Google Cloud Digital Leader Certification Guide E-Book

Bruno Beraldo Rodrigues

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 334

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

To thrive in today's world, leaders and technologists must understand how technology shapes businesses. As organizations shift from self-hosted to cloud-native solutions, embracing serverless systems, strategizing data use, and defining monetization becomes imperative. The Google Cloud Digital Leader Certification Guide lays a solid foundation of industry knowledge, focused on the Google Cloud platform and the innovative ways in which customers leverage its technologies.
The book starts by helping you grasp the essence of digital transformation within the Google Cloud context. You’ll then cover core components of the platform, such as infrastructure and application modernization, data innovation, and best practices for environment management and security. With a series of practice exam questions included, this book ensures that you build comprehensive knowledge and prepare to certify as a Google Cloud Digital Leader. Going beyond the exam essentials, you’ll also explore how companies are modernizing infrastructure, data ecosystems, and teams in order to capitalize on new market opportunities through platform expertise, best practices, and real-world scenarios.
By the end of this book, you'll have learned everything you need to pass the Google Cloud Digital Leader certification exam and have a reference guide for future requirements.

Leseprobe

Google Cloud Digital Leader Certification Guide

A comprehensive study guide to Google Cloud concepts and technologies

Bruno Rodrigues

Google Cloud Digital Leader Certification Guide

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This book is an ode to Sinhá Moreira, my great aunt, whose vision and generosity should be an inspiration to us all. She helped establish a technical school in her hometown of Santa Rita do Sapucaí in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Her impact, helping people transform their lives through education and technical skills, was deeply motivating when considering this project, and I hope she would be proud of this effort as an extension of her work. I would also like to thank my parents, without whom none of this would be possible. Their appetite for risk, in pushing us to move from Brazil to Canada and eventually the US, was foundational in helping me develop into the person I am today. Lastly, and definitely not least, I’d like to thank my daughter, Lily. You are the light of my life, and every smile helps me push a little harder.

– Bruno Beraldo Rodrigues

Contributors

About the author

Bruno Beraldo Rodrigues is a technology aficionado focused on helping business and technical leaders adopt Google Cloud. He’s certified as a Google Cloud Digital Leader and currently works as a cloud field sales representative, managing relationships with customers and prospects for Google Cloud. He has experience working with clients across North America, ranging from early-stage start-ups to large, traditional organizations. This work has exposed him to several industries such as healthcare, e-commerce, agriculture, security, and logistics. He’s also passionate about entrepreneurship, having volunteered as a mentor with Google for Startups Accelerator programs for several years across GTM strategies and cloud architecture.

Bruno is based in Austin, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M University. He’s a proud Aggie who holds two bachelor of arts degrees, international studies and French. Bruno would also like to thank Bard, Google’s generative AI chatbot, for helping him think through the content and format of the different chapters.

About the reviewer

Austin Ciamaricone spearheads the Strategic Startup team at Google Cloud for the central US, dedicated to aiding emerging leaders in scaling and disrupting their markets. He led the National Customer Success team for top customers on Oracle Cloud before joining Google in 2018 as a customer engineer, supporting key digital native clients nationwide. His unwavering objective is to enable and propel innovative technology, empowering companies through state-of-the-art cloud and machine learning solutions.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1: Introduction to Digital Transformation with Google Cloud

1

Cloud Computing Fundamentals – An Introduction to Digital Transformation

An introduction to data centers

The why behind digital transformation

Infrastructure flexibility

Ease of R&D

Measurable innovation

Global collaboration

Customer value

Agility

Benefits of digital transformation

Modernize infrastructure

Manage data

Gain insight

Break down team silos

Solve business problems

Realize cost savings

Hypothetical case study – Acme Inc.

Summary

2

The Shift to Public Cloud

The value of adopting public cloud

Flexibility

Scalability

Reliability

Elasticity

Agility

Cost

The impact of cloud adoption on finance teams

Private, public, or hybrid?

An introduction to networks

Public cloud with Google Cloud

Summary

3

Understanding the Different Cloud Computing Models

Introducing cloud hosting models and the shared responsibility model

Comparing and contrasting IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

IaaS

PaaS

SaaS

Going beyond IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

Containers and CaaS

Functions and FaaS

Summary

Part 2: Innovating with Data and Google Cloud

4

The Role of Data in Digital Transformation

The role of data in digital transformation

The farmer’s journey – digitally transformed

The importance of data-driven culture

Making better decisions

Improving productivity and efficiency

Identifying new opportunities

Gaining a competitive advantage

The impact of the cloud on data

Increased scalability and flexibility

Improved data security

Reduced costs

Improved collaboration

Increased innovation

Summary

5

Google Cloud Solutions for Data Management

Understanding the data journey

Acme e-commerce – case study

Exploring types of data

Elaborating on Google Cloud solutions for data management

Data pipelines

Data lakes

Data warehouses

Business intelligence tools

Summary

6

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence on Google Cloud

AI overview and Google’s contribution

Considerations when building AI models

Defining the problem

Collecting the datasets

Preparing the data

Select the model and train it

Evaluating the model

Deploying the model

Monitoring the model

Google Cloud solutions for ML and AI

Vertex AI and its associated services

ML APIs

AI business solutions

Generative AI

PaLM for text

PaLM for chat

Chirp for speech

Imagen for text to image

The embeddings API for text to image

Codey

Google AI Studio

Gemini

Summary

Part 3: Infrastructure and Platform Modernization

7

Modernizing IT Infrastructure with Google Cloud

The challenges with legacy infrastructure in the modern world

Acme Inc. – buying servers

The value of modernizing infrastructure with cloud technologies

Agility

Scalability

Resilience

Security

The differences between hybrid and multi-cloud

The evolution of computing from VMs to containers to serverless

Summary

8

Modernizing Applications with Google Cloud

The evolution of application development

Acme Inc—development case study

The benefits of cloud-native application development

Google Cloud solutions for hosting applications

Google Compute Engine (GCE)

Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE)

Sole-tenant nodes

Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

Cloud Run

Artifact Registry

Cloud Build

App Engine

Cloud Functions

Summary

9

The Value of APIs

An introduction to APIs

The value of APIs

Creating new products, services, and monetization streams

Improving the client experience

Quick and easy interoperability between cloud systems

Building for scale and resiliency

Full life cycle API management with Google Cloud

Discoverability and community

Insights

Reliability

Summary

Part 4: Understanding Google Cloud Security and Operations

10

Google Cloud’s Approach to Security

Security fundamentals

Understanding challenges and threats to data

Overview of the shared responsibility model

The benefits and differentiators of Google Cloud

Security Command Center

Cloud Armor

Chronicle SIEM

Chronicle SOAR

Mandiant incident response and threat awareness

Controlling and managing cloud resources

IAM and resource hierarchies

Operations

Summary

11

IT Operations in the Cloud

Service availability – on-premises versus cloud

Overview of DevOps

SRE and how it applies to business

Summary

12

Resource Monitoring and Application Performance Management on Google Cloud

Downtime and its impact on business

Customer satisfaction and trust

Improved operational efficiency

Resilience

Cloud operations – monitoring, logging, and observability

Google Cloud tools for resource monitoring and maintenance

Summary

Part 5: Practice Exam Questions

13

Sample Questions: Exam Preparation

Part 1 – 20-question “pop quiz” – digital transformation on Google Cloud

Part 2 – 60-question “product quiz” – data, infrastructure, AppMod, Security, and CloudOps

Part 3 – 20 situational questions – questions from all sections

Scenario 1 – E-Commerce

Scenario 2 – Healthcare

Key

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

The Google Cloud Digital Leader certification is a great entry point into the Google Cloud ecosystem for both business and technical folks. This book is designed to be a certification guide, walking you through the core topics covered in the Digital Leader exam while also highlighting Google’s portfolio as it relates to the latest advancements in their Cloud business and services.

The book is organized into five sections:

Introduction to Digital Transformation with Google CloudInnovating with Data and Google CloudInfrastructure and Platform ModernizationUnderstanding Google Cloud Security and OperationsPractice Exam Questions

You may find material covering these different topic areas but this book strives to include both the latest updates to the Digital Leader certification content and an overview of Google Cloud’s AI offerings – a topic that is becoming increasingly more relevant for both business and technology folks.

My experience working at Google Cloud for the past 5+ years has provided me with a deep understanding of cloud migrations, the challenges customers face, the debates they have with their teams, and ultimately why they make the decisions they do.

By reading this book, you’ll benefit from my unique perspective as it relates to the following:

Understanding the why behind cloud migrations, particularly Google CloudWhat factors and circumstances impact decision-making when building cloud systemsExamples and scenarios that highlight the critical thinking and knowledge required to pass the exam

Google Cloud has been recognized as a Leader by Gartner in their Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services in 2022 and has a fast-growing, multi-billion dollar business. Most recently, Google Cloud was recognized by Gartner as the most innovative of the Leaders in their 2023 Cloud Database Management Systems Magic Quadrant.

This highlights both Google’s commitment to its Cloud division and its ability to drive enterprise-grade innovations to market. Throughout 2023, as executives and boards feel more pressure to adopt modern technologies and compete with modern companies, their business and technology teams are also being pressured to collaborate and innovate more while also taking into account security and compliance requirements.

There is a lot of demand in the market for folks with Google Cloud skills, both at the individual contributor and leadership levels. As their customer base grows, so does the demand for the product, engineering, business, partnership, and marketing knowledge related to getting the most out of the latest technologies. This book can be the first meaningful step towards formalizing your GCP skills by helping you attain the Google Cloud Digital Leader certification.

Who this book is for

This book is written to be relevant to almost anyone who would like to take their first professional step into the Google Cloud ecosystem, whether your background is in business or engineering or you are a recent college graduate:

Anyone who wants to certify as a Google Cloud Digital Leader: You will find that the content follows the certification guide, making it a great resource for GCP knowledge and preparation for taking the exam.Business leaders: For founders, CEOs, VPs, and managers striving to become more technically fluent or whose company is adopting Google Cloud, this book will prepare you with an understanding of the business impact of technical decisions and what considerations should be taken into account when designing systems that will be monetized.Technology leaders: For technical founders, CTOs, VPs, and managers whose team is adopting or exploring the adoption of Google Cloud, this book will give you the foundation you need to comprehend Google’s approach to the cloud, some of the platform’s nuances, and its benefits. You will gain a better understanding of what factors to take into account when making technical decisions, particularly if you want to build for both security and scale.Young or new professionals: Folks who are new to the workforce or are new to the cloud industry will find this guide to be tremendously helpful in establishing a strong foundation for both cloud industry knowledge and Google’s positioning in the market. You will also be exposed to critical cloud concepts such as cloud-native, the shared responsibility model, and more.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Cloud Computing Fundamentals – An Introduction to Digital Transformation, introduces you to basic cloud concepts and terminology. It focuses on establishing a foundation of knowledge upon which the rest of the content will be built.

Chapter 2, The Shift to Public Cloud, covers the traditional approach to building infrastructure and its benefits and challenges. It also highlights the reasons behind the shift to the public cloud with a focus on the technical and business value.

Chapter 3, Understanding the Different Cloud Computing Models, compares and contrasts the different cloud computing models. This includes the traditional SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS models while also highlighting their impact on digital transformation and the shared responsibility model.

Chapter 4, The Role of Data in Digital Transformation, provides you with an introduction to data’s role in digital transformation. It discusses how the cloud enables the derivation of value from data and its impact on how technology teams build data architecture.

Chapter 5, Google Cloud Solutions for Data Management, covers the Google Cloud solutions used for data management and smart analytics. You will learn the benefits and tradeoffs of the different services with the goal of being able to identify the best solution given a set of circumstances.

Chapter 6, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence on Google Cloud, focuses on educating you on the challenges and best practices when working with ML and AI solutions. It highlights the services available on Google Cloud while also helping you understand how they can be applied to generate value for an organization.

Chapter 7, Modernizing IT Infrastructure with Google Cloud, goes deeper on comparing and contrasting the different approaches to building infrastructure. We’ll discuss legacy infrastructure, its struggles, the benefits of modernization, and different approaches including hybrid and cloud-native infrastructure.

Chapter 8, Modernizing Applications with Google Cloud, focuses on the reasons why organizations modernize and build cloud-native applications. We’ll cover the different application hosting services on Google Cloud and when it makes sense to use one over the other.

Chapter 9, The Value of APIs, highlights the role of APIs in particular when building infrastructure and applications in cloud environments. We’ll cover the value that APIs provide to businesses and the benefits of Apigee, an enterprise-grade solution for full API life cycle management.

Chapter 10, Google Cloud’s Approach to Security, establishes a strong foundation for understanding cybersecurity. It covers key concepts, the benefits of Google Cloud, and the solutions available to help customers harden their environments.

Chapter 11, IT Operations in the Cloud, focuses on helping you understand why and how cloud operations differ from on-premises operations. We’ll discuss DevOps, SRE, and the challenges they were designed to overcome.

Chapter 12, Resource Monitoring and Application Performance Management on Google Cloud, provides you a deeper understanding of the importance of uptime for cloud customers. It touches on core concepts such as monitoring, logging, and the relevant tools in Google Cloud.

Chapter 13, Sample Questions: Exam Preparation, is composed of 100 test questions to help you prepare to take the Google Cloud Digital Leader exam. The questions are broken down into three sections: basic terminology, Google Cloud services, and situational questions.

To get the most out of this book

You will need to approach the topic with an open mind, understanding that Google approaches cloud computing from a different perspective than other providers. Although it is not specifically required, you will be able to navigate the content more easily if you have a basic understanding of the following concepts:

Traditional computing and the parts of a computerOperating systemsApplicationsTraditional hosting models

Ultimately, the book is designed to help you certify as a Google Cloud Digital Leader and strives to provide the knowledge required to pass the exam.

Review the official Google Cloud documentation. Google Cloud has built a great documentation portal. You will find the following links helpful when deep-diving into specific topic areas:

Description

Link

Google Cloud’s Official Site

cloud.google.com

Google Cloud Customer Case Studies

https://cloud.google.com/customers

Google Cloud Architecture Center

https://cloud.google.com/architecture

Google Cloud Digital Leader Overview

https://cloud.google.com/learn/certification/cloud-digital-leader

Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam Guide

https://cloud.google.com/learn/certification/guides/cloud-digital-leader

Conventions used

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Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold.

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

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Part 1:Introduction to Digital Transformation with Google Cloud

In the first part of the book, you will get an overview of the cloud technology industry and Google’s approach. We will cover the different types of cloud solutions and their benefits and challenges. This will include understanding concepts such as SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, their differences, and why organizations choose to move to the cloud from on-premises environments. We’ll also cover what Google thinks about its global cloud network, the shared responsibility model, and the value of digital transformation with Google Cloud.

This part has the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Cloud Computing Fundamentals - An Introduction to Digital TransformationChapter 2, The Shift to Public CloudChapter 3, Understanding the Different Cloud Computing Models

1

Cloud Computing Fundamentals – An Introduction to Digital Transformation

The cloud computing revolution is impacting organizations of all sizes, across industries, and all over the globe. Fundamentally, new ways of building systems, architecting infrastructure, and managing data have created a perfect storm for the cloud, with the total market value expected to hit $1 trillion by 2032 (according to Global Market Insights at https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/public-cloud-market). As this massive growth market continues to expand, the need for talent that is familiar with the latest technologies and innovations also grows. The need for Google Cloud talent is particularly acute, with Google being the fastest-growing hyperscale cloud provider as of Q1 2023 with a growth rate of 28% YoY and an annual run rate of nearly $30 billion (as per https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2023Q1_alphabet_earnings_release.pdf). This book is designed to provide a baseline understanding of Google’s approach to the cloud for both business and technology professionals and prepare you to certify as a Google Cloud Digital Leader.

In this first chapter, we will introduce foundational concepts for cloud computing and explore Google’s view of it by highlighting how Google defines digital transformation, along with both the business and technical forces driving businesses to adopt cloud solutions.

Here is a summary of what will be covered:

How and why the cloud is transforming businessesThe benefits of the cloud for digital transformationElaborating on digital transformation with Google CloudDescribing how a transformation cloud accelerates innovation

We will cover these learnings via the following topics:

An introduction to data centersThe why behind digital transformationThe benefits of digital transformationHypothetical case study – Acme Inc.

An introduction to data centers

To understand where the hyperscale cloud industry is today and where it’s headed, it’s helpful to dig into how the industry came about. The term cloud refers to a system or application that is being used for a business purpose where the infrastructure for that system is centralized, typically in a location referred to as a data center. Data centers are warehouses specifically built for housing advanced computing hardware, networking equipment, data, and applications.

Data centers are composed of racks and racks of servers, a business term to refer to a computer, along with networking equipment, storage arrays, and cooling and power equipment, among other components. Servers themselves are typically composed of a core processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), and disk, which is typically either a hard drive or flash drive to store data. The CPU is typically used for computational tasks such as solving a math problem while RAM is used to store data temporarily, typically because data is being used by an application and being transformed in some way. Disk and flash drives are used to store data for a longer period, with disk drives being a cheaper, mechanical storage device and flash drives being more expensive given that data is stored in a semiconductor chip. Servers are used to host applications that are typically either internally facing, helping employees more efficiently and effectively do their job, or externally facing, providing services to customers and partners.

When discussing data centers, it’s helpful to define the different types. We’ll start by understanding the traditional approach: on-premises infrastructure. On-premises is a term that’s used to refer to an organization that hosts its technology infrastructure onsite at offices or other business facilities. For example, if you are a legal firm, your systems would be on-premises if they were hosted at the same location as your office. There would be a server room or several rooms at the facility where all of the systems and data are hosted for the employees to complete their work. This location would host the systems that support worker productivity and internal workflows, while also facilitating business operations.

This approach had benefits such as making it relatively easy to secure systems and applications. If all of the systems and data are hosted within your organization’s physical locations, and they are not accessible from the internet, you can establish a strong security posture through physical controls such as allowing only employees to access your facilities and not allowing them to take their workstations home with them. At a small scale, this is also a very manageable approach to infrastructure given that you could operate it with a small team and troubleshoot issues by reaching out to your local IT administrators.

However, as organizations and systems began to become more complex, scale globally, and support new patterns of work, new approaches began to surface. If the legal firm, for example, were to grow to 10 offices around the globe, it would be very difficult to continue to work via distributed, on-premises systems. Each office would need its own technology, infrastructure, and IT personnel and there would need to be a way for workers across offices to work together. They would need to share data, even if it were sensitive; if perhaps the New York and London offices were working together on a case for a multinational company operating in both the US and the UK. These pressures led to the centralization of infrastructure, which is where the term cloudcomes from.

Let’s explore the two core variations of cloud hosting: private cloud and public cloud. An organization leverages the private cloud when a company is running environments where there is only one tenant – themselves. This may mean that it owns and operates all of the data center infrastructure itself. The company buys or leases land, manages the building, procures the servers, installs the operating systems, and manages the applications and data while also being responsible for both the physical and virtual security of the private cloud. In some circumstances, they may procure the space from a third-party vendor but they are ultimately responsible for the hardware, software, and networking infrastructure, with the space within the facility dedicated exclusively to them. Some drawbacks of the private cloud are the requirements for large capital expenditure on real estate, equipment, and operating costs, as well as the deep complexity that comes along with having to design, build, maintain, secure, and scale their infrastructure.

In contrast, when an organization leverages the public cloud, it offloads much of the physical responsibility of operating a data center to a third party. Google Cloud is a public cloud platform where developers and engineers can access infrastructure built on top of Google’s data centers and networks. This enables businesses to offload responsibilities such as building and managing the physical components of the data center to specialize in what will provide value to their customers. Customers of public cloud providers benefit by abstracting away much of the complexity of managing technology infrastructure by focusing on the virtualization layer and above. This means being responsible for the virtual machines, operating systems, applications, and data to operate their businesses.

A company that operates hybrid cloud environments blends both public and private cloud environments. They may have their own data centers hosting internal or sensitive applications while leveraging the public cloud for externally facing applications. This pattern is common in organizations that built up their own data centers and are building new applications in the cloud or are migrating systems to optimize for the most efficient hosting strategy. In some cases, they may build a data warehouse in the cloud to consolidate and organize data from disparate on-premises systems such as sales, marketing, logistics, and fulfillment data.

Multi-cloud is a cloud computing strategy where companies use multiple public cloud providers to host their applications. This allows them to run their workloads optimally across multiple environments and vendors, reducing the risk that arises related to vendor lock-in, where organizations become restricted in their ability to innovate and negotiate cost when they consolidate their infrastructure under a single vendor. Managing environments across multiple cloud providers can be complex given the variations between the platforms and the potential required integrations. Multi-cloud is becoming more common as engineers build skills across multiple providers and vendors begin to differentiate themselves through unique capabilities, partnerships, or contracting vehicles.

With the advent of cloud computing, we’ve also seen the rise of a new breed of technology company: cloud-native. Google Cloud states the following (https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-cloud-native):

“Cloud native means adapting to the many new possibilities – but a very different set of architectural constraints – offered by the cloud compared to traditional on-premises infrastructure. Unlike monolithic applications, which must be built, tested, and deployed as a single unit, cloud-native architectures decompose components into loosely coupled services to help manage complexity and improve the speed, agility, and scale of software delivery.”

Another concept that goes hand in hand with cloud-native is open source, as it relates to how software is developed and the accompanying standards with this shift. Historically, software has been closed source, meaning that the code base was owned and only viewable by the manufacturer. This led to a rise in enterprise software licensing where things such as vendor lock-in come into play, where you are at the mercy of the manufacturer from both a cost and capability perspective, locked into multi-year contracts, and unable to implement nor change the code base based on your needs.

In contrast, open source within the realm of software takes the opposite approach. Code bases are public, and anyone from around the world can view and contribute to the code base to ensure it meets their needs. Given this novel, distributed approach to software development, there were also requirements around policies that govern what would qualify as an open source project.

Some of the key principles to open source software development are as follows:

Transparency, allowing public access to review and deploy the codeOpen, community-centric, and collaborative developmentMeritocratic approach to contribution, driven by expertsFreely available without licensing or cost restrictions

Organizations that adopt the open source approach to software development can accelerate the pace of innovation for their teams given that they are not at the mercy of one company to improve the code base. Employees from the organization can make feature requests, contribute to the code base, and ensure that the code improves over time.

A great example of a successful open source project is Kubernetes. Kubernetes is an open source software project launched by Google as a way to help drive awareness of container-based deployment methods and architecture.

Containers were a new way of thinking about how to run applications as they relate to the underlying hardware and software. In the world of virtual machines, the application, operating system, and hardware are fundamentally coupled. This means that if the hardware fails, the application also fails. Containers allowed developers to scale applications more gracefully and build more fault tolerance into their architecture and systems. It also happened to be a more cost-effective way of hosting applications given that resources could be shared across several systems to ensure maximum utilization while minimizing cost.

This shift in designing and architecting systems translated very well to cloud-native organizations, given their flexibility and ability to rapidly innovate. More traditional organizations began to adopt similar practices as they began to comprehend the value that these approaches can deliver to their business, with start-ups rising quickly and disrupting industry after industry.

The shift from private to public cloud, by offloading the responsibilities of building and managing data centers, has enabled businesses to focus on driving change that has a meaningful impact on the bottom line. Engineers who had historically been tasked with monitoring onsite infrastructure or managing databases can be repurposed to increase developer productivity, improve the security posture, or engage in R&D projects.

As we explore the forces behind why businesses have been shifting to public cloud adoption, it’s helpful to start by defining digital transformation, including its importance and benefits.

The why behind digital transformation

Over the last few decades, we’ve seen a steady shift of businesses and systems from analog to digital. With this shift came a significant change in how companies build teams, design go-to-market strategies, and generate revenue. This shift was fundamentally a shift from paper-based processes to computing-based processes, where files and data went from being stored in filing cabinets to databases and filestores.

Imagine that you had to run a sales report to understand how much a department had done in sales over the last 10 years, growth rate year over year, and project out 5 additional years of sales. If the documents you required were on paper and scattered across three different sites, it may take weeks to collect them, analyze them, and provide the desired report. If, however, all of the data had been digitized and made available through an application, you would be able to run a report within seconds. Moving from weeks to seconds is a massive productivity boost and would enable business leaders to make faster, more accurate decisions. This is an example of the value digital transformation can provide.

According to the Google Cloud documentation (https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-digital-transformation), the official definition is as follows:

“It uses modern digital technologies – including all types of public, private, and hybrid cloud platforms – to create or modify business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market dynamics.”

The push to digitally transform is felt across organizations, as highlighted by the official definition, as it impacts not only the tools the technology team uses but also the organizational culture and the ability to deliver modern customer experiences. Engineers often have to learn new skills or completely new technologies, adapting how they’ve worked to address the needs of today.

There are many reasons why companies choose to go through this transformation:

Infrastructure flexibilityEase of R&DQuantifiable innovationGlobal collaborationCustomer valueAgility

Let’s explore these in detail.

Infrastructure flexibility

In the world of physical data centers, capacity planning and availability can be a big blocker. Having a server procured, shipped, configured, and pushed online can take days, weeks, or even months, depending on the circumstances. One of the big advantages of working with a cloud provider is that machines of all shapes and sizes are available through the click of a button. Spinning up a server, whether it’s in the US, Europe, or Asia, is a trivial workflow that makes it very easy to spin up servers virtually, deploy them, and manage them. It’s all done through a secure internet connection and if you decide that you no longer need something, you can spin it down to effectively stop paying for it.

Ease of R&D

By leveraging a cloud provider such as Google, organizations can quickly and easily access, test and validate new technologies as they are developed and launched. They can spin up development projects within a secure environment, ensuring that corporate or customer data won’t be accidentally leaked and that they have access to the latest technology being launched by cloud providers and their independent software vendor (ISV) partners.

Measurable innovation

When experimenting with different services, tools, and technologies, it can often be challenging to define success criteria and costs and make the right decisions. By leveraging a data-centric approach to testing and validation, businesses can quickly iterate on their developments and make smart decisions based on the results.

Global collaboration

Working with cross-functional teams that are distributed across the globe can be an issue whenever you don’t have the right tools, systems, and processes in place to facilitate the collaboration without the appropriate security and compliance controls. Through digital transformation, you can make data more accessible to people who need it, when they need it, while still ensuring compliance with existing requirements.

Customer value

The demands that come from customers are ever-evolving concerning developments in the market and associated technologies. By analyzing how customers prefer to engage, how they grow through their life cycle, and what needs arise throughout that journey, businesses can provide tailored experiences that meet and exceed customer expectations. They can find patterns and reasons why people leave the platform for example, identify the root cause(s), and implement a way to overcome those challenges proactively, thereby increasing retention and reducing churn.

Agility

Organizations are having to compete on a global scale with companies large and small to win new customers and retain existing ones. Through digital transformation, development teams are enabled to accelerate the pace at which they innovate while also being able to significantly increase the scale of their launches. Rather than having to launch a service in a specific region or city due to process or technology constraints, businesses can now build once and launch anywhere through innovations such as global cloud providers and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

There are many reasons for a business to transform from analog, paper-based processes to digital processes. Not only will employees be more productive, but they’ll be more innovative and make better decisions. Workflows that might’ve taken days, weeks, or months can be compressed into days, hours, or even seconds. A common anecdote for demonstrating the impact of failing to digitize is the story of Blockbuster. Blockbuster was a brick-and-mortar store where you would go to rent or buy movies and TV shows. The walls and floors were lined with shelves covered in empty VHS and DVD boxes highlighting which titles were available. Many customers had come to cherish the experience of walking through those aisles, exploring interesting titles and genres until they finally found the one – and hoped it was in stock! Blockbuster, by 2004, had 9,000 stores globally (as per https://www.businessinsider.com/blockbuster-is-closing-forever-2013-11) and earned $5.9 billion in revenue (as per https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1085734/000119312507239499/dex991.htm).

Fast forward to 2023 and you won’t find a Blockbuster anywhere as they were digitally disrupted by Netflix. They started by competing with Blockbuster through a video-mailing service, eliminating the need to go to a physical location and be at the mercy of what was in stock, but eventually moved onto cloud-based video streaming. Online video streaming created a new way to browse and consume content, where a customer had a massive library of titles at their fingertips. Customers began to expect to be able to watch the latest release from the comfort of their homes without having to worry about whether or not Blockbuster had that video in stock. Today, Netflix continues to be a successful company, having reached $8.1 billion in quarterly revenue for Q1 of 2023 (as per https://www.statista.com/statistics/273883/netflixs-quarterly-revenue/#:~:text=In%20the%20first%20quarter%20of,the%20corresponding%20quarter%20of%202022). They are now facing an innovation dilemma as they face intense competition from new services such as Disney+, Paramount+, and Max.

Now that we understand why organizations are transforming digitally, let’s explore the benefits of going through that transition.

Benefits of digital transformation

There are many benefits to transforming a business so that it can leverage the latest advances in computing, software, and data technologies. Whether it’s launching new products or building new capabilities into an existing business, the technology space is ever evolving and the pace of innovation seems to be increasing. Companies that have implemented or were born digital as cloud-native companies have a significant advantage over those that haven’t.

Whether it’s going from a monolithic application architecture that struggles to serve global clients to containers, Kubernetes, and global service orchestration, or the adoption of a data warehouse to empower analytics use cases, organizations that embrace a new way of doing things can make the most of new technologies as they quickly learn, test, validate and adopt them.

According to the Google Cloud documentation, here are the main benefits of going through digital transformation:

Modernize infrastructureManage dataGain insightBreak down team silosSolve business problemsRealize cost savings

Let’s look at them in detail.

Modernize infrastructure

Companies that transform digitally and adopt cloud-native ways of architecting systems can meaningfully optimize their hardware and software usage. By migrating away from building and managing infrastructure themselves, they can quickly and easily build systems that have evolved from the traditional, server-based architecture to more modern, service-based architecture or even serverless systems. These systems allow their engineers to automate much of the day-to-day tasks of operating and managing infrastructure through features such as auto-scaling, which dynamically scales the infrastructure up and down based on load. They also allow for global traffic routing, ensuring that customers have the best experience based on their geography and minimizing the time and effort required to build systems that scale globally.

Manage data

Data is exploding