A Professional Cloud Database Engineer is a database professional with two years of Google Cloud experience and five years of overall database and IT experience. The Professional Cloud Database Engineer designs, creates, manages, and troubleshoots Google Cloud databases used by applications to store and retrieve data. The Professional Cloud Database Engineer should be comfortable translating business and technical requirements into scalable and cost-effective database solutions. The length of the exam is 2 hours, and the exam costs $200 to register. You should have at least 5 years of overall database and IT experience, and at least 2 years of working with Google Cloud Platform.

Exam Content & Outline – What Will You Be Tested On?

There are FOUR main skills that the exam will test you on:

1. 1. Designing scalable and highly available (HA) cloud database solutions

1. 1. Managing a solution that can span multiple database solutions

1. 1. Migrating data solutions

1. 1. Deploying scalable and HA databases on Google Cloud Platform.

Let’s look at each of these in more detail and find out what exactly to study in order to be certified as a Google Database Engineer.

Designing Scalable and HA Cloud Database Solutions

This section test you on your ability to architect an efficient database solution that best meets business and technical requirements. The exam will test your knowledge to see if you are able to perform these critical tasks:

1. 1. Analyze relevant variables to perform database capacity and usage planning.
      • • Given a scenario, perform solution sizing based on current environment workload metrics and future requirements.
      • • Evaluate performance and cost tradeoffs of different database configurations (machine types, HDD vs. SSD, etc.)
      • • Size database compute and storage based on performance requirements

1. 1. Evaluate database high availability and disaster recovery options given the requirements.
      • • Evaluate tradeoffs between multi-region, region, and zonal database deployment strategies
      • • Given a scenario, define maintenance windows and notifications based on application availability requirements
      • • Plan database upgrades for Google Cloud-managed databases

1. 1. Determine how applications will connect to the database.
      • • Design scalable, highly available, and secure databases
      • • Configure network and security (Cloud SQL Auth Proxy, CMEK, SSL certificates)
      • • Justify the use of session pooler services
      • • Assess auditing policies for managed services

1. 1. Evaluate appropriate database solutions on Google Cloud Platform.
      • • Differentiate between managed and unmanaged database services (self-managed, bare metal, Google-managed databases, and partner database offerings)
      • • Distinguish between SQL and NoSQL business requirements (structured, semi-structured, unstructured)
      • • Analyze the cost of running database solutions in Google Cloud Platform (comparative analysis)
      • • Assess application and database dependencies

Manage a Solution That Can Span Multiple Database Solutions

This section tests you on your ability to put on the hat of a database administrator in order to ensure the successful upkeep of the health and performance of databases using a variety of leading practices and techniques.

1. 1. Determine database connectivity and access management considerations.
      • • Determine Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies for database connectivity and access control
      • • Manage database users, including authentication and access

1. 1. Configure database monitoring and troubleshooting options.
      • • Assess slow running queries and database locking and identify missing indexes
      • • Monitor and investigate database vitals: RAM, CPU storage, I/O, Cloud Logging
      • • Monitor and update quotas
      • • Investigate database resource contention
      • • Set up alerts for errors and performance metrics

1. 1. Design database backup and recovery solutions.
      • • Given SLAs and SLOs, recommend backup and recovery options (automatic scheduled backups)
      • • Configure export and import data for databases
      • • Design for recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO)

1. 1. Optimize database cost and performance in Google Cloud
      • • Assess options for scaling up and scaling out
      • • Scale database instances based on current and upcoming workload
      • • Define replication strategies
      • • Continuously assess and optimize the cost of running a database solution

1. 1. Determine solutions to automate database tasks.
      • • Perform database maintenance
      • • Assess table fragmentation
      • • Schedule database exports

Migrate Data Solutions

This section, although tiny, is supposed to test your skills in handling data migration and replication. Ensure that you give yourself plenty of time to practice.

1. 1. Design and implement data migration and replication.
      • • Develop and execute migration strategies and plans, including zero downtime, near-zero downtime, extended outage, and fallback plans
      • • Reverse replication from Google Cloud to source
      • • Plan and perform database migration, including fallback plans and schema conversion
      • • Determine the correct database migration tools for a given scenario

Deploy Scalable and Highly Available (HA) Databases in GCP

Once the database engineer successfully architects a plan for a database solution, the next step would be to put the plan into action. This section will test your ability to properly implement the plan such that the end solution is deployable into the production environment.

1. 1. Apply concepts to implement highly scalable AND highly available databases in GCP.
      • • Provision HA database solutions in GCP
      • • Test high availability and disaster recovery strategies periodically
      • • Set up multi-regional replication for databases
      • • Assess requirements for read replicas
      • • Automate database instance provisioning

Recommended Study Materials

1. 1. Books
      • • Hands On Google Cloud SQL and Cloud Spanner: Deployment, Administration and Use Cases
      • • Google Cloud Spanner The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide
      • • NoSQL Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Emerging World of Polyglot Persistence