ACE operates a resource. PCDE designs the system.
Can you deploy this VM correctly, versus can you build the pipeline that deploys hundreds of VMs correctly, every day, with no human approving each one.
DimensionAssociate Cloud EngineerProfessional Cloud DevOps Engineer
Unit of workA single resource — a VM, a bucketA pipeline, a service's whole lifecycle
Tool surfacegcloud, Console, individual APIsCloud Build, Cloud Deploy, Terraform, Monitoring
Failure mode testedMisconfigurationProcess failure — no rollback, leaked secret
Governance concernIAM on one resourceEnvironment and pipeline-wide consistency
Transfers across clouds: AWS SysOps/SA Associate vs DevOps Engineer Professional, Azure Administrator vs DevOps Engineer Expert draw the identical line.