Google Amps Up Cloud Certification Offerings

Over the past 4-6 weeks, Google has just about doubled the size of its certification program and credentials. Here's a quick visual of what's now available, with necessary links where appropriate:

Associate Cloud Engineer

Professional Cloud Architect

Professional Data Engineer

Professional Cloud Developer *

Professional Cloud Network Engineer **

Professional Cloud Security Engineer **

G Suite Certification

Note: Items with no marks are older certs, or had already been announced (G Suite) prior to the new introductions. Items with a single asterisk are new, but currently available to the general public. Items with double asterisks are new, and still in beta (which is to say, not yet available to the general public). You can read more about all of them at the Google Cloud Certified home page.

What's Going On Here?

At the end of January, I spoke with Rochana Golani, Google's lead person in its Learning and Enablement group. She told me the whole credential portfolio — and in particular, the new items — is intended to address needs for specific job and job role skills working with the Google Cloud Platform.

That explains why the focus for new (and emerging) items is at the professional level, where skills and knowledge are apparently most urgently needed. Ms. Golani indicated that the specific new credentials emerged from analysis of customer needs and was confirmed in surveys of, and conversations with, that population.

And though this is a big jump in the Google Cloud certification portfolio — up from three or four credentials to seven total — a single big jump is surely not all that's in store here. I wouldn't be surprised to see some additional specialties emerge in the next 12-to-18 months.

Maybe it will be something with storage? Hybrid or multi-cloud competencies? Analytics, monitoring, and management? The possibilities are huge. After that, it's not unreasonable to anticipate some kind of capstone or pinnacle credential, perhaps with an Expert or Master designation.

Ms. Golani didn't want to speculate when asked, so I am floating some ideas of my own here, to be sure. Only time will tell, of course, but it looks like there's lots of action for Google Cloud ahead on the training and certification front, as well as on the technology development and proliferation side of things.