Google PCA Practice Question: Analysing and Optimising Technical and Business Processes
An enterprise is planning to migrate 200 on-premises VMs to Google Cloud. The CIO wants to ensure that the migration aligns with the business goal of reducing IT operational overhead by 30% while maintaining application performance. The team has already completed a technical assessment of the VMs. Which additional step should the cloud architect take to ensure the migration plan is aligned with the stated business goal?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that technical validation or cost modeling alone satisfies business alignment, when the goal specifically requires understanding application criticality and dependencies to reduce operational overhead.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Conduct a business impact analysis to map each application to business processes and identify criticality and dependencies.
The business goal is to reduce IT operational overhead by 30% while maintaining performance. A business impact analysis (BIA) identifies which applications are critical, their dependencies, and how they support business processes. This allows the architect to prioritize migrations, retire redundant systems, and consolidate workloads, directly contributing to overhead reduction. Technical assessments alone do not ensure business alignment.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Conduct a business impact analysis to map each application to business processes and identify criticality and dependencies.
Why this is correct
A business impact analysis (BIA) links applications to business processes, revealing criticality, dependencies, and potential operational overhead. This helps prioritize migrations and identify opportunities to reduce overhead, such as retiring redundant applications or consolidating. It ensures the migration plan supports the business goal, not just technical feasibility. Without BIA, the plan may miss cost-saving and risk-reduction opportunities.
- ✗
Perform a detailed network latency test between on-premises and Google Cloud to determine the best interconnect option.
Why it's wrong here
Network latency testing is a technical validation that informs connectivity design, but it does not directly address the business goal of reducing operational overhead. It may be necessary for performance, but it does not map applications to business value or identify overhead reduction opportunities. Thus, it is insufficient to align the migration with the stated business objective.
- ✗
Develop a detailed total cost of ownership (TCO) model comparing on-premises and Google Cloud costs for all 200 VMs.
Why it's wrong here
A TCO model is valuable for financial comparison, but it primarily addresses cost, not the broader goal of reducing operational overhead. Operational overhead includes management, maintenance, and staffing, which a TCO may not fully capture. Without mapping applications to business processes, the TCO model alone may not identify opportunities for overhead reduction.
- ✗
Create a proof of concept for migrating a single non-critical VM to validate the migration process.
Why it's wrong here
A proof of concept validates technical migration steps but does not ensure alignment with business goals. It focuses on a single VM, which may not represent the broader application portfolio or reveal operational overhead reductions. While useful for de-risking, it does not provide the business-level analysis needed to meet the CIO's objective.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Google Cloud exam blueprint
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