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Google Cloud ACE Planning and Configuration Guide

Google Cloud ACE planning guide covering compute, storage, load balancing, and database fit decisions.

This chapter is about service fit before deployment. ACE expects you to plan the workload around the right compute, data, and network choices rather than deploying first and discovering the mismatch later.

Current weight in the exam guide

Google Cloud currently weights Planning and configuring a cloud solution at about 17.5% of the exam.

Work this section in order

Lesson Focus
2.1 Compute Fit Learn how to choose between Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Spot VMs, and machine shapes.
2.2 Storage & Database Fit Learn how database and storage service selection follows workload shape and durability needs.
2.3 Load Balancing & Tiers Learn how network path, location, and traffic-distribution choices affect service planning.

Fast routing inside this chapter

If the question is really about… Go first to…
Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Spot VMs, or custom machine types 2.1 Compute Fit
Cloud SQL, BigQuery, Firestore, Spanner, Bigtable, Persistent Disk, or Cloud Storage classes 2.2 Storage & Database Fit
load balancing, service tiers, or network location availability 2.3 Load Balancing & Tiers

What strong answers usually do

  • choose the managed runtime that fits the workload before lower-level infrastructure
  • keep data-service fit separate from compute fit
  • treat location and network path as part of workload planning rather than only later troubleshooting

In this section

Revised on Sunday, May 10, 2026
1. Setup
3. Deployment