What is the cloud?

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When discussing “the cloud” with others, you begin to see that many of us have a small grasp on what it’s current capabilities, and possibilities are. The average consumer’s cloud engagement may involve storing their photos to Google Drive or backing up their iPhone in iCloud. While these are practical solutions, the actual “cloud” is so much more.

Essentially, the cloud is a term to identify a global network of servers. Each of these servers has a unique role and operate as one ecosystem. Think of the human body's circulatory system, the immense system of blood vessels communicates amongst each other, delivering blood from end to end. But, in the cloud, the vast system of servers is constructed to manage data, run apps, or provide a service. Email, social media, and video streaming are some of the most frequently used services today. Think about it, none of these services mentioned are installed to your local hard drive. You're accessing them online. This makes them available anytime, and anywhere, with access to the internet.

There are four methods that organizations use to deploy cloud resources. The public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community cloud. The public cloud can be accessed by anyone, over the internet. The private cloud is private, HAHA. The private cloud offers services too but is only available in a private internal network. The hybrid cloud is a combination of the public and private cloud, which describes most of today's companies. The community cloud shares resources between organizations.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of the cloud than you had 10 minutes ago! Cloudmil is dedicated to facilitating the transaction of valuable cloud knowledge to our clients.

What is cloud computing? from Google Cloud.

What is cloud computing? from AWS.

What is cloud computing? from Azure.

Becoming the First Black Google Cloud Certified Engineer in Houston

With newfound time for most of us staying home, to stop the spread of COVID-19, I’ve decided to share the steps I took to obtain Google Cloud certification. According to Global Knowledge, the world’s largest Information Technology training company, the Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect credential is the top paying technology certification for 2020. Analyzing the list reveals that cloud computing and cybersecurity expertise is in high demand.

1. Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect — $175,761

2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate — $149,446

3. CISM – Certified Information Security Manager — $148,622

4. CRISC – Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control — $146,480

5. PMP® – Project Management Professional — $143,493

See the full list - 15 Top-Paying IT Certifications for 2020

Here are the steps I took to prepare for the Associate Cloud Engineering exam and pass on my first attempt. In order, I completed the Architecting with Google Compute Engine Specialization (GCE) on Coursera, I completed all related Quest labs, and in parallel with both, I read the Official Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Study Guide by Dan Sullivan (a few times).

• Complete the Architecting with Google Compute Engine Specialization on Coursera

  • Go to Coursera 

• Complete the exam relevant Quest Labs

  • Baseline: Infrastructure

  • Cloud Engineering

  • Kubernetes in Google Cloud

  • Cloud Run - Hello Cloud Run

  • Deploying an Application to App Engine Flexible

• Read the Official Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Study Guide

  • Go to Study Guide

After completing all, I felt very confident before taking the exam. The study guide from Dan Sullivan includes exam-type questions at the end of each chapter. I used these questions as a metric to reread the related content for any questions I missed.

The Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer exam requires you to debug theoretical problems in realistic hands-on scenarios by thinking through the data flows, so having a complete understanding to assess best-case is vital! For me, it seemed as if each question was more difficult than the previous one. This isn’t entirely challenging, think of it as a staircase, each step prepares you for the next one.

Exam details you should be aware of - 

• There are 50 questions.

• Some questions are not scored.

• All questions are multiple-choice.

• Some are multiple response questions. You need to select all the answers correctly in order to get the points for the question. If you are asked to choose 2 answers of 5, you need to select the two correct answers or you get 0 marks for the question.

• There are no true or false questions.

• Exam content can update at any time, so study hard and set a personal deadline for you to take the exam.

For more info, go to the Google Cloud Certification home.

You won’t receive your score after taking the exam, which is nerve-wrecking, especially in today’s environment where we expect an immediate response. BE PATIENT. I received my official “PASS” email from Google in less than a week.

Google has a directory of credential holders, Google Cloud Credential Holder Directory. I hope to see you listed there soon! Good Luck!

“I’m an engineer in Houston, TX. I specialize in information systems infrastructure, with a more intent focus on Infrastructure As A Service. Among various Technical credentials, I recently obtained the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer certification. My pursuit began in April 2019, when I accepted an invitation into the inaugural Google Future Leaders of Cloud cohort. The cohort inspired me to take a deeper dive into the Google Cloud Platform as a cloud computing solution. In addition, I’m pursuing a Master of Science in Computational Data Analytics to feed my curiousity in using data to predict.”

— Rashad