If you are thinking of getting Azure certification then, this is one of your excellent decisions. Here, you will be guided step by step to seek the best certification according to your skills and knowledge.
There has been a huge upgrade in the world of computing and it’s evolving year by year. Many top organizations globally are using cloud computing. As a result, the demand for skilled professionals in these fields has shown a massive increase. This has created a competition amongst different cloud computing providers. But, one name that remains constantly on top whether it is for aiming a high-paying cloud career or to enhance cloud skills, Microsoft Azure is best in both. And, the biggest benefits of Azure certifications is that they can be earned remotely.
However, there is so much more to know about Microsoft Azure and its certification path. So, in this blog we’ll be talking about the Azure certifications levels wise to help you choose the right one. Before moving on to the certification part let’s get some brief information about cloud computing.
Cloud Computing: Why get certified?
Many individuals directly jump on the Cloud certifications without knowing the inside and the core that is cloud computing. Cloud computing refers to a pool of computing resources that can be shared and accessed. Thus, this has created an interest amongst top organizations which automatically resulted in searching for skilled professionals to hire. So, before learning about Azure certification, let’s understand whether it is good to start a career with cloud certification or not.
- Firstly, there is an immense growth in the cloud. In other words, the IT industry is hugely impacted by the cloud, and the money made from cloud services is growing by about 20% each year on average.
- Secondly, both small businesses and big enterprises are using the cloud. Over the coming years, a majority of IT expenditure will amount to cloud-based infrastructure, application, middleware, and business process services.
- Also, there aren’t enough people who know a lot about the cloud. Cloud services are becoming the main thing that businesses use in their IT setup. So, if a business decides to switch to the cloud, there’s a big chance for success.
Reasons to get Azure Certification
Most of the IT professionals taking a cloud certification have confusion about going for Microsoft Azure certification. For those professionals, the following points would be helpful before making a decision:
- To start, Azure has been growing faster than AWS lately, and Microsoft is getting closer to catching up with them. Microsoft is also making it easier for their cloud services to work with software that’s on a company’s own computers.
- Secondly, almost all Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft’s Azure products and services. So, Azure is a good choice for companies that have spent a lot of time and money on Microsoft tools and technology.
- Lastly, Azure can handle most of the conventional tasks of designing, deploying, and managing platforms. However, considering the factors that include the value added to a large app development project, assistance provided to the Ops facet of Dev/Ops and Microsoft Azure meeting all the needs of millions of users across the world.
Now, in the next section we will be talking about the Azure certifications and the roles based in these. Let’s start it.
Microsoft Azure: Certification Levels and Exams
Over the years, Microsoft has shown many new upgrades in the certifications and is continuing the same. As they have to make changes accordingly with the latest trend and technologies so that individuals always get the best knowledge out of this. Microsoft Azure provides role-based certifications in its new learning path from the Fundamental level to the Associate level and then to the Expert level. Let’s learn about them.
Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
Azure Fundamentals that is the AZ-900 exam refers to the foundational level exam in the new Azure certifications path. This exam is meant for people who want to show they know the basics of using Microsoft Azure for cloud services. It’s also good for folks who don’t have a technical background. It’s a great starting point to get into cloud computing.
Associate Level:
Microsoft Azure Associate level certifications demonstrates the knowledge of implementing, monitoring, and maintaining the Microsoft Azure solutions. Moreover, it includes important services related to computing, storage, network, and security for those in administrative and technical roles. The Certifications in this are,
Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate
To become a Certified Azure Administrator Associate you have to pass the AZ-103 exam. This exam requires knowledge of Azure applications, Operating Systems, Cloud and Storage Infrastructure. Moreover, it is also necessary to have a basic knowledge of networking components and virtualization tools.
Microsoft AZ-103 is retired. A new replacement exam Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) is available.
So, let’s have an overview of the latest version of the AZ-103 exam, that is, the AZ-104 exam.
Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator
Microsoft AZ-104 Exam has update in the course outline as on March 26, 2021.
The AZ-104 certification exam is the updated version of the AZ-103 exam. This exam measures the candidate’s ability in implementing, managing, and monitoring identity, storage, virtual networks, compute, and governance in cloud environments. Moreover, for this exam, it is required to have at least six months of practical experience in Azure administration with a good understanding of core Azure services, security, governance, and Azure workloads. In addition, candidates must also have hands-on experience with the use of PowerShell, ARM templates, Command Line Interface, and Azure Portal.
Azure Developer Associate
To earn the Azure Developer Associate role, it is only necessary to pass the AZ-203 exam. For this exam, the candidate must be familiar with developing services and applications by the implementation of Azure tools and technologies. Moreover, they should have at least one year of experience in developing scalable solutions with proficiency in at least one cloud-supported programming language.
Microsoft AZ-203 is retired. A new replacement exam Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204) is available.
AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Beta Exam
Microsoft Azure AZ-204 exam is currently in the beta stage and is the new exam for Azure cloud developers. The exam is good for cloud developers having involvement in different phases of development, such as designing, building, deploying, and maintaining cloud solutions. For this exam, it is necessary to have advanced knowledge in Azure SDKs, APIs, data storage options, app authentication, and authorization, debugging, monitoring, compute and container deployment, data connections, monitoring, and performance tuning. Moreover, candidates should have at least one to two years of hands-on experience in professional development with practical experience in working on the Microsoft Azure platform. In addition, they must have knowledge of at least one programming language supported by Azure.
Microsoft AZ-204 Exam course outline content was updated on April 19, 2022.
The updated Microsoft AZ-204 course outline includes:
- Develop Azure compute solutions (25-30%)
- Develop for Azure storage (15-20%)
- Implement Azure security (20-25%)
- Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions (15-20%)
- Connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services (15-20%)
Azure Security Engineer Associate
For this position, the candidate has to pass the AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies exam. To pass this exam, you should know how to make things secure on Microsoft Azure. You should also understand virtualization, cloud architecture, and networking. You need to be able to find and fix security problems and protect networks, apps, and data.
Expert Level:
In the expert level, there is demonstration of solutions architect’s knowledge and skills in computing, networking, storage, security, and designing solutions that are running on Azure. The Certifications that come under this level are,
Azure Solution Architect Expert
To earn this position, candidates have to pass two exams that are AZ-300: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies exam and AZ-301: Microsoft Azure Architect Design exam.
AZ-300: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies
Microsoft AZ-300 is retired. A new replacement exam Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies (AZ-303) is available.
AZ-300 exam provides knowledge in architecting solutions that are reliable and secure. For this exam, candidates should have knowledge of security, identity, data management, and IT operations. They must have one year experience working in Azure platform with knowledge of DevOps, Azure development and Azure administration.
AZ-301:Microsoft Azure Architect Design
Microsoft AZ-301 exam is retired. A new replacement exam Microsoft Azure Architect Design (AZ-304) is available.
Before taking the AZ-301 exam candidates must have passed the AZ-300 exam. For this exam, the prerequisites are the same as for the AZ-300 exam.
Exams AZ-303 and AZ-304 are the new replacements of the AZ-301 and AZ-300 exams for the Microsoft Azure Architect Expert role.
Microsoft AZ-303 and AZ-304 Exam has updates in the course outline as on January 27, 2021.
AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Exam
This exam is the upgraded version of the Azure Solution Architects, AZ-300 exam.
To do well in this exam, you need to know a lot about IT operations like virtualization, keeping things running in a crisis, networking, managing identities, dealing with data, following rules, recovering from disasters, and managing money. You should also be really good at Azure administration and have hands-on experience with DevOps and Azure development.
AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design Beta Exam
Microsoft Azure AZ-304 is a beta exam that is the updated version of the existing Azure certification for Microsoft Azure solution architects, AZ-304. For this exam, candidates must have expertise in skills for Azure administration. Moreover, they should have practical experience in Azure development processes and DevOps processes. In addition, they should have knowledge and experience in IT operations such as networking, identity, governance, security, virtualization, disaster recovery, budgeting, and business continuity.
Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
For the role of Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, candidates after receiving the certificate of Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Developer Associate, they only have to pass the AZ-400 exam. But they should know about both Azure development and Azure administration and be really good at one of them. They should also be able to plan and put in place DevOps methods for things like managing code, controlling changes, keeping things set up right, following rules, putting out new versions, building, and testing, all using Azure tools.
Now that we have covered the certifications with different levels, let’s talk about which certification will be best accordingly.
Which Certification is best suitable?
In the previous sections, we have talked about the role based certifications with the requirements for the exam. However, the IT industry values those the most who have the required skills and passion to learn new things. Similarly, to choose the accurate certification or path to get started with it totally dependent on how much experience and skills you have. As there are requirements for every exam whether it’s basic or advanced that is in a step by step. There are few factors mentioned below that will help you to choose the right certification.
- Firstly, technological experience. This refers to the experience you have in the technical field that will help you determine whether you should go for advanced certification or start with a fundamental one.
- Secondly, the present job role. It is always good to take a certification that is best relatable to your current job role. That is to say, if you are a professional who is completely new to the technology then, it is recommended that you first begin with the Fundamentals certification.
- Then, the objective. Any certification that you wish to achieve is aligned towards your goal for the future. That is to say, if you want to achieve the expert level certification then you must have to earn the associate level first. As there is a prerequisite for each exam.
Preparing for the Microsoft Azure Certification
Choosing the right certification is important but it is equally important to have a good study and preparation material to pass the exam. And, for this, it is necessary to have the best available study resources and material. As a result, many websites out there are providing solutions for this. That is to say, they provide unique study resources with a bulk of practice test questions to help you crack the exam. Microsoft also provides resources and learning paths for Azure certifications to get clear with the exam. To better understand about this check the information below,
Final Words
Now you have got an overview of Microsoft Azure certifications with the exam requirements, it will be easy to understand where to start from. However, earning Microsoft certification requires a lot of hard work, determination, and a focused mindset. These exams will examine your ability to do the technical tasks and many opportunities to apply for. Moreover, try to get hands-on experience according to the certification you are applying for. Also, there are various Microsoft Azure tutorials that are available for providing expert-level knowledge. This will for sure help you get in-depth information about the exam including the important concepts.
So, Good luck and Stay safe!
Learn and enhance your Microsoft Azure skills. Pass the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exam Now!
