Azure Fundamental is a foundation-level cloud certification that helps to develop your skills and knowledge for the Cloud Industry. AZ-900 certification provides basic cloud computing concepts.
- Microsoft Azure has more than 200 services. AZ-900 exam expects the candidate to know about more than 40 services.
- Microsoft Azure cloud platform has over 18% share over nearly a hundred-billion-dollar cloud market as of the fourth quarter by 2019.
- Azure is used by thousands of companies worldwide and has a significant share of the cloud services market.
Microsoft offers three types of certification
- Fundamentals Certification: It teaches the foundation of technological concepts
- Role-based certifications: This certification prepares you for specific job roles.
- Expert certification: Provides knowledge about managing and integrating Microsoft Platforms in Cloud.
Microsoft Azure fundamentals training teach core concepts related to the cloud industry.
Robert Half’s 2020 IT salary report about the Cloud Architect and Cloud Administrator states that they are two of the top 10 highly paid in-demand jobs of 2020.
Global knowledge, one of the top-paying IT certifications, reports that in 2020, Azure fundamental is the 11th most flourishing IT certification with an average salary of over $126,000.
MS Azure Fundamentals exam tests your understanding of four main areas
- Knowledge of Cloud Concepts
- Understanding of Core Azure Services
- Information of security, privacy, compliance, and trust
- Knowledge of Azure Pricing and Support.
Exam Pattern
Eligibility to pass the exam is to score 700 marks.
Azure fundamentals certification exam has 40 to 60 questions. The Certification exam cost $99. Most of the questions in the exam are multiple-choice questions.
Questions are asked based on architectural scenarios and diagrams.
Also Read: What is Azure Gateway Load Balancer
What are the skills acquired with Azure Fundamental certification?
- It teaches you the basic cloud computing concepts while keeping the emphasis on Microsoft Azure.
- The certification teaches you to evaluate the feasibility of migrating to a cloud. It determines the costs involved, scalability, cloud storage, and cloud security.
- With the general cloud concepts, this certification also validates your core concepts like Azure data Storage, Azure IOT solution, Azure Kubernetes, Azure Container services, and more.
Azure fundamentals certification will also allow you to learn the following concepts:
Key Cloud Concepts such as:
- High availability
- Scalability
- Elasticity
- Agility and fault tolerance,
- Capital expenditure and Operational expenditure,
- PAAS, SAAS, and IAAS
- Public, Private, and Hybrid Cloud
It also teaches Core Azure services like:
- Azure Architecture
- Availability zones
- Azure resource manager
- Virtual Manager
- Azure container instances
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- Azure SQL database
- Azure DevOps
The Azure Fundamental Certification also makes you understand security and compliance-related aspects such as:
- Network security groups
- Application security groups
- User-defined rules.
- Azure firewall
- Azure DDoS protection.
- Azure Active Directory
- Azure Security Center and Azure monitor
What about the pricing system by Microsoft Azure?
AZ-900 teaches you the Azure subscriptions and service level agreements, which helps you understand the pay-as-you-go system.
Pre-requisites for the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification
- To gain the Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals, you do not need pre-requisite knowledge or experience. This certification is for complete beginners irrespective of the candidate’s background.
- Prior IT experience is not required for this certification but, having a basic understanding of technology will help with the preparation for the certification exam.
Anyone from any background can register and attempt the Azure fundamental Certification.
Also Read: Master the Basics of Cloud with Microsoft Azure Fundamental Certifications
How to prepare for the certification?
You have self-study resources, free online training, or you learn from the experts to prepare for the Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals.
Let us understand all the resources with their pros and cons:
Books:
- Books provide detailed knowledge about cloud computing. If you have the time and discipline to learn from books, this self-study method can be worthwhile.
- Microsoft has an official reference book for the Azure Fundamental Certification AZ-900, which can be used to prepare for the examination.
- It is called Exam Ref AZ-900 Microsoft Azure, written by Jim Cheshire.
- Using books for preparation has its pros, but it requires a lot of time and dedication. If you want to fast-track your learning, you can always opt for other options.
Free Online Resources:
- Azure Fundamental Certification is not a difficult exam to pass. You may find many free videos and study materials online.
- But for this method, you need to be self-driven and take a lot of consistency. Plus, if you have a query, you do not have a go-to person to resolve it.
Join a course:
- If you prefer an expert as an instructor who can drive you step by step through complete training. Then you should always join a course.
- Microtek Learning provides you with an expert as a teacher and study material. With Practice test and Practice lab.
- It is beneficial to use the product in a real-life environment so that you face the scenario-based question in the exam.
To know more details about the course, visit our site.
Jobs Availability and Salary after certification
- Jobs in the broader Cloud Computing industry are predicted to keep growing for years to come.
- By transitioning from on-premises infrastructure to Cloud services, companies have improved efficiency and cost management.
- According to Gartner, the value of the public cloud market is envisioned to cross 331 billion dollars by 2022 because Microsoft has the second biggest chunk of this huge market the demands your expertise.
- Azure Fundamental Certification will give you the jump-start in the Azure career path. After completion of this basic course, you can further attend advanced courses which will help you to find a better job in the cloud industry.
Jobs after passing Azure Fundamental Certification:
- Azure cloud solutions Architect
- Cloud engineer
- Cloud admin
- Azure Cloud systems Developer
- Azure IAAS Architect
- Azure Virtualization Engineer
- Azure IoT expert
- Full-stack cloud developer for Azure
Combining the Azure Fundamental Certification Training with other advanced Microsoft Azure training and experience in the IT industry would be necessary to get high-paying jobs.
After completion of the Azure Fundamental Certification, you can opt for some advanced courses like:
- Azure Administrator Associate
- Azure Developer Associate
- Azure Solutions Architect
- Azure Data Engineer Associate
- Azure Al Engineer Associate
The Advanced certification you choose depends upon which career path you want to pursue.
What about the Salary Azure Fundamental Certification?
- PayScale, a compensation data firm mentioned that the average salary for Azure Skills is $96,000 US dollars.
- Gaining Expertise in the field of cloud computing with Microsoft Azure as a platform will surely benefit you in the long run.
- Azure Fundamental Certification Exam is not very hard as it has all about the basics of cloud computing.
To prepare for the exam, you need to focus on the objectives and understand various scenarios which help in actual situations.
Do sign up for the course and start your career in Microsoft Azure training now.