GCP Training - Google Cloud Platform Guide

Overview

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) provides a suite of cloud computing services running on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products. GCP offers services for compute, storage, networking, big data, machine learning, and IoT, with strengths in data analytics and Kubernetes-native workloads.

Compute Services

GCP offers flexible compute options from traditional VMs to serverless computing and managed container orchestration.

Compute Engine - Virtual machines with custom machine types and preemptible instances
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) - Managed Kubernetes with autopilot mode
App Engine - Platform as a Service for application deployment
Cloud Functions - Serverless event-driven compute
Cloud Run - Fully managed serverless containers

                        
# Create a GKE Autopilot cluster
gcloud container clusters create-auto my-cluster \
    --region=us-central1 \
    --project=my-project

# Deploy an application to Cloud Run
gcloud run deploy my-service \
    --image=gcr.io/my-project/my-image \
    --platform=managed \
    --region=us-central1 \
    --allow-unauthenticated

# Create a Compute Engine instance
gcloud compute instances create my-vm \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --machine-type=e2-medium \
    --image-family=debian-11 \
    --image-project=debian-cloud
                        
                    

Storage & Database Services

GCP provides a comprehensive set of storage and database services for different data types and access patterns.

Cloud Storage - Object storage with multiple storage classes
Persistent Disk - Block storage for VMs (SSD and HDD)
Cloud SQL - Managed MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server
Cloud Spanner - Globally distributed relational database
Firestore - NoSQL document database for web and mobile

Data Analytics & BigQuery

GCP excels in data analytics with BigQuery leading as a serverless, highly scalable data warehouse.

BigQuery - Serverless data warehouse with SQL analytics
Dataflow - Stream and batch data processing (Apache Beam)
Dataproc - Managed Spark and Hadoop clusters
Pub/Sub - Real-time messaging and event streaming

                        
-- BigQuery Example: Analyze web traffic
SELECT
    DATE(timestamp) as date,
    COUNT(*) as page_views,
    COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) as unique_visitors,
    AVG(session_duration) as avg_session_seconds
FROM
    `project.dataset.web_events`
WHERE
    timestamp >= TIMESTAMP_SUB(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL 30 DAY)
GROUP BY
    date
ORDER BY
    date DESC;
                        
                    

Networking

GCP's networking leverages Google's global fiber network for low-latency and high-performance connectivity.

VPC - Virtual Private Cloud with global scope
Cloud Load Balancing - Global and regional load balancing
Cloud CDN - Content delivery network
Cloud Interconnect - Dedicated connectivity to GCP

Security & Identity

Implement robust security with GCP's identity and access management services.

IAM - Identity and Access Management with fine-grained policies
Cloud KMS - Key Management Service for encryption
Secret Manager - Secure secret storage and access
Security Command Center - Security and risk management

GCP Certification Path

This training prepares you for Google Cloud certifications.

Cloud Digital Leader (Foundational)
Associate Cloud Engineer
Professional Cloud Architect
Professional Data Engineer

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)