Get Certified: Google Cloud Digital Leader

Expanded Strategic Relationship

Recently, Google and SAP announced an expanding strategic relationship

• Stepping up business transformation with SAP RISE and Google Cloud
• Google Cloud and SAP Partner to Accelerate Business Transformations in the Cloud

The strategic relationship itself goes back to 2017

• Flexibility, Scalability, Speed: SAP and Google Announce Strategic Partnership

For an overview of SAP’s multi-cloud strategy and the “Embrace Project”, see

• Developing Applications in a Multicloud Environment

Google Cloud Certification Program

To promote its platform, Google has a number of programs to make it easier to get certified, see

• Cloud OnBoard Free Training

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 manager), see

• Google Cloud Certified Program | Boost your career

For the program, see

• cloud.google.com/certification.

Google Cloud Digital Leader

The Cloud Digital Leader certification is an entry-level one, similar to Azure Fundamentals and AWS Cloud Practitioner

• Get Certified: Microsoft Certified – Azure Fundamentals (AZ900)
• Get Certified: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01)

According to Google, the “certification is appropriate for individuals in non-technical job roles who can add value in their organization by gaining Cloud knowledge and who have little or no hands-on experience in Google Cloud“.

To manage expectations here a bit, no hands-on experience means that you are not expected to be familiar with navigating the Google Cloud Console or working with the gcloud CLI commands. However, the exam does include technical questions about networking and security, which could be challenging for those in non-technical job roles.

If you are looking for an easy entry-level exam, you are in the wrong place.

Credential Holder Directory

SAP, Microsoft, IBM, AWS, Oracle, and many others partner with Credly (Acclaim) for digital certificates. Google works with Accredible. You can make your certification(s) public and listed in the directory (or keep it to yourself).

• googlecloudcertified.credential.net

Two years ago there were about 5,000 members, time of writing this has quintupled (!). The Directory counts about 1,200 Cloud Digital Leaders certification holders.

Exam Guide

For information about the exam and how to register, go to

• Cloud Digital Leader

The exam guide 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.

• Certification exam guide

As the exam guide may change, no point in replicating the content here. To prepare, copy/paste the topics to an spreadsheet and look the information and source up in the Google Cloud Documentation

• cloud.google.com/learn
• cloud.google.com/docs

For the non-technical folks, note that this includes topics like

• Determine the best connectivity option based on networking and security requirements
• Describe the differences and benefits of Google Cloud’s hardware accelerators (e.g., Vision API, AI Platform, TPUs)
• Define the function and use of App Engine, Cloud Functions, and Cloud Run

Sample Questions

As preparation resource, the sample questions (9) give a very accurate indication of the type of questions you can expect.

• Launch sample questions

After submitting, you get detailed feedback with explanation about the correct and wrong answers, including references where this is documented. All sources point to the Google Cloud documentation. You will not have to study any other material.

Learning Path

To help you prepare, a learning path is mapped out, starting with exam guide and ending with the sample questions already mentioned. In between are four courses, made available on Qwiklabs at no charge. Total view time is 11 hours (or half at 2x).

• cloud.google.com/training/business

Qwiklabs

• Introduction to Digital Transformation with Google Cloud
• Innovating with Data and Google Cloud
• Infrastructure and Application Modernization with Google Cloud
• Understanding Google Cloud Security and Operations

Coursera

Should you want a certificate of completion for a small fee (of the training, not the exam!), you can sign up for a Google Cloud professional certificate.

• Google Cloud Digital Leader Training Professional Certificate

Time of writing, this gives you a 20% discount for the exam.

Pluralsight

For those with a subscription, the learning path is also available on Pluralsight

• Deploying SAP on Google Cloud

Official Google Cloud Certified Study Guides

Time of writing, there is no official study guide for the Cloud Digital Leader certification available yet.

Additional Resources

Sketch Notes

For those new to the platform, it may be challenging to distinguish Dataproc from Dataprep and Dataflow from Datastream. The sketch note illustrations from Google developer advocate Priyanka Vergadia are an excellent study resource

• thecloudgirl.dev

Braindumps and Cheat Sheets

The Carrot

When searching the internet, you may stumble across other resources to prepare for certifications. Often this material is of dubious quality and sometimes charged at considerable sum.

The best preparation for any exam is to (actively) study the material. As mentioned and illustrated above, the exam guide lists exactly what you need to know. All you need to do is to look up the information in the Google Cloud documentation, make some notes, and study. This comes at no charge and is time well spent.

For a more elaborate discussion about the carrots, see

• Braindumps and Cheat Sheets | 100% Free Blogpost about SAP HANA exams

And the Stick

Note that Google (like AWS) explicitly references the use of unauthorised materials (braindumps) as a violation of the exam agreement.

• Exam Terms and Conditions

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• LinkedIn > linkedin.com/in/dvankempen
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For the author page of SAP PRESS, visit

• Denys van Kempen