Google Cloud Digital Leader Quick Facts (2025)

Exam Domain Breakdown

Domain 1: Digital Transformation with Google Cloud (17% of the exam)

Why Cloud Technology is Transforming Business

Summary: This section highlights why cloud technology redefines how businesses operate and create value. You will learn the essential terms around cloud, open standards, and digital transformation, and see how scalability, flexibility, security, and cost savings reshape traditional IT. Key themes also include the differences between on-premises infrastructure and cloud platforms as well as the primary benefits of public, private, hybrid, and multicloud models.

You will also reflect on business transformation through Google Cloud’s unique strengths—intelligence, collaboration, trust, and sustainability. Topics include the drivers that lead organizations to adopt new technology, the risks of not modernizing, and how the transformation cloud accelerates modernization through app and infrastructure improvements, data democratization, and trusted transactions.

Fundamental Cloud Concepts

Summary: This section explains foundational cloud capabilities such as scalability, elasticity, and agility and how they directly translate into business value. You’ll see real examples of how moving from capital expenditures to operational expenditures supports organizational flexibility while influencing total cost of ownership.

Additionally, you’ll explore different infrastructure models—private, hybrid, and multicloud—and when each is the best fit. Key networking concepts like DNS, regions, subsea cables, and latency build your understanding of how Google’s global infrastructure underpins digital transformation with speed and reliability.

Cloud Computing Models and Shared Responsibility

Summary: This section introduces the main computing models of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, showing how they differ in flexibility, management levels, and required expertise. By comparing scenarios, you’ll understand how to select the right model based on business goals, staffing capabilities, and cost considerations.

It also emphasizes how the shared responsibility model varies across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. You’ll discover how responsibility shifts from customers to providers in terms of security, infrastructure, and application management, ensuring you understand accountability at every deployment level.

Domain 2: Exploring Data Transformation with Google Cloud (16% of the exam)

The Value of Data

Summary: This section focuses on the central role of data in digital transformation. You will explore how organizations generate business insights and competitive value by using both existing and newly collected data. Key concepts such as databases, data warehouses, and data lakes are introduced to frame effective management strategies.

Additionally, you’ll learn how the cloud turns both structured and unstructured data into business outcomes across the entire data value chain. Data governance also emerges as a vital principle for ensuring trust, security, and usability across all roles.

Google Cloud Data Management Solutions

Summary: This section introduces Google Cloud’s wide range of data management products and how they apply to common business scenarios. Products like Cloud Storage, Spanner, SQL, Bigtable, and BigQuery are compared for their specific use cases. You’ll also gain clarity on key industry terms like relational versus non-relational and SQL versus NoSQL databases.

Special focus is given to storage classes in Cloud Storage, cost considerations, and modernization or migration approaches. You will learn the benefits of BigQuery as a serverless data warehouse that integrates seamlessly in multicloud environments.

Making Data Useful and Accessible

Summary: This section presents the value of turning raw data into meaningful insights through smart analytics, business intelligence, and real-time streaming. You’ll learn how Looker democratizes access by empowering end users to build self-service analytics and dashboards that extend across the organization.

From BigQuery analysis to real-time dashboards, you’ll also explore how integrating Pub/Sub and Dataflow transforms modern data pipelines. The emphasis is on ensuring data not only exists but is used to create innovation and business value at scale.

Domain 3: Innovating with Google Cloud Artificial Intelligence (16% of the exam)

AI and ML Fundamentals

Summary: This section introduces the concepts of artificial intelligence and machine learning and how they enable businesses to generate value from large data sets. You’ll discover the unique problems ML can solve, from scaling decisions to unlocking unstructured data.

It also explores the importance of high-quality training data, explainable AI, and responsible AI practices. These concepts demonstrate how businesses can harness powerful technology while maintaining trust and transparency.

Google Cloud’s AI and ML solutions

Summary: This section reviews the wide portfolio of Google Cloud AI and ML tools, emphasizing how organizations should choose the right solution based on needs such as speed, effort, and expertise. Different use cases align with pre-trained APIs, AutoML, or custom models to meet the diversity of business requirements.

You will gain a clear understanding of how to evaluate tradeoffs across solutions. By the end, you’ll know when to apply a pre-packaged tool for rapid deployment versus investing in custom models for greater differentiation.

Building and using Google Cloud AI and ML solutions

Summary: This section focuses on creating business value from AI and ML through Google Cloud’s solutions. BigQuery ML enables powerful but accessible model building directly in SQL workflows, while pre-trained APIs like Vision and Translation deliver immediate value to common use cases.

You will also explore AutoML and Vertex AI for training custom models with your own data, which supports deeper business innovation. TensorFlow and Cloud TPUs round out the discussion with scalable, high-performance infrastructure for advanced ML projects.

Domain 4: Modernize Infrastructure and Applications with Google Cloud (17% of the exam)

Cloud modernization and migration

Summary: This section explains why organizations modernize their infrastructure and applications during the digital transformation journey. Migration strategies such as replatforming, rehosting, and refactoring are introduced to help organizations understand flexibility in modernization paths.

You will also explore the unique benefits of moving to Google Cloud for modernization, from scalability to agility. Core migration terms are presented so you can build fluency in selecting the right migration approach for each workload.

Computing in the cloud

Summary: This section covers the core options for running compute workloads in Google Cloud, including virtual machines, containers, microservices, and serverless approaches. You will understand the tradeoffs between performance, flexibility, and cost.

Critical concepts include Compute Engine’s value for virtual machines, Kubernetes for container orchestration, and scaling techniques like autoscaling and load balancing for resilient performance. Each option’s business value is tied to specific organizational needs.

Serverless computing

Summary: In this section, you will learn the advantages of removing infrastructure overhead by adopting serverless computing. Key products including Cloud Run, App Engine, and Cloud Functions offer agility, scalability, and cost efficiency.

The emphasis is on business benefits such as reduced operational burden and increased capacity to focus on innovation. Organizations can build lightweight applications quickly while relying on Google Cloud to manage infrastructure.

Containers in the cloud

Summary: This section examines how containers support modern application development through modularity, flexibility, and scalability. Differences between virtual machines and containers are explained so you understand when to use each.

You’ll see how containers and microservices help accelerate modernization, supported by products like GKE and Cloud Run. The conversation emphasizes business agility and consistency in deployment pipelines.

The value of APIs

Summary: This section emphasizes the importance of APIs as building blocks for modern business. APIs allow organizations to integrate services internally and expose functionality to the outside world for new opportunities.

Apigee API Management becomes a central tool for maximizing API strategies by managing, securing, and monetizing valuable services. These capabilities show how APIs go beyond technical components to fuel innovation and revenue.

Hybrid and multi-cloud

Summary: This section addresses why many organizations choose hybrid or multicloud approaches to best achieve their business goals. Factors like compliance, flexibility, and cost drive the strategic choice.

Anthos plays a leading role in supporting these strategies by providing a single platform for managing hybrid and multicloud environments. This ensures consistency, security, and simpler management across systems.

Domain 5: Trust and Security with Google Cloud (17% of the exam)

Trust and security in the cloud

Summary: This section explores fundamental security concepts that support organizational trust in the cloud. Cybersecurity risks and the implications for business are presented alongside strategies that ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Key differences between on-premises and cloud security are explained, showing how responsibility differs. You will also learn core terminology so you can articulate the value of enhanced security frameworks to stakeholders.

Google’s trusted infrastructure

Summary: This section focuses on the multilayered defense-in-depth model that protects Google Cloud infrastructure. It covers Google’s benefits from building custom secure data centers, hardware, and software to deliver enhanced controls.

Security technologies like encryption, IAM, and Cloud Armor play important roles in protecting against modern threats. The discussion also explores SecOps concepts and how they support businesses with real-time response and security management.

Google Cloud’s trust principles and compliance

Summary: This section explains how Google Cloud sustains trust through transparency, audits, and compliance support. Customers are reassured by commitments to shared responsibility in managing data.

Further, Google Cloud offers tools like the Compliance Resource Center and Compliance Reports Manager to support global industry and regional compliance needs. Topics like data sovereignty and residency demonstrate how organizations manage regulatory goals.

Domain 6: Scaling with Google Cloud Operations (17% of the exam)

Financial governance and managing cloud costs

Summary: This section highlights Google Cloud’s tools and best practices for financial governance. You’ll discover concepts like resource hierarchy, quota policies, and budgeting that help organizations manage cloud costs predictably.

Key benefits include clearer visibility into expenses and the ability to enforce spending controls aligned with business priorities. Organizations improve both accountability and efficiency while maximizing return on cloud investment.

Operational excellence and reliability at scale

Summary: This section introduces principles of modern cloud operations including resilience, reliability, and scalability. Google Cloud’s approach emphasizes fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and high availability.

You’ll learn key concepts like DevOps, site reliability engineering (SRE), and the role of Google Cloud Customer Care in cloud adoption. The journey of a support case illustrates how organizations are supported through issues in a structured way.

Sustainability with Google Cloud

Summary: This section highlights Google Cloud’s commitment to sustainability and helping organizations meet environmental goals. Advantages include carbon-neutral operations and tools that promote more energy-efficient computing.

Google Cloud products also enable businesses to report and optimize their environmental impact while aligning with broader sustainability strategies. This supports both business performance and global stewardship.