Google launches new certification courses for cloud developers and engineers

Google today announced the launch of four new certification and training programs for cloud developers and engineers: Professional Cloud DeveloperProfessional Cloud Network Engineer (beta) and Professional Cloud Security Engineer (beta), as well as a new G Suite certification.

The G Suite certification stands out a bit because it’s cheaper ($75) and far less technical than its counterparts in today’s release, but as Google notes, the overall idea here to address the “cloud skills crisis.” The reason for the G Suite course, Google says, is that the “key to a successful cloud transformation is developing skills throughout the organization.” To ensure this, the G Suite exam tests your knowledge in key features of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive and other G Suite tools. If you’re highly technical, that may seem unnecessary, but for many, making the move from Office to G Suite is surely quite a challenge.

The other exams, like the Cloud Developer certifications, test your ability to design, build, test, manage and secure applications on the Google Cloud Platform. They tend to cost around $200 and come in the form of multiple choice exams. To prepare for them, you can study with the help of both on-demand and instructor-led courses from Coursera and other Google partners.

Google notes that IT managers have a hard time finding candidates with the right skills, so it’s trying to address this with these new certification programs and the accompanying training tools.

The new certifications join Google’s existing ones, which include the Professional Cloud Architect, Professional Data Engineer and Associate Cloud Engineer certifications.