If you’re aiming to showcase your basic understanding of cloud services and how they work on Microsoft Azure, the AZ-900 exam suits you well. This exam is designed for individuals without a technical background but with an interest in the cloud, including:
- This exam is suitable for individuals involved in buying or selling cloud-based solutions, as well as those with technical expertise seeking to showcase their foundational understanding of cloud services.
- Additionally, if you’re curious about exploring the realm of cloud-based solutions to potentially pivot your career, this exam is relevant for you too.
You can take this exam as an optional first step towards learning the Cloud Services. And how Microsoft Azure symbolizes the concepts. It can be taken as an antecedent to Microsoft’s Azure or Data and AI certifications. So, if you wish to become a DevOps Engineer, Azure Administrator, Developer or Architect, then this validate your foundational knowledge. Therefore, this can be used as a starting point for you if you’re interested in Data and AI job roles.
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 Exam Overview
The AZ-900 exam is the starting point for Azure certifications. Successfully passing it grants you the Microsoft Certified Fundamentals recognition. To achieve this, it’s crucial to grasp the basics and advantages of Microsoft’s Cloud platform. This includes understanding how subscriptions function, available support plans, distinguishing between Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), and knowing which services to use in different scenarios.
In the AZ-900 exam, the idea of knowing “when to use what” is important for certain Azure products. Additionally, there are concepts related to “systems administration,” like implementing Policies and utilizing RBAC (Role-Based Access Control). These concepts are relevant to your Azure account, regardless of the services you utilize. IT Professionals might already be acquainted with these topics, while software developers can also gain from understanding Microsoft’s Cloud architecture and controls.
AZ 900 Exam Details
The total duration of this exam is 60 minutes and it doesn’t involve any simulated lab scenarios. Rather it has multi-choice questions with one or more correct answers and some of the multi-part questions. In this you get one main postulation and a few multi-choice questions that relate to that same scenario.
Course Outline
The content includes updates of English version of the exam as of July 31, 2023
Module 1 – Describe cloud concepts (25–30%)
The Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam cover the latest and updated exam guide including –
Describe cloud computing
- Define cloud computing (Microsoft Documentation: What is cloud computing? and Types of Cloud Computing)
- Describe the shared responsibility model (Microsoft Documentation: Shared Responsibility Model in Cloud)
- Define cloud models, including public, private, and hybrid (Microsoft Documentation: What is a Public Cloud?, What is a Private Cloud? and What is a Hybrid Cloud?)
- Identify appropriate use cases for each cloud model (Examples of cloud computing)
- Describe the consumption-based model (Microsoft Documentation: Consumption and Fixed Cost Models)
- Compare cloud pricing models (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Product Pricing and Azure Cloud Services pricing)
- Describe serverless
Describe the benefits of using cloud services (Benefits of Cloud Computing Services)
- Describe the benefits of high availability and scalability in the cloud (Microsoft Documentation: Benefits and considerations of using cloud services)
- Describe the benefits of reliability and predictability in the cloud (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Reliability and Overview of the reliability pillar)
- Describe the benefits of security and governance in the cloud (Microsoft Documentation: Security governance and Governance in the Microsoft Cloud and Azure governance documentation)
- Describe the benefits of manageability in the cloud (Microsoft Documentation: Cloud management in the Cloud Adoption Framework, Cloud management gateway overview and Azure Management Guide, Before you start)
Describe cloud service types
- Describe infrastructure as a service (IaaS) (Microsoft Documentation: What is IaaS? and Azure IaaS (infrastructure as a service)
- Describe platform as a service (PaaS) (Microsoft Documentation: What is PaaS? and Use platform as a service (PaaS) options)
- Describe software as a service (SaaS) (Microsoft Documentation: What is SaaS? and About SaaS)
- Identify appropriate use cases for each cloud service (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Cloud Services)
Module 2 – Describe Azure architecture and services (35–40%)
Describe the core architectural components of Azure
- Describe Azure regional, regional pairs, and sovereign regions (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Regions and Avaialbility Zones and Azure Regional Pairs and Azure Sovereign Clouds)
- Describe availability zones (Microsoft Documentation: Azure availability zones)
- Describe Azure datacenters (Microsoft Documentation: Datacenter security overview)
- Describe Azure resources and resource groups (Manage Azure resource groups)
- Describe subscriptions (Microsoft Documentation: Subscription decision guide and Azure subscription)
- Describe management groups (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Management Groups)
- Describe the hierarchy of resource groups, subscriptions, and management groups (Microsoft Documentation: What are Azure management groups? )
Describe Azure compute and networking services
- Compare compute types, including container instances, virtual machines, and functions (Choose an Azure compute service, Azure Container Instances, Introduction to Azure virtual machines, Introduction to Azure Functions)
- Describe Virtual Machine options, including Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets, availability sets, and Azure Virtual Desktop (Virtual machines in Azure, What are virtual machine scale sets? and What is Azure Virtual Desktop?)
- Describe resources required for virtual machines (Windows virtual machines in Azure)
- Describe application hosting options, including Web Apps, containers, and virtual machines
- Describe virtual networking, including the purpose of Azure Virtual Networks, Azure virtual subnets, peering, Azure DNS, Azure VPN Gateway, and Azure ExpressRoute (What is Azure Virtual Network?, Virtual Network Subnet, Azure Virtual Network Peering, Azure Peering Service Overview, What is Azure DNS?, What is Azure VPN Gateway?, Azure ExpressRoute and Significance of Azure ExpressRoute)
- Define public and private endpoints (What is a private endpoint?)
Describe Azure storage services
- Compare Azure storage services (Introduction to Azure Storage)
- Describe storage tiers (Storage account overview, Hot, Cool, and Archive access tiers)
- Describe redundancy options (Azure Storage redundancy)
- Describe storage account options and storage types (Storage account overview)
- Identify options for moving files, including AzCopy, Azure Storage Explorer, and Azure File Sync (azcopy copy, Get started with AzCopy, Transfer data with AzCopy and file storage, What is Azure File Sync?, Get started with Storage Explorer)
- Describe migration options, including Azure Migrate and Azure Data Box (About Azure Migrate)
Describe Azure identity, access, and security
- Describe directory services in Azure, including Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and part of Microsoft Entra and Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS)
- Describe authentication methods in Azure, including single sign-on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA), and passwordless (Passwordless authentication options for Azure Active Directory, authentication and verification methods are available in Azure Active Directory)
- Describe external identities in Azure, including business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C)
- Describe Conditional Access in Azure AD (What is Conditional Access?)
- Describe Azure role-based access control (RBAC) (What is Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)?)
- Describe the concept of Zero Trust (What is Zero Trust?)
- Describe the purpose of the defense in-depth model
- Describe the purpose of Microsoft Defender for Cloud (What is Microsoft Defender for Cloud?)
Module 3 – Describe Azure management and governance (30–35%)
Describe cost management in Azure
- Describe factors that can affect costs in Azure (Plan and manage your Azure costs)
- Compare the Pricing calculator and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator (Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator)
- Describe the Cost Management capabilities in Azure
- Describe the purpose of tags (Use tags to organize your Azure resources and management hierarchy)
Describe features and tools in Azure for governance and compliance
- Describe the purpose of Microsoft Purview in Azure
- Describe the purpose of Azure Policy (What is Azure Policy?)
- Describe the purpose of resource locks (Lock resources to prevent unexpected changes)
Describe features and tools for managing and deploying Azure resources
- Describe the Azure portal (Azure portal overview)
- Describe Azure Cloud Shell, including Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) and Azure PowerShell (Overview of Azure Cloud Shell)
- Describe the purpose of Azure Arc (Azure Arc overview)
- Describe infrastructure as code (IaC) (IaC on Azure)
- Describe Azure Resource Manager (ARM) and ARM templates (What is Azure Resource Manager?, What are ARM templates?)
Describe monitoring tools in Azure
- Describe the purpose of Azure Advisor (Introduction to Azure Advisor)
- Describe Azure Service Health (What is Azure Service Health?)
- Describe Azure Monitor, including Log Analytics, Azure Monitor alerts, and Application Insights (Log Analytics tutorial, Azure Monitor overview, Application Insights overview)
The percentage here denotes the contribution of that area to the final score of the exam. Also, with a room for Microsoft to adjust the context mix within those percentage boundaries.
Exam Result
The result is declared immediately after your exam. The score is displayed and you will see whether you have cleared the exam or not. This AZ – 900 requires a score of 700 or above to qualify. There are no rewards or prize for the top scorer. So, there is no point of checking your score with others. As every candidate is presented with a random subset of the questions and the exams are fine tuned on an ongoing basis.
Study Guide for Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam AZ-900
1. Microsoft Learning Platform
The main portal serves just as a command center to all of Microsoft’s exams and certifications. There you can find the listing of all the Microsoft certifications in the Microsoft Learning Page. Therefore this makes the searching part easier for you. So before anything else your starting point of AZ-900 exam preparation should be this.
This is because there you can find everything you need to know about the exam. This includes- exam registration option, links to AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, details on AZ-900 exam modules, exam prerequisites, exam study groups, links to exam policies and exam structure, etc. Also, in addition to all these this is one of the few places where you’ll find all the important updates regarding the exam schedule, pricing change, module change, etc.
All the details at one place
Since this portal is the epicenter for all the information- where you can find scheduling links for the AZ-900 exam, it’s pretty sure that there’s no way this portal gets unnoticed during your AZ-900 exam preparation.
Want to become a certified Azure Developer? Then follow the AZ-203 Exam Preparation Guide and get ready to pass the certification exam.
2. Microsoft Documentation
Make sure not to mix up this page with Microsoft’s Learning portal. These sections have their own separate learning pages. On the Microsoft Azure Documentation, you’ll find a specific page for Azure Fundamentals. This is where you can delve into concepts like Agility, Disaster Recovery, Elasticity, Fault Tolerance, High Availability, and Scalability, which are important in any cloud setup. From this page, you can learn how to compare and differentiate the fundamental steps for migrating to the Azure cloud.
Learning Platform
Also, from this learning platform you can find the scale of different Azure services spanning on compute, security, storage and network. Thus, completely, you can understand the benefits of Azure in cloud computing, especially how it can save your money and time. So, if you are new to Azure technologies, then this learning document must be an unavoidable part in your AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam Preparation.
Furthermore, you can gain a wealth of knowledge from Microsoft Documentation. This includes learning about creating an Azure account, exploring Azure networking choices, storing applications in Azure Blob storage, automating Azure tasks through PowerShell, utilizing CLI for managing Azure services, understanding Resource Management in Azure, and much more.
4. Forums & Study Groups
You must be aware of the study groups and forums available for Azure role-based-exams in the Microsoft Learning portal. But sadly for AX-900 exam this facility isn’t available. Still, there are other popular forums available for the same. So, you can leave your queries and question there and answer those you have knowledge of. As there are a lot of experienced and knowledgeable people who can easily solve your queries.
5. Books & Journals
Find yourself lucky if you get a reliable book on Azure, because it will be highly helpful in your AZ-900 exam preparation. As, not much books are available to meet the necessary expectations of the reader or the industry’s standards. Still we have enlisted some of the Azure books that can prove to be very helpful during your AZ-900 exam preparation.
Microsoft Azure for Beginners: Getting Started with Microsoft Azure: This book covers all the fundamental aspects of Azure technology that beginners need to understand – the reasons, methods, and what it entails. You can find this book in both Kindle and Paperback editions on Amazon.
Microsoft Azure Ultimate Beginners Guide
Azure: Microsoft Azure Tutorial for Beginners: This book is specifically designed for the non-tech people. Those who always find it difficult to understand tech concepts including cloud technology. There are both paperback and Kindle versions on this book on Amazon. The author of this book is Kennan Bismar.
Microsoft Azure Tutorial for Beginners
Azure: Microsoft Azure Tutorial The Ultimate Beginners Guide: As compared to the other two books we’ve seen this book is more suitable for people from tech backgrounds. Anyhow with a little effort, any one of us can grasp the concepts discussed in this book. Also, both the Kindle and Paperback versions of this book are available on the Amazon.
6. Evaluate yourself with Practice Test
Sample tests are always good to help you prepare for any exam you’re about to take. Although Microsoft’s official website has no sample tests available. But for AZ-900 there are plenty of practice tests available at TestPrepTraining.com.
7. E-books, Analyst Reports, and White Papers
This step may always be over-looked during the AZ-900 exam preparation. But it’s of utmost importance as books or related materials. Since these items are published by Microsoft itself. So, you can find a lot of relevant materials related to Azure from these resources. Also, make sure you subscribe to Azure notifications. This is because it can help you to get updated with Azure.
Community support
Generally people who have already sat the exam are much happier to share their thoughts and resources. Sometimes people write blogs with helpful lists, and you can also find discussion groups on different social media sites. It’s important to know that Microsoft doesn’t control these resources or ensure their current information.
Expert Corner
As compared to the Azure role-based exams, this AZ-900 is an exam which doesn’t require prior experience. Anyone with basic aptitude and logical skills can easily qualify for this exam without relying on intense AZ-900 exam preparation. Because even this is the case, you can’t ever skip the need for proper AZ-900 exam preparation as it can provide you with more insights on how to approach an exam. So, if you aspire to take more certifications from Microsoft in the future as well, such an AZ-900 exam preparation can provide a lot of benefits to you.
