If you haven't
worked or learned about Google Cloud Platform (GCP) before, and want to learn
everything about it - leave all hope behind you.
However, if you'd
like to start a journey into this exciting technology, here are a few pointers to
start from:
First,
check this one:
and follow the
steps, from
- Quick intros,
- In-depth courses,
- Role-based learning paths,
- Practice and play, to
- Certification.
You can try free
tutorials, video courses, hands-on labs, or find paid on-demand or courses,
depending on your learning needs and preferences.
Once you get past
quick intros and decide to follow either role based or certification paths,
you'll can choose between
- DevOps,
- Architecture,
- Application developer,
- Data Engineer / Data Scientist, or
- Machine Learning tracks.
If you prefer
reading most update and correct material, head to documentation site:
Within Google, GCP
console provides interactive tutorials: activate help (?), select 'Start a
tutorial', and continue with the Interactive tutorials panel.
GCP console also
provides 'Take the quickstart' button in a number of tasks done first time.
Outside Google,
there are several online options providing video courses, hands-on labs,
quizzes, supporting materials and certifications (proprietary, not Google - for
Google Certified Program, check https://cloud.google.com/certification).
https://www.coursera.org was one of the first available options for
learning GCP, with courses developed by Google, along with curated and tailored
hands-on labs provided by QuikLabs.
Courses can be taken
individually, or as part of specializations. You can walk through the courses
without subscription, without access quizzes (results) and labs. You can also
use handy free trials to run through the courses, labs and quizzes, before buying
a subscription.
A Cloud Guru started with
training curriculum for AWS, but expanded to GCP and Azure. They also provide
quizzes, hands-on labs and certifications.
https://linuxacademy.com started with
courses on Linux, containers, DevOps, and provided servers to play with. They
were one of the first to include AWS training, and later GCP and Azure. They
also provide access to AWS, GCP and Azure cloud resources, that is used to run
the curated hands-on labs within the courses or learn-by-doing exercises, but
also for limited ad hoc experimentation. They also have tests, and other
learning resources.
https://www.udemy.com provides hours of
discounted video courses that also include practice tests.
https://www.pluralsight.com is an
excellent source of courses, particularly useful if you already have access to
it, or need a one stop shop for your training needs. In addition to courses in
different formats, they provide live events, and self-assessment tools
(roleIQ).
For a number of
years, there were just a handful of courses on GCP. In 2019, a number of
courses from Udemy were also published on Pluralsight, and after Google and
Pluralsight partnered, most of the Google authored courses for Coursera were published on Pluralsight. These courses include the
same credited access to the hands-on labs in QuikLabs.
Finally, https://www.qwiklabs.com is another
resource particularly fitting the learners who like to learn by action. Here
you can run individual labs, or embark on quests, series of labs gradually
introducing and covering ranges of topics. You need to sign up and get credits
to run the labs. Note that the credits are included in the courses authored by
Google on Coursera and Pluralsight.
All the listed sites
provide different trial modes, subscription terms or individual course purchases, and I recommend trying at least two. You may even continue with more than one, it makes it more interesting and easier
learning, when listening to the same topic from different people.
There are other
resources for which you already have subscription to and I would not mention
here, assuming that you already checked them out. Coming to mind are online
training at https://www.oreilly.com,
(remember Safari Books Online? Remember books?...)
One final note:
Cloud tech changes quickly and make sure you are looking at the most update
version of the course.
Happy learning.
