In the rapidly evolving world of cloud computing, certifications can validate your skills and keep you ahead of the curve.
Google Cloud Platform, a leading service in the industry, offers a suite of certifications designed to equip professionals with the knowledge and expertise needed to leverage Google’s cloud technology.
This blog post is aimed at businesses and professionals seeking to understand the various Google Cloud Certifications available today. We’ll outline each certification, its purpose, and who it’s best suited for, providing a comprehensive guide to navigate your cloud career.
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A Google Cloud certification is definitely worth it for professionals seeking to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in cloud architecture and Google Cloud technologies. The certification can open up new job opportunities, enhance your credibility in the field, and potentially increase your salary. As more companies continue to adopt cloud technologies, the demand for certified professionals is growing. Having a Google Cloud certification can give you a competitive advantage in the job market.
Getting a Google Cloud certification is important for several reasons:
Knowledge and skills: The process of preparing for the certification exams helps you gain a comprehensive understanding of Google Cloud technologies. This can greatly improve your ability to effectively design, develop, and manage cloud solutions.
Credibility: Having a certification from a well-known organization like Google can enhance your credibility as a cloud professional. It demonstrates to employers that you have the skills and knowledge necessary to perform tasks associated with Google Cloud technologies.
Career advancement: Many employers prefer or require certifications for certain job roles. By obtaining a Google Cloud certification, you can open up new job opportunities and potentially increase your earning potential.
Industry recognition: A Google Cloud certification is widely recognized in the IT industry. It can help you stand out from the crowd and get noticed by potential employers.
The time it takes to get a Google Cloud certification can vary depending on the specific certification and your level of experience and familiarity with Google Cloud technologies. The process involves self-study or formal training, followed by an exam. Preparation can take several weeks to several months, depending on the amount of time you can dedicate to studying.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has evolved from being a niche player to a serious competitor to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
In 2022, research firm Gartner placed Google for the third consecutive year in the Leaders quadrant in its Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud AI Developer Services report. In the report, Gartner recommended the platform for its language, vision, and AutoML products for developers, offering a comprehensive platform that is ready for enterprise-level execution.
With more and more companies using GCP for at least some of their cloud requirements, there is an increased demand for Google Cloud Platform certification training. Google now has 10 certification exams that IT professionals can use to validate their GCP skills.
Bringing your team up to speed on GCP can take time you may not have. But with our Cloud Certification Fast-track program, you can crush your certification goals with direct support from our team of cloud experts. Custom training, visibility into progress, and end-to-end program management are just some of the features. Contact our team today to find out how the program works.
As of today, Google Cloud Platform offers 10 certifications. Let’s go through all of them and find the best one for your cloud career:
If you are wondering which Google Cloud certification is for beginners, here we are! This foundational-level certification is intended for people who want to prove they have an understanding of GCP fundamentals, cloud computing basics, and how Google cloud services can be used to achieve an organization’s goals.
Specifically, the Google Cloud Digital Leader exam covers these subject areas:
The only prerequisite needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Cloud Digital Leader certification is a general knowledge of computers and the internet. If you’re interested in getting certified, you should go through Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam Preparation and then take the practice exam. But if you feel ready, you can go directly to Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam.
This role-based Associate-level certification is intended for people who deploy applications, monitor operations, and manage enterprise solutions. Specifically, the Google Associate Cloud Engineer exam covers these subject areas:
The prerequisites needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Associate Cloud Engineer certification are:
If you’re interested in getting certified, go through Cloud Academy’s Google Associate Cloud Engineer Exam Preparation and then take the practice exam. But if you feel ready, you can go directly to Cloud Academy’s Google Associate Cloud Engineer Exam.
This is one of Google’s professional certifications, so it is intended to prove you have advanced design and implementation skills. Professional exams expect you to have practical, hands-on knowledge related to your particular job. This certification is intended for IT professionals who know how to build solutions on Google Cloud Platform. Specifically, the Google Cloud Architect exam covers these six subjects:
The prerequisite needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Cloud Architect certification is general knowledge of IT concepts. If you are interested in getting certified and becoming a professional cloud architect, you should go through Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Architect Exam Preparation and then take the practice exam. But if you feel ready, you can go directly to Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Architect Exam.
This professional Google Cloud certification is intended for data professionals who enable data-driven decision-making by collecting, transforming, and publishing data. Specifically, the Google Cloud Data Engineer exam covers these areas:
The prerequisite needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Data Engineer certification is basic database knowledge. If you’re interested in getting certified and becoming a professional data engineer, go through Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Data Engineer Exam Preparation and then take the practice exam. But if you feel ready, you can go directly to Cloud Academy’s Google Data Engineer Exam.
If you are wondering which Google Cloud certification is best for developers, you are in the right place. This role-based professional certification is intended for software developers who build applications on Google Cloud Platform. Specifically, the Google Cloud Developer exam covers five areas:
The prerequisites needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Cloud Developer certification are:
If you are interested in getting certified and becoming a professional cloud developer, you should go through Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Developer Exam Preparation and then take the practice exam. But if you feel ready, you can go directly to Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Developer Exam.
This role-based professional certification is intended for people who have mastered cloud security, including identity and access management, data protection, network security defenses, and more. Specifically, the Google Cloud Security Engineer exam covers these areas:
The prerequisite needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Cloud Security Engineer certification is a basic understanding of cloud concepts such as virtual machines, containers, and networking. If you are interested in getting certified and becoming a professional cloud security engineer, you should go through Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Security Engineer Exam Preparation and then take the practice exam. But if you feel ready, you can go directly to Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Security Engineer Exam.
If you’re a tech manager, you know best that security is one of the most significant issues holding back cloud adoption. Cloud Academy’s training library focuses deeply on IT Security, allowing your team to stay up to date with new security breaches and ways to resolve them.
If you’re interested in understanding how to keep your cloud environment secure with Cloud Academy, contact us and request a free demo!
This role-based professional certification is intended for people who are responsible for efficient development operations in an organization and can balance service reliability and delivery speed. Specifically, the Google Cloud DevOps Engineer exam covers these areas:
The prerequisites needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Cloud DevOps Engineer certification are:
If you are interested in getting certified and becoming a professional DevOps engineer, you should go through Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud DevOps Engineer Exam Preparation.
This role-based professional certification is intended for people who design, build and deploy machine learning models to solve business challenges using Google Cloud technologies. Specifically, the Google Cloud Machine Learning Engineer exam covers six subject areas:
The prerequisites needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Machine Learning Engineer certification are:
If you are interested in getting certified and becoming a Google Cloud professional ML engineer, you should check out Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Machine Learning Engineer Exam Preparation and then take the practice exam. But if you feel ready, you can go directly to Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Machine Learning Engineer Exam.
This role-based professional certification is intended for people who implement and manage network architectures in GCP. Specifically, the Google Cloud Network Engineer exam covers these subject areas:
The prerequisite needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Cloud Network Engineer certification is a basic understanding of cloud concepts such as virtual machines, containers, and networking. If you are interested in getting certified and becoming a professional cloud network engineer, you should go through Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Network Engineer Exam Preparation and then take the practice exam. But if you feel ready, you can go directly to Cloud Academy’s Google Cloud Network Engineer Exam.
This role-based professional certification is intended for people who want to learn to design, create, manage, and troubleshoot Google Cloud databases used by applications to store and retrieve data. Specifically, the Google Cloud Database Engineer exam covers four subject areas:
If you’re interested in getting certified, you should check out the Google Cloud Database Engineer certification.
As you’ve seen, these Google Cloud Platform certifications are very role-specific, helping demonstrate a high level of ability in each area. With some of these job roles, the differences are more obvious, such as between a developer (someone who creates applications) and a security engineer (someone who secures data and infrastructure). Other ones need a little bit more explanation.
One of the biggest reasons organizations choose Google Cloud Platform is for its robust data services, such as BigQuery, Cloud Dataflow, and Vertex AI. How these services are used helps explain the different roles within Google Cloud certification. While a Cloud Architect knows how to design solutions using the above services and how to speak to other departmental stakeholders about big picture ideas, a Data Engineer has a much more in-depth understanding of how to build, maintain, and troubleshoot data processing systems on a daily basis. For example, a Data Engineer needs to have experience with cutting-edge concepts like neural networks and streaming analytics, and how to ingest data and prepare it for others, such as data scientists, to use.
A Google Cloud Platform Developer understands how to create applications that are optimized for the deployment of Google’s infrastructure while also being comfortable with the development tools available on GCP. In contrast, a DevOps Engineer is responsible for designing and implementing the development infrastructure itself, particularly to automate the software development lifecycle. For example, a DevOps Engineer would build continuous integration / continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.
Google Cloud certification exams are known for their difficulty and breadth of topics, so the importance of preparation and training beforehand cannot be overstated. Surprisingly, Google doesn’t provide a score at the end of an exam. Instead, it simply issues a “Pass” or “Fail” result, which doesn’t provide much help in terms of knowing what to study if you fail. This is why it’s important to thoroughly prepare for the exam, and this is where certification training with Cloud Academy can help.
Here are 5 steps to take before taking a Google Cloud certification exam:
Each exam is two hours long (except for Cloud Digital Leader, which is 90 minutes long) and must be taken either as an online proctored exam (OLP) or at a Kryterion testing center. Kryterion has over 1,000 testing centers in 120 countries, so you should be able to find one in your area.
As I mentioned earlier, the result shown after an exam is simply “Pass” or “Fail.” If you don’t pass, you’re allowed to take the exam again after 14 days. If you fail on the second attempt, then you have to wait 60 days before the next attempt.
If you pass the exam, you’ll receive an online certification badge that can be displayed on sites like LinkedIn, and more importantly, a Google Cloud certification hoodie.
Once you’re certified, you’ll want to stay up to date on Google Cloud Platform as it continues to evolve. You can learn everything about Google Cloud in our Google Cloud content library.
Good luck and happy learning!
The ‘best’ Google Cloud certification largely depends on your career goals, current skills, and future plans. For those starting their journey in cloud technologies, the Associate Cloud Engineer certification can be a good starting point. If you have a significant amount of experience with Google Cloud technologies and are interested in designing cloud architecture, the Professional Cloud Architect certification is a great choice. For professionals focused on managing Google Workspace within an organization, the Google Professional Workspace Administrator certification would be best.
The Associate Cloud Engineer certification is often considered the ‘easiest’ Google Cloud certification to get, mainly because it is geared towards individuals who are just starting their journey in cloud technologies. However, ‘easiest’ can be subjective and largely depends on your background, experience, and familiarity with Google Cloud technologies.
The choice between Google Cloud and AWS certifications depends on your career goals, the specific technologies you work with, and the needs of your employer or prospective employers. Both certifications have their merits and are widely recognized in the industry. AWS certifications might be a better choice if you’re working primarily with AWS technologies or aiming to work in an AWS-dominant environment. On the other hand, Google Cloud certifications would be more beneficial if you’re focusing on Google Cloud technologies or seeking opportunities with companies that heavily use Google Cloud. Both platforms are popular and have large market shares, so either certification can be beneficial for your career.
The cost of Google Cloud certifications varies depending on the specific certification exam. Generally, you can expect to pay a registration fee for the exam.
The time it takes to study for a Google Cloud certification can vary widely depending on the specific certification and your level of experience with Google Cloud technologies. Generally, you should expect to spend several weeks to a few months preparing for the exam. It’s important to take enough time to thoroughly understand the exam content and feel confident in your ability to pass the exam.
With our Cloud Certification Fast-track program, you can crush your certification goals with direct support from our team of cloud experts. Custom training, visibility into progress, and end-to-end program management are just some of the features. Fill out the form to get a free demo and find out how the program works.
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