***NEW! Specialization Completion Challenge, receive Qwiklabs credits valued up to $180! See below for details.*** This 1-week, accelerated on-demand course introduces participants to the comprehensive and flexible infrastructure and platform services provided by Google Cloud Platform. Through a combination of video lectures, demos, and hands-on labs, participants explore and deploy solution elements, including infrastructure components such as networks, virtual machines and applications services. You will learn how to use the Google Cloud Platform through the console and Cloud Shell. You'll also learn about the role of a cloud architect, approaches to infrastructure design, and virtual networking configuration with Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Projects, Networks, Subnetworks, IP addresses, Routes, and Firewall rules. Prerequisites To get the most out of this course, participants should have: • Completed Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals (Core Infrastructure or AWS Professionals.) or have equivalent experience • Basic proficiency with command-line tools and Linux operating system environments • Systems Operations experience including deploying and managing applications, either on-premises or in a public cloud environment SPECIALIZATION COMPLETION CHALLENGE As if learning new skills wasn’t enough of an incentive, we're excited to announce a special completion challenge for ‘Architecting with Google Cloud Platform’ specializations. Here’s how it works: Our completion challenge runs through 11:59pm PT May 5, 2019. Complete any course in this Specialization including this one, anytime in this period and we'll send you 30 Qwiklabs credits for each course completed (upto $180 value given there are 6 courses in the specialization). You can use these credits to take additional labs and earn badges, which you can then add to your resume and social profiles. Your challenge awaits – begin learning on Coursera today!