Security Best Practices in Google Cloud: Compute

Go Beyond Perimeter Defenses

Firewalls alone can’t protect a virtual machine that’s been compromised at boot or misconfigured at runtime. This intermediate course shows you how to harden virtual machines and protect critical workloads in Google Cloud by securing every stage of the compute lifecycle.

Harden Virtual Machines From Boot to Runtime

You’ll learn how to use hardware-rooted integrity controls, such as Shielded VMs, to verify that your instances start in a trusted state. You’ll then explore how to keep workloads protected while they run, including identity-based access controls that replace broad network trust and reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

Protect Critical Workloads

Throughout the course, you’ll focus on practical strategies you can apply to real production environments. By the end, you’ll be able to build a hardened compute environment on Google Cloud, protect sensitive workloads from boot through runtime, and make compute security a built-in part of how you deploy virtual machines.