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.

Finally, the GitHub profile is updated 🎉

Hello friends,

Hope everyone is having a great start in 2022.

I have to postpone a couple of things at the end of 2021 due to unexpected events, and one of them was updated to my old GitHub account.

Since the beginning of 2019, there were many great additions to the GitHub community. One of the remarkable features is the ability to customize your profile.

Image

Without any overdue, I have analyzed a couple of tips from the link above and looked into samples, and created my customized GitHub profile.

Of course, it is not perfect. I am looking to make it better over time.

Please, let me know your suggestions and feedback or share your #awesome GitHub profile with the community!

Latest updates on OSS 🧡 AWESOME Azure Bicep 💪

Hello Cloud Marathoners!

As you were informed in my last post, I have published a new GitHub repo to help the community and new learners with Azure Bicep resources. The new repo – AWESOME Azure Bicep 💪 is getting a high interest from all of you.

Thank you very much for accessing, starring ⭐ and forking 🍴 it!
If you learn about it now, please check it out here.

And this is not all. We have plenty of room to grow this repo with the latest contributions from you.

Two new contributors

In less than a week, we got two great contributions from Kasun Rajapakse and Luke Murray 🙌. Thank you very much for your contributions!

Get started with Azure Bicep

Let’s step-up your game and start learning the latest 🚀 Azure #infrastructureascode language (aka, Bicep).
I sincerely invite you to become a part of this really great “learn and share” initiative of Azure Bicep.

Share your interest and knowledge with the community by opening your very first GitHub PR.

Looking for a video course on Azure Bicep ?🤔
>> Azure Bicep First Look 👉 https://lnkd.in/eWsxf3hj is here to help!

Summary

This project is growing and let’s become a part of this Azure Bicep community !

Ready to make your first PR to Awesome Azure Bicep repo?
Please check out the contribution guide or reach out if you need help in this process.

What is the AWESOME Azure Bicep ? 💪

Hello Cloud Marathoners!

I have been getting many questions on how to start an Azure Bicep journey – in a special and AWESOME way 😀 – which brought an idea to create the AWESOME Azure Bicep GitHub repo for the community 🎉

Long story short, this has been on ideation for few days and is life now, as of Jan 18, 2022 ! 😍

Now, I have started gradually adding important official and community resources to help new #Azure learners and #cloudmarathoners!

AWESOME Azure Bicep repo

Please, share ⭐ and fork 🍴 this repo and make your contributions.

I really ask you 🙌🙏 to make your contributions and help maintain and grow this repo going forward.

Thank you for all your 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 continued support!

Welcoming the Microsoft Exam Simulator ✔️

Hi Cloud Marathoners!

It is pretty common for every new student to be worried about exam software ⚙️ and its user expereince, in addition to being prepared for the exam. However, this is not an issue anymore.

Microsoft Learn has introduced a demo exam simulator that looks, works and feels like you are having a real Microsoft exam. This news was just announced by Microsoft Learn Blog.

I believe this is an important help for all the #cloudmarathoners and friends who are just starting their Microsoft Azure journey.

Why is it helpful?

Well, using this new exam sandbox should better prepare you for the exam experience. This should also increase your familiarity with the user interface, how to navigate between exam sections, pages and Q&A.

This simulator also shows you what actions are required to answer each of the different question types, where information about the exam is located, how to mark questions for review and how to provide comments at the end of the exam.

Important

Keep in mind that a secure browser that will be launched during a real exam will block all third-party applications running on your computer. Thus, I would strongly advise you to install and run the exam provider’s (like, Pearson VUE or any other) simulator on your local computer a day or two before the actual exam date. This will be an additional peace of mind to have in your checklist for a pleasant exam experience.

Conclusion

I sincerely wish you Good Luck ❤️ in your upcoming exam(s) !

Are you ready to give it a try ?
Then check it out for #free >> https://aka.ms/examdemo

References: New to Microsoft certification exams?

Happy to join the #OpenHack Containers coaches club 🎉

Hello Cloud Marathoners!

Few weeks ago, I participated in the Microsoft OpenHack Containers event. This was an awesome event where I had a chance to coach a team of professionals to tackle containerization challenges.

What is Microsoft OpenHack

Microsoft OpenHack is a developer-focused engagement that connects development teams (Open) with experts to tackle a series of real-world challenges through hands-on experimentation (Hack) in person or online (Virtual).

What was in the challenge?

We started with good old docker tooling for containers and ended up migrating those several containers and dependencies to the Azure Kubernetes Services. However, the most interesting part was applying best practices and security configurations to the migrated workloads.

Due to participation disclosure agreement, I would not be able to detail each team challenge (about 7-8). However, this was real teamwork that required learning and experimenting for all the team members.

My team went through ups and downs while trying to complete the necessary number of challenges to earn the badge. I am very happy that my team was able to complete the required challenges, learn important hands-on skills, and get their well deserved badges.

I was very pleased to help my team along their containerization journey. At the end, I feel very honored and appreciated to receive an OpenHack Containers Coach badge.

OpenHack: Containers Coach

Interested to get started with containers in Azure ?

Check out the following #free resources to start your own containerization learning path in Azure:

Thank you  🙌 for reading this post and checking the learning resources above.

Please, feel free to share your experience with the #cloudmarathoner community.
I will be happy to share your experience and tips here as well. 🎉

I am planning to keep this post up to date with your valuable contributions going forward!

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