Category: Certification

Journey to Azure DevOps Expert with a 3P mindset – People… Processes… Products

Hello my friends!

If you are looking to get some study tips on an Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certification then you landed in a right post 🙂

So why Azure DevOps as a platform for your organization’s digital transformation? Well it is build for any language, and any platform. Yes, that is 100% true statement! Run the OSS (#opensourcesoftware) tools and frameworks on it, anything you want, in addition to Microsoft stack.

This weekend, I got loaded with fresh coffee and sit to wright-down experiences and resources I have used, along the journey to become an Azure DevOps Expert. 
This journey brings along a new credential in Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert. However, most importantly, it refreshes your understanding of latest developments in the DevOps ecosystem on Microsoft Azure platform.

Side note: I have been actively using Microsoft DevOps pipelines for the last 2.5 years. Having this experience provided a lot of help in understanding exam objectives and focusing on areas that I never touched.

Overall, Microsoft Expert exams are harder than Azure fundamentals and associate exams. They come with test scenarios, labs and tricky questions where you have to know the order of processes – in one way testing your real-world understanding of the processes and technologies and its interconnected components.

Earning the DevOps Engineer Expert certification demonstrates the ability to combine people, process, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end user needs and business objectives. DevOps professionals streamline delivery by optimizing practices, improving communications and collaboration, and creating automation.

Microsoft Learn

Now, as you may expect, there are tons of material out there on how to get prepared for required two exams that qualifies you to Expert certification. I took a bit stiff hill to climb 🙂 First, I went head-on with AZ-400 “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions” exam and later focused on Azure Administrator Associate exam.

As an alternative, you could choose a developer path. It applies very well for the case, where you might already have an Azure Developer Associate certification and just need to pass AZ-400 to qualify for the DevOps Expert certification.

Study Materials and references

I primarily used Microsoft Learn – an online and free starting point to cover gaps in my knowledge and skills. by complementing it with Pluralsight videos. I have combined the following list of resources that you might find handy 🙂

In summary, the important once are listed on top. They are all very important, as you would like to keep your knowledge up to date with developments on DevOps world.

In a nutshell, I tried my best to walk you through the process, options and resources that will help you along the way. Hopefully, this brief guide will help you on your journey to prepare and become an Expert DevOps Engineer!

Meanwhile, feel free to answer the following questions:

  • Comment on your exam preparation approach?
  • What challenges are you facing or already overcame?
  • What helped and what did not – in setting up for a DevOps journey?

Thank you and May The 4TH Be With You!

Study Guides for DP-300 Administrating Relational Databases on Microsoft Azure

For all Microsoft SQL server admin and developer friends 👍👌

DP-300 exam is out there, and I am trilled to pieces having it next week:

Caveat is, there is no officially published study guide yet (while it is Beta). I have compiled following resources from community members and in ne place for you.

We have following study guides to get help from:

1. Check Gregor Suttie’s guide 👉 https://lnkd.in/e-H-hNG

2. Check Ravikiran Srinivasulu’s guide 👉 Study Guide for DP-300

3. Check Gonzalo Juan Jose Bissio guide 👉 DP 300 My experience 🙂

4. Free e-book from Microsoft on Professional Azure SQL Database Administration

Please, let us know if you have other good sources for exam preparation. Feel free to share it with community by providing valuable feedback in the comments section.

Updated: I would also recommend to read this post: “Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate” from Microsoft Tech Community” https://lnkd.in/eXSHbMt #SharingIsCaring❤️

Good Luck on your upcoming exam!
Keep my posted on your success & journey progress!

#azure #sqldatabase #sqldeveloper #sqlserver #certification #betaexam

#MSBuild 2020 Cloud Skills Learning Challenge and Azure exam voucher

Hello friends,

In this post, I am excited to share about – how you could use your Microsoft Build 2020 registration/account to sign-up for Cloud Skills Learning Challenge and complete at least one challenge to earn a complementary Azure exam voucher, by June 2, 2020.

Thank you @Microsoft for this generous offer. Really appreciated!

So buckle-up friends, and Let’s START!

First thing first, you would need to have following 3 things:

Once signed-in into Microsoft Build 2020 registration account, you would need to follow pdf instructions from Microsoft.

Upon successful registration with Microsoft Build Cloud Skills Challenge you would see something similar to the following screen-shot:

Clicking on first item from Challenge Collection will show-up similar to the following screen-shot:

Note: it will show 0% completed initially, however as you move forward with training items it will go up. Upon completion of at least one challenge from Collection by June 2

Official rules of the Microsoft Build Cloud Skills Challenge could be found here.

That’s it friends, buckle up to complete your challenge before June 2, 2020 to receive a complementary Azure exam voucher and maybe some other prizes from sweepstake.

Good Luck!

KEY 30+ free training materials for everyone

Hello my friends!

I have been asked about free, online training resources. I have compiled, to my best knowledge, all recent training resources in this post. However, please feel free to add your comments (aka, 2 cents 💰) and extend this list together 🙂

All the training resources could be used by anyone around the glob 24/7. Note that few training resources are geared toward certain US state learning programs.

I truly hope, you could share these resources with your friends, who might be looking for affordable training, and prepare themselves for a better future.

  1. Microsoft Learn: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/
  2. Google Cloud Training: https://cloud.google.com/training
  3. Oracle OCI training with free exam till May 15, from Raghu Viswanathan: https://www.oracle.com/corporate/blog/free-certifications-oracle-oci-autonomous-033020.html
  4. IBM AI training: https://cognitiveclass.ai/
  5. Pluralsight – free April month: https://www.pluralsight.com/
  6. Harvard University. Pay for official certificate only: https://harvardx.link/sz4ck
  7. Tableau (90 days with code 2020elearning): https://www.tableau.com/learn/training/elearning
  8. Qlik (online training): https://www.qlik.com/us/announcements/covid-19-response
  9. Databricks: https://www.databricks.training/learn-from-home/index.html
  10. Looker: https://training.looker.com/
  11. Coursera: https://blog.coursera.org/coursera-together-free-online-learning-during-covid-19
  12. Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/software/free
  13. MicroStrategy (45 days till May 15th 2020): https://www.microstrategy.com/us/free-education
  14. Free Training from BMCC/ NY-Cisco, A+, EMT, Medical Assistant, etc. https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/ce/
  15. New York Mechanic’s Apprenticeship Program: https://www.nyatlas.org
  16. Web Development training at LaGuardia Community College: https://www.laguardia.edu/Open-Code-Information/
  17. OSHA Training, and several other Free Training – New York: http://www.cb14brooklyn.com
  18. SUNY Bronx- Free Training- GED, Master Barber, Medical Assistant, EMT, etc. http://www.bronxeoc.org/index.html
  19. Learn to code: https://www.freecodecamp.org/
  20. Training in programming and IT : https://www.npower.org/
  21. Training in Cyber Security, Net +, A+, System Admin, etc: https://perscholas.org/
  22. Year Up for 18-24 years old offered in several states in the US. 12 months program with internship: https://www.yearup.org/
  23. Training in IT, Construction, Medical Admin Assistant: usa.generation.org/regeneration
  24. Free IT Training with Certificate: https://thegymnasium.com
  25. Training in several states and online for CompTIA A+ : https://www.creatingitfutures.org
  26. Salesforce training : https://trailhead.salesforce.com/
  27. Sign up for Free trial to take cert exams like: A+, Net, CySa+, Cisco, PMP : https://www.ucertify.com/
  28. Python training from Google: https://www.udacity.com/course/programming-for-data-science-nanodegree–nd104
  29. University of the People- Free degree program in Computer Science, Business Administration, Health Services: https://www.uopeople.edu
  30. Much more online training from @Rajanand’s post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/free-learning-resources-rajanand-ilangovan/
  31. Atlassian free product training catalog: https://training.atlassian.com/free-training-catalog

These list is not complete and I look forward for your contributions #linkedinfamily  to keep this post updated #SharingIsCaring❤️