Category: Study Guides

Study Guide for AZ-305: Part 4 – Design a compute solution

Hi Cloud Marathoners!

Welcome to the new blog post (Part 4/12) from the Az-305 series to help you get ready for the AZ-305 exam.

Please, check the previous post(s) listed below, if you landed on this page for the first time 🙂

Table of content (blog series)

What is the Compute service in Cloud?

The keyword “compute” refers to the hosting model for the computing resources that your application runs on. However, “cloud computing” is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, like a data storage and computing power without direct active management by the end user.

The compute services play very important role in delivery of digital services and
defining a purposeful compute solution for your project is the first critical step 😎

Why Microsoft Azure Cloud Adoption? Cognilytic Technologies

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH compute services in azure?

The Azure “Compute” provides the infrastructure you need to run your application, whether you’re building from scratch or deploying existing ones. You could easily pick a compute capacity in the cloud and scale on demand. A variety of services allow you to containerize your applications, deploy any OS in virtual machines (VMs), and take advantage of flexible options to plan and execute your VMs migration into Azure.

You can also rely on comprehensive support for hybrid environment solutions by deploying where you want to. The Azure compute services are supported with enterprise grade integration solutions including identity solution. By using Azure cloud platform you can manage end-point protection, and Active Directory support that helps secure access to on-premises and cloud workloads and applications.

Click to learn about the compute choices in Azure

Part 4: Design a compute solution

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing compute solutions in Azure. You could also find it helpful to check the Microsoft docs and learning paths with [Tutorials] below 😉.

This collection of links are gathered with a focus toward the exam objectives of AZ-305 certification exam.

Shared responsibility in the cloud
Choose an Azure compute service for your application
Sizes for virtual machines in Azure
Azure Batch best practices
Azure Marketplace – Compute
Azure App Service plan overview
App Service overview
Set up staging environments in Azure App Service

What is Azure Container Instances?
What is Kubernetes?
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
CUSTOMER CASE STUDY – Azure Functions (Serverless Computing)
CUSTOMER CASE STUDY – Azure Logic Apps and Azure API Management

Security considerations for Azure Container Instances
Getting started with Docker
Run background tasks with WebJobs in Azure App Service
Azure Logic Apps
What is Azure Batch?
Linux Virtual Machine Pricing
Choose the best Azure service to automate your business processes
Integration Services
Authentication and authorization in Azure App Service and Azure Functions

[Tutorial] Create an Azure Batch account by using the Azure portal
[Tutorial] Host a web application with Azure App Service
[Tutorial] Introduction to Azure Logic Apps
[Tutorial] Introduction to Azure virtual machines

SUMMARY

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 4 – Design a Compute solution on Azure.

The next blog post will cover the Part 5: Design an application architecture solution.

Study Guide for AZ-305: Part 3 –Design a solution to log and monitor Azure resources

Hello friends!

This is the continuation (Part 3/12) of blog post series to help you get ready for the latest AZ-305 exam.

Feel free to check the previous posts listed below, if you did not look into them yet 🙂

Table of content (blog series)

What is the Monitoring ?

The monitoring is a skill and not a full-time job. In today’s world of cloud-based architectures that are implemented through DevOps projects, developers, SREs, and operations staff must collectively define an effective cloud monitoring and logging strategy. This strategy should focus on identifying when service-level objectives (SLOs) and service-level agreements (SLAs) are not being met, likely negatively affecting the user experience.

Cloud monitoring is a method of reviewing, observing, and managing the operational workflow in a cloud-based IT infrastructure. Manual or automated management techniques confirm the availability and performance of websites, servers, applications, and other cloud infrastructure.

Azure Monitor overview
Azure Monitor Overview

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH logging and monitoring?

Azure Monitor helps you maximize the availability and performance of your applications and services. It delivers a comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your cloud and on-premises environments. This information helps you understand how your applications are performing and proactively identify issues affecting them and the resources they depend on.

Microsoft docs

The Azure Monitor collects the following sets of data:

  • ✔️ Application Monitoring data
  • ✔️ Guest OS monitoring data
  • ✔️ Azure resource monitoring data
  • ✔️ Azure subscription monitoring data
  • ✔️ Azure tenant monitoring data
Measuring Metrics: Log Analytics vs Azure Metrics - Part 1 Introduction - AdinErmie.com
Azure Monitoring and Log Analytics Overview

Part 3: Design a solution to log and monitor Azure resources

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing logging and monitoring Azure solutions.

This collection of links are gathered with a focus toward the exam objectives of AZ-305 certification exam.

Analyze your Azure infrastructure by using Azure Monitor logs
Best practices for monitoring cloud applications
Cost Management tools in Azure
What are Azure Active Directory reports?

Overview of Log Analytics in Azure Monitor
Tutorial: Log Analytics
Monitor performance of virtual machines by using Azure Monitor VM Insights
Designing your Azure Monitor Logs deployment
Overview of Azure Monitor agents

Azure Monitor Frequently Asked Questions
Azure Monitor Workbooks
Application Insights overview
Azure Data Explorer

SUMMARY

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 3 – Design a solution to log and monitor Azure resources.

The next blog post will cover the Part 4: Design a compute solution.

Study Guide for AZ-305: Part 2 – Design Authentication and Authorization Solutions

Hi Cloud Marathoners!

This is the continuation (Part 2/12) of blog post series to help you get ready for the latest AZ-305 exam. As title says – our focus will be on understanding and designing Authentication and Authorization Solutions in Microsoft Azure.

Feel free to check the previous post (Part 1/12) if you did not look into it yet 🙂

Table of content (blog series)

What is the Authentication and Authorization?

To put it in plain English language, authentication is the process of verifying who someone is, where as authorization is the process of verifying what specific applications, files, and data a user has access to.

To relate these concepts to a real-world scenarious, you may think about your airport access and on-boarding to the plane experience. Thus, when you go through the security in an airport, you are required to show your ID to authenticate your identity. Then, you proceed and arrive at the gate, you present your boarding pass to the flight attendant, so they can authorize you to board your flight and allow access to your assigned seat.

Authentication vs Authorization. Authentication vs. Authorization— These… | by Frank D'Amico | Medium

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH Authentication and Authorization?

The authentication and authorization services are part of the Microsoft’s identity platform.

The Authentication sometimes shortened to ‘AuthN’.
The Microsoft identity platform uses the OpenID Connect protocol for handling authentication. On the other hand, Authorization sometimes shortened to ‘AuthZ‘. The Microsoft identity platform uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol for handling authorization.

In Microsoft Azure your authentication and authorization is delegated to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). By using this centralized identity provider you can enable following secure workflows for your business:

  • Conditional Access policies – that require a user to be in a specific location.
  • The use of multi-factor authentication, which is sometimes called two-factor authentication or 2FA.
  • Enabling a user to sign in once and then be automatically signed in to all of the web apps that share the same centralized directory. This capability is called single sign-on (SSO).
From AD to Azure AD – Your Hybrid Identity Journey - New Signature

Part 2: Designing Authentication and Authorization solutions

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing Azure Authentication and Authorization solutions. You could also find it helpful to check the Microsoft docs and learning paths with [Tutorials] below 🙂

This collection of links is gathered with a focus on the exam objectives of the AZ-305 certification exam.

Azure identity management security overview
Azure Identity Management and access control security best practices
Five steps to securing your identity infrastructure
What is Azure Active Directory?
Compare Active Directory to Azure Active Directory
Azure Active Directory B2B best practices
Overview: Cross-tenant access with Azure AD External Identities (Preview)
Identity Providers for External Identities
Authentication and Conditional Access for External Identities
What is Azure Active Directory B2C?
Technical and feature overview of Azure Active Directory B2C
What is Conditional Access?
Plan a Conditional Access deployment

[Tutorial]: Secure user sign-in events with Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication
[Tutorial]: Enable users to unlock their account or reset passwords using Azure AD self-service password reset (SSPR)
[Tutorial]: Enable Azure Active Directory self-service password reset writeback to an on-premises environment

What is Identity Protection?
What is risk?
Azure Active Directory Identity Protection – Security overview
Identity Protection policies
What are Azure AD access reviews?
What are managed identities for Azure resources?
What is identity lifecycle management?

Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework – Security
Authenticate apps to Azure services by using service principals and managed identities for Azure resources
Application and service principal objects in Azure AD
Azure Key Vault basic concepts

Best practices for using Azure Key Vault
Azure Key Vault logging
Virtual network service endpoints for Azure Key Vault
Monitoring Key Vault with Azure Event Grid

SUMMARY

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 2 – Designing Authentication and Authorization Solutions.

The next blog will cover the Part 3: Design a solution to log and monitor Azure resources.

Study Guide for AZ-305: Part 1 – Design a Governance Solution

Hello friends,

As you might already know, a new AZ-305 exam for Azure Architects has been officially released a few days ago!!!

I would like to take this opportunity and help all my students and followers with preparation for this important exam.

My plan is to create a blog post series that cover official and community learning materials in addition to the Microsoft Learn, self-paced learning modules.

Table of content (blog series)

This exam is focused on designing cloud and hybrid solutions on Microsoft #Azure, and was made with #architects in mind 😏


A list of helpful reference materials that will complement your four Microsoft Learn AZ-305: XXX learning paths on the official learning site are screenshotted below for your references 🙂

What is the Cloud Governance ?

The Cloud Governance is a framework that guides how end users make use of cloud services by defining and creating policies to control costs, minimize security risks, improve efficiency and accelerate deployment. It’s imperative to have good cloud governance because it’s a foundational element to your cloud practice that provides the ability to scale and be successful.

In short, the governance in Azure is one aspect of Azure Management. This includes the tasks and processes required to maintain your business applications and the resources that support them. Azure has many services and tools that work together to provide complete management. 

What you can do with Azure Governance?

  • Enforce and audit your policies for any Azure service
  • Create compliant environments using Azure Blueprints, including resources, policies, and role-access controls
  • Ensure that you’re compliant with external regulations by using built-in compliance controls
  • Monitor spend and encourage accountability across your entire organization

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing Azure governance solutions.

Build Enterprise Agile Azure Governance Foundation

Part 1: Design a governance solution

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing Governance solutions in Azure. You could also find it helpful to check the Microsoft docs and learning paths with [Tutorials] below 🙂

This collection of links is gathered with a focus on the exam objectives of the AZ-305 certification exam.

How to protect your resource hierarchy
Cloud governance guides
What are Azure management groups
Azure subscription and service limits, quotas, and constraints
What is Azure Resource Manager
Lock resources to prevent unexpected changes
Use tags to organize your Azure resources and management hierarchy

Azure Policy
What is Azure Policy?
Azure Policy built-in policy definitions
Azure Policy built-in initiative definitions
What is Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)?
Organize and manage multiple Azure subscriptions
Recommended policies for Azure services
What are Azure management groups?
[Tutorial] Describe core Azure architectural components
[Tutorial] Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
Governance in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
Define your tagging strategy

Summary

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 1 – Design a Governance solution.

The next one will be Part 2: Design Authentication and Authorization Solutions.

Study guide DA-100: Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI

Hello Cloud Marathoners!

I am very happy to announce my next Microsoft certification badge!.
This time, I was able to pass the DA-100: Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power 🚀 BI.

Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate

If you are looking forward to get prepared for this exam, then check out the following resources:

📌 Microsoft Learn modules:
➟ Get started with Microsoft data analytics
https://lnkd.in/g9_bfRhR

➟ Prepare data for analysis
https://lnkd.in/gguGnTzw

➟ Model data in Power BI
https://lnkd.in/gnXrGhRS

➟ Visualize data in Power BI
https://lnkd.in/gCr72iuH

➟ Data analysis in Power BI
https://lnkd.in/g4s4NGan

➟ Manage workspaces and datasets in Power BI
https://lnkd.in/gCRRAFDX

📌 YouTube courses:
➟ Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI | DA-100 Certification Exam Prep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyiCeP6JxaU

➟ DA-100: Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI – FULL COURSE in 2 hours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfk3ae0qz3A

📌 Udemy Course:
➟ DA-100 certification: Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI by Phillip Burton at https://lnkd.in/gH5SuQ2F

Microsoft Learn Updates Jan 14, 2022

If you’ve already earned the Data Analyst Associate certification, you will see the new name in your Certification Dashboard on February 28, 2022.

If you’ve been studying for Exam DA-100, no worries. You have until March 31, 2022, to take it. 

If you’ve just started preparing for Exam DA-100, consider reviewing the skills requirements for new Exam PL-300 and switching your focus to the new exam because the exams are very similar.  However, between February 28 and March 31, 2022, learners can pass either exam to earn their Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification.

Microsoft Lean blog
thumbnail image 1 of blog post titled Announcing a new name for the Data Analyst Associate certification

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post and checking the preparation resources.

Please, feel free to share your experience, as i am planning to keep this post up to date with your valuable contributions going forward. #keeplearning

Azure IoT Specialty exam certification Tips + Study Guide

Hello cloud marathoners,

Two weeks ago, I was able to clear the Azure specialty exam – “Azure IoT Developer” and get certified. More importantly, this was a good opportunity to learn about IoT technologies and services in Azure platform.

What is IoT?

An “Internet of Things” (IoT) device is typically made up of a circuit board with sensors attached that use WiFi to connect to the internet. Here are some examples of IoT devices and use cases:

  • A pressure sensor on a remote oil pump.
  • Temperature and humidity sensors in an air-conditioning unit.
  • An accelerometer in an elevator.
  • Presence sensors in a room.

The Azure Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of Microsoft-managed cloud services that connect, monitor, and control billions of IoT assets. In simpler terms, an IoT solution is made up of one or more IoT devices that communicate with one or more back-end services hosted in the cloud.

Check out the following short video, if you never hear about applications of Internet of Things (aka, IoT).

Is there a comprehesive study guide to follow?

The short answer is YES!

As always start with simple and straight forward Microsoft Learn modules on IoT learning path. But that is not the only resource that i have used.

I personally found it very useful to check the Microsoft Tech community blog posts. The IoT sub-section has many tricks and trips and recommendations. Thus, check the following post that has very good information on exam resources:

AZ-220 IoT Developer Certification Study Guide – is an awesome post from Microsoft employee Paul DeCarlo. By following this post I got many answers on the following questions:

  • How do I know which topics to focus on, what skills does the AZ-220 exam measure?
  • Where can I learn how to apply the concepts measured on the AZ-220 exam in a practical / hands-on manner?
  • I prefer to learn at my leisure with video content, are there any resources that cover the materials in the official docs and Microsoft Learn that I can watch?
  •  Any thoughts on paid courses / practice exams, are there any recommendations?

Where can I get Azure IoT Samples in C# ?

I have used the following GitHub repo in order to get hands-on expereince with Azure IoT. Azure IoT Samples for C# (.NET)

What is next?

Check this awesome IoT Event Learning Path.

It is designed for Solution Architects, Business Decision Makers, and Development teams that are interested in building IoT Solutions with Azure Services. The content is comprised of 5 video based modules that approach topics ranging from IoT device connectivity, IoT data communication strategies, use of artificial intelligence at the edge, data processing considerations for IoT data, and IoT solutioning based on the Azure IoT reference architecture.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post till this point.

Please, feel free to share your experience, as i am planning to keep this post up to date with your valuable contributions going forward. #keeplearning

Exam Guide Tips AND prep resources: 2-in-1 sweet combo

My little intro – well, skip this as it might be boring 🙁

Let’s start with a little bit of background to my somewhat unorthodox journey into Azure Developer cert way back in 2018.

Three years ago, I got a beta exam invite for Azure Core Developer (AZ-200) certification. At the time, there were no readily availiable study materials to learn from and prepare. My focus was on the exam objectives document, with a special highlight on Azure services that I did not have a chance to work with.

Long story short, at the end of the exam I did not know if it was a PASS ✅ or not ❌, as it was a beta exam. However, good and somewhat unexpected “pass news” with a cert email came back in 2 months. I was over the moon 🌜 and delighted to be one of the few candidates to succeed. Later, this exam was retired, as most cert nowadays…

Back to the current time, Feb 2021

Today, I was feeling excited & pumped to go after Azure Developer cert (AZ-204) 🏃‍♂️🚴‍♂️🏊‍♂️💪 – and yes, I posted earlier that I will share the result – either pass or fail.

Well, the good news is – I did not have to wait 2 months to learn the result 😃 It was a pass – and not an easy one though, as there were 60% more materials and more detail oriented questions on different inner workings of Azure services.

Let’s give a round of applause 👏👏👏 to Microsoft Learn modules and Learning path tracks – as they are getting better and better – and help me to cover this material in a somewhat fun way….

How was my actual exam experience?

The overall experience was exciting 😲 and scary 😱 at the same time. Mainly, because of the two case studies appearing at different sections of the exam. Well, at the end of the exam I shared this non pleasant experience by providing feedback ✍. I think every exam participant should be willing to share their experience, as it will be a good set of metrics for exam creators to assess and modify the exam experience to make it better overall.

Speaking about the exam, I got approximately 50 questions❔; where two case studies contained approx. 5-7 questions each. My surprise was to discover 👀, one case study right in the beginning, and another one right at the end of the exam. It threw my timing a little bit off.

So, be prepared to save enough time for exam case studies (yes, there might be more than one, and I had three in the Microsoft exams last year), no matter what, as they consume a considerable chunk of your time and could cause your brain to start steaming ♨ – due to time constraints.

If you are a Cloud Solutions Architect (aka, CSA) you may find certain questions too technical in nature, like knowing the exact sequence of operations to place each task correctly. Well, if you never played with that specific feature then don’t panic. Just focus on the question and use your #quizskills. As an example: I had several educated guesses ⁉ – on what might be the right order of operations without knowing 100%.

In the real world, you could easily find your way with a quick search on your favorite engine… but an exam is an exam… and you are not penalized for wrong answers.

Good news is: a certain number of questions are high level, and your current CSA experience will be very handy; like assessing/suggesting the workload for the most effective Azure service or solution based on customer requirements.

Exam duration is180 minutes⏰ or 220 min including the feedback time. Generally speaking, this should be enough with a small caveat: You have to plan your time carefully and watch for the exact # of potential questions and remaining case studies of the exam. That said, there were several questions with true/false options, many drag-and-drop scenarios, and multi-select choices that seemed easy and tricky at the same time.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate

Where should I start my Azure Developer journey?

The official exam page AZ-204 is a really good place to start. Followed by the suggested learning track and modules in the bottom of the page.

The exam page AZ-204 gets even better with a final section on “Exam resources“. I consider this section a REAL “gem” 💎💎💎

Dear friends, stay tuned – as your information on how to earn a #free exam voucher is included in this post. Look into Microsoft’s “Cloud Skills Challenge” program below.

Any other tips or resources for study?

Labs and practice material suggestions

  • Reference to the AZ-204 lab exercises GitHub repo
  • Quick start references on Microsoft Docs

FREE exam voucher through Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenge (Expired – Not a Valid anymore)

For a limited time, Microsoft Learn provides a free, interactive way of learning by combining short step-by-step tutorials, browser-based interactive coding and scripting environments, and task-based achievements to help you advance your technical skills while earning achievements.

What are you waiting for? Register today via this link 👍

That is it folk, I tried to share and illustrate my exam experiences in this post. I hope you will find it helpful and apply to your “Azure developer” certification journey.

Please, feel free to share your experience or thoughts, as i am planning to keep this post up to date with your contributions going forward. #keeplearning

Stay safe and be the 4th with you … #nevergiveup #keeppushing

Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Certification Tips + Study Guide

Hello my friends,

Last week, I was able to knockout the second “Azure Data Engineer” exam and get the certification. Most importantly, I got a chance to have a deep dive into Azure Data technologies from a holistic solutioning perspective. The main focus areas of this certification are neatly visualized below:

Those exam objectives, are high level focus areas that cover DP-200 and DP-201 exams. The first exam is more technical and has focus toward implementation while the second one is shifting gears toward design and solutioning options based on project requirements.

As dealing with data solutions was not my primary work responsibility, I was really impressed by depth of service options, capabilities and tools that could accelerate many data solutioning projects.

Starting an “Azure Data Engineering” learning journey will help any cloud professional to get deeper understanding on designing different data solutions based on project requirements. In fact, it helped me to get a well informed understanding technical limitations in each solution; like deciding between different data processing and/or storage options and their respective security configurations. Well, enough about intro, let’s look into what it means to be an “Azure Data Engineer” 😑🤔

Azure Data Engineer vs Database Administrator

A Database Administrator’s (aka, DBA) job is to ensure everything is working smoothly with things like performance tuning and monitoring, data migrations of third party systems, performing backups, checking performance, and load balancing, and everything to do with databases operations. On the other hand, DBA could also perform data engineering tasks in a small or mid-size organisations.🤠

Azure data engineers are responsible for data-related implementation tasks that include provisioning data storage services, ingesting streaming and batch data, transforming data, implementing security requirements, implementing data retention policies, identifying performance bottlenecks, and accessing external data sources. They are responsible for data-related design tasks that include designing Azure data storage solutions that use relational and non-relational data stores, batch and real-time data processing solutions, and data security and compliance solutions.👩‍🚀👨‍🎓

Getting ready for each exam 📆

There is no right or wrong starting point with this certification. I would start with the one that you find more familiar. Here is the exam flow diagram from the official Microsoft learn website:

Exam study resources for DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution

This exam really tests your ability to demonstrate good understanding of setting-up a data processing pipeline and configurations of each component. A lot of questions were on optimizing, operating, loading and reading data from Azure SQL DB and Synapse Analytics (formerly SQL DW), I found them tricky and quite challenging.

The DP-200 exam has around 40-48 questions and is somewhat similar to other Azure Associate exams. The exam duration is fixed around 180 minutes with additional 30 minutes for reading instructions, signing the non-disclosure agreement, and giving feedback to each question at the end.

Expect different types of questions (single choice, multi-choice, binary choice and sorting order) and one or two case studies.

Exam study resources for DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution

My exam experience with DP-201 was much smoother, as mainly questions were focused on design related topics and solutioning options. As an Azure Architect – you may find them familiar and a bit easier than the previous exam.

This exam was 150 minutes long and had 42 questions, with much more case studies (i got three on my exam). There were few questions with set of drop-down choices that were easy and tricky at the same time.

That is it folk, i tried to share and illustrate my exam experiences in this post. I hope you will find it helpful and apply to your “Data Engineer-ing” journey.

Please, feel free to share your experience or thoughts, as i am planning to keep this post up to date with your valuable contributions going forward. #keeplearning

Stay safe and be the 4th with you! #nevergiveup

Study Guide for Microsoft Azure AI-100 Exam

Hello friends,

I am back with another study guide – as I passed the Microsoft Azure AI-100 exam. Now, I would like to share new Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Associate credentials with you. As I always post on LinkedIn platform the #SharingIsCaring❤️

In another words, I would like to see this success in you. To help you in this journey, I have compiled resources that contributed to my preparation for this special exam.

What is Microsoft Azure AI-100 Exam? This is the exam you must pass to become a Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Associate. it involves designing and implementing an Azure AI solution.

Earning the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification validates the skills and knowledge to use Cognitive Services, Machine Learning, and Knowledge Mining to architect and implement Microsoft AI solutions involving natural language processing, speech, computer vision, bots, and agents.

Microsoft Learn AI-100

Resources used

Microsoft Azure Account – This is a free azure account that comes with a 12 months validity. $200 free credit is offered for the first 30 days and more than 25 products are accessible for free afterwards.

Microsoft Learn – is a #free tutorial platform and has following learning paths

  • Evaluate text with Azure Cognitive Language Services – this contains 3 modules and helps to understand how to use Cognitive Language Services to analyze text, determine intent, detect adult themes, and process natural language input.
  • Process and translate speech with Azure Cognitive Speech Services – also has 3 modules and helps you to learn – how to implement the Speech services found in Azure Cognitive Services by performing speech-to-text transcription, synthesizing text input to speech, performing speech translation, and implementing speaker recognition in your AI infused applications.
  • Create Intelligent Bots with Azure Bot Service – this one has a single module. It walks you through how you could enable customers to interact with computer applications in a conversational way using text, graphics, or speech, can be realized using Bots. It may be a simple question and answer dialog, or a sophisticated bot that allows people to interact with services in an intelligent manner using pattern matching, state tracking and artificial intelligence techniques well integrated with existing business services. Learn how to build a chat bot and add intelligence to the Bot by integrating QnA Maker and LUIS.
  • Process and classify images with Azure Cognitive Vision Services – the last one comes with 4 modules. It describes the Microsoft Cognitive Services. This service offers pre-built functionality to enable computer vision functionality in your applications. Learn how to use the Cognitive Vision Services to detect faces, tag and classify images, and identify objects.

Pluralsight video resources

Pluralsight –You can start with a free trial for 7 days, the Microsoft Azure Ai Engineer(AI-100) contains multiple courses and is a good source for an interactive, video leaning.

GitHub lab resources

AI-100 Labs – It has 9 labs that will introduce a workshop case study and setup tools on your local workstation and in your Azure instance to enable you to build tools within the Microsoft Cognitive Services suite.

Overall learning experience

I have found it very useful to complete all the labs and get familiar with all the Azure services mentioned in the Microsoft Lean tutorials and labs. Keep in mind that there is a big emphasis on understanding each Azure cognitive service and what capability it can provide.

Thus, I would strongly advice to take couple days and get very familiar with Azure AI website. I would also encourage to take a deep dive into Azure Cognitive Services website and understand every concept, use case and terminology.

There is a very cool website Hands on with AI that will help you to experiment with Microsoft AI platform capabilities for #free. Take this opportunity to learn and strengthen your knowledge before exam.

And one last point. Get very cozy with the Exam Objectives listed in the pdf on Azure AI-100 exam page . That should be your ultimate measure for the exam preparedness.

What is next?

The hardest part starts now, where a candidate have to actually learn these materials, practice and get ready for the exam. However, that is not all. Once you get Expert with Azure AI then you could create a learning model that could help you with all this information, right? 😕 hmmm…. Whaaaat ?

I want more guides, where I can get them?

You have landed to a golden coast mate. Check-out following study guides as well 👌👍

Can I start my study now?

Sure, you can! Thank you for reading this post till the end. Feel free to drop your message if you have any questions.

Well, I wish you all the best in your endeavors!!! Keep up the ☁ cloud journey rolling 🙄

Journey 2 RE-certification: AZURE SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT EXPERT

Over the weekend, I had a scheduled proctored exam AZ-301 Microsoft Azure Architect Design. Passing it would re-certify my credentials in Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, but most importantly up-skill my knowledge in recent changes of Microsoft Azure.

Actually, the first pre-requisite Expert Architect Technologies exam which I had, earlier in May, was not easy at all. The content of exam is quite BIG, in comparison what it used to be 2 years ago. It turned out to be true underestimate from me, when i failed my first attempt. The good or bad thing about this failed exam was the score – 679. I missed it with just one correct answer. Ah…

Anyway, repetition is the mother of perfection. If there is true perfection, it’s about getting ready, and doing something over and over again. Well, on the second attempt I was able to pass AZ-300 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies much easier… If you curious about the score, it was in upper 900’s (where max is 1000).

Overall, Microsoft Expert exams are much harder (probably 3x times) to get prepared than the Associate one. Thus, I was pretty excited and nervous while going for the next exam Architect Design 🙂 It turned out well this time, as I used those skills in my day-2-day work, so no surprises there…

By the way, the Microsoft also announced new exams (AZ-303 and AZ-304) for the Azure Solutions Architect certification. They are all in beta for now and there are no online training material yet. You can check these exams here Microsoft official post.

Earning the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification demonstrates skills and knowledge to advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions. Candidates have advanced experience and knowledge across various aspects of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data management, budgeting, and governance – managing how decisions in each area affects an overall solution.

Microsoft Learn

There is an informative blog post by Chris Pietschmann, about the state of the current Microsoft Expert exams and how they are structured, if you are new to the Microsoft role based certifications i would recommend to have a look.

There is an informative blog post by Chris Pietschmann, about the state of the current Microsoft Expert exams and how they are structured, if you are new to the Microsoft role based certifications i would recommend to have a look.

Turning attention back to current Azure Architect exams, with a small detour, there are multiple overlapping topics between those two Expert exams. Completing one of them greatly help with the second one, as they share certain exam objectives.

Now, the list my study guides consisted from the followings:

Congrats to everyone, who already got the Azure Solutions Architect Expert badge and certifications! This is a good thing to accomplish.

For those who are planning to go with Azure Architect pass, I wish good luck in preparing and getting it done. It is going to be an interesting journey, a lot to learn, much more to practice and up-skill yourself to be better prepared for your next challenge!

Hopefully, my journey will be a tiny encouragement wave to start your own.

  • Feel free to comment on what exam preparation approach do you follow?
  • What challenges are you facing or already overcome?
  • What helped and what did not – in setting up yourself for a journey?

Thank you and May The 4TH Be With You!