Azure Certifications Cost, Prerequisite, Job Roles, and Skills

Considering the value cloud computing has in today's world, every organization wants its association with the top cloud service provider company. And when there is a discussion about top cloud service companies, we get only three company names. Those names include Azure that Microsoft owns, AWS that Amazon owns, and GCP that Google owns.

Looking at the recent past, Microsoft Azure has proved its worth in the field. It has become a top choice for top-notch companies due to the never-ending lists of benefits Azure has to offer. As they are seeing the constant increase in the number of clients, there is an increase in the demand for Azure certified professionals. That indirectly increases the demand for professional certifications that Microsoft Azure is offering. Candidates are choosing Azure-based certifications nowadays to build a career in the cloud industry.

Why Microsoft Azure Certifications?

The thing to wonder is why the focus has turned towards Microsoft Azure certifications? What is Azure has to offer that others do not? When it comes to the cloud computing industry, they are well known as a confident cloud service provider company all across the world. As other companies are opting for Microsoft Azure as their cloud partners, there are a huge number of new opportunities available. Plus, the cost of these certifications are not that huge, and these professionals get to earn a handsome amount once they are done with the certifications and step into the industry. Let's look into the job roles that are available in Microsoft Azure and the certifications we can do to land a job at one of those positions.

Job roles based on Azure Certifications

According to different services that Microsoft Azure provides to the organizations, there are different job roles to ensure that these services keep working seamlessly. Some of the job roles that Azure certified professionals get to acquire are the following.

• Azure Cloud Developer
• Azure Cloud Solutions Architect
• Azure Cloud Administrator
• Azure Data Scientist
• Azure Data Engineer
• Azure Security Engineer
• Azure AI Engineer
• Azure Functional Consultant

To land any of these job roles, one needs to complete a certification. Let's look at those certifications, their costs, pre-requisites, and the skills it makes you learn.

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Microsoft Azure Certifications

Certifications that Microsoft Azure offer has three categories that are Fundamental level certifications, another one is Associate level certifications and Expert level certifications. If put all together, anyone can join Microsoft Azure certification from a beginner to an expert and take his career to another height.

• Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals

It is a certification for starters in the cloud industry, and it is a fundamental level certification offered by Microsoft. It is a certification one opts for if he wants to know about cloud computing, otherwise you can go to the next level, skipping this one.

Skills: By doing this certification, you get a thorough knowledge of all the basic cloud concepts like basic tools, pricing, and support that gives you the basic cloud skill.

Pre-Requisites: As it is the first certification of the Microsoft Azure career pathway, there are no pre-requisites for this certification. You just need to know what is cloud computing, and you are good to go.

Cost: This certification is available in different languages like Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese. The cost of this exam is $99.

• Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator

It comes after the fundamental level certification, and it is the first certification in the associate-level certifications. The person with this certification can manage different cloud services like storage, networking, security, and many more.

Skills: It is a certification that puts a wide range of cloud computing skills in a person. He also starts to understand all the resources offered by Microsoft Azure. This certification puts in a person all the abilities one needs to become a good administrator.

Pre-Requisites: To go ahead with this certification, one needs to have more or less 6 months of experience in the Azure administration area with some basic knowledge of Azure workloads, security governance, and other core Azure services.

Cost: This certification is available in languages like English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. And it costs $165 to take this course.

• Microsoft Certified Azure Developer

Talking about associate-level certifications of Azure, this is another one. It is a certification for candidates who want to build their career as a developer in Azure. To know more about this and other certifications, one can go for Azure training that has all the necessary information one needs.

Skills: After the completion of this certification, a candidate has a validity that he has skills to design and implement cloud applications. And he can utilize different tools and technologies of Microsoft Azure.

Pre-Requisites: To go for this certification, one needs to have experience in the development of scalable applications utilizing Azure tools and technologies. Being an expert in at least one of the programming language is also necessary.

Cost: The certification costs around $165 with the availability of exam in languages like Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English.

• Microsoft Certified Azure AI Engineer

The next certification in the associate level category is Microsoft Azure is the AI Engineer. It is the best option for candidates that want to pursue a career in Azure's AI domain.

Skills: After the completion of this certification, a candidate has the skill of designing and implementing the AI solutions for the Azure platform. He will also become an expert in programming languages that are used in the development of cloud solutions.

Pre-Requisites: As such, there are no pre-requisites for this certification. But if a candidate has the fundamental certification of Azure, it is a plus for him.

Cost: Like almost every other associate-level certification of Azure, it costs $165 for this certification.

• Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist

Anyone who has experience in any of the data-based role can go for this job or even if you are a starter in the field of cloud computing. It is a new addition in the career pathway of Azure as the popularity of data science has risen to another level.

Skills: The skills one can acquire from this certification are handling and processing of data to bring out some meaningful insights. They also learn how to utilize machine learning models to process big data.

Pre-Requisites: When it comes to the pre-requisites for this certification, there is not any. As it is an associate-level certification that is basic, so only a little knowledge of data science would be enough to go for it.

Cost: Like most of the associate certifications of Microsoft Azure, it has a cost of $165, and the exam is available in different languages like English, Chinese, and many more.

• Microsoft Certified Azure Security Engineer

We all know how important security is when it comes to cloud computing. That itself defines the importance if this associate certification. Anyone who wants to pursue a career in the security domain of the cloud industry can go for this certification.

Skills: One can learn the skill of threat management by doing this certification. It helps candidates acquire all the skills needed to become a good security engineer as it teaches how to design, implement, and manage the security system solutions.

Pre-Requisites: The candidate should be well familiar with the Azure platform and its tools. He should have thorough knowledge about security in cloud and system virtualization. He should know how to use Azure security tools to identify vulnerabilities in the system and eliminate them.

Cost: You simply have to pay a sum of $165 if you want to appear in the exam of this certification.

There are other associate-level certifications as well. Those certifications include Microsoft certified data engineer, Microsoft certified database administrator, Microsoft certified Azure architect for SAP workloads, and Microsoft certified Azure IoT developer. The last two certifications are specialization certifications in their respective domains of architect and IoT. Before selecting any of these certifications for yourself, you should go for Azure training that will tell you everything about Microsoft Azure and certifications it has for professionals and beginners. There are two expert-level certifications offered by Azure, let's look at them.

• Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect

This is the expert-level certification that is a role-based certification offered by Azure. Well, to earn this certification, candidates need to complete two certifications that are Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and Microsoft Certified Architect Design.

Skills: The skill one learns is the implementation, monitoring, and management of Azure infrastructure, security solutions, and other application-based solutions.

Pre-Requisites: For the former certification, one needs thorough knowledge about networking, IT operations, virtualization, and other architecture based concepts. One should also have experience in Azure administration. In the later one, one needs the experience of Azure administration post and knowledge about different DevOps processes.

Cost: Both of these exams cost $165 each, like associate-level certification exams.

• Microsoft Certified Azure DevOps Engineer Expert

It is another expert-level certification offered by Azure, and professionals having experience in DevOps can go for this one.

Skills: By doing this certification, one acquires the skill to implement the methodology of DevOps and automation of other processes of DevOps.

Pre-Requisites: The familiarity with the Azure administration and Azure development is a must-have for this. Two or more associate-level certifications are a must-have for this one.

Cost: This expert-level certification costs $165 if someone wants to appear in the exam.

There you go with the list of all the certifications of Azure with their pre-requisites, their exam costs, and the skills one can get by doing these certifications. We have also discussed the job roles one can get if he possesses one of these certifications. That's all from us.