Cloud-based solutions have been in high demand over the last several years, and this is not likely to change in the future. With large and well-established corporations, academic institutions, and even cities increasingly affected by insufficient security practices and attacks, knowing how to properly and efficiently secure Google Cloud (GC) cloud infrastructure is essential to organizations.
In this guide, you will learn about the GC Professional Cloud Security Engineer certification and the exam you can take to achieve it.
As the name suggests, this certification has "security" written all over it, specifically Google Cloud security offerings and features. Since it is a professional-level certification, the required exam covers a wide range of security topics and technologies.
As a Professional Cloud Security Engineer, you will enable organizations to design and implement a secure infrastructure on Google Cloud. Through an understanding of security best practices and industry security requirements, you will design, develop, and manage a secure infrastructure leveraging Google security technologies. You should be proficient in all aspects of Cloud Security, including:
Google recommends you have three or more years of industry experience, including one or more years designing and managing solutions using Google Cloud. A strong IT security background is an absolute must-have to fully comprehend and understand these topics.
A single exam is required to gain the GC Professional Cloud Security Engineer certification. Currently, this exam is only available in English.
The price of the exam is US $200. Google also offers a practice exam. At present, this practice exam is free of charge.
The exam format is multiple choice and multiple select.
While Google offers some exams remotely, the GC Professional Cloud Security Engineer can only be taken in person at a test center. Follow this link to find locations of available test centers near you.
You will have two hours to complete the exam. Ensure that you arrive on time and have completed the check-in process to ensure that you maximize the use of your allowed time.
While there are no specific prerequisites to achieving this certification beyond passing the GC Professional Cloud Security Engineer exam, it is worth noting that experience with the required skills is key to a successful experience.
Passing the GC Associate Cloud Engineer exam and achieving the corresponding certification, while not mandatory, will help you prepare for this level since it introduces a number of technologies covered in the GC Professional Cloud Security Engineer exam.
Ensure that you possess sufficient experience and invest the time to go through the relevant Pluralsight courses and other resources.
Your skills will be measured in the following five categories:
These categories are broken down into details as follows:
Configuring cloud identity
Managing user accounts
Managing service accounts
Managing authentication
Managing and implementing authorization controls
Defining resource hierarchy
Designing network security
Configuring network segmentation
Establish private connectivity
Preventing data loss with the DLP API
Managing encryption at rest
Building and deploying infrastructure
Building and deploying applications
Monitoring for security events
Comprehension of regulatory concerns
Comprehension of compute environment concerns
Make sure you check out Pluralsight's Security in Google Cloud learning path, which currently contains three different courses at varying levels.
As always, the newer the course the more relevant the material will be to your learning journey.
Utilizing Google Cloud documentation and Google Cloud solutions and navigating to the relevant topics will also help you to prepare for this exam.
The cloud business has been booming over the last several years. Google's cloud business keeps growing. While COVID-19 has affected everyone in some way, it certainly doesn't seem to have had a negative impact on Google's cloud business.
Gaining an up-to-date certification like the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Security Engineer certification from a household name like Google should make you much more attractive to both your current and future employers, especially since the cloud security field is booming. Your current employer might not raise your salary, but the next time you go looking for a job, make sure you check trusted Internet sources for up-to-date information on salaries in your region.
It's difficult to provide absolute figures because they will depend on numerous factors like your experience, company type and size, industry, and region. Expect salaries for an experienced Cloud Security Engineer to range from US $120,000 to US $225,000 in the United States.
As a specialty-level certification, the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Security Engineer credentials, while challenging, will earn you recognition and prove that you are a subject matter expert in this field. All it takes is a single exam, and you have a number of excellent courses available to gain the required knowledge and earn the badge. Sign up for Google Cloud, utilize the GC always free products and book the exam, which you can take in one of many testing centers.
I hope that this guide is useful and wish you good luck with gaining your certification.