Microsoft Azure or Azure is created by Microsoft to test, build, deploy and manage applications through the data centers of Microsoft and provide cloud computing services. With its vast range of services and tools, it is considered to be one of the fastest-growing cloud computing services in the market today.
It offers PaaS (Platform as a service), SaaS (Software as a Service and LaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) supported along with many tools, programming languages and frameworks. It is also equipped with third-party and Microsoft-based systems as well as software.
With more than 200 products to offer, Azure builds, manages and runs applications as per your choice. In this Azure certification guide, we will cover all the relevant topics including what is an Azure Certification, what are the different types of Azure certifications, which one should you choose, how to get Azure certified, all about Azure training, salaries and jobs you might get being Azure certified, and how can you pass an Azure Certification Exam.
What is Azure Certification?
As we know, Microsoft Azure is not only a cloud platform but brings with it many business services. It provides cloud storage which is quite in-demand by many businesses these days - IoT, machine learning, security, and database management, to name a few.
With Azure Certification, one can demonstrate that an IT professional or individual is familiar and expert in the Azure Tools. With this knowledge, they can help their clients and employers integrate these benefits and tools into the workflow. But few common questions that many people ask are if Azure certification is worth doing, how many certifications are available, and what are their types? Keep on reading; we will tell you all about it.
Azure is one of the leading cloud platforms, which is also famous for its service-infrastructure. Being the second-largest clouding service provider, it holds a good share of the market. According to the market positioning, it is ahead of Google Cloud and just behind the Amazon Web services.
When considering the cloud services certifications, one question that you must ask yourself before choosing any is, would you be better served by Google Cloud certification or Amazon Web Services (AWS)? Among all, AWS is highly in-demand, while Google Cloud is equipped with superior machine learning. While considering Azure certification, keep in mind that it is unique and comes with many benefits.
Azure can be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft services and products which many of the businesses are quite familiar with. Another amazing factor that makes it stand out is its excellent pricing model that ensures customers only pay for the services they need. On the other hand, AWS is five times more expensive than Azure.
For those who are looking for training in cloud services, Azure certification training can provide a future proof element to your CV.
Azure Cloud Certification
As companies these days are growing globally and virtually, the cloud has emerged as a significant aspect of a strong technological architecture. With the situations of the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more companies and businesses took the help of IT professionals and adapted according to the dynamic shift. Therefore, cloud computing has become one of the essential needs for businesses worldwide.
Many cloud service providers like Google, AWS, and Microsoft have put a lot of effort into offering their clouding services and opening doors for IT professionals to learn this skill and improve their resume.
Azure is one of the cloud services providers that allows IT professionals and individuals to get Azure training and Azure certifications, making them trained and skilled in Azure tools and services. That is why when it comes to cloud services, many candidates find Azure the best choice because of its intensive role-based skill set and renowned name of Microsoft in the cloud business. With Azure cloud certification, one can upgrade their IT skills and ensure a better salary and job in this competitive industry.
Azure Networking Certification
Azure Networking is also known as Azure Virtual Network or VNet, and it is a fundamental building base for any private network of Azure. It enables many resources like the internet, secure communication, on-premises network, and Azure Virtual Machine VM to work together. Azure Networking is quite similar to the traditional networking structure but comes with additional benefits of isolation, availability, and working on a much larger scale.
The Azure Networking or Virtual network allows users to use Azure resources such as secure communication between users, on-premises as well as over the internet. It also allows many other advantages like filtering network traffic, integration with Azure, and routing the network traffic. That is why learning Azure networking is a demanding skill and allows you to solve networking issues related to Azure.
Azure Core Certifications
With Azure Certifications, an individual can demonstrate that his knowledge, skill, and expertise which will help businesses integrate Azure clouding services into their workflow and products. This skill set is in high demand and ensures a high salary too. According to many IT experts, professionals with Azure Certifications can score better jobs and negotiate better salaries too.
Now let’s check the study guide to the Azure certification. Azure offers certifications for four different levels, which are:
Fundamental
This Azure certification is for beginners who are new to cloud computing and don’t know much about Azure. Individuals who want to learn and grasp the fundamentals of Azure should go for this program. You can also enhance your learning by taking associate training in the future. Below the fundamental certification offered by Azure
- Azure Fundamentals - AZ-900
Associate/Intermediate
These certifications are for those individuals who have some knowledge of Azure or already have experience or expertise in Clouding. It is more advanced than the Fundamental level and gives you a grip on three of the significant Azure administrator, developer, AI Engineer, Data Science, Data Engineering, and Security.
Following are the certifications you can opt for these fields:
- Administrator – AZ-103
- Developer – AZ-203
- AI Engineer – AI-100
- Data Scientist – DP-100
- Data Engineer – DP-200, DP-201
- Security – AZ-500
Expert
These Azure certifications are for professionals of Azure or cloud services. If an individual has knowledge and skills about the Azure tools and services, they can opt for the following Azure certifications:
- Solutions Architect Expert – AZ-300, AZ-301
Specialty
These certifications are designed for special Azure skillsets, and once an individual takes these, they can show the world that they specialize in these skill sets.
- Azure For SAP Workloads – AZ-120
- IoT Developer – AZ-220
Azure Certification Path
After understanding what is Azure, the Azure certifications, and the Azure training available, one can pick the right course according to their expertise and level. But, most of you will still be unsure how to execute the learning and Azure certification path. That is why under this heading, we will cover each Azure Certification Path and step by step guide to tell you what you have to do to secure Azure certifications of your choice.
It’s been over three good years since Microsoft has announced some significant changes in 2017 at Ignite Conference in its previous Azure certification path. As per the IT experts, this is a big step and a new beginning of the modern cloud technology era. These changes made in the Azure Certification path made it the most sought after.
With the release of new Azure Certifications, Azure announced retirements of existing Azure exams in 2018.
Even in 2020, Microsoft Azure announced some new Azure services and new role-based Azure Certifications after collecting feedback from the examiners. However, the well-known AZ-900 certification remains the entry point to get and reach any other Azure Certifications. Let’s dig in the Azure certifications and learning paths to get the recent updates of these certifications.
The best thing about the new role-based Azure certifications is they have established an entire learning path from the level of Azure Fundamentals to the Associate level and proceeding to the Expert level. There are five primary Microsoft Azure Certification paths designed for five different Azure roles. Let’s find out the changes and Azure Certification paths recent updates and study guide to the Azure certification:
Azure Fundamental Certification
The Azure Fundamentals or AZ 900 exam is the foundation-level exam offered by Microsoft Azure. It is a new Azure certification path and offered by those who want to demonstrate basic cloud services knowledge of Azure. Even non-technical individuals who have basic knowledge of the cloud can take this certification exam. You can check the AZ-900 learning path to understand what you are going to learn, but we will recommend you to try the free AZ 900 practice test before your actual attempt.
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals – AZ-900
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exam AZ-900 is the basic step of Azure which allows you to have primary knowledge of Azure and cloud. One can proceed to the associate and expert levels of the Azure Certifications path. Although this exam is not mandatory to attempt associate and expert level exams, it gives you the foundation and entry-point for other certifications. You can also try Azure fundamental practice tests, which will prepare you for the AZ-900 exam.
Now let’s have a detailed look at the AZ-900 exam.
Prerequisites: there are no such prerequisites for the AZ-900 exam except an individual must have a basic understanding and knowledge of the Microsoft Azure platform and cloud services.
Domains of AZ-900 Exam:
- Description of cloud concepts – 15%-20%
- Description of core Azure services – 30%- 35%
- Description of privacy, security, trust, and compliance – 25%-30%
- Description of Azure pricing, lifecycles, and service level agreements – 25%-30%
Languages of Exam:
English, Simplifies Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French and Spanish.
Azure Security Certification
Azure security certification is for those professionals who want to display their Azure Security proficiency to the world. You can go for the newest role added to the Azure certification path, Azure Security Engineer, for this certificate. To become a professional Azure Security engineer, you just have to pass one exam: the AZ-500 Exam –Microsoft Azure Security Technologies. After passing the AZ-500 Exam, you would not only become a certified Azure Security Engineer but would also get a badge to showcase. Let’s have a detailed look into the AZ-500 exam and check its prerequisites and domains covered in this exam.
Microsoft Azure Security Technologies – AZ-500
To become an Azure Security Engineer, one needs to pass the recently launched AZ-500 Exam, also known as Azure Security Technologies. To be eligible for the AZ-500 exam, you don’t need to pass any other certifications. However, it will be still recommended if you know Azure Fundamentals or have passed the AZ-900 Azure Fundamental Exam. Following are the details of Azure Security certification.
Prerequisites: there are few prerequisites for AZ-500 – Microsoft Azure Security Technologies:
- One must know how security controls on the Azure platforms are implemented and what are those security controls.
- Intensive knowledge of few tools like the architecture of Cloud N-tier, virtualization, networking, and Amazon Kubernetes Services.
- Understanding, addressing, recognizing various security tools, which also includes implementing security solutions that allow protecting the data, application as well as networks.
- Individuals must have expertise in automation as well as scripts, know about access management and identity, along with maintaining the status of security.
Domains of Exam:
- Managing identity and access – 20%-25%
- Implementing the platform protection 35%-40%
- Managing the security operations of the project 15%-20%
- Securing data and applications 30%-35%
Languages of Exam: English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean
Azure Data Certification
The Azure certification path's latest addition is the Azure Data Certifications, also known as Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Associate. In this regard, the certifications offered by Azure are ideal for those who want to become an Azure Data Engineer. This certification specializes in and covers the significant grounds of data management. With these courses, one can learn to implement and design the techniques and tools of security, privacy, monitoring, and the data management system of Azure.
After completing the Azure Data Certification, the data engineer can fluently show their Azure data services usage according to the business demand. There are two certification exams any candidate has to pass to become an “Azure Data Engineer Associate”, which are Codes DP-200 and DP-201. Let’s talk about each one of them in detail below.
Implementation of Azure Data Solution – DP-200
DP-200 is a suitable exam for the Azure Data Engineers, and it came out on 31st January 2019 as an Azure certification path. It is one out of two certifications offered by Azure for Azure Data Engineer Associate certifications, the other supporting exam offered by Azure in this regard is DP-201.
Prerequisites:
The DP-200 is specifically designed to train the Azure data Engineer who can identify and implement various data solutions according to the requirements on the Azure cloud platform. There are only two simple requirements for DP-200 that are:
- The candidate can implement various data solutions on Azure cloud platforms using suitable Azure services.
- No prior Azure certifications are required.
Domains covered in DP-200 exams
- Implementation of Azure data storage solutions 40%-45%
- Data processing Development and management 25%-30%
- Data solutions monitoring and optimization 30%-35%
Exam Languages: Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and English.
Designing Azure Data Solution – DP-201
Just like DP-200, DP-201 is also released recently, 31st January 2019, with DP-200. It is also a part of the Azure certification path and part of the new role-based Azure certification, the Azure Data Engineer Associate. To obtain the Azure Data Engineer Associate certification, candidates must pass both the certification exams DP-200 and DP-201.
Prerequisites:
Following are the prerequisites of the DP-201:
- No previous certifications are needed for DP-201.
- Candidate must know about designing solutions utilizing Azure services.
One very essential note for DP-201 is that the candidate must clear the DP-200 before they can register for the DP-201.
Domains covered by the DP-201 Exam:
- Designing the data storage solutions for Azure 40%-45%
- Designing the data processing solutions for Azure 25%-30%
- Designing of compliance and data security for Azure 25%-30%
Languages of Exams: Japanese, Korean, Simplifies Chinese and English
Azure Administrator Certification
According to the latest Azure updates, any individual needs to pass only AZ-104 Azure Administrator Certification Exam to become a professional Azure Administrator Associate. One will also receive a badge as well as become a certified Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate after passing the AZ-104 Exam. Also, keep in mind that Azure has expired its AZ-103 Exam on 31st August 2020, which is no longer available now. The AZ-104 Exam is the latest version of the AZ-103 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam.
Microsoft Azure Administrator – AZ-104
For the role of Microsoft Azure Administrator, the AZ-104 certification exam is ideal. It is considered the updated version of the AZ-103 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam, which tests the capabilities of the individual on many Azure administrative skills like management, implementation, storage, virtual networks, compute, monitoring of identity as well as governance in the clouding system.
While opting for the Azure Administrator job, one should keep in mind that it one of the highest-paying job roles in the IT and cloud industry. To earn the maximum salary, one can become a certified administrator.
Prerequisites: For the AZ-104, the following are the essential prerequisites:
- One should have practical experience of at least 6 months in Azure Administration.
- Have understanding and experience of Azure workload as well as its core services like governance and security.
- Extensive experience of Azure Portal, Command Line Interface, PowerShell as well as ARM Templates.
Domains covered in AZ-104 Exam:
- Management of Azure governance and identities 15%-20%
- Management and implementation of Azure storage 10%-15%
- Management and deployment of compute resources of Azure 30%-35%
- Managing as well as configuring virtual networks 30%-35%
- Backup of Azure resources as well as monitoring them 10%-15%
Languages of Exam: Japanese, Korean, English, and Simplifies Chinese.
Azure Developer Certification
To become a certified Azure Developer Associate, one needs to pass the certification exam of Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure – AZ-204. Upon passing the AZ-204 certification exam, one will secure a badge of Azure Developer Associate and get the Microsoft Certified Azure Developer Associate certification.
AZ-204 is the latest version of the Microsoft Azure Developer AZ-203 exam, which has expired on 31st May 2020 and now no longer available. The AZ-204 exam is the modified version of Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure and the only certification for Microsoft Azure Developer. Following are the details of Azure developer certifications:
Microsoft Azure Beta Exam for Developing Solutions – AZ-204
The AZ-204 is not only in its beta stage but also the new standard exam for the Microsoft Azure developer, which is ideal for cloud developers. These certifications involve various phases of development like build, design, deploy and maintain cloud services and solutions.
Prerequisites:
The essential prerequisites for Azure AZ-204 exams are:
- Proficiency and in-depth grip of Azure tools like SDKs, APIs, data storage options, App authorization, and authentication. Monitoring debugging, deployment, and compute, monitor and data connections, as well as performance evaluation.
- One or more years of professional development experience.
- Practical hands-on knowledge and experience of the Microsoft Azure platform.
- Grip over at least one or more Azure programming languages.
Domains covered in AZ-204 Exams:
- Development of computing solutions for Azure 25%-30%
- Development of Azure Storage options 10%-15%
- Azure security implementations 15%-20%
- Azure Solutions – Monitoring, optimizing and troubleshooting - 10%-15%
- Connecting and consuming third-party and Azure Services 25%-30%
Languages of Exam: Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean.
Azure Architect Certification
If you want to go for Azure training, you can either find a certified coach who offers Azure classes online or take online Azure courses offered by Microsoft partnered training companies.
Coming towards the Azure Architect certification, Azure has offered a new role-based certification path for the role of Azure Solution Architect Expert. For this role, a candidate needs to pass two certifications which are the AZ-303 Exam, called Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies, and the AZ-304 exam called Microsoft Azure Architect Design. Upon passing both of these certification exams, one can become a Microsoft Certified Azure Solution Architect expert. A badge of Azure Solution Architect Expert will also be provided to certified candidates.
Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies – AZ-303
For those who already know the Azure Solution Architects AZ-300, the AZ-303 Azure Certification exam is its updated version. The AZ-303 was available until 29th June 2020. Still, with AZ-303, a candidate will be able to learn the techniques which will convert the business demands into solutions. This will provide better reliability and security with higher scalability.
Prerequisites:
There are few prerequisites for the AZ-303, which are as follows:
- A candidate must have extensive experience as well as practical knowledge of IT operations and tools like data platforms, identity, networking. Also, he/she should know the process of recovering, governance, business models, as well as how budgets are made.
- Candidates should be experts in Azure administration having higher-level.
- Must know the processes of Azure DevOps certification and Azure Development.
Domains covered:
- Monitoring and implementing Azure infrastructure
- Applying security and management solutions
- Applying App solutions
- Managing data platforms.
Language of Exam: This exam is only available in the English language
Microsoft Azure Architect Design Beta – AZ-304
AZ-304 Beta exams are modified and updated by the previous Azure Certification called AZ-304 – Microsoft Azure Solution architect. Upon passing this exam, candidates can learn and display their understanding of Azure Architect design and can help businesses for better, more secure, reliable, and scalable solutions.
Prerequisites:
The essential requirements are as follows:
- Skills and expertise in Azure administration
- Knowledge of Azure DevOps certification and Azure Development processes.
- Knowledge and experience of IT operations.
Domains covered:
- Monitoring designs 10%-15%
- Applying security and identity 25%-30%
- Data storage design 15%-20%
- Business continuity design10%-15%
- Infrastructure design 25%-30%
Language of Exam: This exam is only available in English
How Much Does Azure Certification cost?
Azure offers three levels of certifications which are Fundamental, Associate, and Expert, consisting of 5 Azure certifications.
Fundamental Certifications
The only certification at this level is Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification.
Cost of the certification: the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification costs USD 99.
Associate Certifications
There are two certifications at this level which are:
- Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification
- Microsoft Azure Develope