In this blog Post I want to explain my recent achievement about becoming a certified Google Cloud Architect and give you an overview, if this might also be something that is a path for you and put a light on some of the ups and downs to learn for it.
Disclaimer
I did not have to pay for this certification which is rather fortunate. SAP and Google have a partnership to get certified in Google products and in addition I got a free voucher to take the exam.
Introduction
It all started at the end of the summer when Google toured with a truck through Germany to advertise the advantages of using the Google Cloud Plattform in your business application.
They also stopped at the SAP campus in Walldorf and there I was invited to participate in the above mentioned program.
All said and done me and my wife (she also works at SAP) both started the six week program.
Learning Experience
The program was planned for around six weeks give or take and each week had a proposed class to take on Coursera or a lab on Qwicklabs.
The Coursera courses are similar to the openSAP classes, they teach a certain topic in depth and give you all the information to learn about it. The contents included Virtuell Machines, Networking, Security and parts of the GCP offerings.
Even though all examples are with GCP products, it is not solely usable for them. The concepts are the same for other platforms as well. In this way, the certification is really useful for more people other than the one that are using or interested in GCP.
After each class there was a test to check your knowledge, so it was not as easy as just clicking thorough some videos and slides.
In addition to these classes, you will also do Labs on the Qwicklabs Plattform. Here you’ll get a certain amount of time and resources to really put GCP to use. Everything runes in a real environment but without you being charged for any costs.
This enabled my wife and me to check out and learn in depth about the Google products.
What do you have to bring?
Time, lots of time. At least I had the feeling, that the certification is not for free and requires you to learn and study for it. The classes and labs took around 11 hours per week. If you do the certification in addition to your daily job, this should be planned and more than once I had to prioritize the learning over other things. At least for us also there was no way not to put time on during the weekend.
In addition, if it is not being paid for, the certification also costs money. At least the final exam (see more about it below) costs around 200€. If you fail you have two weeks to retake it, afterwards you need to pay again.
Also be aware, that you need a Laptop or PC with the full Chrome Browser. As everything runes somewhere else, your machine does not have to be powerful in any way.
Any negatives
Yes, some of the content of the classes were a bit boring in the presentation but nevertheless still important. In addition at least two Labs have to be done twice during the cause of the program.
Apart from that, the materials were nicely described and clear in communication.
Conclusion
I can just recommend the experience to everyone as the knowledge gained is not only for the Google Cloud Platform but also for others.
Also it is just fun to learn 🙂
