STUDY GUIDE
Digital Transformation with Google Cloud
Welcome to the first article in my Google Digital Leader Synopsis series! All the key terms that you will need to be familiar with are highlighted in bold and defined at the bottom of the article📌
In my introduction article, I described my experience of taking the Google Cloud Digital Leader exam and how I studied for it. In this article we will cover how cloud technology is revolutionising businesses and ushering them towards a digital transformation of IT infrastructure in order to facilitate innovation and meet customer demand.
Note: Please use this article as a guide to supplement your learning. I recommend reading all the Google cloud documentation provided in full for complete exam preparation.
Revolution of Business
It is not unusual for business to have to transform the way they operate due to the advancement in technology or to meet customer demands. For example, in the 1990’s it would be common and expected for retailers to have a physical store located somewhere to sell their products. Moving forward to present day, the revolution in technology has facilitated the rise in e-commerce, so business no longer need a physical premise and can sell directly to a customer through a website. This change can also be seen in many sectors such healthcare, finance and research. So how was this made possible?
WWith Cloud Computing! The cloud represents data centres that stores and computes information available through the internet. It offers a cost saving solution where companies no longer have to invest in infrastructure on-premise.
Digital Transformation
We now know the benefits that cloud technology has on transforming organisations. Something else that will need to consider is the impact this will have on an organisations IT infrastructure.
On-Premises and Cloud Technology
Transitioning from on-premise to cloud technology is not a straight forward process and organisations will have to compare and contrast the two options to understand which option would be the best fit. The table below highlights some pros and cons for each method:
Business Technology Considerations
When an organisation decides to adopt cloud technology they must optimise the service to fit their needs. Google Cloud has 7 solution pillars , each pillar representing a solution that Google Cloud can provide to an organisation.
- Infrastructure Modernisation
- Business Application
- Application Modernisation
- Database & Storage Solution
- Smart Analytics
- Artificial Intelligence
- Security
By using the Google Cloud Adoption Framework, organisations can assess their journey through the cloud adoption process. We will look into each pillar in more depth in sections 2, 3 & 4 of this synopsis.
Innovation Mindest
Whilst transforming an organisation infrastructure play a large part when adopting cloud technology ,the culture and mindset of an organisation must also be transformed.
Note: The following sections are not something that I saw in the exam or the exam guide, but I think it is a good to have an understanding of them.
Transforming Culture
Google have highlighted six focus areas for transforming business which are illustrated below.
Talent: People that make up the organisation.
Environment: A space to give people within the organisation to thrive.
Structure: A blueprint to maintain processes and common goals.
Strategy: Align employees with the organisations mission.
Empowerment: Enable and encourage employees to solve problems and improve the business.
Innovation: Discovery something new that adds value.
Innovation Mindset
Google has established three rules for nurturing and scaling a culture of innovation:
💠Focus on the user: Who are they and what are they expecting?
💠Think 10x: How can we generate big ideas and find solutions that make improvements by 10 times?
💠Launch and Iterate: The first solution won’t be perfect, so keep trying through experimentation.
📌 Key terms
Cloud : A metaphor for the network of data centres that store and compute information available through the Internet.
Data: Information that collected to be examined and considered and used to help organisation in decision-making . These can be numbers, text , audio, images or web page clicks.
Cloud Computing: The technology and processes needed to store, manage, and access data that is transferred over the Cloud (as opposed to data that remains on your computer’s hard drive).
Compute Power: The speed at which a computer is able to process data.
On-Premise: Inside a building or on the area of land that it is on.
Ready for the next steps?
Click here for to move onto the next sections:
📓Intro: How I studied for the Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam
📓Section 2: Innovation with Data
📓Section 3: Infrastructure & Application Modernisation
📓Section 4: Cloud Storage & Operations
