Personal Insights
Get Certified: Google Cloud Platform Professional Cloud Architect and Associate Cloud Engineer
Google Cloud Certifications
In this blog post series, you will find some suggestions about how to get certified on the Google Cloud Platform.
There is no SAP on Google Cloud certification (yet), but we do have some excellent material to get started. Interested to learn more? You are invited to join the LinkedIn Special Interest Group (SIG) Questions? Please post as comment. Useful? Give us a like and share on social media. Thanks! |
Business Technology Network
Although you still can power up a virtual machine on the SAP Cloud Platform, the focus of SAP today no longer includes Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) but to provide the Business Technology Network as the fastest way to turn data into business value.
If this is new to you, read the recently published white paper (September 2019)
As a result, SAP Cloud Platform managed open-source services like PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis and RabbitMQ are no longer provided. For a communication on this with FAQ, see (for example)
As announced at SAPPHIRE NOW earlier this year, customers are invited to embrace the infrastructure providers, usually tagged in SAP communications as “hyperscalers”
- Embracing the Hyperscalers, Your Fast Lane to Becoming an Intelligent Enterprise in the Cloud
- SAP Partners with Ecosystem to Guide Customers to the Cloud
Microsoft already responded favourably to project “Embrace”
And launched the first expert certification
SAP on Google Cloud
Google is another SAP partner actively promoting services for SAP
- SAP on Google Cloud (solutions)
- SAP on Google Cloud (blogs)
Although not included in any certification (yet), the SAP on GCP Documentation provides a quickly growing library of guides for planning, deploying, and operating SAP solutions.
Google Cloud Certification Program
To promote its platform, Google has a number of programs to make it easier to get certified
For the argument why you might want to take up a certification (should you need any convincing, or want to get some funding from your boss), see
There are certifications at the associate and professional level. The most popular, and from an SAP multi-cloud perspective most relevant, are
- Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE)
- Professional Cloud Architect (PCA)
On the certification page, you find all the information you need about the exam (number of questions, time allocated), how to prepare, how to register, etc.
Note that is no hierarchy in the exams (e.g. associate before professional) as there are no prerequisites, although the overview page recommends 6 months+ hands-on experience with GCP for ACE and 3+ years of industry experience including 1+ years designing and managing solutions using GCP for PCA.
Exam Guide
The exam guide for each exam lists exactly the topics you need to know. This is an extensive and comprehensive list that you can take quite literally. You can expect questions about each of the points mentioned.
The practice exam gives a very accurate indication of the type of questions you can expect.
Documentation
One way to prepare (and free of charge) is to research all the requirements of the exam guide in the docs. For this, see the Google Cloud documentation. It is well-written, clear, and concise, and being familiar with its contents is a good things for any cloud professional, exams or not.
Online Courses
Coursera
Google training courses are also very helpful and available online/on-demand from Coursera. Currently, the first month access is free, so if you carve out some time to prepare, this should give you a good head start.
Not to be missed are the courses to prepare for the exam
- Preparing for the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer Exam
- Preparing for the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect Exam
Pluralsight
Google courses are also available on the Pluralsight. You can get a free 10-day trial when you sign up but your company may also have a corporate subscription (like at SAP).
A Cloud Guru | Linux Academy (LA)
Alternative online courses are also available. I can recommend the courses from the Linux Academy (acquired by A Cloud Guru)
Hands-on Labs
Probably the most important resource for learning are the hands-on labs integrated into the courses provided by Google.
There are close to 400 hands-on labs and 60+ challenges where you can test your knowledge.
The labs provide free access to the Google Cloud Platform for the duration of the lab (30-120 minutes) and although you typically finish the exercises in a fraction of the time, if you pay close attention to what you are doing and why, you should be able to answer (almost) any exam question without problems.
You can signup for free and although most labs require credits, you get these for free as well when you accept the challenges posted by Qwiklabs on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Study Guides
There are also “official” study guides promoted by Google. Although these guides are well-written and informative, they do not provide any essential material not covered in the courses our documentation. In fact, just reading the study guide may not be enough to prepare. Make sure to study also the Google documentation for the listed exam topics.
- Official Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Study Guide (April 2019)
- Official Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect Study Guide (October 2019)
Free sample chapter provided. You can also get the book on Amazon or the publisher Wiley.
Free Tier
As most of you will know, but just in case, you can get a $300 free credit and some products are always free (up to monthly limits).
This should be enough for any exam training.
Directory
Once you get your certification(s), you can choose to be listed in the Google Cloud Credential Holder Directory.
Wait, There is More
For all GCP products, see
See also Awesome GCP Certifications on github
Share and Connect
Questions? Please post as comment.
Useful? Give us a like and share on social media.
Thanks!
If you would like to receive updates, connect with me on
- LinkedIn > linkedin.com/in/dvankempen
- Twitter > @dvankempen
For the author page of SAP PRESS, visit
| Over the years, for the SAP HANA Academy, SAP’s Partner Innovation Lab, and à titre personnel, I have written a little over 300 posts here for the SAP Community. Some articles only reached a few readers. Others attracted quite a few more.For your reading pleasure and convenience, here is a curated list of posts which somehow managed to pass the 10k-view mile stone and, as sign of current interest, still tickle the counters each month. |
Dear Denys,
Thanks for share this post, is a great summary about all resources there are available to reach an ACP and PCA certificate.
Best regards
Luis Benavides Andrade
Thanks for the comment, Luis.
Great blog on GCP.
Thanks
Hem
Hi Denys,
This is a great blog and you have covered all the aspects of GCP certification in a single post. I have been in that path and can totally relate to what you have written in this blog. Thank you for sharing this with everyone and hopefully more and more people will benefit from your blog.
Thank you,
Saurabh Pandey
Thanks Saurabh!
On LinkedIn, I was asked for an evaluation:
Currently, the directory lists on a total 5,662 (count of Nov 8 2019 - opt-in count, not complete)
As you can see, cloud architect is by far the most popular. Cloud engineer is more hands-on (commands), architect more theoretical (business case)
Guys,
Can you guys recommend/Suggest which GCP certification would suite for a person Who is been working on SAP-ABAP Technical side for 17+yrs?
Appreciate your inputs.
Thanks
There is no relation between SAP technology (incl. ABAP) and any of the Google Cloud certifications.
There is little difference in effort to get certified as Associate Cloud Engineer or as Cloud Architect.
Current statistics are
See https://googlecloudcertified.credential.net for latest numbers.
Thank You Denys.
I imagine this might be a bit dated now, but thanks anyway for putting it together.
Hi Ian,
Just checked and updated two URLs. The rest of the content is still up to date and should help you to get prepared for the exam.
Hi Denys,
Thanks so much for that, it was meant to be an appreciative comment, rather than a request for an update. 🙂 You have gone way over and above any reasonable expectations by bringing it up to date, so thanks again!
All the best,
Ian