Professional Cloud Architects enables companies to leverage Google Cloud technologies. They possess a thorough understanding of cloud platforms and architecture. They can design, develop, and manage secure, scalable, and dynamic solutions for achieving business needs. This certification assesses individuals’ ability to
- Design a cloud solution architecture
- Manage the cloud solution infrastructure
- Design for security and compliance
- Analyze technical and business processes
- Implement cloud architecture
- Create reliable solutions and operations
A Professional cloud architect should be well-versed in all aspects of cloud strategy, design, and development of cloud infrastructure, solution development, and best practices. He should also be proficient in software development techniques and approaches even in hybrid environments
Eligibility Criteria
While Google doesn’t mention any specific eligibility criteria, it does recommend more than three years of industry experience and at least one year of managing and designing solutions using GCP. This is where the difference between Google’s certification and every other could architect certification comes. Google expects every applicant to be from a dev background.
That fact might not be an issue for most, but it can throw one off when a question is asking about debugging a python script. The key difference is that Google focuses on the role of a cloud architect rather than focusing on products and its capabilities like a tools specialist.
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Certification Process
There would be an exam for 2 hours. It is a multiple-choice and multiple select exam. This exam would be taken in-person or from a remote center. Google does not mention any passing score or the exact score that you’ve obtained.
The logic is that Google only wants to highlight whether an individual is proficient in the test or not. So, if an individual clears the minimum pass percentage, they would obtain the certification. As Google said, the idea is not to separate people by giving our scores or feedback. It is to show that an individual has the competency required as a cloud architect.
Levels or Modules
There are no levels or modules in this certification. It is just a straightforward process where you have to take the exam
Cost of Certification
The certification costs $200, excluding the applicable taxes of the country or the region.
The Validity of the Certification
Unless otherwise specified, every Google-issued certification is valid for two years, after which one has to get recertified. If an individual does not clear the exam the first time, he must wait for 14 days before attempting again. If he does not clear the exam even after that, he must wait for 60 days. If that attempt is unsuccessful as well, he must wait for one year before he can attempt again. The exam can be taken in English or Japanese. Whatever language one takes the exam in, all attempts will count towards permissible attempts. Each retake is chargeable at the same cost.
Benefits of Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect Certification
Some benefits of this certification are
- It shows commitment to the role and to your duties that you’re serious and wants to excel in your role
- It is a relatively easy certification
- Its focus on case studies and real-life simulations is useful in the real world when tackling problems about designing and implementing solutions, or for scaling the cloud infrastructure
- It offers a better paycheck because certification shows that an employee has skilled himself better
- It creates new avenues for improving professional network
- It allows an individual to gain repute and become a Subject-Matter Expert or a thought leader in his field
- It helps the employer also by reducing the costs of training and costs of inefficiency.
Salaries and Job Opportunities
The average salary for a Google certified professional cloud architect is $175761, making it the highest-paid network certification in 2019. Cloud computing skills are in demand, but the number of skilled employees is in shortage. Even though people with those skills constitute a small percentage of the total respondents, their skill earned an average of $160000.
Where to Get Certified?
The case studies are available on Google’s page – Mount Kirk Games(1), Dress4win(2), and TerramEarth(3). Otherwise, you have the certification challenge(4) from Qwiklabs and the course from Coursera(5).
In Coursera, you’ll learn
- Learn the skills needed to be successful in a cloud architect role
- Prepare for the Professional Cloud Architect certification
- Learn about the infrastructure and platform services provided by Google Cloud Platform
- Review each section of the exam using highest-level concepts to identify what is already known and surface gap areas for study.
In Qwiklabs(6), you’ll have an introduction from the basics to the Kubernetes engine, computing engine, and all cloud essentials.
