, and SLAs
🔹 Review IBM documentation on SLAs and compliance controls
Day 7: Review & Final Prep
🔹 Review all previous content (Day 1–6)
🔹 Revisit weak areas
✅ Once you feel confident, book the exam
By following this structure, I gave myself enough time to study while keeping a consistent daily effort, making the process manageable and focused.