What you'll learn

Most teams can create a Compute Engine VM in five minutes but then spend most of their time fighting instance drift, missing backups, over-permissioned service accounts, and surprise bills. In this course, Google Compute Engine Operations and Lifecycle, you'll gain the ability to run Compute Engine the way a production cloud team does. First, you'll explore how to configure and operate instances with the right machine type, image, networking, and observability built in from day one. Next, you’ll discover how to secure instances with IAM, service accounts, OS Login, IAP, and firewall rules that actually follow least privilege. Finally, you’ll learn how to manage the full instance lifecycle and standardize your fleet using snapshots, custom images, and instance templates so every new VM comes up identical to the last. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of Google Compute Engine operations and lifecycle needed to run a Compute Engine “fleet” that is secure, observable, repeatable, and cost-aware.