Effective March 27, 2026, Salesforce rebranded the Salesforce Certified Data Cloud Consultant certification to Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant. Although the certification name has changed, the exam short code remains Data-Con-101. This update reflects Salesforce's broader positioning of Data 360 as a central enterprise data platform that supports customer data unification, AI readiness, analytics, segmentation, and activation across Salesforce solutions. Salesforce's official credential page now lists the certification as Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant, and the official exam guide describes it as a certification for consultants with experience implementing and consulting on Data 360 and other enterprise data platforms.

The Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant Exam is designed for professionals who work with Data 360 in customer-facing consulting, implementation, and solution design roles. Candidates are expected to understand how to design, configure, and support scalable data solutions that meet real customer business requirements.

A Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant should be able to help organizations connect data from multiple sources, model and harmonize data, unify customer profiles, build insights, and activate trusted data across Salesforce products and business workflows. The certification also emphasizes the long-term success of the customer, meaning candidates should understand not only platform configuration but also business value, governance, ethics, and maintainable solution design.

The Data-Con-101 Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant Exam is ideal for consultants and professionals who have practical experience with Salesforce, enterprise data platforms, and customer data strategy. Typical candidates may come from backgrounds such as Salesforce administration, business analysis, solution consulting, presales, technical marketing, DevOps, or architecture.

This exam is especially valuable for professionals who want to prove their ability to work with Data 360 capabilities in real business scenarios. Candidates should understand Data 360 terminology, data modeling, ingestion, unification, segmentation, activation, analytics, and how trusted customer data supports predictive and generative AI use cases.

The rebrand from Salesforce Certified Data Cloud Consultant to Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant is more than a name change. It shows how Salesforce is expanding the role of its data platform in the wider Salesforce ecosystem. Data 360 is positioned as a foundation for unified customer data, AI-powered experiences, personalized engagement, and cross-cloud business actions.

For candidates, this means exam preparation should focus on the updated Data 360 language, concepts, and objectives. While many core Data Cloud concepts still matter, candidates should align their study with the latest Data 360 exam outline and understand how the platform supports modern data strategy, AI, governance, reporting, and activation.

The Data-Con-101 exam measures a candidate's knowledge across six major domains. Each domain reflects an important stage of the Data 360 implementation and utilization lifecycle.

This section tests whether candidates understand the value of Data 360 and can explain how it supports business goals. You should be able to describe key Data 360 terminology, identify initial use cases, and explain how Data 360 supports generative and predictive AI. Candidates also need to understand data ethics and governance principles, because responsible data usage is a critical part of enterprise data strategy.

This domain focuses on platform configuration and administration. Candidates should know how to configure Data 360 permissions, permission sets, and organization-wide settings. You also need to understand how governance requirements affect platform setup, how to manage the development lifecycle with available tools, and how to troubleshoot common configuration or operational issues.

Data ingestion is one of the most important areas of the exam. Candidates must understand how data is brought into Data 360 from different sources and how transformation capabilities are used. This includes knowledge of ingestion processes, data source considerations, and Data 360 data collaboration features such as Zero-Copy. A strong understanding of how source data becomes usable inside Data 360 is essential for this section.

This section covers how Data 360 turns disconnected data into meaningful and unified customer information. Candidates should understand the purpose and process of unification, supported use cases, and data modeling in Data 360. Key concepts may include mapping, harmonization, identity resolution, unified profiles, and how data models support business requirements.

This domain measures how candidates can enhance, analyze, and share Data 360 data. You should know how to build insights on unified data, reference Data 360 data from other systems, and create reports and dashboards. Candidates also need to understand how predictive and generative AI tooling capabilities can be applied to customer scenarios.

This is the largest weighted section of the exam. It focuses on how businesses act on data after it has been ingested, harmonized, and unified. Candidates should understand segmentation concepts, how to manage segments, how to publish activations, and how to use Data 360 data in Salesforce flows. This section is important because Data 360 is not only about storing or organizing data; it is about helping businesses take action with trusted data.

To prepare effectively, candidates should start by reviewing the latest Salesforce official exam guide and objectives. Since the certification has been renamed, make sure your study materials refer to Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant rather than relying only on older Data Cloud Consultant content.

A smart preparation strategy should include studying the six exam domains, practicing real-world use cases, and understanding how Data 360 connects with Salesforce clouds, AI capabilities, reporting, segmentation, and activation workflows. Candidates should also focus on scenario-based learning, because many Salesforce consultant exams test how well you can apply concepts to customer requirements rather than simply memorizing definitions.

The Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant Data-Con-101 Exam is an important certification for professionals who want to validate their skills in Salesforce's evolving enterprise data platform. With the March 27, 2026 rebrand from Data Cloud Consultant to Data 360 Consultant, candidates should pay close attention to the updated terminology, exam outline, and platform direction.

For Salesforce consultants, administrators, architects, business analysts, and data-focused professionals, this certification can help demonstrate practical knowledge of data strategy, ingestion, harmonization, unification, AI readiness, analytics, segmentation, and activation. By preparing with the latest Data 360 objectives, candidates can build a stronger understanding of how Salesforce helps organizations transform scattered data into trusted, unified, and actionable business intelligence.