Tag: Pass

Apr302021April 30, 2021June 2, 20210Commentby Thomas Maurer
SC-900 security compliance and identity fundamentals

Passed SC-900 Microsoft Security Compliance and Identity Fundamentals

Posted in Certification, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure

Yesterday it was time for me to take another Microsoft certification exam. This time it was one of the new Microsoft Security certification exams. I started with the basics and passed SC-900 Microsoft Security Compliance and Identity Fundamentals exam.

The high-level view of the skills measured in the exam:

  • Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity (5-10%)
  • Describe the capabilities of Microsoft identity and access management solutions (25-30%)
  • Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions (30-35%)
  • Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions (25-30%)

You can find more information on the exam website.

You can find all the resources I used to prepare and pass the exam on my SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Exam Study Guide.

Exam SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals
This certification is targeted to those looking to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of security, compliance, and identity (SCI) across cloud-based and related Microsoft services.

This is a broad audience that may include business stakeholders, new or existing IT professionals, or students who have an interest in Microsoft security, compliance, and identity solutions.

Candidates should be familiar with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 and want to understand how Microsoft security, compliance, and identity solutions can span across these solution areas to provide a holistic and end-to-end solution.

Microsoft Learn

I am happy that I passed the SC-900 exam yesterday, and I will go on to do other security exams like the SC-200 and more in the next upcoming weeks.

If you want to learn more about Microsoft Certification, check out my following blogs:

Also, check out other Microsoft Azure Certification Exam Study Guides:


Apr062021April 6, 2021June 2, 20213Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Passed AZ-600 Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate Certification Exam

Passed AZ-600 Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate Certification Exam

Posted in Certification, Microsoft Azure

I took the AZ-600 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Hub exam back in January 2021 when it was in beta. Today, I just got the mail in my inbox informing me that I passed the AZ-600 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Hub exam to receive the Microsoft Certified: Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate certification. 

My Azure Stack journey began very early in 2015 and back in 2018, I passed the legacy 70-537 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Exam. Now the AZ-600 is the refreshed version on becoming an Azure Stack Hub operator.

What is the Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate certification?

Candidates for the Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate certification are Azure administrators or Azure Stack Hub operators who provide cloud services to end users or customers from within their own datacenter using Azure Stack Hub.
Their responsibilities are to plan, deploy, package, update, and maintain the Azure Stack Hub infrastructure. They also offer hybrid cloud resources and requested services and manage infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).
They serve as part of a larger team dedicated to cloud-based management and security or hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.
Candidates for this certification should have significant experience managing and operating Azure Stack Hub environments. They should have a strong understanding of Azure, in addition to some knowledge of virtualization, networking, and identity management. They need to understand how Azure Stack Hub enables DevOps processes and the hybrid development model.

Microsoft Learn

You can find more information on the certification here. To gain this certification you will need to pass the AZ-600 exam. You can find more about the exam here.

Azure Stack Certification
Azure Stack Hub Certification

he high-level view of the skills measured in the certification and exams are:

  • Provide services (30-35%)
  • Implement data center integration (15-20%)
  • Manage identity and access (10-15%)
  • Manage infrastructure (30-35%)

How to prepare and pass the AZ-600 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Hub

So the question now is how can you prepare and pass the AZ-600 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Hub certification exam. For that I wrote a simple Exam study guide for this exam:

AZ-600 Exam Study Guide Microsoft Certified Azure Stack Hub Operator
AZ-600 Exam Study Guide Microsoft Certified Azure Stack Hub Operator

I also have a blog post on generally prepare for Microsoft certification exams as well as some tips on how to take Microsoft exams.

Conclusion

Are you also interested in becoming Microsoft Azure Certified? Check out my blog posts about why you should become Microsoft Azure Certified, how to pick the right Azure exam certification path, and how to prepare and pass a Microsoft Azure certification exam. I hope this helps you to prepare, study, and pass the AZ-600 to become a Microsoft Certified Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate.

I am super happy I passed the AZ-600 exam, it is a great way of validating your skills. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.


Jun252020June 25, 2020June 25, 20203Commentsby Thomas Maurer
AZ-104 Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate

Passed AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam

Posted in Certification, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Thomas Maurer

I just got the great mail in my inbox that I passed the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam to receive and renew the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification. Back in 2018, I got certified as an Azure Administrator doing the AZ-102 transition exam, which kind of later became AZ-103. Now, after two years it was time to renew my Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator certification. I took the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator beta exam online at the beginning of April. When you take a beta exam you get the test results after a couple of days the exam in generally launched, and today was the day.

What is the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam?

The AZ-104 exam is focused on Azure Administrators who implement, manage, and monitor identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment. It is the only exam you need to pass to get the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate.

The Azure Administrator implements, manages, and monitors identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment. The Azure Administrator will provision, size, monitor, and adjust resources as appropriate.

Candidates should have a minimum of six months of hands-on experience administering Azure. Candidates should have a strong understanding of core Azure services, Azure workloads, security, and governance. Candidates for this exam should have experience in using PowerShell, the Command Line Interface, Azure Portal, and ARM templates.

The high-level view of the skills measured in the exam:

  • Manage Azure identities and governance (15-20%)
  • Implement and manage storage (10-15%)
  • Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (25-30%)
  • Configure and manage virtual networking (30-35%)
  • Monitor and back up Azure resources (10-15%)

How to prepare and pass the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam

The skills measured in AZ-104 are a mix of Azure Administrator tasks focusing on Azure Infrastructure and deployment, Azure Integration, governance and configuration. If you are just getting started with Microsoft Azure, I recommend that you take first the exam AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals. This is not a required exam, but it is a great way to validate your knowledge and get started with the cloud. If you feel comfortable you can directly start with the Azure Administrator Associate exam. I have written an AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam study guide, with all the information and resources I used to prepare for the exam.

AZ-104 Azure Administrator Exam Study Guide

AZ-104 Azure Administrator Exam Study Guide

I also have a blog post on generally prepare for Microsoft certification exams as well as some tips on how to take Microsoft exams.

Conclusion

Are you also interested in becoming Microsoft Azure Certified? Check out my blog posts about why you should become Microsoft Azure Certified, how to pick the right Azure exam certification path and how to prepare and pass a Microsoft Azure certification exam. I hope this helps you to prepare, study, and pass the AZ-104 exam.

I am super happy I passed AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam, it is a great way of validating your skills. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.


Sep032019September 3, 2019February 1, 202112Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Prepare and pass a Microsoft Azure Certifciation Exam Microsoft Learn

How to Prepare and Pass a Microsoft Azure Exam

Posted in Certification, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Thomas Maurer

There are many good reasons to become Microsoft Azure Certified and take the Microsoft Azure exams. If you are reading this blog post, you might already have decided that you want to take a Microsoft Azure exam and get a certification. Since I passed a couple of the Azure exams, I would like to share how I prepared for these exams and passed. Hopefully, this will make it easier for you to pass them as well.

Passing exams is all about having the right strategy and preparation. If you are looking for tips and tricks to on how to take a Microsoft exam, check out my following blog.

Choose the right Azure exam and certification ☁🎓

To begin with, make sure you choose and pick the certification path and exam which is right for you. There are a lot of different exams and industry certifications out there. Microsoft’s approach of role-based certifications are aligned to relevant market and industry job-roles, to make it easier to find the right one. It makes a lot of sense to pick the right one for you, depending on where you are in your career and where you’re going. I wrote a blog post to give you an overview and pick the different Azure exam certification paths.

Identify the certification of your interest to find the required exams. To browse all the Microsoft Certification exams, check out the official website.

Start Small 🤏

If you are not 100% sure where and with which exam to start, I recommend that you start small by taking the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals exam. This will help you understand how Microsoft exams work by not being too deep into technology. Having experience taking Microsoft exams helps you to focus on the actual topics and not on the testing process. Also, make sure that you have a look at these special offers, you can find more information on special offers further down.

Know the exam content, read what is measured 📏

The first thing after and during picking the exam is to see what is asked during the exam. Every Microsoft exam page lists the “skills measured” in the exam. This list is usually very accurate and helps you to focus and study the right content. The page itself even lists available training and courses to prepare for the exam.

Microsoft Azure Exam Page - Skills measured and Prepare for exam

Microsoft Azure Exam Page – Skills measured and prepare for the exam

Understand the question types ❓

Understanding the exam formats and question types before taking the exam can help you a lot. Microsoft does not mention which question types for exam formats are exactly in each exam, but you can find a list of exam and questions samples here in this YouTube playlist. Understanding what questions types will be coming in your exam, will make it easier for you to answer them and get the most point per question.

Take free hands-on learning courses on Microsoft Learn 🎓

Microsoft Learn was introduced at Ignite 2018 as a free learning platform for a lot of different Microsoft technologies, not just Azure. Microsoft Learn provides you with various learning paths depending on your job role or the skills you are looking for. Most of the learning paths give you a hands-on learning opportunity so that you can develop practical skills through interactive training. And it is free! You get instant in-browser access to Microsoft tools and modules, no credit card required.

Microsoft Learn

Microsoft Learn

Microsoft Learn

Microsoft Learn 🎓

Up your game with a module or learning path tailored to today’s IT Pro, developer, and technology masterminds and designed to prepare you for industry-recognized Microsoft certifications.

Hands-on experience 💪

The best way to learn and pass the Microsoft Azure exams, or basically to learn anything, is most of the time through real hands-on experience with the technology. While Microsoft Learn gives you some free hands-on learning modules, there is also an Azure free account. The Azure free account will provide you with 12 months of free Azure services. You can find out more here. Make sure you dive into the skills measured and try the tutorials in the Microsoft Docs.

Read the Microsoft Docs 📄

Next, to Microsoft Learn and Hands-on experience, this is one of my main recommendations to prepare for a Microsoft Azure exam. Read the Microsoft Azure Documentation. Trust me on this, Azure and the topics which come up in the exams are very well documented. As mentioned, read the skills measured on the exam page, look up the specific Microsoft Docs pages and read through them and try out the tutorials.

Microsoft Docs Azure

Microsoft Docs Azure

Video courses and training 📽

There are a lot of different video training courses out there, which allow you to do video-based Azure exam preparations. To mention a couple of them like LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight, Whizlabs, ITPro.TV, Udemy, A Cloud Guru and many many more! Just browse through the different offers and read the review to find the best match for you. There are also a lot of Microsoft Learning Partners which offer online courses.

Choose instructor-led courses and learning partners 👨‍🏫

As you can see, there is a lot of self-study learning materials out there to prepare and pass the Azure exams. However, the classroom experience can be super beneficial and efficient, especially with the right trainer. You can find a list of official Microsoft Learning Partners with Microsoft Certified Trainers depending on your country here. A lot of them offer different courses for different technologies and in combination with in-person or online training.

Books 📚

If you prefer to learn and prepare for an exam using books, Microsoft offers books written by the experts at Microsoft Press. There are some excellent books which will help you learn more and prepare and pass the Microsoft Azure exams. However, if you get a hard copy of the book, it won’t be updated in the future, to reflect changes in the technology or in the exams.

Take a practice exam 📝

Some of the exams also have official practice exams available. These are great to see where in the learning process you are standing and on which topics you need to spend a little bit more time. I highly recommend that you only do the official practice exams and don’t use brain dumps. Besides cheating on the exam and yourself, brain dumps are often simply wrong and contain a lot of mistakes. You can find Microsoft official practice tests here.

Study groups 👩‍🎓👨‍🎓

If you have a couple of colleagues, friends, or people you met at an Azure User group meetup, it can help to build a study group. Study groups don’t just help you to get more structure in your learning. They also help you to gain a new perspective on the study material and reduce procrastination.

Relax 🏝

Make sure on the day of the exam you are relaxed. Have enough sleep and no stress and other appointments directly and before the exam, which could make you run into a potential time issue. Make sure you arrive early at the test center, to have enough time and no need to rush so that you can focus on the exam itself.

Take the exam online 💻

Taking Microsoft exam at home

Taking a Microsoft exam at home

Sometimes it is difficult to find a test center which is close to you, or they don’t have time slots available. To make it easier, you can also take an exam online by using at-home testing. For example, Person Vue offers an online proctoring service called OnVUE, which allows you to take the exam from home or your office. I take almost every exam online these days, which saves me a lot of time. However, it also comes with a couple of requirements. For example, you will need to have a room where no other person can walk in and no monitor or other things close by which could make it possible to cheat. You can find more about taking the exam online on the Microsoft Learning page.

Special Offers 💵

Microsoft also has a great set of Microsoft Learning special offers like student discounts and exam replays. Exam replays allow you to retake the exam if you don’t pass it the first time. This can make your exam experience way more relaxed. It is worth checking out the special offers to see if there is one for you.

Getting started! 🧪

Are you also interested in becoming Microsoft Azure Certified? Check out my blog posts about why you should become Microsoft Azure Certified and how to pick the right Azure exam certification path. And have a look at my Azure exam experience with the different Azure exams.

And have a look at my Azure Certification Exam Study Guides:

If you want to know more about how you can learn and get started with Microsoft Azure, check out my blog: How to learn Microsoft Azure in 2020.

I hope this gives you an overview of how you can prepare and pass for a Microsoft Azure Certification exam. In my next blog about the Microsoft Azure Certification exams, I will give you some tips for taking the exam itself. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.


  • About Thomas Maurer

    Thomas Maurer

    My name is Thomas Maurer. I am a Senior Program Manager & Chief Evangelist for Azure Hybrid at Microsoft. I am part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI) and engage with the community and customers around the world. Opinions are my own.

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