The computing cloud is forever changing and that means of course,
that the available certifications for the cloud change too.
And Azure is no exception. Some time ago,
I created a very comprehensive Azure certification guide,
which you can find using the link in the description. It's still very relevant,
but a few things have changed.
A few new certs are out and the recertification process is different.
So while I plan on creating a whole new updated and in depth guide very soon,
I figured you could use this update for, well, the latest sounds good.
Excellent. Let's dig in.
First up is the biggest update to an existing course for quite some time.
The Azure solutions architect expert is a certification that many aspire to
complete, and it is also one of our most popular topics on the channel.
Having already gone through one iteration from AZ-300
and 301 to AZ 303 and 304,
the entire curriculum has now been consolidated to a single exam. Yes,
one. AZ-305. Now, while this is probably welcome news,
having to study for, you know, only one exam, let alone only sitting one.
It doesn't mean it has become any easier.
AZ-305 is still one of the most demanding exams along with AZ-400 DevOps
engineer expert.
And it covers designing identity governance and monitoring solutions.
And this includes log routing, role-based access control, identity security,
application security, user consent, and monitoring tools;
design of data storage solutions,
such as database scalability and service tiering,
encryption of data at various stages of its life cycle,
storing of relational and non relational data,
access control and durability of data; business continuity solutions.
And that covers solutions for compute databases and containers
as well as designing high availability systems.
The last section of this exam is designing infrastructure solutions such as
VM based container based and serverless computing architectures.
It also covers application architecture, data migration scenarios,
network solutions, caching, and a whole lot more. In short,
AZ-305 touches on almost all parts of Azure except
maybe blockchain. Hmm. Anyway, the new update is boiled down,
but possibly into a higher concentrate of cloud architecture and perspiration
from many, many hours of study.
One more change from the AZ -303/304s is that you now must have passed as
104 as administrator before you can sit the -305 exam.
And this makes sense as -305 build on all of the knowledge in -104.
Now for the biggest news, I reckon when it comes to new Azure certifications,
the tail end of Microsoft computing is still firmly wagging within the windows
server community.
And there are a lot of people still relying on windows server every single
day. Until now they've kind of been left out of the computing love for Microsoft
certifications, but that changes with, ready,
windows server hybrid administrator associate certification. Yeah,
this certification consists of two exams AZ-800 administering
windows server hybrid core infrastructure and AZ-801 configuring windows
server hybrid advanced services.
There is a barrage of topics covered in those two exams,
which goes to show that a real gap in the Azure certification landscape has
been filled. Some of the topics include
deploy and manage active directory domain services in on premises and cloud
environments, managing windows servers in a hybrid environment,
which includes deploying windows admin center gateway servers,
configuring Kerberos, assigning user policies,
working with log analytics and much more.
Managing virtual machines and containers in Azure, such as guest VMs,
HyperV switching, creating windows, server, container images,
managing VM data discs and network configuration.
Implement and manage an on premises and hybrid networking infrastructure,
including DNS, IP address management and hybrid connectivity.
And that is only the AZ-800 exam. Yeah, I know it's a big certification,
but so needed and welcome.
AZ-801 is all about security, high availability, disaster recovery,
and workload migrations.
If you've already passed AZ-104 Azure administrator and perhaps have worked with
windows server in the past, or currently this certification is for you.
If you wonder which cloud role this fits in with it is sort of on its own,
but most closely related to Azure administrator or even Azure architect.
One thing is sure though it is a very, very large curriculum.
And I am thinking it is a bit optimistic being pitched at the associate level
rather than expert. Time will tell if that's accurate.
From the fire into the lava or something. I forgot how that goes.
The next new cert is also a doozy.
The AZ-700 Azure network engineer associate builds an all the networking
knowledge you've got from az-104 and takes you down the Vnet rabbit hole.
This is my way of saying that before you even consider az-700,
I would recommend passing az-104.
The exam called designing and implementing Microsoft Azure networking solutions
covers topics such as design implement and manage a site to side VPN connection,
point to site, VPN connection and Azure express route.
Using private IP addressing for Vnets,
designing public and private DNS zones,
implementing service training and Vnet peering and designing and implementing
Azure wan architectures. Managing network routing,
including building route tables and resolving routing issues.
Designing a load balancing network for internal and public apps,
as well as cross region traffic using CDNs,
Azure front door and Azure traffic manager.
Securing and monitoring networks using firewalls security groups and web
application firewalls,
and finally how to create private access links and service endpoints.
Whew, there's a huge amount of networking details included in this exam.
I know I sat it and I didn't do well.
I need to up my networking game. It's as simple as that.
The last two certifications I'll cover in this update are more niche and
specialized. The first is a 600,
which does sound like a main topic area, but is all about Azure stack hub.
And if you aren't familiar with the product, I don't blame you.
Stack hub is Azure's way of letting you install Azure on your own environment
using 6,237 floppy discs, probably.
If you're an operator of your company data center and you're considering
installing Azure stack hub, then you would consider az-600,
but that is most likely the only scenario though.
This exam also builds on az-104 to some extent,
as well as how deploy and manage stack hub itself,
you'll be tested on greatest hits, like managing the Azure stack hub,
marketplace planning, app service resources and event hub resources,
manage quotas plans, usage and billing, which is exciting.
Preparing your environment for Azure stack hub deployment,
including DNS identity certificates and registration,
managing identity and access for users, applications, and groups.
Looking after the system health,
designing disaster recovery and managing backups,
managing capacity to mimic the idea of infinite resources.
This includes updating the platform and adding new hardware,
creating and managing privileged endpoints. And that's Azure stack hub.
And next up is probably my favorite specialty exam.
Cosmos DB. It embodies everything that is cloud computing,
including low latency, native cross geography synchronization,
high performing compute, and infinitely scalable.
It offers an easy way for developers to use one of five APIs.
You get 99.999% guaranteed uptime.
And it integrates with a lot of other Azure services.
It's all perfect then. No, of course not.
And there are lots of ways that you can mess it up,
including getting huge bills when you don't expect it.
And that's probably why there is now a dedicated DP-420 designing
and implementing Cloud-native applications using Microsoft Azure cosmos DB
exam. Pass this exam and you will earn the Azure cosmos DB developer specialty
certification.
And this exam covers using non relational data models with the
Azure cosmos DB core API,
such as getting storing and Denormalization right and using access patterns,
designing and configuring petitioning strategies,
including cost synthetic petitioning and cross petitioning,
managing scaling,
and sizing connectivity options and data access for all APIs.
Many, many developer specific features, including multi document loading,
session consistency, pagination, stored procedures and more.
Replication strategies, multi-region writes and consistency models,
integration with other Azure services, performance optimization with indices,
request unit costs and integrated caching, monitoring security,
backup and restore operations, and... No that's it. I was just kidding there.
Now this is truly a proper specialty exam that goes in depth on most,
if not all of the parts of cosmos DB,
if you also want to get the most out of one of the best cloud services around
DP-420 is the choice. Okay. One more thing before I leave you,
Once you achieve a certification,
it has an expiry date apart from a couple of fundamentals, such as AZ-900.
This means that you need to maintain the certification to keep it valid and
current.
This is a good idea because the cloud and computing in general changes so much
and so often. Instead of having to sit in the exam every two years or so,
Microsoft now ask you to re-certify every year. Well, no, no, no. Hang on,
hang on. It's nowhere near bad. As it sounds,
instead of taking a full blown exam every two years,
you now do a few Microsoft learn modules and then sit the tests.
It isn't the full exam,
but rather 25 questions or so on a subset of this certification curriculum.
For example, when I re-certified az-204 Azure developer,
I had 25 questions on three areas, only three - cosmos DB,
durable functions and logic gaps. The questions aren't easy,
but no one's watching you and there's no time limit on it. So like if you fail,
you just do the exam again, once every 24 hours. Well,
until the one year mark for your certification date is reached, of course.
Now this process starts six months after you pass your exam the first time.
And then you have six months to complete the tests.
It's a lot less stressful and you don't have to pay for it. Bonus! However,
if you don't pass the recertification within the six month period,
you're back to sit in the full exam. Hmm. That's all I have for you this time.
Now I am working on a complete revamp of our full Azure certification map,
but that's a lot of work. So it might take a while until then keeping awesome.
Bye cloud gurus!