There are many ways to interact with Google Cloud services, but each of them falls into one of three categories: the Cloud Console, the Software Development Kit, and Google Cloud's APIs. Knowing what each one is and how they relate is useful background for the Professional Cloud Database Engineer exam, because questions about provisioning and managing databases often assume you understand the interface a given task is performed through.
The Cloud Console is a graphical interface that you reach through a web browser at console.cloud.google.com. It gives you a visual way to manage and monitor resources, which suits anyone who prefers a hands-on approach to a cloud environment without writing code. For many users it is the simplest and most approachable option, and it is usually where you start when you are exploring a service or doing something once rather than repeatedly.
The SDK, or Software Development Kit, is close to what its name suggests. It is a toolkit for incorporating Google Cloud services into software. It offers command-line tools for automating tasks and managing resources, and it includes programming libraries that let you write scripts or applications in languages such as Python, Java, or Node.js. The SDK is a good fit when you want to integrate Google Cloud into a workflow or automate repetitive tasks rather than click through them by hand each time.
The APIs provide more purely programmatic access to Google Cloud services. They let an application communicate with Google Cloud over REST or gRPC using HTTPS endpoints, so you can connect Google Cloud services with external systems or applications. This is the lowest-level of the three approaches and the most flexible, since you are talking to the service interface directly.
It helps to know that these approaches are layered, even though you can treat them as separate in practice. The SDK is really a wrapper around the APIs. It abstracts the low-level details so that operations are easier to perform, and instead of manually crafting an API request, the command-line tool or library you are using makes the API calls for you. The Cloud Console works the same way. When you click around in the Console, requests are being made to the Google Cloud APIs behind the scenes. So all three ultimately reach the same APIs, and the difference is the layer you choose to work at.
For day-to-day use you can just think of them as three separate options. The Cloud Console suits visual, one-off work, the command-line tools suit automation and scripting, and the client libraries suit building Google Cloud into an application. Together they give you a range of ways to access and manage Google Cloud depending on your use case and preference, and that is the level of detail the Professional Cloud Database Engineer exam expects you to be comfortable with.
Our Professional Cloud Database Engineer course covers the ways to access Google Cloud alongside the SDK and the gcloud command-line tooling in more depth, with practice questions that drill these distinctions.
