Google Cloud Certifications: Which is Right for You and Your Team?

Why should I get Google Cloud certified?

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.

What are the Google Cloud certifications?

As of December 2022, Google Cloud Platform offers 10 certifications. Let’s go through all of them and find the best one for your cloud career:

1. Google Cloud Digital Leader;
2. Google Associate Cloud Engineer;
3. Google Professional Cloud Architect;
4. Google Professional Data Engineer;
5. Google Professional Cloud Developer;
6. Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer;
7. Google Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer;
8. Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer;
9. Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer;
10. Google Professional Cloud Database Engineer.

Google Cloud Digital Leader

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:

• Digital transformation with Google Cloud
• Innovating with data and Google Cloud
• Infrastructure and application modernization
• Google Cloud security and operations

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.

Google Associate Cloud Engineer

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:

• Setting up a cloud solution environment
• Planning and configuring a cloud solution
• Deploying and implementing a cloud solution
• Ensuring successful operation of a cloud solution
• Configuring access and security

The prerequisites needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Associate Cloud Engineer certification are:

• Basic understanding of Google Cloud Platform products and services
• Basic understanding of cloud concepts, such as virtual machines, containers, and networking

If you’re interested in getting certified, you should 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.

Google Professional Cloud Architect

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:

• Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture
• Managing and provisioning a solution infrastructure
• Designing for security and compliance
• Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes
• Managing implementation
• Ensuring solution and operations reliability

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.

Google Professional Data Engineer

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:

• Designing data processing systems
• Building and operationalizing data processing systems
• Operationalizing machine learning models
• Ensuring solution quality

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, you should 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.

Google Professional Cloud Developer

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:

• Designing highly scalable, available, and reliable cloud-native applications
• Building and testing applications
• Deploying applications
• Integrating Google Cloud services
• Managing deployed applications

The prerequisites needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Cloud Developer certification are:

• General knowledge of IT architecture
• Software development experience

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.

Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer

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:

• Configuring access within a cloud solution environment
• Configuring network security
• Ensuring data protection
• Managing operations in a cloud solution environment
• Ensuring compliance

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.

Google Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer

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:

• Applying site reliability engineering principles to a service
• Building and implementing CI/CD pipelines for a service
• Implementing service monitoring strategies
• Optimizing service performance
• Managing service incidents

The prerequisites needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Cloud DevOps Engineer certification are:

• Basic understanding of cloud concepts (virtual machines, containers, networking, etc.)
• General knowledge of IT architecture
• Familiarity with DevOps practices and principles

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.

Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer

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:

• Framing machine learning problems
• Architecting machine learning solutions
• Designing data preparation and processing systems
• Developing machine learning models
• Automating and orchestrating machine learning pipelines
• Monitoring, optimizing, and maintaining machine learning solutions

The prerequisites needed to enroll in the learning path and then get the Google Machine Learning Engineer certification are:

• Basic understanding of cloud concepts
• Experience writing Python code

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.

Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer

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:

• Designing, planning, and prototyping a Google Cloud network
• Implementing Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) instances
• Configuring network services
• Implementing hybrid interconnectivity
• Managing, monitoring, and optimizing network operations

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.

Google Professional Cloud Database Engineer

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:

• Design scalable and highly available cloud database solutions
• Manage a solution that can span multiple database solutions
• Migrate data solutions
• Deploy scalable and highly available databases in Google Cloud

If you’re interested in getting certified, you should check out the Google Cloud Database Engineer certification.

What are some differences between these roles?

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.

Cloud Architect vs. Data Engineer

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.

Developer vs. DevOps Engineer

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.

How to prepare for a Google Cloud certification exam?

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:

1. Take the relevant learning path on Cloud Academy. We offer many learning paths covering all you need to know in each Google Cloud Platform certification area. These learning paths include courses, hands-on labs, and exams for each certification.
2. Get hands-on practice on GCP. Hands-on Labs and Lab Challenges provide easy ways for you to quickly get practical experience in real cloud environments without deploying your own infrastructure and running up extra costs.
3. Review the outline in Google’s official exam guide and check for any knowledge gaps.
4. The Cloud Architect exam includes questions about lengthy case studies. You can find these case studies in the exam guides. Make sure you read them thoroughly before writing the exam.
5. Take one of Google’s own practice exams (such as the “sample questions” link on the Cloud Architect home page).

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.

What’s the next step after taking the exam?

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!