AZURE Certifications

Today I am going to talking about Azure certifications. Certifications are examinations that are provided by Microsoft. These help you validate how well you understand the concepts of Azure and how well you can work with it. These are badges of honor that you can show off. These also play a significant role when it comes to hiring or promotion. You are more likely to be selected if you are a certified professional. Now, these certifications cover a wide range of domains, and these certifications also work towards a specified role. For example, you have certifications that help you become a Solutions Architect or
an Azure administrator or an Azure developer. Now, if you need a little more convincing as to why you should be taking up an Azure certification, here are a few more. Azure provides robust data and artificial intelligence services that help create intelligent applications. Azure has more than a hundred services that span a wide range of domains. They also help satisfy a high number of requirements. More than eighty percent of the fortune 500 companies use Microsoft Azure for their cloud computing requirements. Not to mention these organizations, that used Microsoft products can avail an enterprise agreement that gives them discounts on Azure services, and finally, Azure provides services across 42 regions in the world, which is more than any other cloud service provider does in the market right now.

Now let's talk about Azure certifications. So it's highly likely that you've heard of Microsoft more popular certifications the 70532, 70533, and 70535, but Microsoft is changing its approach towards certifications. Microsoft's new certifications aim to make the individual fall into a particular role; for example, Azure administrator associate, Azure developer associate, Azure solutions architect, and the Azure DevOps engineer expert. This is what Microsoft introduced in the ignite conference that took place on September 24th. There Microsoft introduced new certifications that fall onto the AZ category.

Now to become an Azure administrator associate, you need to have the **AZ-100 certification or the Microsoft Azure Infrastructure and Deployment and the AZ-101 or Microsoft Azure Integration and Security. To become an Azure developer, you need the AZ-200, which is the Microsoft Azure Developer Core Solutions certification and AZ-201 or the Microsoft Azure Developer Advanced Solutions certification. Finally, to become a Solutions Architect, you need the AZ-300 or the Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and the AZ-301 or the Microsoft Azure Architect Design. Now, these were all introduced on September 24th when the Ignite conference took place. Now the old certifications, the 532, 533 & 535, have been discontinued from December 31st 2018.

So what happens to the people who've done it? That's why Microsoft includes the AZ 102, 202 & 302 transition certifications. Now we will talk about that in a little bit. So now, let's go into all of the new certifications in detail.

So now, let's talk about Exam AZ-100 or the Microsoft Azure Infrastructure and Deployment certification. So this is part 1 of 2 when it comes to becoming an Azure administrator. This costs 165 US Dollars. Now let's have a look at the syllabus for this exam- some of the domains that you need to prepare for and their approximate weights. So first off, you need to know how you can manage Azure subscriptions and resources. This involves managing subscriptions, analyzing how resource are being used, and how they're consumed and managing other resource groups. Secondly, you have implementing and managing storage. You need to know how you can create and configure storage accounts, how you can import and export data to Azure, configures your files, and how you can implement Azure backup. Then you have deploying and managing virtual machines. You need to know how you can create and configure virtual machines for Windows or Linux. You need to know how you can automate the deployment of virtual machines. You need to know how you can manage Azure virtual machines and manage Virtual Machine backups. Then you need to know how you can configure and manage virtual networks. You need to be able to create connectivity between virtual networks, how you can implement and manage virtual networking, configure named a solution the group's. Finally you need to know how you can manage identities. You need to be able to manage as your active directories, and you need to know how you can implement
manage hybrid identities.

The next step in becoming an Azure administrator is to do the AZ-101 or the Microsoft Azure integration and security certification. The AZ-101 or the Microsoft Azure integration and security certification goes into a little more detail when it comes to becoming an Azure administrator. The certification costs 165 US dollars. So let's have a look at some of the portions that you need to be well-versed with to perform well in this examination. First up, we have evaluating and performing server migrations to Azure. Then we have implementing and managing application services which involves configuring serverless computing, managing app service plans, and managing app services. Then you have implementing advanced virtual networking that involves implementing application load balancing, implementing Azure load balancer, monitoring, and managing
networking, integrating the on-premise network with the azure network, and so on. And finally, securing identities. You need to be able to implement multi-factor authentication, manage a role-based control system, implementing Azure active directories, and privileged Identity Management. So after you are done with AZ-101, you become a Microsoft certified Azure administrator associate.

But what happens to the people who have already done the implementing Microsoft Azure infrastructure solution certification or the 70533? It's for these people that Microsoft have the AZ-102 or the Microsoft Azure administrator certification transition. Now this examination that costs 99 US Dollars contains concepts from both AZ-100 and AZ-101, and this exam is only valid for people who already completed the 70533 certification.

Now let's have a look at how you can become a Microsoft certified Azure developer associate. To do this, you need to complete two certifications- the AZ-200 or the Microsoft Azure Developer Core Solutions certification and the AZ-201 or the Microsoft Azure Developer Advanced Solutions certification.

So now let's have a look at the AZ-200. Now this certification is part one of two when it comes to becoming and as your developer associate it costs 165 US dollars. Now, this examination is in its beta phase, which means that unlike routine examinations where you get your results as soon as you finish the examination, this exam will take at least one or two weeks before you can get your result. The questions are still being worked on and improved upon. There's also a limitation to how many people can take the exam at the moment now, let's have a look at some of the portions that you need to prepare for this examination. You need to be able to select an appropriate cloud technology solution based on your requirements. This may involve a compute solution, integration, or a storage solution. Next, you need to be able to develop for cloud storage, which involves developing solutions that involve storage tables, file storage, relational databases, and so much more. You need to be able to create platform-as-a-service solutions which involves creating web applications, mobile applications, app services, serverless functions, and so much more. And finally, you need to be able to secure cloud solutions. It would be best if you implemented authentication access control and secure data solutions. Now Microsoft recommends that you have at least a year of experience working with Microsoft and you are creating applications with Azure tools and technologies while at the same time having a solid understanding of all the phases of software development.

Now let's have a look at the next step to becoming a Microsoft Azure developer. You need to do the AZ-201 or the Microsoft Azure Developer Advanced Solutions certification. Now let's have a look at that. Now this examination is also in its beta phase and will move to its final version in the next few months. As of now, it costs 165 US dollars. Now let's have a look at some of the portions that you need to prepare for this examination. You need to know how you can develop for an Azure cloud model. You need to develop for auto-scaling, develop for long-running tasks, distributed transaction, and so much more. You need to know how you can implement cloud integration solutions like managing APIs using API management, configure message-based integration architecture, to develop an application message model, and so much more. And finally, you need to know how you can develop Azure cognitive services, bot, and IoT solutions. You need to be able to create and integrate bots, create and implement IoT solutions and to integrate the azure cognitive services in an application.
After you have done all of this, you become a Microsoft certified Azure Developer Associate.

Now let's talk about AZ-202. Now, this is a transition examination for anyone who's done 70532 or developing Microsoft Azure solution certification. Now just like the other transition certifications, this costs 99 US dollars, and it is in its beta phase. This has concepts that have been included in both AZ-200 and AZ-201, concepts like developing for cloud storage, creating a platform as a service solution, securing cloud solutions, developing for an Azure cloud model, implementing cloud integration solutions. developing AI machine learning and IoT solutions.
Now, after you're done with this, you can become a Microsoft certified Azure Developer Associate.

Now let's find out how you can become a Microsoft certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert. For this, you need to do two certifications the AZ-300 and the AZ-301.
Now let's have a look at AZ-300, which is the Microsoft Azure architect technology certification. Now the AZ-300 is still in its beta phase and costs 165 dollars. This is part 1 of 2 for becoming a Microsoft certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert. Now let's talk about some of the topics that you need to prepare for this examination. You need to know how you can deploy and configure infrastructure, which involves analyzing the resource utilization consumption, creating and configuring storage accounts, creating and configuring virtual machines for Windows and Linux, automating the deployment of virtual machines, and so much more. Then you need to know how you can implement workloads and security like migrating servers to Azure, configure surveillance computing, implementing application load balancing, managing role-based access control, implementing multi-factor authentication and so on. Then you need to architect cloud technology solutions. You need to be able to select appropriate compute solutions, integrate solutions, storage solutions. You need to be able to create and deploy applications like, for example, creating web applications using past, create an application or service that runs on service fabric, design and develop applications that run on containers, and so on. Then you need to implement authentications and secure data, and finally, you need to develop for the cloud which means you need to know how you can develop long-running tasks, configure message-based integration, develop for auto-scaling, implement distributed transactions and so on. Now this certification does require you to be having expert-level skills in at least Azure administration, Azure development or DevOps. You also need to have experience with the various steps and IT operations like networking, virtualization, security and so on. This is because the Azure Solutions Architect plays a crucial role in advising stakeholders to convert their requirements into scalable, secure, and reliable solutions.

So now, the next step is to do the AZ-301 or the Microsoft Azure architect design certification. Now like all the other certifications, this costs 165 dollars and is still in its beta phase. This is the final step in becoming an Azure solutions architect expert. Now let's have a look at some of the topics that you need to prepare for this certification. Firstly you need to know how you can determine the workload requirements. You need to know how to gather information and requirements, to optimize the consumption strategy and the design name auditing and monitoring the strategy. You need to design for identity and security like design identity management, design authentication authorization and a monitoring strategy for identity and security. Then you need to know how you can design a data platform solution. You need to design a data management strategy, a data protection strategy, document data flows and so on. Then, you need to design a business continuity strategy, for example, to design a site recovery strategy, ensure that there's high availability, design a disaster recovery strategy and to design a data archiving strategy. Then you need to design for deployment, migration and integration. You need to design deployments, design migrations and design an API integration strategy, And finally, you need to know how you can design a storage strategy, a compute strategy, networking strategy and so on.
After you are done with all of this, you become a Microsoft certified Azure solutions architect expert.

So what about those people who have already done the 70535 or the architecting Microsoft Azure solution certification. That's where the AZ-302 comes in. Now the AZ-302 is a transition certification which costs 99 US dollars. This acts as a replacement for anyone who's done the 70535 certification. Now, this is again in its beta phase. Now if you finish the certification, you get to become an Azure Solutions Architect expert now this consists of topics included in both AZ-300 and 301 concepts, like determining workload requirements, designing for identity and security, designing a business continuity strategy, implementing workloads in security, implementing authentication and securing data and developing for the club.

This was my first article. What do you guys think about it?