Google Professional Cloud Network Engineers are responsible for designing, deploying, and managing networks on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). They work with other IT professionals to ensure that the network is secure, scalable, and reliable. Here are some key responsibilities and skills required for a Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer:
Responsibilities:
- Design and deploy networks on GCP
- Monitor network performance and troubleshoot issues
- Collaborate with other IT professionals to ensure network security
- Automate network management tasks using scripting and programming
- Develop and maintain network documentation
Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer (GCP) Exam Glossary
Here are some key terms and concepts that you should know for the Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer (GCP) exam:
- Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): A virtual private network that provides a secure connection between resources in the GCP network.
- Cloud Load Balancing: A service that distributes incoming traffic across multiple instances of an application or service.
- Learn Cloud VPN: A service that provides a secure connection between on-premises resources and GCP VPC networks.
- Cloud Interconnect: A service that provides a dedicated physical connection between an on-premises network and a GCP VPC network.
- Network Address Translation (NAT): A technique that allows multiple devices on a private network to share a single public IP address.
- Border Gateway Protocol (BGP): A routing protocol used to exchange routing information between different networks.
- Open Shortest Path First (OSPF): A routing protocol used to distribute routing information within a single network.
- Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS): A protocol used to improve the speed and efficiency of network traffic by creating virtual connections between network nodes.
- Firewall: A security device that controls access to a network by filtering incoming and outgoing traffic based on a set of rules.
- Intrusion Detection System/Intrusion Prevention System (IDS/IPS): A security device that monitors network traffic for suspicious activity and can block traffic that violates a set of rules.
- Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS): A protocol used to encrypt data transmitted over the internet to provide secure communication between two devices.
- Network automation: The use of scripting and programming tools to automate network management tasks, such as configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer (GCP) Exam Guide
Here are some official resources for the Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer (GCP) exam:
- Exam Guide: The Google Cloud Professional Cloud Network Engineer Exam Guide provides an overview of the exam format, topics covered, and sample questions. You can find the guide on the official Google Cloud website.
- Training: Google Cloud offers a variety of training courses and resources to help you prepare for the exam. Some recommended courses include “Networking in Google Cloud,” “Hybrid Connectivity in Google Cloud,” and “Security in Google Cloud Platform.” You can find these courses on the Google Cloud Training website.
- Practice Exam: Google Cloud offers a practice exam for the Professional Cloud Network Engineer certification. This exam is designed to simulate the actual exam and help you assess your readiness. You can find the practice exam on the Google Cloud Certification website.
- Community: The Google Cloud Community is a forum where you can connect with other IT professionals and experts in GCP networking. You can ask questions, share ideas, and collaborate with others to prepare for the exam. You can find the community on the Google Cloud website.
- Documentation: The Google Cloud documentation provides detailed information on GCP networking services and technologies. You can use this documentation to deepen your understanding of key concepts and prepare for the exam. You can find the documentation on the Google Cloud website.
Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer (GCP) Exam Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips and tricks for preparing and taking the Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer (GCP) exam:
- Review the Exam Guide: The Google Cloud Professional Cloud Network Engineer Exam Guide provides an overview of the exam format, topics covered, and sample questions. Review the guide carefully and make sure you understand the exam objectives.
- Take Training Courses: Google Cloud offers a variety of training courses and resources to help you prepare for the exam. Take advantage of these courses and make sure you understand the key networking concepts and technologies covered in the exam.
- Practice with Hands-On Labs: Hands-on labs are a great way to gain practical experience with GCP networking services and technologies. Take advantage of the labs provided in the training courses or create your own lab environment to practice your skills.
- Use Practice Exams: Google Cloud offers a practice exam for the Professional Cloud Network Engineer certification. This exam is designed to simulate the actual exam and help you assess your readiness. Take the practice exam multiple times to identify areas where you need to improve.
- Read Documentation: The Google Cloud documentation provides detailed information on GCP networking services and technologies. Use this documentation to deepen your understanding of key concepts and prepare for the exam.
- Focus on Key Topics: The exam covers a wide range of networking topics, but some topics are more heavily weighted than others. Focus your study efforts on the key topics covered in the exam, such as VPCs, Load Balancing, Cloud VPN, Cloud Interconnect, and network automation.
- Manage Your Time: The exam is timed, so it’s important to manage your time effectively. Read each question carefully, and if you’re not sure of the answer, move on to the next question and come back to it later.
Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer: Quick Cheat Sheet
To pass any certification test, you must choose the finest exam preparation method. When it comes to the Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer Certification, making the proper decision is critical if you want to have a successful and satisfying career on the Google cloud platform. So, let’s get started with the Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer Cheat Sheet as a starting point.
1. Understanding Exam Topics
The exam objectives for Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer (GCP) help you get in-depth details about the cloud networking concepts, components, resources, and the exam description. Moreover, a thorough analysis of the exam concepts will let you align yourself more deeply with the major objectives of the exam. And, you will also be able to review and mark the sections and topics you find difficult. However, the topics that are included in this Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer Course are provided below:
Topic 1: Designing, planning, and prototyping a Google Cloud network
1.1 Designing the overall network architecture. Considerations include:
- High availability, failover, and disaster recovery strategies (Google Documentation: Overview of the high availability configuration, Enabling and disabling high availability on an instance,Disaster recovery scenarios for applications)
- DNS strategy (e.g., on-premises, Cloud DNS, GSLB) (Google Documentation: Cloud DNS)
- Security and data exfiltration requirements
- Load balancing
- Applying quotas per project and per VPC
- Hybrid connectivity (e.g., Google private access for hybrid connectivity) (Google Documentation: Google Cloud Hybrid Connectivity, Configuring Private Google Access for on-premises hosts)
- Container networking (Google Documentation: Network overview)
- IAM roles (Google Documentation: IAM)
- SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services (Google Documentation: About Google Cloud services)
- Microsegmentation for security purposes (e.g., using metadata, tags, service accounts) (Google Documentation: Google Cloud networking)
1.2 Designing a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) instances. Considerations include:
- IP address management and bring your own IP (BYOIP) (Google Documentation: IP Addresses, Reserving a static internal IP address)
- Standalone or shared VPC (Google Documentation: Shared VPC overview, Provisioning Shared VPC)
- Multiple vs. single (Google Documentation: Best practices and reference architectures for VPC design)
- Regional vs. multi-regional
- VPC Network Peering (Google Documentation: VPC Network Peering overview)
- Firewall (e.g., service account-based, tag-based) (Google Documentation: VPC firewall rules overview)
- Custom Routes (Google Documentation: Routes overview)
- Using managed services (e.g., Cloud SQL, Memorystore)
- Third-party device insertion (NGFW) into VPC using multi-NIC and internal load balancer as a next hop or equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) routes
1.3 Designing a hybrid and multi-cloud network. Considerations include:
- Dedicated Interconnect vs. Partner Interconnect
- Multi-cloud connectivity
- Direct Peering (Google Documentation: Carrier Peering overview, Direct Peering overview)
- IPsec VPN (Google Documentation: Cloud VPN overview)
- Failover and disaster recovery strategy (Google Documentation: Disaster recovery scenarios for applications, Best practices for Cloud Router)
- Regional vs. global VPC routing mode
- Accessing multiple VPCs from on-premises locations (e.g., Shared VPC, multi-VPC peering topologies)
- Bandwidth and constraints provided by hybrid connectivity solutions
- Accessing Google Services/APIs privately from on-premises locations
- IP address management across on-premises locations and cloud
- DNS peering and forwarding
1.4 Designing a container IP addressing plan for Google Kubernetes Engine (Google Documentation: Network overview)
- Public and private cluster nodes
- Control plane public vs. private endpoints
- Subnets and alias IPs
- RFC 1918, non-RFC 1918, and privately used public IP (PUPI) address options
Topic 2: Implementing a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Instances
2.1 Configuring VPCs. Considerations include:
- Configuring Google Cloud VPC resources (CIDR range, subnets, firewall rules, etc.) (Google Documentation: VPC firewall rules overview, Creating instances with multiple network interfaces, Configuring alias IP ranges)
- VPC Network Peering (Google Documentation: VPC Network Peering overview)
- Creating a shared VPC and explaining how to share subnets with other projects (Google Documentation: Provisioning Shared VPC)
- Configuring API access to Google services (e.g., Private Google Access, public interfaces) (Google Documentation: Overview of API access)
- Expanding VPC subnet ranges after creation
2.2 Configuring routing. Tasks include:
- Static vs. dynamic routing
- Global vs. regional dynamic routing
- Routing policies using tags and priority
- Internal load balancer as a next hop
- Custom route import/export over VPC Network Peering
2.3 Configuring and maintaining Google Kubernetes Engine clusters. Considerations include:
- VPC-native clusters using alias IPs (Google Documentation: Creating a VPC-native cluster)
- Clusters with shared VPC (Google Documentation: Setting up clusters with Shared VPC)
- Creating Kubernetes Network Policies
- Private clusters and private control plane endpoints
- Adding authorized networks for cluster control plane endpoints
2.4 Configuring and managing firewall rules. Considerations include:
- Target network tags and service accounts (Google Documentation: Configuring network tags, VPC firewall rules overview)
- Rule Priority (Google Documentation: VPC firewall rules overview)
- Network protocols (Google Documentation: VPC firewall rules overview)
- Ingress and egress rules (Google Documentation: VPC firewall rules overview)
- Firewall rule logging
- Firewall Insights
- Hierarchical firewalls
2.5 Implementing VPC Service Controls. Considerations include:
- Creating and configuring access levels and service perimeters
- VPC accessible services
- Perimeter bridges
- Audit logging
- Dry run mode
Topic 3: Configuring network services
3.1 Configuring load balancing. Considerations include:
- Backend services and network endpoint groups (NEGs)
- Firewall rules to allow traffic and health checks to backend services
- Health checks for backend services and target instance groups
- Configuring backends and backend services with balancing method (e.g., RPS, CPU, Custom), session affinity, and capacity scaling/scaler
- TCP and SSL proxy load balancers (Google Documentation: TCP Proxy Load Balancing overview, SSL Proxy Load Balancing overview)
- Load balancers (e.g., External TCP/UDP Network Load Balancing, Internal TCP/UDP Load Balancing, External HTTP(S) Load Balancing, Internal HTTP(S) Load Balancing)
- Protocol forwarding
- Accommodating workload increases using autoscaling vs. manual scaling
3.2 Configuring Google Cloud Armor policies. Considerations include:
- Security policies
- Web application firewall (WAF) rules (e.g., SQL injection, cross-site scripting, remote file inclusion)
- Attaching security policies to load balancer backends
3.3 Configuring Cloud CDN. Considerations include:
- Enabling and disabling (Google Documentation: Setting up Cloud CDN with a backend bucket, Using Cloud CDN)
- Cloud CDN
- Cache keysInvalidating cached objects
- Signed URLs
- Custom origins
3.4 Configuring and maintaining Cloud DNS. Considerations include:
- Managing zones and records (Google Documentation: Managing Zones)
- Migrating to Cloud DNS (Google Documentation: Migrating to Cloud DNS)
- DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) (Google Documentation: DNS Security (DNSSEC))
- Forwarding and DNS server policies
- Integrating on-premises DNS with GCP (Google Documentation: DNS Best practices, Cloud DNS Overview)
- Split-horizon DNS
- DNS peering
- Private DNS logging
3.5 Enabling other network services. Considerations include:
- Addressing
- Port allocations
- Customizing timeouts
- Logging and monitoring
- Restrictions per organization policy constraints
3.6 Configuring network packet inspection. Considerations include:
- Packet Mirroring in single and multi-VPC topologies
- Capturing relevant traffic using Packet Mirroring source and traffic filters
- Routing and inspecting inter-VPC traffic using multi-NIC VMs (e.g., next-generation firewall appliances)
- Configuring an internal load balancer as a next hop for highly available multi-NIC VM routing
Topic: 4 Implementing hybrid Interconnectivity
4.1 Configuring Cloud interconnect. Considerations include:
- Dedicated Interconnect connections and VLAN attachments
- Partner Interconnect connections and VLAN attachments
4.2 Configuring a site-to-site IPsec VPN. Considerations include:
- High availability VPN (dynamic routing)
- Classic VPN (e.g., route-based routing, policy-based routing)
4.3 Configuring Cloud Router:
- Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) attributes (e.g., ASN, route priority/MED, link-local addresses)
- Custom route advertisements via BGP
- Deploying reliable and redundant Cloud Routers
Section 5: Managing, monitoring, and optimizing network operations
5.1 Logging and monitoring with Google Cloud’s operations suite. Considerations include:
- Reviewing logs for networking components (e.g., VPN, Cloud Router, VPC Service Controls)
- Monitoring networking components (e.g., VPN, Cloud Interconnect connections and interconnect attachments, Cloud Router, load balancers, Google Cloud Armor, Cloud NAT)
5.2 Managing and maintaining security. Considerations include:
- Firewalls (e.g., cloud-based, private)
- Diagnosing and resolving IAM issues (e.g., Shared VPC, security/network admin)
5.3 Maintaining and troubleshooting connectivity issues. Considerations include:
- Draining and redirecting traffic flows with HTTP(S) Load Balancing
- Monitoring ingress and egress traffic using VPC Flow Logs
- Monitoring firewall logs and Firewall Insights
- Managing and troubleshooting VPNs
- Troubleshooting Cloud Router BGP peering issues
5.4 Monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshooting latency and traffic flow. Considerations include:
- Testing network throughput and latency
- Diagnosing routing issues
- Using Network Intelligence Center to visualize topology, test connectivity, and monitor performance
2. Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer Training
GCP provides training for Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer (GCP) for helping you to pass the exam. This includes:
Networking in Google Cloud
This two-day instructor-led training is designed by GCP to broaden the scope of study of the networking options on Google Cloud. This training is a well-designed combination of presentations, demonstrations, and hands-on labs. Through these training methods, Google aims to allow you to explore and deploy Google Cloud networking technologies. However, using this you will be able to cover concepts like Google Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networks, subnets, firewalls, interconnection among networks, load balancing, Cloud DNS, Cloud CDN, and Cloud NAT.
3. Hands-On Practice
Gaining hands-on practice is an ideal way to crack the Google certification exam. For the GCP Cloud Network Engineer Exam, GCP recommends joining the following to elevate your proficiency in the cloud platform.
– Google Cloud Free Tier
Through this platform, GCP provides you with free resources to gain a deeper knowledge of Google Cloud services, by allowing you to get enough practice. Google Cloud Free Tier covers the requirements of professionals at different levels – beginners, and experienced professionals
– Networking in the Google Cloud
This is a fundamental-level quest that covers all the necessary Google Cloud networking services. Taking this quest will help you gain hands-on practice with specialized tools for developing mature networks. This will surely give you expertise in the practical experience in building robust networks, by teaching you from the basics to the advanced level features of the GCP.
– Network Performance and Optimization
The Network Performance and Optimization quest is composed of labs that will train you with the real-life use cases. Moreover, this quest will teach you the best practices for overcoming common networking bottlenecks. Undoubtedly, this quest is primarily designed for GCP developers who aspire to double down on their application speed and robustness.
4. Hands-on Lab: Security & Identity Fundamentals
This quest will train you with the fundamentals of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and also Security in Google Cloud Platform. Through this hands-on lab, Google will help you gain expertise in network security by provisioning VPCs and VPNs, and also in learning about the tools available for security threat and data loss protections.
5. Evaluate yourself with Practice Tests
During the exam preparation period, practice exams are essential. You will learn about your weak and strong areas by taking these Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer Practice Exams. Time, on the other hand, is crucial throughout the exam. As a consequence of your practice, you will be able to enhance your response abilities, which will save you a lot of time. Furthermore, the optimum time to begin conducting practice exams is after you have completed one topic since this will serve as a revision tool for you.
