Cloud Digital Leader
Certification exam guide
A Cloud Digital Leader can articulate the capabilities of Google Cloud core products and services and how they benefit organizations. They can also describe common business use cases and how cloud solutions support an enterprise.
This certification is for anyone who wants to demonstrate their knowledge of cloud computing basics and how Google Cloud products and services can be used to achieve an organization’s goals.
Section 1: Digital Transformation with Google Cloud (~17% of the exam)
1.1 Why Cloud Technology is Transforming Business ● Explain why and
how the cloud is revolutionizing businesses. a. Define the
terms: cloud, cloud technology, data, digital
transformation, cloud-native, open source, open
standard. b. Describe
the differences between cloud technology and traditional
or on-premises technology. c. Explain
the benefits of cloud technology to a business’ digital
transformation: this technology is scalable, flexible,
agile, secure, cost-effective and offers strategic
value. d. Describe
the primary benefits of on-premises infrastructure,
public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and
multicloud and differentiate between them. e. Describe
the main business transformation benefits of Google
Cloud: intelligence, freedom, collaboration, trust, and
sustainability. f. Describe
the implications and risks for organizations that do not
adopt new technology. g. Describe
the drivers and challenges that lead organizations to
undergo a digital transformation. h. Describe
the transformation cloud and how it accelerates an
organization’s digital transformation through app and
infrastructure modernization, data democratization,
people connections, and trusted transactions. 1.2 Fundamental Cloud Concepts ● Explain general
cloud concepts. a. Describe
how transitioning to a cloud infrastructure affects
flexibility, scalability, reliability, elasticity,
agility, and total cost of ownership (TCO). Apply these
concepts to various business use cases. b. Explain
how an organization’s transition from an on-premises
environment to the cloud shifts their capital
expenditures (CapEx) to operational expenditures (OpEx),
and how that affects their total cost of ownership
(TCO). c. Identify
when private, hybrid, or multicloud infrastructures best
apply to different business use cases. d. Define
basic network infrastructure terminology, including: IP
address; internet service provider (ISP); domain name
server (DNS), regions, and zones; fiber optics; subsea
cables; network edge data centers, latency; and
bandwidth. e. Discuss
how Google Cloud supports digital transformation with
global infrastructure and data centers connected by a
fast, reliable network. 1.3 Cloud Computing Models and Shared Responsibility
● Discuss the
benefits and tradeoffs of using infrastructure as a
service (IaaS); platform as a service (PaaS); and
software as a service (SaaS). a. Define
IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. b. Compare
and contrast the benefits and tradeoffs of IaaS, PaaS,
and SaaS including total cost of ownership (TCO),
flexibility, shared responsibilities, management level,
and necessary staffing and technical expertise. c. Determine
which computing model (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) applies to
various business scenarios and use cases. d. Describe
the cloud shared responsibility model. Compare which
responsibilities are the cloud provider’s, and which
responsibilities are the customer’s for on-premises and
cloud computing models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
Section 2: Exploring Data Transformation with Google Cloud (~16% of the exam)
2.1 The Value of Data ● Describe the
intrinsic role that data plays in an organizations’
digital transformation. a. Explain
how data generates business insights, drives decision
making, and creates new value. b.
Differentiate between basic data management concepts, in
particular: databases; data warehouses; data lakes. c. Explain
how organizations can create value by using their
current data, collecting new data, and sourcing data
externally. d. Describe
how the cloud unlocks business value from all types of
data, including structured data and previously untapped
unstructured data. e. Discuss
the main data value chain concepts and terms. f. Explain
how data governance is essential to a successful data
journey. 2.2 Google Cloud Data Management Solutions ● Determine which
Google Cloud data management products are applicable to
different business use cases. a.
Differentiate between Google Cloud data management
options including data type and common business use
case, including: Cloud Storage; Cloud Spanner; Cloud
SQL; Cloud Bigtable; BigQuery; Firestore. b. Define key
data management concepts and terms, including:
relational; non-relational; object storage; structured
query language (SQL); NoSQL. c. Describe
the benefits of using BigQuery as a serverless, managed
data warehouse and analytics engine that can be used in
a multicloud environment. d.
Differentiate between storage classes in Cloud Storage
regarding cost and frequency of access, including:
Standard; Nearline; Coldline; Archive. e. Describe
the ways that an organization can migrate or modernize
their current database in the cloud. 2.3 Making Data Useful and Accessible ● Discuss how
smart analytics, business intelligence tools, and
streaming analytics can add value in different business
use cases. a. Describe
how Looker democratizes access to data by empowering
individuals to self-serve business intelligence and
create insights. b. Discuss
the value of analyzing and visualizing data from
BigQuery in Looker to create real-time reports,
dashboards, and integrating data into workflows. c. Describe
how streaming analytics in real time makes data more
useful and generates business value. d. Describe
the main Google Cloud products that modernize data
pipelines, including Pub/Sub and Dataflow.
Section 3: Innovating with Google Cloud Artificial Intelligence (~16% of the exam)
3.1 AI and ML Fundamentals ● Discuss the
main AI and ML concepts, and explain how ML can create
business value. a. Define
artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
b.
Differentiate the capabilities of AI and ML from data
analytics and business intelligence. c. Discuss
the types of problems that ML can solve. d. Explain
the business value ML creates, including: ability to
work with large datasets; scaling business decisions;
and unlocking unstructured data. e. Explain
why high-quality, accurate data is essential for
successful ML models. f. Discuss
the importance of explainable and responsible AI 3.2 Google Cloud’s AI and ML solutions ● Discuss the
range of Google Cloud AI and ML solutions and products
available, and how to select the most appropriate
solution for different business use cases. a. Explain
which decisions and tradeoffs organizations need to
consider when selecting Google Cloud AI/ML solutions and
products, including: speed; effort; differentiation;
required expertise. b. Discuss
which Google Cloud AI and ML solutions and products
might apply given different business use cases,
including: pre-trained APIs; AutoML; build custom
models. 3.3 Building and using Google Cloud AI and ML solutions
● Explain how
Google Cloud’s pre-trained API, AutoML, and custom AI/ML
products can create business value. a. Discuss
how BigQuery ML lets users create and execute machine
learning models in BigQuery by using standard SQL
queries. b. Select
which Google Cloud pre-trained API best applies to
different business use cases, including: Natural
Language API, Vision API, Cloud Translation API,
Speech-to-Text API, and Text-to-Speech API. c. Explain
how an organization can create business value by using
their own data to train custom ML models with AutoML.
d. Discuss
how building custom models by using Google Cloud’s
Vertex AI can create opportunities for business
differentiation. e. Recognize
TensorFlow as an end-to-end open source set of tools for
building and training machine learning models and that
Cloud Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) is Google’s
proprietary hardware optimized for TensorFlow and ML
performance.
Section 4: Modernize Infrastructure and Applications with Google Cloud (~17% of the exam)
4.1 Cloud modernization and migration ● Explain why
modernization and migration to the cloud are important
steps in an organization’s transformation journey, and
how each application might have a different path. a. Discuss
benefits of infrastructure modernization and application
modernization by using Google Cloud. b. Define the
main cloud migration terms, including: workload; retire;
retain; rehost; lift and shift; replatform; move and
improve; refactor; reimagine. 4.2 Computing in the cloud ● Discuss the
options for and advantages of running compute workloads
in the cloud. a. Define the
main cloud compute terms, including: virtual machines
(VMs); containerization; containers; microservices;
serverless computing; preemptible VMs; Kubernetes,
autoscaling, load balancing. b. Describe
the benefits and business value of running compute
workloads in the cloud. c. Explain
the choices and constraints between different compute
options. d. Discuss
the business value of using Compute Engine to create and
run virtual machines on Google’s infrastructure. e. Discuss
the business value of choosing a rehost migration path
for specialized legacy applications. 4.3 Serverless computing ● Discuss the
advantages of serverless computing in application
modernization. a. Explain
the benefits of serverless computing. b. Discuss
the business value of using serverless computing Google
Cloud products, including: Cloud Run; App Engine; Cloud
Functions. 4.4 Containers in the cloud ● Discuss the
advantages of using containers in application
modernization. a. Discuss
the advantages of modern cloud application development.
b.
Differentiate between virtual machines and containers.
c. Discuss
the main benefits of containers and microservices for
application modernization. d. Discuss
the business value of using Google Cloud products to
deploy containers, including: Google Kubernetes Engine
(GKE); Cloud Run. 4.5 The value of APIs ● Explain the
business value of application programming interfaces
(APIs). a. Define
application programming interface (API). b. Explain
how organizations can create new business opportunities
by exposing and monetizing public-facing APIs. c. Discuss
the business value of using Apigee API Management. 4.6 Hybrid and multi-cloud ● Discuss the
business reasons for choosing hybrid or multi-cloud
strategies and how Anthos enables these strategies. a. Discuss
the reasons and use cases for why organizations choose a
hybrid cloud or multi-cloud strategy. b. Describe
the business value of using Anthos as a single control
panel for the management of hybrid or multicloud
infrastructure.
Section 5: Trust and Security with Google Cloud (~17% of the exam)
5.1 Trust and security in the cloud ● Discuss
fundamental cloud security concepts. a. Describe
today’s top cybersecurity threats and business
implications. b.
Differentiate between cloud security and traditional
on-premises security. c. Describe
the importance of control, compliance, confidentiality,
integrity, and availability in a cloud security model.
d. Define key
security terms and concepts. 5.2 Google’s trusted infrastructure ● Explain the
business value of Google’s defense-in-depth multilayered
approach to infrastructure security. a. Describe
the benefits of Google designing and building its own
data centers, using purpose-built servers, networking,
and custom security hardware / software. b. Describe
the role of encryption in securing an organization’s
data and the ways that it can protect data exposed to
risks in different states. c.
Differentiate between authentication, authorization, and
auditing. d. Describe
the benefits of using two-step verification (2SV) and
IAM. e. Describe
how an organization can protect against network attacks
using Google products, including distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) using Google Cloud Armor. f. Define
Security Operations (SecOps) in the cloud and describe
its business benefits. 5.3 Google Cloud’s trust principles and compliance ● Describe how
Google Cloud earns and maintains customer trust in the
cloud. a. Discuss
how Google Cloud's trust principles are a commitment to
our shared responsibility for protecting and managing an
organization’s data in the cloud. b. Describe
how sharing transparency reports and undergoing
independent third-party audits support customer trust in
Google. c. Describe
why data sovereignty and data residency may be
requirements and how Google Cloud offers organizations
the ability to control where their data is stored. d. Describe
how Google Cloud compliance resource center and
Compliance Reports Manager support industry and regional
compliance needs.
Section 6: Scaling with Google Cloud Operations (~17% of the exam)
6.1 Financial governance and managing cloud costs ● Discuss how
Google Cloud supports an organization's financial
governance and ability to control their cloud costs. a. Discuss
how using cloud financial governance best practices
provides predictability and control for cloud resources.
b. Define
important cloud cost-management terms and concepts. c. Discuss
the benefits of using the resource hierarchy to control
access. d. Describe
the benefit of controlling cloud consumption using
resource quota policies and budget threshold rules. e. Discuss
how organizations can visualize their cost data by using
Cloud Billing Reports. 6.2 Operational excellence and reliability at scale ● Discuss the
fundamental concepts of modern operations, reliability,
and resilience in the cloud. a. Describe
the benefits of modernizing operations by using Google
Cloud. b. Define
important cloud operations terms. c. Describe
the importance of designing resilient, fault-tolerant,
and scalable infrastructure and processes for high
availability and disaster recovery. d. Define key
cloud reliability, DevOps, and SRE terms. e. Describe
how organizations benefit from using Google Cloud
Customer Care to support their cloud adoption. f. Describe
the life of a support case during the Google Cloud
Customer Care process. 6.3 Sustainability with Google Cloud ● Discuss how
Google Cloud helps organizations meet sustainability
goals and reduce environmental impact. a. Describe
Google Cloud’s commitment to sustainability and reducing
environmental impact. b. Discuss how
Google Cloud provides products to support organizations’
sustainability goals.