Google PCA Manage and provision cloud infrastructure Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of manage and provision cloud infrastructure. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is migrating hundreds of on-premises VMs to Compute Engine. They want to minimize manual effort and downtime. Which service should they use?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "minimum / minimize"
Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Migrate for Compute Engine
Migrate for Compute Engine (formerly Velostrata) is the correct choice because it is a fully managed service specifically designed for migrating large-scale VM workloads to Compute Engine with minimal downtime. It uses a streaming migration approach that moves the OS and application data while the source VM continues running, then performs a cutover with near-zero downtime, making it ideal for hundreds of VMs without manual effort.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
This is for individual VM import, not automated bulk migration.
✗
Transfer Appliance
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Appliance is for physical data transfer, not for VM migration.
✓
Migrate for Compute Engine
Why this is correct
Correct. It supports bulk migration with minimal downtime.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
CloudEndure
Why it's wrong here
CloudEndure is a third-party tool, not a native Google Cloud service.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse CloudEndure (a popular third-party migration tool) with a native Google Cloud service, or assume gcloud compute instances import is sufficient for large-scale live migrations, but the exam emphasizes using the dedicated, fully managed migration service for minimal downtime and automation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Migrate for Compute Engine uses a hypervisor-level agent to replicate disk blocks from the source VM to a persistent disk in Compute Engine while the source remains online. During cutover, it synchronizes the final delta changes and then powers on the migrated VM in Google Cloud, typically achieving sub-minute downtime. This service supports both VMware and Hyper-V environments and can handle thousands of VMs in parallel using a centralized migration manager.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this PCA question in full detail.
Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — This question tests Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Migrate for Compute Engine — Migrate for Compute Engine (formerly Velostrata) is the correct choice because it is a fully managed service specifically designed for migrating large-scale VM workloads to Compute Engine with minimal downtime. It uses a streaming migration approach that moves the OS and application data while the source VM continues running, then performs a cutover with near-zero downtime, making it ideal for hundreds of VMs without manual effort.
What should I do if I get this PCA question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "minimum / minimize". Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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