Top 6 Microsoft Azure Certifications to Help Boost Your Cloud Computing Career

The global cloud services market was worth USD 270 billion in 2020. By 2022, this is expected to exceed USD 397 billion. Many IT leaders and experts feel that Microsoft Azure will be a crucial driver of increased investments in cloud computing. Azure certification, therefore, could be a great pathway to a rewarding and exciting career.

Microsoft Azure is a public cloud computing platform. The company, well-known for its Windows operating system, also offers information technology and services such as databases, servers, analytics tools, etc. Azure ranks alongside GCP (Google Cloud Platform), AWS (Amazon Web Service), and IBM Cloud is driving the shift to the cloud.

As the worldwide demand for cloud computing increases, here is a list of the top seven Microsoft Azure certifications that could help boost your career in cloud computing:

Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator. 

The Exam AZ-104 certification is designed for aspirants to understand the Azure cloud services. This certification teaches them to manage, implement, and monitor identity, storage, governance, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment. The course also introduces the methodology to monitor, provision, size, and adjust resources when needed. 

AZ-104 certification acts as a bridge course for the learning path aspirants to become cloud developers, cloud IT experts, or cloud AI professionals.

1. Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamental Exam

• This is the most popular Microsoft Azure certification. The course covers essential skills for system developers and administrators, helping them understand how to use the cloud suite. Aspirants learn all aspects of cloud computing, including storage, networking, security, privacy, and compliance frameworks.
• The AZ-900 certification covers critical skills across foundational cloud scalability, cloud concepts, fault tolerance, and Capexversus Opex cloud computing approach.
• As one of the top-paying Azure certification training courses, AZ-900 plays a significant role in upgrading your career in cloud computing. It is also suitable for non-technical users like marketers, managers, and salespeople, who benefit from learning the Azure fundamentals.

2. Exam AZ-400: Designing and Implementing DevOps Solutions on Azure

• The AZ-400 certification is especially popular among aspirants seeking cloud IT professional roles and those aspiring for cloud developer profiles. 
• Through this Microsoft Azure Certification, aspirants stand to gain competency in designing and implementing vital strategies on the cloud. This includes code, collaboration, infrastructure (development and management), source control, security compliance, continuous integration, testing, delivery, monitoring, and feedback mechanisms.

3. Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies

• In a connected world, network security is a vital consideration. As a result, the Exam AZ-500 certification assists candidates in preparing to be a part of a larger team in charge of designing and implementing cloud-based management and security policies.
• Successful candidates can take up Azure Security Engineer roles. They can look to manage cloud security postures, identify and remediate vulnerabilities, and perform threat modelling. They will also be responsible for implementing and monitoring threat protection measures and responding to security incident escalations.

4. Exam DP-100: Designing and Implementing Data Science Solutions on the Azure Cloud

• The demand for data professionals and data scientists is growing. They are expected to play a significant role in cloud computing in a connected world. The Exam DP-100 certification helps data professionals develop skills for building, training, and deploying machine learning models. 
• These professionals are equipped through the DP-100 certification to run data experiments and train predictive modelling. In addition, they are also responsible for managing, optimizing, and deploying machine learning models into production. 
• Exam DP-100, therefore, acts as a great starting point for candidates looking to explore a data science career in cloud computing.

5. Exam DP-203: Data Engineering on the Azure Cloud 

• The Exam DP-203 certification builds on the foundation of DP-100. It is designed to help aspirants cultivate skills to prepare structured and unstructured data for analytics. 
• Data engineer aspirants, equipped with DP-203, can employ different Azure languages and data services that store and produce enhanced datasets which can be used for analysis.

6. Exam AZ-303: Solutions Architect Expert Exam

• The AZ-303 certification for Microsoft Certified Solutions Architect Experts is the gold standard for IT professionals. IT and DevOps professionals having Azure administration and developmental skills are eligible to apply for this program.
• Individual aspirants are tested on their capabilities in managing Azure cloud resources. The Solutions Architect is ideal for translating business requirements into more scalable, reliable, flexible, and secure solutions.
• While the AZ-303 certification requires a Microsoft Azure Administrator, it is not mandatory. The aspirants can avail skills like managing Azure active directory, cloud migration, configuring Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and integrating on-premise infrastructure.

Road Ahead: Equipping Yourself for an Enriching Cloud Career

Microsoft has Azure data centres in 140 countries worldwide, covering more regions than any other cloud provider. It is no surprise then that Azure certifications are highly valued for managing the cloud infrastructure, and can we a sure pathway to an enriching career. 

This has also resulted in an expansion of Azure certification training. While the Azure certification cost may vary by the course level, the fact that these continue to be attractively priced is another reason for pursuing the Microsoft Azure certification pathway.