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This guide is an introduction to Microsoft Azure.
If you are getting started or planning to start with Microsoft Azure. You are at the right place!
This article provides guidance and directions that you need to start your Azure journey!
Firstly, Why you should be interested in cloud computing?
Cloud computing is basically a platform that gives you access to computing resources over the internet.
Suppose you want to build an application and present it in the world, for that you’ll need servers, storage, dedicated networks, application security, computer resources, etc. Cloud Providers offer Platform as a service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). This is an important certification topic. We will talk about these in our next blog.
For an initial start, it can be costly and risky to invest in all these services. If you are not well versed with Cap-Ex vs Op-Ex it is worth reading into it. The idea is that in long term, operating your own data centres is an expensive proposition as compared to just following the Pay-As-You-Go model and/or short-term lease. Which business doesn’t want to bring the total costs down?
Cloud computing provides you with cloud computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
According to analytical agency Gartner, the global market for public cloud services will reach $ 308.5 billion in 2021. This is $ 40 billion more than in 2020 and 90 billion more than in 2019. Gartner also notes that cloud computing has become a necessary catalyst for innovation for businesses.
Azure is one such cloud computing service provider created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centres.
Why should you get Azure certified?
Microsoft Azure certifications play a pivotal role in seeking a career in cloud computing and offering flexible career options.
The certification provides stability to cloud administrators, developers, security engineers, AI engineers, data engineers, solutions architects, and DevOps engineers.
For a career in cloud computing, you must be thinking, Why not AWS? That’s a good question!
Is AZURE better than AWS? Check this out 👈
Once you’ve decided which cloud provider path is right for you, figuring out your next steps isn’t exactly a walk in the park either. So let’s take the next step.
How to start with the AZURE journey if we are beginners or fresh out of college?
What is the entry-level Azure certification?
You are suggested to go for the Microsoft AZ-900 certification exam as a beginner.
Microsoft says the purpose of the Azure exams is to demonstrate foundational level knowledge of cloud services and how those services are provided with Azure. No prior technical IT experience is required. Both technical and non-technical background candidates can take the exam.
How to prepare for AZ-900?
- To begin with, we would recommend taking the Fundamentals training course videos.
- It is important to memorize all the services offered by Azure. Logging into the portal and taking it for a spin would be an ideal way to do this. We highly recommend you familiarize yourself with topics such as Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Azure Virtual Network, Azure App Service, Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Functions, Azure Active Directory, Azure Storage, Azure SQL Database
- Remember to open your one-month Azure trial account. You would get free credits and would have access to most of the Azure Services. If you want to go one step further and make the most out of your free credits, spin up some Azure Resources and get a feel for it. Important: A credit Card is needed to open the free trial account.
- We would suggest you get comfortable with the exam patterns and Questions and the best way to do that is to take practice exams.
Practice exams will help you get a taste of what Azure exams are like and what kind of preparation is needed and will help you successfully pass the Azure Certifications.
We encourage you to pass the Azure Certification exam on the first attempt and strongly believe that these practice exams will actually make a difference.
You can also go through various preparation journeys of certified professionals and connect with them via LinkedIn, This will give you a nice outlook of how-to and from where to start.
A glimpse of what practice exams cover:
If you are dedicated and spend 2-3hours/day, it should not take you months, but rather 2-3 weeks to be ready for the exam.
Where to get doubts clarified for Azure Certifications?
You can ask questions, doubts, and post your thoughts and experience in our forums and interact with Azure-certified professionals. We love to interact!
Why you should not go for Azure Certification Dumps?
Exam Dumps shouldn’t be used for exam preparation. This a great way to ensure your success in the exam, right?
NO! IT’S NOT
If you are caught, your certification credentials will be REVOKED, and you could be BANNED for life by Azure (and many other authorities).
If you want to cheat yourself then we will encourage you to go for exam dumps.
Many exam dumps have not identified the correct answer, and the explanations can often be misleading and this can degrade your knowledge.
The exams change all the time. New questions are continuously added, and slight changes to existing problems are made.
Your main focus should be on learning not just acquiring a certificate.
If you don’t earn your certification through hard work and experience, you’ll be at a significant loss in the job market. It is best to avoid Azure certification dumps.
“We trust you, you’ll work hard for it!”
Microsoft Azure Certifications
Microsoft doesn’t make it easy when it comes to certifications. There is always a change in how the certifications are handled by Microsoft.
The company has released role-based certifications for
- Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate
- Microsoft Certified Azure Developer Associate
- Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
How to decide which Azure Certification to go for?
Going through Google, searching, and reading all the way can be overwhelming, and after all this effort, we are still not sure if we will get the answer to which Azure certification is for us.
Considering this issue, Reviewnprep came up with a Career Journey tool that helps you decide which certification is best suited for you and that too in straightforward steps.
You need to follow the below steps to make the most of the career-journey feature:
Step 1: Select your difficulty level
Step 2: Select the available roles applicable or your area of interest
You can check the tool for Azure Certifications here
No matter what role it is, to become Microsoft Azure certified, one needs to start from the basics.
The path suggested by Microsoft is Fundamental Certifications followed by Associate Certifications and finally Expert Certifications.
Microsoft Azure Certification Path
Most In-Demand Azure Certifications:
- AZ-900 – Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
- AZ 104 – Microsoft Azure Administrator
- AZ-204 – Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure
- AZ-500 – Microsoft Azure Security Technologies
- AZ-305 – Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
- AZ-400 – Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions
Fundamentals
AZ-900 Exam – Microsoft Azure Fundamentals:
This is a new certification designed to demonstrate Azure-based cloud services’ foundation-level knowledge.
- It is geared toward people in non-technical roles, such as sales and purchasing, or for those in technical positions looking to validate foundation-level knowledge in cloud services.
- Preparation Tips for Azure Fundamentals AZ-900
- Check out the Practice exams for Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) here.
- Have questions? Participate in AZ-900 discussions on our Forums. 👈 Click.
Benefits of AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals:
- Core Knowledge: Even though this exam is not considered a prerequisite to taking other Microsoft Azure exams, it is recommended to take the Fundamentals exam before proceeding further to grasp the basics efficiently.
- Learning Edge: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam provides an edge to a professional’s career. Azure is preferred over other cloud providers due to a laid down path, competitive career opportunities, and compatibility with .NET.
AZ-900 Examination Topics:
- Cloud Concepts (15-20%)
- Core Azure Services (30-35%)
- Security, Privacy, Compliance, and Trust (25-30%)
- Azure Pricing and Support (20-25%)
Associate
AZ 104 Exam – Microsoft Azure Administrator:
- Candidates for this exam are Azure Administrators who manage cloud services that span storage, security, networking, and compute cloud capabilities.
- Candidates have a deep understanding of each service across the full IT lifecycle and take requests for infrastructure services, applications, and environments. They make recommendations on services to use for optimal performance and scale and provision, size, monitor, and adjust resources as appropriate.
- Candidates for the AZ-104 – Microsoft Azure Administrator exam should have proficiency in using PowerShell, the Command Line Interface, Azure Portal, ARM templates, operating systems, virtualization, cloud infrastructure, storage structures, and networking.
AZ-204 Exam – Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure:
- This certification is designed to demonstrate developer-level knowledge of how to design, build, test, and maintain cloud solutions like applications and services.
- It also tests the ability to partner with cloud solution architects, cloud DBAs, cloud administrators, and clients to implement these solutions. It is designed for developers and technical roles looking to validate development and implementation knowledge in cloud services.
AZ-500 Exam – Microsoft Azure Security Technologies:
- Candidates for this exam are Microsoft Azure security engineers who implement security controls, maintain the security posture, manage identity and access, and protect data, applications, and networks.
- Candidates identify and remediate vulnerabilities by using various security tools implement threat protection, and respond to security incident escalations.
- As a Microsoft Azure security engineer, candidates often serve as part of a larger team dedicated to cloud-based management and security. They may also secure hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.
- Candidates for the AZ-104 – Microsoft Azure Administrator exam should have strong scripting and automation skills, a deep understanding of networking, virtualization, cloud N-tier architecture, and a strong familiarity with cloud capabilities, Microsoft Azure products and services, and other Microsoft products and services.
- AZ-500 Practice Exams
Expert
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert
- This certification is a combination of two certifications AZ-104 and AZ-305.
- Candidates for this exam are Azure Solution Architects who advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions.
- Candidates should have advanced experience and knowledge across various aspects of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data management, budgeting, and governance.
- This role requires managing how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. Candidates must be proficient in Azure administration, Azure development, and DevOps, and have expert-level skills in at least one of those domains
AZ-400 Exam – Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions:
- Candidates for this exam are DevOps professionals who combine people, processes, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end-user needs and business objectives.
- DevOps professionals streamline delivery by optimizing practices, improving communications and collaboration, and creating automation. They design and implement strategies for application code and infrastructure that allow for continuous integration, continuous testing, continuous delivery, and continuous monitoring and feedback.
- Candidates must be proficient with Agile DevOps practices. They must be familiar with both Azure administration and Azure development and experts in at least one of these areas. Azure DevOps professionals must be able to design and implement DevOps practices for version control, compliance, infrastructure as code, configuration management, build, release, and testing by using Azure technologies.
Want to know the best part of Azure?
Microsoft Azure is free to start and follows a pay-per-use model. You can open an account and use the services free for one month if you don’t exceed the allocated quota. So, remember to tear down the environment after each use.
Which companies are using Azure?
Some of the biggest spenders on Azure are:
1) Verizon: $79.9 million 2) MSI Computer: $78 million 3) LG Electronics: $76.7 million 4) CenturyLink: $61.9 million 5) NTT America: $48.7 million 6) Wikimedia Foundation: $42.6 million 7) LinkedIn Corp: $41.2 million 8) News Corp: $40.5 million 9) Adobe: $39.9 million 10) Intel: $38.5 million (contino.io)
“Microsoft Azure have datacenters in 42 regions around the globe”
Bonus!!
When deciding on which certification to go for, we all would love to have a suggestion from an experienced person.
Guess What! We got you covered for this as well.
Review N Prep came into existence from our struggles to get the right answers when preparing for certifications in our areas of interest.
There is a lot of information scattered on the internet, and with so many resources, it became hard to navigate and read through it all.
We have a dedicated community of certified professionals focused on helping out beginners as well as working professionals.
Conclusion:
Our mission is to help fellow future ‘certificates’ make optimal use of their time and resources. We spend quality time reaching out to our reviewers and ensuring that the reviews are always helpful.
Our Preparation Journeys are contributed by certified Azure community members to help each other – You can be a part of it as well!📌
Well, Azure can be your first cloud certification, but you must also know about what AWS and Google Cloud are offering when starting your cloud journey. Knowledge never gets wasted.
A treat for beginners:
