5 Important Things The AZ-900 Taught Me
I recently passed the AZ-900 and I wanted to share what I learned. Microsoft Azure is often referred to as Azure. Azure is a cloud computing service owned and operated by Microsoft. Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The AZ-900 is Microsoft’s fundamental Azure exam.
1. Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and Operational Expenditure (OpEx)
Operational Expenditure or OpEx is paying for a service or product as you use it i.e. pay-as-you-go pricing.
Example: Azure or AWS can use pay-as-you-go pricing.
Capital Expenditures or CapEx is defined as funds used by organizations to obtain, upgrade, and maintain physical assets such as data centers.
Example: Building your own data center.
2. Azure Resource Manager (ARM)
Azure Resource Manager is the deployment and management service for Azure. It provides a management layer that enables you to create, update, and delete resources in your Azure account. You use management features, like access control, locks, and tags, to secure and organize your resources after deployment.
Example: If you want to create 10 virtual machines with the same setup you could you an ARM template.
3. Azure Functions and Logic Apps(serverless)
Serverless computing is a method of providing backend services on an as-used basis.A serverless provider allows users to write and deploy code without the hassle of worrying about the underlying infrastructure. Azure Logic Apps is a cloud-based platform for creating and running automated workflows that integrate your apps, data, services, and systems. Azure Functions is a serverless solution that allows you to write less code, maintain less infrastructure, and save on costs.Instead of worrying about deploying and maintaining servers, the cloud infrastructure provides all the up-to-date resources needed to keep your applications running.
Example: Developers can write code to transform data without having to have or maintain a server.
4. Network Security Groups (NSG)
You can use an Azure network security group to filter network traffic to and from Azure resources in an Azure virtual network. A network security group contains security rules that allow or deny inbound network traffic to, or outbound network traffic from, several types of Azure resources. For each rule, you can specify the source and destination, port, and protocol. When comparing Azure Firewall vs. NSGs, look at what Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layer each service has. This information helps IT teams understand how data is sent or received over a network. It begins at Layer 1, which is the physical layer then goes up to 7, which is the application layer. Azure Firewall is an OSI L4 and L7, while NSG is L3 and L4.
Example:
5. Azure Active Directory
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service, which helps your employees sign in and access resources in External resources, such as Microsoft 365, the Azure portal, and thousands of other SaaS applications.
Example: Instead of logging into a SaaS application with your profile you created for the site you can log in with your Active Directory credentials.
Resources used to pass the AZ-900:
YouTube:
1. AZ-900 exam cram:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH3pwWO0Q9Y&t=1243s
2. Adam Marczak azure fundamentals playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPEsD6n9A_I&list=PLGjZwEtPN7j- Q59JYso3L4_yoCjj2syrM
3. AZ-900 freecodecamp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKEFWyqJ5XA&t=7129s
Practice questions:
Don’t take the test until you are getting at least 80% on each practice test.
1. https://www.udemy.com/course/microsoft-azure-az-900-certification-exam-practice-tests/
Official material:
You can attend Microsoft training days to take the exam for free!
1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-900
