In today’s digitally advanced world, new technological trends emerge on a daily basis. With scalable, cost-effective, and low-resource solutions, the cloud and IT sectors have reached new heights of possibilities. As a result, leading organizations and businesses are implementing these strategies to boost benefits and provide more modern services. However, offering these services demands the building of a secure and safe environment. That is to say, there are numerous threats or hackers attempting to harm these systems. As a result, Microsoft Azure Security Engineer plays a critical role in dealing with all of these issues and providing users with a secure path.
Further, talking about the market sector, to protect against such attacks, it is critical to keep files and data secure. As a result, many corporations have begun to hire security engineers in large numbers. As a result, the market value of this position has increased.
However, here, the question of which path to take to become a Microsoft Azure Security Engineer arises. So, in order to acquire the most correct information, we’ll go over every possible method and resource that will take you to the Azure Security Engineer role in this article.
Before learning the study methods and resources, take a look at the role of Azure Security Engineer.
Azure Security Engineer: Overview
The Azure Security Engineer has the skills and knowledge to develop security controls and threat prevention, manage identity and access management, and define organizational structure and policies in all elements of Azure security. Furthermore, they are comfortable with deploying Azure technologies to provide data protection, network security defenses, collecting and analyzing Azure logs, incident response management, and a grasp of regulatory considerations.
However, to gain more knowledge about this role, below are some of the major tasks that an Azure Security Engineer performs.
Tasks:
- The Azure Security Engineer is responsible for maintaining the security posture as well as discovering and resolving vulnerabilities.
- Secondly, they are capable of threat modeling, providing threat protection, and responding to escalations in security incidents.
- Thirdly, Azure Security Engineers are frequently part of a bigger team responsible for planning and implementing cloud-based management and security.
- Fourthly, they provide cyber security knowledge in the areas of analysis, assessment, development, and evaluation of security solutions and architectures for applications, operating systems, databases, and networks.
- The Azure Security Engineer then implements and configures security controls and policies, manages data access, and monitors threats to keep apps, containers, infrastructure, and networks safe.
- They also know how to use security-as-code to automate security controls, data, and processes in order to give better metrics and operational assistance.
- Furthermore, they use cloud-native tools like Log Analytics, Azure Monitor, and Azure Security Center or other monitoring technology for maintaining data security and managing operations inside a cloud solution environment, such as operations chores.
- Lastly, they join the DevOps team, which is in charge of both new development and operating tasks.
Market Value of a Microsoft Azure Security Engineer
According to a survey, the average income for an Azure security engineer in the United States is $135,000 per year or $69.23 per hour. Starting salaries for the entry-level role of Azure Security Engineer start at $116,000 per year, with the highest-paid professionals earning up to $161,665 per year.
Path to become Azure Security Engineer
The simplest path to becoming a Microsoft Certified Azure Security Engineer is to pass the AZ-500 exam. Passing this exam will not only enhance and upgrade your skills but will also provide you with a recognized Microsoft certification. As we all are well aware of the popularity of Microsoft, so earning a certification from here will open doors for many top organizations. Let’s get started with the AZ-500 exam.
1. Passing the Microsoft Azure Security Technologies AZ-500 exam
We know that passing the AZ-500 exam will help you earn Microsoft certified Azure Security Engineer certification. But those, who have just started with Azure can go for the Azure fundamentals AZ-900 exam. Passing the AZ-900 test will enable you to have the necessary information and abilities to proceed to the AZ-500 exam. This exam, however, necessitates a fundamental understanding of Microsoft Azure cloud services. The exam is primarily intended for those who want to learn about Azure’s cloud-based solutions and services.
Furthermore, this exam also provides an understanding of cloud principles, Azure services, Azure workloads, Azure security and privacy, and Azure pricing and support.
Microsoft AZ-500 Exam:
The AZ-500 exam is for candidates who can deploy Azure security controls in cloud and hybrid environments to safeguard identity, access, data, applications, and networks as part of an end-to-end infrastructure. Furthermore, you must have prior expertise administering Azure and hybrid settings in order to pass this test. So, before taking the exam, get some practice with infrastructure as code, security operations processes, cloud capabilities, and Azure services.
The exam also verifies your ability to do tasks such as managing identity and access, establishing platform protection, managing security operations, and safeguarding data and applications.
You should be noted that the Microsoft AZ-500 exam is priced at $165 USD*. The exam is available in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Russian, Chinese (Traditional), Italian, and Indonesian (Indonesia).
2. Exploring the study methods for the AZ-500 exam:
This step is essential since how you prepare for the exam is important. To keep the following in mind, having the right knowledge, study materials, and references is key for exam preparation. However, we’ll go through a few approaches in the section below to help you better prepare for your role as a Microsoft Azure Security Engineer.
1. Microsoft Learning Path
Microsoft provides new methods to understand the material. That is, Microsoft offers a number of learning paths for each exam covering the exam’s subject in modules. These documents provide all key information as well as helpful reference links.
1. AZ-500 part-1: Managing Identity and Access
- Examine how your company’s identification is the beginning point for all security. Learn how to utilize Azure Active Directory to authenticate and authorize users and apps.
2. AZ-500 part2: Implementing platform protection
- Security must be implemented at all levels. Learn how to keep the infrastructure and network resources in your Azure environment secure.
Prerequisites:
- A robust infrastructure background in networking and servers is advantageous.
3. AZ-500 part 3: Securing your data and applications
- Applications running in Azure that have access to your confidential data must be secured. Learn how to keep your apps, storage, databases, and key vaults safe.
4. AZ-500 part 4: Managing security operation
- Learn how to monitor, run, and continuously improve the security of your solutions once you’ve installed and secured your Azure environment.
2. Microsoft training
For the AZ-500 exam, Microsoft provides instructor-led training. This is an intermediate level that you take to level up your preparation. However, the related course include:
Microsoft Azure Security Technologies
- This course gives IT Security Professionals the knowledge and skills they need to build security controls, maintain an organization’s security posture, and discover and fix security vulnerabilities. Moreover, it covers identity and access security, platform security, data and application security, and security operations.
Target Audience
- This course is intended for Azure Security Engineers who plan to take the accompanying certification exam or who conduct security activities on a daily basis. Moreover, it will also benefit engineer who wishes to specialize in delivering security for Azure-based digital platforms and play a key role in data security.
3. Online Study Groups
When studying for exams, you can benefit from online study groups. In other words, joining study groups will keep you in touch with experts and professionals who are already on this path. Moreover, you can also use this group to discuss your exam-related query or issue, as well as to study for the AZ-500 exam.
4. Using reference books for better understanding
Books can be highly helpful when studying for any exam. This will help with the development of your concentration and self-study abilities. The following are the top books for the Microsoft Azure AZ-500 exam:
- Exam AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Book by Orin Thomas and Yuri Diogenes
4. Assessing using Practice Tests
Starting by assessing yourself with practice tests is the most efficient way to improve your preparation. You can take these tests once you’ve finished with the topics. This will not only assist you in improving your replying abilities but will also provide you with a quick evaluation of your strengths and flaws. There are many providers, though, that provide one-of-a-kind and free practice exams to get you started.
Final Words
We went through every element of Microsoft Azure Security Engineer, as well as its overview, tasks, and exam path to become a security engineer associate, in detail above. This job will test your knowledge, skill, and ability to do a variety of duties. To put it another way, you must focus on all of the essential areas if you want to increase your preparation. Create a study schedule and pattern based on the materials you’ve been given, and then begin the preparation process steadily.
