Microsoft Azure Certification is high in demand certification in the technological world and considered as a ticket to get an excellent job in a reputed company. Azure or Microsoft Azure or Windows Azure is a cloud computing service that was created by Microsoft and released on 1st February 2010. Microsoft Azure supports building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services of various kinds using the Microsoft managed data centres. It also offers additional support for Saas (Software as a service), PaaS (Platform as a service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a service). It effectively manages various programming languages along with their specific tools and frameworks.
Thus, it includes the features of supporting Microsoft specific as well as third party software systems.
Why do you need to take Microsoft Azure Cloud Certification?
The need for Azure Cloud Certification increases to get hold over the fastest growing and high in demand technology known as cloud computing. It is expected that the cloud computing business will almost double from $229 billion in the year 2019, which clearly shows its wide-scale usage. Amazon Web Service (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM Cloud, and now Microsoft Azure are the new age cloud computing technology that is high in demand and offers a promising future to the students with the knowledge of this software and system process. Through Azure Certification, a person can learn to use various cloud-based services and manage to secure a good job position in a tech company at a respectable pay scale. Various kinds of Microsoft Azure Role-Based Certifications are available for the interested candidates to choose from and gain the knowledge of the new age cloud computing system introduced by Microsoft.
What are the different types of Microsoft Azure Role-Based Certifications?
There are about nine types of Microsoft Azure Role-Based Certifications, which are meant for different structure levels starting from fundamental, associate, and finally expert levels. These structure levels are built to facilitate the learning process and help the learners to take on the next level step by step, making it easier for them to learn and grasp the required skills with every single level. Nine exams are associated with each of the three levels of 9 types of Microsoft Azure Role-Based Certification with the 10th exam for overall certification.
Microsoft Azure Certification Learning Path
We have listed a quick rundown to pick the right azure exam and certification path for you.
- Select the azure solution area of your choice to achieve certification. Choose from:
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- Azure applications and infrastructure
- Azure data and AI
- Next, decide if you wish to get started with fundamentals or directly with role-based certifications. However, it is recommended to start with the fundamental exams.
- Then choose the role you want to achieve your certification.
- Depending upon the solution area and type you will have different role-based certifications available to choose. Read & Verify the requirement before making a selection.
- Select the first exam with which you wish to begin.
- Start learning.
- You can either schedule the exam online or in a local test centre.
Fundamental Level Microsoft Azure Certification
Fundamental level Microsoft Azure Certification consists of the following certification and exams.
1. Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (Exam AZ-900)
This is the first level of Certification for Microsoft Azure that is specifically designed to validate that the concerned candidate possesses all the foundation level knowledge about the Azure cloud service of Microsoft. This certification is ideal for the candidates with non-technical background and meant to offer them an understanding of the cloud computing services that could help in their daily business schedule and job responsibilities, including sales, marketing, and procurement using Microsoft's Azure Cloud Service.
Information covered in certification:
- In-depth knowledge about the concepts related to cloud computing such as HA (High Availability), Disaster Recovery, Scalability, the difference between CapEx and OpEx, and FT (Fault Tolerance).
- Describing regions, zones availability, and resource groups.
- Components of Azure architecture.
- Azure Resource Manager.
- Detailed information about Azure Firewall, Azure Subscription, Network Security Group (NSG), and DDoS protection.
- Understanding the Azure subscription process, methods of purchase, use of free account service, and pricing calculation.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | None |
| Number of questions in the examination | 40 to 60 |
| Duration of the examination | 85 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $99 |
Recommended online course for preparing for the certification: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 Exam Prep
Associate Level Microsoft Azure Certifications
2. Microsoft Azure Administrator. (Associate Exam AZ-103)
The Microsoft Azure Administrator certification was created last year on 1st May 2019 with the purpose of validating the knowledge and skills of the candidate in monitoring, controlling, implementing, and maintaining secure services of Microsoft Azure. The certification confirms that the candidate knows the computing process, storage, security, and networking services offered by Microsoft Azure. This examination is an updated version of the earlier two exams, which were identified as Microsoft Azure Associate Exam AZ-100 and AZ- 101.
Information covered in certification:
- Learn to manage Azure subscriptions and free account service.
- Identify the resource groups and learn to analyze resource utilization in the best manner.
- Gain information about the consumption and manage role-based access in Microsoft Azure.
- Learn to figure out the configuration process and management of virtual networks.
- Understand the facility and usage of Azure files and Azure backups.
- Implementing Azure load balancer.
- Developing an understanding of the Network Security Group (NSG).
- Learn the methods to create and effectively manage the Microsoft Azure Directory (AD) objects, users, and groups.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 40 to 60 |
| Duration of the examination | 150 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
You can signup here.
3. Microsoft Azure Developer (Associate Exam AZ-203)
Microsoft Azure Developer certification is specifically designed for developers. The candidates passing this course are validated to have skills in designing, building, and maintaining cloud application services. The candidate passing through this certification can coordinate with the cloud database administrators (DBAs), cloud computing architects, cloud administrators, and even clients. In addition to that, the candidate is skilled in one of the cloud platform supporting programming language with one year of experience in software development for scalable solutions.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to create ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates and manage batch jobs.
- Gain the ability to create AKS (Azure Managed Kubernetes Services) cluster and even learn to develop container images.
- Develop skills to develop application services, including web applications, mobile applications, API applications, and implement various other Azure functions.
- You will be able to create solutions for the usage of storage tables, including blob storage and Cosmos DB storage.
- Access to relational databases.
- Able to implement Azure security system for authentication, control, and securing data.
- You will learn to apply auto-scaling rules and patterns.
- Will grab the ability to integrate content delivery and to cache.
- Able to use the Azure Monitor to analyze and troubleshoot the solutions.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 40 to 60 |
| Duration of the examination | 150 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
You can signup here.
4. Microsoft Azure Security Engineer (Associate Exam AZ-500)
Microsoft Azure Security Engineer, as the name suggests, is specifically for the Engineers who want to learn, implement and manage security controls, access management, and become responsible for securing the cloud computing data and other information related, including applications and networks. The certified candidate of this course validates the person can manage and secure cloud-based solutions, including a hybrid part as part of the end to end infrastructure. To get through this examination, the candidate requires to gain skills in automation, scripting, virtual networking, and develop other related skills in virtual technology. In addition to that, the knowledge about Microsoft cloud computing services and various products available will add to the scores.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to configure MS AD for different kinds of workloads.
- Able to use Azure AD privileged identity management services.
- Grasp the knowledge to apply the Azure tenant security system.
- Learn to implement network and container security system.
- Able to configure Azure monitor, Azure log analytics, Secure policies, and manage security alerts.
- Learn to apply and manage the security of the data infrastructure using SSL/TLS and manage key vault and encryption for data.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 40 to 60 |
| Duration of the examination | 150 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
Recommended online course for preparing for the certification: Microsoft Azure Security AZ-500 Certification Exam Practice questions
5. Microsoft Azure AI Engineer (Associate Exam AI-100)
Microsoft Azure AI Engineer is an associate-level examination that is designed for the candidates interested in applying Microsoft solutions for Artificial Intelligence. These include knowledge about the natural language processing system, computer vision, bots, speech, and even the use of cognitive services, knowledge mining, and machine learning. The certified candidates validate to have the ability to analyze the different requirements for Artificial Intelligence solutions. They could recommend appropriate tools and techniques and solutions that could effectively meet the scalability and the required performance outcomes.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to select the most appropriate processing architecture and data processing technology that can be used for handling Artificial intelligence services and recognize the automation required as part of solutions.
- Learn to design strategies that could help in ingesting and egress data and integrate bots and Artificial Intelligence solutions.
- Able to define how the users will authenticate the Artificial Intelligence services.
- Create the Artificial Intelligence pipelines and learn to implement the workflow and data logging process.
- Monitoring different Artificial Intelligence components for availability, improvements, and recommend changes.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 62 |
| Duration of the examination | 220 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
Recommended online course for preparing for the certification: AI-900 Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals Certification
6. Microsoft Azure Data Scientist (Associate Exam DP-100)
The Microsoft Azure Data Scientist is an associate-level examination that is designed to test the skills and knowledge of the candidate in designing and implementing the data science solutions on the Microsoft Azure. The certified candidates validate to have the ability to apply the different Azure machine learning approaches in training, evaluation as well as the deployment of models used in solving various kinds of business issues and problems.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to create and configure various kinds of Microsoft Azure data science environments.
- Able to access the deployment environment constraints and analyze them to recommend tools that can best meet the system requirements.
- Configure and transform data into a usable data set and recognize the anomalies.
- Able to apply features for selection, extraction, and scaling.
- Recognize the data imbalances and evaluate model performances.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 40-60 |
| Duration of the examination | 180 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
You can signup here.
7. Microsoft Azure Data Scientist (Associate Exam DP-200 and DP-201)
There are two exams to get through the certification for being a Microsoft Azure Data Scientist. These are DP-200 and Dp-201. Let's start by understanding the DP-200 examination.
7.1 Microsoft Azure Data Scientist (Associate Exam DP-200)Examination DP-200 for Implementing an Azure Data Solution
The DP-200 examination is specifically designed to test the learning of the candidates for implementing various kinds of Azure Data solutions, which include provisions of data storage, developing streaming, implementing security, accessing external data sources, and batch processing. In addition to that, the candidate needs to acquire the ability to access external data sources and implement data retention policies. The certified candidates are validated to have skills to apply Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Steam Analytics, and Blob storage services.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to implement relational as well as non-relational data storage solutions.
- Able to manage data security systems by implementing data encryption and data masking techniques.
- Create streaming and batch processing solutions.
- Monitoring data processing, data storage, and accomplish an Azure data solution.
- Learn to encrypt data at rest and in motion as well.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 46 |
| Duration of the examination | 180 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
Recommended online course for preparing for the certification: DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution
7.2 Microsoft Azure Data Scientist (Associate Exam DP-201) Examination for designing an Azure Data Solution
The second examination is DP-201, which is meant to access the ability of the candidate for designing the Microsoft Azure data solution. In this examination, the candidates are tested for the ability to design data storage, processing, and security applications meeting the compliances under Microsoft Azure services. The certified candidates are validated to have skills to design Microsoft's Azure SQL, Azure Data Lake, Azure Stream Analytics, Blob Storage Services, and Azure Cosmos DB.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to design different relational as well as non-relational cloud data stores.
- Able to design real-time and batch processing solutions.
- We are designing security solutions, including encryption, auditing, and data privacy.
- Configure data retention policies.
- Able to plan archiving strategies.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 44 |
| Duration of the examination | 150 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
Recommended online course for preparing for the certification: DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution Exam
Expert Level Microsoft Azure Certifications
The expert level Microsoft Azure Certification has two expert examinations, including Examination AZ- 300 and AZ-301 again. Let's start by understanding about examination AZ-300.
1. Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect (Expert Examination AZ-300)
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect expert level examination AZ-300 is specifically meant for candidates who are interested in using the cloud computing system and solutions for businesses. This examination tests the ability of the candidate to deliver safe, secure, and reliable Azure cloud solutions to the businesses. The candidates are required to have enhanced knowledge and skills in IT operations, which includes expertizing in virtualization, networking, data management, budgeting, disaster recovery management, business continuity, and security. The certification validates that the candidates have all the required proficiency in applying Microsoft Azure for business operation, development, and administration.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to analyze resource utilization process.
- Applying Resource Manager templates.
- Creating and verifying virtual networking system and connectivity.
- Configuring storage account.
- Managing Azure active directory.
- Migration to Azure using role-based access.
- Configuring server-less computing system.
- Implementing applications for role balancing and integration of On-Prem.
- Creating and applying AKS (Azure Kubernetes Services).
- Implementing a multi-level and multi-factor authentication process for secure data solutions.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 40-60 |
| Duration of the examination | 150 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
You can signup here.
2. Microsoft Azure Architect Design (Expert Examination AZ-301)
Microsoft Azure Architect Design is the second part of the Expert Examination AZ-301. The certification requires the candidate to have in-depth knowledge and expertise in identifying various aspects of Microsoft Azure and use it effectively for various purposes such as data management, virtualization, networking, security, disaster recovery, and others. This is the highest-ranking that a candidate can achieve in Microsoft Azure and ascertains the highest job designation for the candidate in a well-reputed company.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to design, compute, store, network, and monitor strategies using Microsoft Azure.
- Able to gather required information and develop infrastructure for logical grouping and data storage for logs.
- Learn to design data management and risk prevention techniques for better monitoring and security of the data.
- Configure document data flows and data protection strategies.
- Create a site recovery and data archiving strategy.
- Design and deploy the API integration strategy.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals through Exam AZ-900 |
| Number of questions in the examination | 40-60 |
| Duration of the examination | 150 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
You can signup here.
Which is the last concluding examination for Microsoft Azure?
The last and concluding examination for Microsoft Azure is Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer.
1. Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer (Expert Examination AZ-400)
Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer is the final and concluding Expert Examination AZ-400, which is designed to test the professional ability of the candidate to deliver cloud services using all the features and components of Microsoft Azure. This examination takes a review of all the earlier examinations with the purpose of certifying the candidate for all the abilities and skills required to become a Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer. The certification validates that the candidate is capable of designing, communicating, collaborating, implementing, coding, creating automation, monitoring, and delivering various aspects of Microsoft Azure. The candidates who want to get through this examination need to have a high level of proficiency with Agile practices and Azure development and operation processes.
Information covered in certification:
- You will learn to design a secure development lifecycle using Microsoft Azure.
- Able to access and apply tools for the integration process.
- Design and implement various versions of controls for DevOps strategy application.
- Learn to implement, integrate, and manage infrastructure as code.
- Manage to host AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) infrastructure.
- Create an optimistic feedback mechanism.
Information about Examination:
| Prior Knowledge | Azure Administrator Associate/Azure Developer Associate certification |
| Number of questions in the examination | 40-60 |
| Duration of the examination | 150 minutes |
| Minimum marks required | 700 |
| The total cost of the certificate | $165 |
Recommended online course for preparing for the certification: AZ-400 Designing and Implementing DevOps Certification
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Microsoft Azure Certification requires the candidates to pass through various levels of validations and certifications. It is the most demanded certification in the IT world and would require sincere efforts and commitment of the candidates to go through it. The successful candidates will be able to secure better job positions and higher remuneration in reputed companies around the world.
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