5 ways a Google Cloud Digital Leader cert can help you IRL

Why should you do an entry-level certification? Maybe you’ve heard that they’re great for if you are looking to get into cloud, or making a lateral career move and need to know which skills are missing from your background. But what if you’re in a role where you don’t plan on getting your hands cloudy on the day-to-day? Can it really help you in real life? Absolutely. An entry-level cert can build a valuable framework to help understand exactly how the cloud works, allowing you to also communicate the benefits of a digital transformation solution for your business. 

So, exactly how can a certification like this can help you in a real-life situation? Let’s drop in on Kym and find out 5 ways being a Google Cloud Digital Leader helps her in her non-technical career.

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Kym glanced down at her watch for the forty-seventh time this morning. Five minutes to go before those boardroom doors opened. She began to check her notes again but was interrupted by the creaking door.

“Looks like we’re a bit ahead of schedule, Kym. Are you ready?”

 “Absolutely,” said Kym, jumping to her feet to follow her company’s CEO. She focused on the neon hotel logo on the far wall as she entered the room. Every chair surrounding the immense conference table was filled. 

“Executive Leadership Team, I’d like to introduce you to Kym. I’ve asked her to present a competitive analysis of where we stand today with suggestions for the future. Kym, the floor is all yours.”

Kym began, “Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen of the ELT, I know your time is valuable, so I’ll be brief. It’s a bad news/great news situation. The bad news is that our competitors are leaving us in the dust. The great news is that we have a way forward – and one that will not only keep us in the hospitality game but allow us to become industry leaders.”

“Why are our competitors beating us in every category? Simply put: the cloud. All the major hotel chains in our markets have, to some degree, migrated their computing infrastructure to the cloud. We, on the other hand, rely on a series of physical data centers to run our operations. “Consequently, our competitors can expand capacity when needed, like during the last homecoming, and scale back their systems when business is slow, such as during a lockdown period. 

“Our capital expenditures are enormous and our ongoing operating expenses are consistently high. So, we’re at a baseline disadvantage from a profitability standpoint, and it’s only going to get worse,” Kym continued. 

“We’re being beaten not just on profit margins, but on customer experience. Our hotel brand is known for its superior lodging, excellent in-house service, and terrific on-site restaurants. However, we are losing current customers because of our antiquated and slow user experience when it comes to booking rooms, and we are not meeting the needs or expectations of the potential customer base.”

“I see,” the CEO leant forward, “That certainly sounds like bad news. But what about that good news you mentioned?”

“Well, the great news can be summarized in the same two words: the cloud! We can significantly reduce our capital expenditures and tie operating expenses to business shifts; spending more when demand is high and less when demand is low. And we can do all this by migrating our computing infrastructure to the cloud.”

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A blue-suited man cleared his throat, “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but given how you’ve already described that we’re on the cusp, how can we take the time to move all our systems to a whole new structure? We’ll be offline for what, a month, maybe two?”

“Not necessarily. Of course, we will have to carefully plan just how the migration is handled, but I’m familiar with numerous resources to help us make the leap. We could, for example, use the Google Cloud Migrate for Compute Engine service to handle the data migration in the background, so there would be zero disruption to our operations.

“This move to the cloud would also allow us to up our game as far as our customers are concerned. We can lower wait times when they are booking their rooms to make the whole experience more user-friendly and engaging. Also, using existing artificial intelligence services and routines, we can perform predictive analysis to offer discounts when they would be most effective.

“And there’s one more area that makes this news not just good, but great. We can unlock data that we’ve been collecting over the years. We could take that data – like the recipes for all the classic dishes our restaurant’s chefs have developed – to open new revenue streams, by making it available to our partners as well as third-party developers, in a very secure way.”

The CEO began pacing the room, “This all sounds very promising, Kym. However, what you said just set alarm bells off in my head. Secure. Our current systems and data – while they are admittedly on the slow side – are secure and we know how to protect them. Won’t putting them in the cloud make them available to hackers all over the world?”

Kym nodded, “You’re right to be concerned – our new global reach also increases the potential access by bad actors. But cloud providers are especially security-focused for this exact reason. For instance, Google Cloud has six layers of security, from building all their own hardware in-house, to a large team of security professionals guarding the network against potential threats and risks.”

“Well Kym, you’ve certainly given me and the rest of the ELT a great deal to consider. Thank you for your presentation,” the CEO approached Kym, with his hand outstretched. “Oh, and I understand congratulations are in order?”

Kym smiled. “Yes, thank you. I got the email yesterday – I’ve been a Google Cloud Certified Cloud Digital Leader for just over 24 hours.”

Want to be like Kym? Check out my new Google Cloud Certified Cloud Digital Leader certification course on the A Cloud Guru platform.