In this post, we will be sharing the Google Cloud Professional Architect Day 1 Q/A Review and Faqs of Training which will help you understand & revise some basic concepts.
A Google Cloud Professional Architect has sound knowledge of all of Google Cloud’s architecture & framework and helps build solutions using the same. An architect should be able to design, develop, and manage cloud solutions to drive business objectives. Google Cloud Professional is a certification program offered by Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for individuals who demonstrate their proficiency in using GCP services to design, develop, and manage secure, scalable, and highly available solutions
Out of these, in the Day 1 Live Session, we covered the basic Cloud Computing Concepts, Introduction to the Google Cloud Platform, Regions & Zones, Resource Hierarchy, Projects, Google Cloud Free-Trial Account & Architectural Framework.
Cloud Computing Overview
Cloud computing term refers to the technology that makes the cloud work. It includes some form of virtualized IT infrastructure – servers, operating system software, networking, and other infrastructure that’s abstracted, using special software which can be pooled and divided irrespective of physical hardware boundaries.
Cloud Service Model
Cloud computing services are offered based on three delivery models. These are SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).
There are three main types of cloud computing services, sometimes called the cloud computing stack because they build on top of one another.
Cloud Deployment Models
The cloud deployment models represent a specific type of cloud environment, primarily distinguished by ownership, size, and access, and also describe the nature and purpose of the cloud. Cloud deployment models are categorized as public, private, and hybrid clouds.
Q.1 What is the difference between on-premises and private cloud?
Ans. On-premises computing has all resources located on-site, that is, at the same location where it is accessed and used.
In the private cloud, the resources are in an offshore location and can be accessed by the concerned organization and its employees as per need. However, in both cases, the resources are for just one organization, and there is no sharing with anyone else.
Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Platform is a suite of cloud services provided by Google to facilitate various cloud computing tasks. It is built on the same infrastructure that is used by Google for its other end-user products (Search, YouTube, Gmail, etc.)
Q2. What advantages does GCP offer over other cloud platforms?
Ans. You might be thinking that why should I choose Google Cloud when there are other cloud providers in the market like Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS. So here are some points to answer this question.
- GCP offers much better pricing deals as compared to the other cloud service providers.
- Google Cloud servers allow you to work from anywhere to have access to your information and data.
- Considering hosting cloud services, GCP has an overall increased performance and service
- Google Cloud is very fast in providing updates about server and security in a better and more efficient manner
- The security level of Google Cloud Platform is exemplary; the cloud platform and networks are secured and encrypted with various security measures.
Google Cloud Locations
Google Cloud has a physical presence all over the world from where it provides its various services. Google has a private, software-defined network, that provides fast and reliable connections to users around the world. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has data centers and points of presence (PoPs) located around the world. These locations are divided into regions and zones, which are used to provide high availability and fault tolerance for GCP services.
GCP also has points of presence (PoPs) located around the world, which are used to provide content delivery and edge caching services. These PoPs are located in major cities around the world, including New York, London, Tokyo, and Sydney.
Q3. What are the regions and zones in GCP?
Ans. Regions and zones are the geographical locations from where the cloud resources are hosted. A zone is a deployment area that comes inside a region. Regions are super-classes of zones, with each region containing three to four zones. Each region consists of at least two zones, and some regions have more than two zones. Each zone is an isolated data center within a region, and GCP services can be deployed across multiple zones within a region to provide high availability and redundancy.
There are currently 27 regions in GCP, spread across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The vast spread of regions and zones ensures the high availability of resources, no matter where the user is.
Q4. Can we transfer our resources to a third zone if two zones face service failure in a region?
Ans. Firstly, it is very rare that two regions face failure issues at the same time. But in the case is it happens you can transfer your services/resources to the third zone if you get zonal failure issues in a region.
GCP Resource Hierarchy
The Google Cloud resource hierarchy resembles the file system found in traditional operating systems as a way of organizing and managing entities hierarchically. Each resource has exactly one parent.
This hierarchical organization of resources enables you to set access control policies and configuration settings on a parent resource, and the policies and Identity and Access Management (IAM) settings are inherited by the child resources.
Q5. Explain the Categories/levels of the Resource hierarchy in Google Cloud.
Ans. The Resource hierarchy system divides the entities into 5 categories. Going from top to bottom, these are:
- Domain
- Organization
- Folders
- Projects
- Resources
In this system, anyone with access to a higher entity (parent) can access the ones below it (child), while the vice-versa is not true. Another thing the resource hierarchy does is bind the lifecycle of the resource to its immediate parent. This system is an important part of the Identity and Access Management System of GCP.
Google Cloud Platform Projects
One feature that sets GCP apart from other cloud service providers is the project. Projects in Google Cloud are entities that contain and help organize all resources in the associated account.
The USP of Google Cloud Projects is that they can provide isolation of the various components from each other – a feature that is very important from a security perspective.
Q6. Is there a limit on the number of projects?
Ans. Yes, there is a set quota that decides the maximum number of projects that can be associated with an account. However, if there is a need, an increase in that quota may be requested.
GCP Resources/Services
Resources are children nodes under projects and aid the user in making use of the various GCP services. For example, a VM instance is a Compute resource. Similarly, a VPC network is an example of a Networking resource.
Q7. What services are offered under Google Cloud?
Ans. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is composed of a set of elements that helps people in different ways. The various GCP services fall under the given 5 main categories –
- Computing and Hosting: It includes compute engine, an App engine, a container engine, and cloud functions.
- Storage/Databases: It includes cloud storage and cloud SQL. cloud Datastore, etc.
- Networking: It consists of VPC, Cloud CDN, Cloud Load Balancing, and more.
- Big Data: It includes BigQuery, cloud dataflow, etc. Machine Learning: It includes a cloud machine learning engine, Cloud APIs, and more.
- And other services included are Security and Identity Management, Management tools, Cloud AI, IoT, etc.
Billing Account, Budgets & Alerts
A Cloud Billing account is set up in Google Cloud and is used to define who pays for a given set of Google Cloud resources and Google Maps Platform APIs.
A budget enables you to track your actual Google Cloud spend against your planned spend. After you’ve set a budget amount, you set budget alert threshold rules that are used to trigger email notifications.
Budget alert emails help you stay informed about how your spend is tracking against your budget. You can also use budgets to automate cost control responses .
Q5. How are resources billed? How are resources under a single organization differentiated?
Ans. Billing in Google Cloud is done to the project associated with the particular resource. Resources are specific to a zone or region and can then be accessed from anywhere
Pricing Calculator
Users can understand how costs can fluctuate based on location, workloads, and other variables with the help of a pricing calculator.
Ways To Interact With Google Cloud Platform
There are several ways to interact with the Google Cloud Platform.
- Google Cloud Console:- This is a web-based interface that allows you to manage your GCP resources, including creating and managing virtual machines, databases, and storage buckets. The Console provides a user-friendly interface and a range of tools for monitoring and managing your resources.
- Cloud SDK:- Using a collection of command-line tools, you may manage your GCP resources with the help of this command-line interface (CLI) tool. The SDK offers a variety of tools for developing, managing, and testing applications as well as resources.
- Cloud APIs:- You are able to interact with GCP programmatically via a set of APIs that GCP makes available. This contains APIs for interacting with other Google services like Google Maps and Google Drive as well as APIs for managing resources like virtual machines, databases, and storage.
- Cloud Shell:- This is a browser-based shell environment that allows you to run command-line tools and scripts from the Console. Cloud Shell provides access to the Cloud SDK and other tools, as well as a range of pre-installed utilities.
- Third-party tools:- Many third-party tools and frameworks, including well-known programming languages like Python and Java, can be used to communicate with GCP. These programmes and libraries offer extra features and can be used to automate processes or connect to different systems.
Q9. How is the GCP Console different from Cloud Shell?
Ans. The Console and the Shell are two of the ways by which a user can interact with the GCP platform. While the Console offers a graphical UI, the Shell takes input via Command Line Interface (CLI). They’re not mutually exclusive, as both have functionalities that aren’t possible in the other.
Q10. Is Using the Google Cloud Platform Console free?
Ans. Yes, the GCP Console comes with a free tier with a number of features, and $300 worth of credits to start you off. Afterward, one may choose to purchase more credits to unlock more features or continue using the ones they’re using.
Google Cloud Free Trial Account
Google offers a free trial account to users so that they can try out the features and services of the Google Cloud Platform. It comes with $300 worth of credits and a validity of three months (90 days) (whichever limit is reached first). This account then lets one access GCP services that come under the free-tier bracket, for example, Compute, Storage, BigQuery, etc.
Some of the more advanced and complex features are locked from the free account, and can only be accessed via a paid billing account. Users have the option to upgrade to a full (paid) account anytime they want through the Billing tab.
You can create a free trial account for yourself by following the step-by-step guide for the same.
Architecture Framework
Google Cloud’s Architecture Framework describes best practices, makes implementation recommendations, and goes into detail about products and services. GCP offers a range of architectural frameworks that can help organizations design, implement, and manage their cloud-based solutions on the platform. These frameworks provide guidance on best practices, design patterns, and key considerations for deploying workloads on GCP, and can help organizations optimize their cloud adoption journey for security, reliability, efficiency, and cost
The framework was created by seasoned experts at Google Cloud, including customer engineers, solution architects, cloud reliability engineers, and members of the professional service organization.
There are 4 pillars of the Architecture Framework:
- Operational Excellence – This pillar focuses on ensuring the availability, dependability, and performance of GCP resources and services. It involves overseeing performance, managing and automating operational tasks, and making that GCP resources are secure and compliant.
- Security, Privacy, and Compliance – This pillar emphasizes securing and shielding GCP resources and services from potential threats. It involves controlling access restrictions, putting data protection and encryption into place, as well as monitoring for and responding to security issues.
- Reliability – This pillar’s primary objective is to guarantee the high availability and resilience of GCP resources and services. Designing for failure, putting backup and recovery processes in place, and making sure GCP resources can scale up or down as necessary are all part of this process.
- Performance & Cost Optimization – This pillar focuses on making sure that GCP resources and services are cost- and performance-optimized. It includes optimizing resource usage, putting cost management and monitoring into place, and making sure workloads are provided with the right resources.
Feedback
We always work on improving and being the best version of ourselves from the previous session hence constantly ask feedback from our attendees.
Here’s the feedback that we received from our trainees who had attended the session…
Quiz Time (Sample Exam Questions)!
With our Google Cloud Architect training program, we cover 200+ sample exam questions to help you prepare for the certification.
Check out one of the questions and see if you can crack this…
Ques: Your company has reserved a monthly budget for your project. You want to be informed automatically of your project spend so that you can take action when you approach the limit. What should you do?
A. Link a credit card with a monthly limit equal to your budget.
B. Create a budget alert for desired percentages such as 50%, 90%, and 100% of your total monthly budget.
C. In App Engine Settings set a daily budget at the rate of 1/30 of your monthly budget.
D. In the GCP Console, configure billing export to BigQuery. Create a saved view that queries your total spend.
Comment with your answer & we will tell you if you are correct or not!
FAQs of Google Cloud Professional Architect Day 1
Does google cloud also support data residency requirements for managed services?
Yes, Google Cloud does support data residency requirements for managed services. Google Cloud offers various services designed to help customers meet their data residency requirements like regional services, Compliance Certifications, Data Control, etc.
Does Edge locations will be helpful for frequently accessed data ?
Yes, Edge locations can be helpful for frequently accessed data as they allow for faster access to content and lower latency. Edge locations are essentially small data centers located closer to end-users, which are designed to cache frequently accessed content and deliver it faster to users.
What if there is even no edge location?
If there are no Edge locations available, accessing frequently accessed data may take longer and result in higher latency. This is because the data will need to be retrieved from the origin server, which could be located far away from the end user.
Is there a list that tells us which services are multi-region vs which ones are not?
Yes, there is a list of Google Cloud services that are multi-region and those that are not.
Related References
- GCP Professional Cloud Architect: Everything You Need To Know
- Google Professional Cloud Architect: Step-By-Step Hands-On Guide
- Google Cloud Platform Console Walkthrough
- Google Cloud Functions
- Beginners Guide To Google Compute Services
Next Task For You
If you are also interested and want to know more about the Google Professional Cloud Architect certification, register for our Free Class.
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