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Cloud computing is one of the fastest-growing technology in this modern era. According to the IDC report, “public cloud spending will grow from $229 billion in 2019 to nearly $500 billion in 2023.” Therefore, nobody can deny the rapid growth of cloud computing in recent years.
Many big names have made their presence in the cloud arena with their unique services in a cloud computing environment such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM Cloud, Rackspace, etc. — and Microsoft Azure is an emerging market-leader with 29% application workload of the overall cloud market.
To become certified in Microsoft Azure is the most demanding requirement of the cloud market. In this article, we’ll cover the nine Microsoft Azure certification exams and information to help you choose a career path.
Whether you are looking to study for an Azure certification or simply want to find out more about what Azure can offer your enterprise, Cloud Academy’s Microsoft Azure Training Library is loaded with Learning Paths, Courses, Quizzes, Certification Prep Exams, and Hands-on Labs to get you excited to learn Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft Azure Role-Based Certifications
Microsoft has introduced its Azure certifications into a role-base structure such as fundamental, associate, and expert level. These certifications purely focus on building knowledge and skills related to market job roles. This revolution was made with the engagement of the community after identifying the job requirements.
Microsoft has introduced the following nine Microsoft Azure certifications that are organized into three levels: Fundamental, Associate, and Expert.
- Microsoft Certified Azure – Fundamentals Exam AZ-900
- Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator – Associate Exam AZ-103
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer – Associate Exam AZ-203
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer – Associate Exam AZ-500
- Microsoft Certified Solutions Architect – Expert Exam AZ-300
- Microsoft Certified Solutions Architect – Expert Exam AZ-301
- Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer – Expert Exam AZ-400
- Developing Microsoft Azure and Web Services Exam 70-487
- Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Exam 70-537
Fundamental-Level Microsoft Azure Certifications
Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals Exam AZ-900
This certification is designed to validate the foundational level knowledge of Azure cloud services. It also helps non-tech candidates to understand cloud services who are offering services such as sales, purchasing, and marketing Azure cloud services.
Areas Covered
- Understand foundational cloud concepts such as High Availability (HA), Scalability, Fault Tolerance (FT), Disaster Recovery, scalability, and the difference between CapEx and OpEx
- Describe Regions, Availability Zones, Resource Groups, Azure Resource Manager, and Azure architectural components
- Describe Azure Firewall, DDoS protection, Network Security Group (NSG)
- Describe Azure subscription, understand purchasing of Azure services and products, Azure free account, and pricing calculator
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: No special prerequisites
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 85 Minutes
- Passing Score Required: 700
- Cost: $99
Associate-Level Microsoft Azure Certifications
Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator – Associate Exam AZ-103
This new certification was created on May 1, 2019 and validates the knowledge and skills of implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Microsoft Azure services, including compute, storage, networking, and security. It combines the skills of two expired exams, AZ-100 and AZ-101, which were retired on May 1, 2019.
Areas Covered
- Manage Azure subscriptions, Resource Groups, analyze resource utilization and consumption, and manage role-based access
- Create and configure storage accounts, Azure files, and Azure backups
- Deploy and Manage virtual machines (VMs) and VM backups
- Configure and manage virtual networks, Implement Azure load balancer, and Network Security Group (NSG)
- Create and manage Azure Active Directory (AD), AD objects, users, and groups
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam AZ-900 (optional)
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 150 Minutes
- Cost: $165
Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer – Associate Exam AZ-203
This certification is designed for developers to design, build, and maintain cloud applications and services with the coordination of cloud database administrators (DBAs), cloud solution architects, cloud administrators, and clients. Certified Azure developers participate in all phases of development such as solution design, deployment, testing, and maintenance with coordination of cloud DBAs, cloud solution architects, and cloud administrators.
Candidates must be skilled in at least one cloud platform supporting programming language and should have at least one-year experience in software development for scalable solutions.
Areas Covered
- Provision VMs, create Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, manage and implement batch jobs, create Azure Managed Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster, and create container images
- Create Azure app services web apps, mobile apps, API apps, and implementation of Azure functions
- Develop solutions for the usage of storage tables, blob storage, Cosmos DB storage, and relational databases
- Implement Azure security as authentication, access control, and secure data solutions
- Implement auto-scaling rules and patterns, integrate content delivery and caching, and use Azure Monitor to analyze and troubleshoot solutions
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam AZ-900 (optional)
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 150 Minutes
- Cost: $165
Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer – Associate Exam AZ-500
This certification is designed for candidates who implement and manage security controls, identity, and access management and are responsible for securing cloud data, apps, and networks. As a Microsoft Azure security engineer, candidates are responsible for managing and securing cloud-based solutions and may also secure hybrid cloud solutions as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.
This exam requires strong skills in automation and scripting, deep understanding of virtualization technology, virtual networking, and a strong familiarity with Microsoft cloud services and products.
Areas Covered
- Configure MS AD for workloads, Azure AD privileged Identity Management, and Azure tenant security
- Implement network and container security, host, and Azure resource management security
- Configure Azure monitor and Azure log analytics, manage security alerts, and configure security policies
- Configure and manage security for data infrastructure, configure SSL/TLS for application security, and configure and manage key vault and encryption for data at rest
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam AZ-900 (optional)
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 150 Minutes
- Cost: $165
Expert-Level Microsoft Azure Certifications
Microsoft Certified Solutions Architect – Expert Exam AZ-300
This expert-level certification is designed for candidates who are the advocate for businesses and translate business needs into reliable, secure, and scalable Azure cloud solutions. Candidates require advanced knowledge and expertise in various IT operations including virtualization, identity management, virtual networking, security, business continuity, data management, disaster recovery, budgeting, and governance. This expert-level certification requires proficiency in Azure administration, development, and operations.
Areas Covered
- Analyze resource utilization, Provision VMs, create Resource Manager templates, create and verify virtual networking and connectivity, configure storage accounts, and manage Azure Active Directory
- Migrate to Azure, manage role-based access, configure serverless computing, implement application load balancing, and integration of on-prem with Azure
- Create and deploy apps, configure Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Implement multi-factor authentication and implement secure data solutions
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam AZ-900 (optional)
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 150 Minutes
- Cost: $165
Microsoft Certified Solutions Architect – Expert Exam AZ-301
Microsoft Certified Solution Architect is to be considered as the most distinguished job designations in the IT industry. To earn this certification title, you need to exhibit your knowledge and expertise in various aspects of IT fields including identity, data management, virtualization, networking, security, disaster recovery and much more. This expert-level design certification requires proficiency in Azure administration, development, and operations.
Areas Covered
- Design compute, storage, networking, and monitoring strategy
- Gather information and infrastructure requirements, define logical grouping and determine storage locations for logs
- Design identity management, risk prevention for identity, monitoring strategy for identity and security
- Design and document data flows and data protection strategy
- Design a site recovery and data archiving strategy
- Design deployment, migration, and API integration strategy
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam AZ-900 (optional)
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 150 Minutes
- Cost: $165
Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer – Expert Exam AZ-400
This certification is designed for DevOps professionals who bring people, processes, and technologies closer to deliver valuable services and products that meet business requirements and objectives. DevOps professionals are responsible for delivering cloud services by improving collaboration and communications, designing and implementing strategies for app coding, and creating automation, continuous delivery, monitoring, and feedback. For this job role, candidates should be proficient with Agile practices and familiar with both Azure development and operations processes.
Areas Covered
- Design a secure development lifecycle and tool integration process
- Design and implement version control and mobile DevOps strategy, implement and integrate source control, and manage to build infrastructure
- Analyze and manage hosting infrastructure and Azure Kubernetes Service infrastructure
- Implement infrastructure as code, compliance, and security of infrastructure
- Design and optimize the feedback mechanism
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Developer Associate certification
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 150 Minutes
- Cost: $165
Developing Microsoft Azure and Web Services Exam 70-487
This exam is designed for developers with a minimum of 3-5 years’ experience developing Web Services, Web API, and Azure solutions.
Areas Covered
- Choose data access technology, implement caching, transactions, and data storage in Azure
- Query and manipulate data using Entity Framework, LINQ to Entities, and ADO.NET
- Design, implement, and secure Web API
- Implement traffic management, API management, and serverless Azure web services
- Design and deploy a strategy for Azure
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: Experience with C#, LINQ, ADO.NET (Optional)
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 150 Minutes
- Cost: $165
Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Exam 70-537
This certification is designed for service and infrastructure administrators who are responsible for providing cloud services to their customers using Microsoft Azure Stack from their own datacenter. Candidates must have substantial experience of managing and operating Azure Stack environments along with strong virtualization, networking, and identity management concepts. Candidates demonstrate the ability to plan, deploy, maintain, and update the Azure Stack infrastructure and must understand hybrid cloud services, resources, and how to manage IaaS and PaaS infrastructure.
Areas Covered
- Configure DNS and connectivity for data center integration
- Configure IaaS, PaaS services for Azure Stack Environment
- Create and manage quotas, tenants for the Azure Marketplace
- Manage and monitor disaster recovery solution
Exam Information
- Prerequisites: Experience with management and operations in Azure (Optional)
- Format: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Number of Questions: 40 – 60
- Duration: 150 Minutes
- Cost: $165
Conclusion
Microsoft is one of the biggest players in the cloud market with 29% application workload of the overall cloud market. If you are interested in making a career using Microsoft Azure technologies, I highly recommended choosing an above-mentioned Azure certification in your Azure cloud career path.
These nine role-based certifications include configuration and management of compute, storage, networking, security, reliability, integration, development, and operations capabilities. Organizations are rapidly adopting Microsoft Azure cloud services and the demand is growing for certified Azure administrators, Azure Solution Architects, Azure developers, and Azure security engineers.
To become certified and successfully land a job, you’ll not only need to learn how to configure, manage, and secure Azure cloud environments, but you’ll also need practical, hands-on experience. Cloud Academy offers Microsoft Azure Certifications Learning Paths that not only help you pass the Azure certification exams, but also allow you to test your skills real-world environments with Hands-on Labs. From configuring Azure infrastructure for cloud administrators to integrating Azure services for cloud architects, these Learning Paths fully prepare you with the knowledge and experience you need to start or advance your Azure career.
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