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PCA: Google Professional Cloud Architect

Design Google Cloud solutions that meet business and technical requirements — and prepare for the Professional Cloud Architect exam.

  • 24 hours of live, design-focused training
  • Case-study driven architecture sessions
  • Hands-on labs for networking, GKE and reliability
  • Covers every Professional Cloud Architect exam section
  • Scenario practice with whiteboard reviews
Aligned to Google Cloud exam PCA
Duration
3 Days | 24 Hrs
Next batch
Batches on request
Delivery
Live Online · Onsite · Corporate
Level
Advanced
Exam
PCA
Language
English

Why learn PCA with Ace Skills

  • From requirements to design

    Learn a repeatable way to turn business requirements into a justified architecture.

  • Case-study practice

    Work through case scenarios in the style the exam uses, with detailed reviews.

  • Secure and reliable by design

    Build security, compliance and reliability into designs rather than adding them later.

  • Senior cloud credential

    A professional certification valued for architecture and consulting roles.

Course overview

A cloud architect translates business goals into a design that is secure, reliable, scalable and affordable, then guides teams through building and operating it. The Professional Cloud Architect exam tests that translation, using case studies of fictional companies with competing requirements. This three-day course develops the same skill through design sessions, labs and structured case-study practice.

Day one covers designing and planning a solution architecture: gathering requirements, choosing compute, storage and data services, designing networks with Shared VPC and hybrid connectivity, and planning migrations. Day two focuses on managing and provisioning infrastructure, designing for security and compliance, and building in reliability with regional design, load balancing, SRE practices and disaster recovery planning.

Day three addresses analysing and optimising technical and business processes, managing implementation through infrastructure as code and CI/CD, and ensuring operational reliability with monitoring, logging and incident response. Throughout the course, the trainer works through case-study scenarios on the whiteboard, asking how a design should change when cost, latency, compliance or availability requirements shift.

Labs give you hands-on grounding in the services that appear most often in designs, such as VPC networking, GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL and IAM. The final session reviews how to approach case-study questions. This course is aligned to the Professional Cloud Architect exam and prepares you for it; confirm the current exam guide and case studies on the Google Cloud certification site before booking.

Key features

  • Case-study driven design sessions
  • Requirement-to-architecture frameworks
  • Hands-on labs for core architecture services
  • Reliability and SRE practices
  • Security and compliance design patterns
  • Case-study question practice with reviews
  • Course completion certificate from Ace Skills Consulting

Who should attend

  • Cloud architects and solution designers
  • Associate Cloud Engineers progressing to architecture
  • Architects from AWS or Azure adding Google Cloud
  • Technical consultants and pre-sales architects

Prerequisites

  • Associate Cloud Engineer or equivalent hands-on Google Cloud experience
  • Understanding of networking, security and application architecture
  • Experience designing or operating production systems

Curriculum

3 Days · 24 Hours · 9 Modules · 5 Labs

  1. Requirements and design principles

    • Business and technical requirements
    • Well-Architected Framework for Google Cloud
    • Choosing compute: Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run
    • Choosing data stores

    Network design

    • Shared VPC and VPC design
    • Hybrid connectivity: Cloud VPN and Interconnect
    • Load balancing options
    • Private Service Connect
    • Lab: Build a Shared VPC with a global external load balancer · 60 min

    Migration planning

    • Assessing workloads for migration
    • Migration tooling
    • Data migration approaches
    • Licensing and cost considerations
    • Lab: Estimate and compare costs for three design options · 30 min

  2. Managing and provisioning infrastructure

    • Infrastructure as code with Terraform
    • GKE cluster design
    • Autoscaling strategies
    • Storage provisioning
    • Lab: Provision a regional GKE cluster with Terraform · 50 min

    Security and compliance

    • IAM design and organisation policies
    • VPC Service Controls
    • Encryption and Cloud KMS
    • Compliance and data residency
    • Lab: Apply organisation policies and a VPC Service Controls perimeter · 40 min

    Reliability design

    • SLIs, SLOs and error budgets
    • Regional and multi-regional patterns
    • Backup and disaster recovery
    • Chaos and load testing concepts

  3. Optimising processes

    • Cost optimisation and committed use discounts
    • Stakeholder and change management
    • Business continuity planning

    Implementation and operations

    • CI/CD with Cloud Build and Cloud Deploy
    • Cloud Monitoring and Logging strategy
    • Incident response and postmortems
    • API management
    • Lab: Deploy with Cloud Build and Cloud Deploy, then set SLO alerts · 50 min

    Case-study exam readiness

    • Reading a case study effectively
    • Mapping requirements to answers
    • Timed practice set with review
Download full syllabus (PDF)

Skills you will gain

  • Solution architecture
  • Google Cloud networking
  • Shared VPC
  • Hybrid connectivity
  • GKE
  • Cloud Run
  • Terraform
  • Cloud IAM
  • VPC Service Controls
  • Site reliability engineering
  • Disaster recovery
  • Cost optimisation

Tools & technologies

  • Google Cloud console
  • gcloud CLI
  • Terraform
  • Cloud Build
  • Cloud Deploy
  • Google Cloud Pricing Calculator
  • draw.io

Certification exam

Exam details
Exam nameGoogle Cloud Certified – Professional Cloud Architect
Exam codePCA
Number of questions50–60
Duration120 minutes
Voucher includedNo — book directly with the vendor
Question formatMultiple choice, Multiple response, Case study
DeliveryOnline proctored or Test centre

Skill areas measured

  1. Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture
  2. Managing and provisioning a solution infrastructure
  3. Designing for security and compliance
  4. Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes
  5. Managing implementation
  6. Ensuring solution and operations reliability

Exam details are pending verification. Vendors change exams; confirm on the official vendor page before booking. Official exam page (opens in a new tab)

Schedule & Pricing

Live Online

Individual

Price on request

  • 24 hours of live, trainer-led sessions
  • 5 hands-on labs
  • Ace Skills course completion certificate

Onsite

At your office or our centre

Pricing depends on location, group size and dates.

  • Delivered at your premises or an Ace centre
  • Same curriculum and labs as live online
  • Dates planned around your team

Corporate / Team

Private batch for your organisation

A private batch with content adapted to your environment and goals.

  • Customised curriculum
  • Private batch, online or onsite
  • Progress and assessment reports
  • GST invoice and PO-based billing

No public batches scheduled — Talk to an Advisor for a private batch.

Projects & labs you will build

  • Day 1 · 60 min

    Build a Shared VPC with a global external load balancer

  • Day 3 · 50 min

    Deploy with Cloud Build and Cloud Deploy, then set SLO alerts

Your certificate

Certificate of Completion — Ace Skills Consulting

Awarded on completing the course. It records the course title and training hours, and you can share it on your LinkedIn profile.

The Google Cloud certification itself is awarded by Google Cloud when you pass exam PCA.

Frequently asked questions

Should I complete Associate Cloud Engineer first?

It is not mandatory, but hands-on Google Cloud experience at that level is strongly recommended.

Do you cover the exam case studies?

Yes. We practise with the published case-study format and teach a method for mapping requirements to answers. Check the current exam guide for the latest case studies.

I am an AWS architect. Is this course right for me?

Yes. Many learners join with AWS or Azure experience; we highlight the key differences in Google Cloud design.

How long should I prepare after the course?

Most learners revise for four to six weeks, focusing on case studies and the documentation for core services.

Can you run this for our architecture team?

Yes. Corporate batches can use your own design challenges as case material.

Related courses

Explore more

All Google Cloud courses Google Cloud certifications

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Train your team on PCA

Private batches online or at your office in India and the GCC, with a curriculum adapted to your environment.