Introduction
Both businesses and individuals are adopting cloud technologies at a breakneck pace, and Microsoft Azure is often the choice for cloud-based applications and services. The purpose of the AZ-900 exam is to test your understanding of the fundamentals of Azure. The exam includes high-level concepts that apply across all of Azure to important concepts that are specific to a particular Azure service. Like the exam, this book is geared toward giving you a broad understanding of Azure itself as well as many common services and components in Azure.
While we’ve made every effort possible to make the information in this book accurate, Azure is rapidly evolving, and there’s a chance that some of the screens in the Azure portal are slightly different now than they were when this book was written. It’s also possible that other minor changes have taken place, such as minor name changes in features and so on.
In this edition of the book, we’ve meticulously reviewed the content in the first edition and updated everything to reflect the current state of Azure. We’ve also reorganized the book and added new content to reflect the current state of the AZ-900 exam. Microsoft has recently added new concepts, services, and Azure features to the AZ-900 exam, and we’ve added those to this edition. We’ve also corrected a few things and made quite a few changes based on reader feedback from the first edition.
This book covers every major topic area found on the exam, but it does not cover every exam question. Only the Microsoft exam team has access to the exam questions, and Microsoft regularly adds new questions to the exam, making it impossible to cover specific questions. You should consider this book a supplement to your relevant real-world experience and other study materials. In many cases, we’ve provided links in the “More Info” sections of the book, and these links are a great source for additional study.
Organization of this book
This book is organized by the “Skills measured” list published for the exam. The “Skills measured” list is available for each exam on the Microsoft Learning website: http://aka.ms/examlist. Each chapter in this book corresponds to a major topic area in the list, and the technical tasks in each topic area determine a chapter’s organization. Because the AZ-900 exam covers six major topic areas, this book contains six chapters.
Preparing for the exam
Microsoft certification exams are a great way to build your resume and let the world know about your level of expertise. Certification exams validate your on-the-job experience and product knowledge. Although there is no substitute for on-the-job experience, preparation through study and hands-on practice can help you prepare for the exam. We recommend that you augment your exam preparation plan by using a combination of available study materials and courses. For example, you might use the Exam Ref and another study guide for your ”at home” preparation and take a Microsoft Official Curriculum course for the classroom experience. Choose the combination that you think works best for you.
Note that this Exam Ref is based on publicly available information about the exam and the author’s experience. To safeguard the integrity of the exam, authors do not have access to the live exam.
Microsoft certifications
Microsoft certifications distinguish you by proving your command of a broad set of skills and experience with current Microsoft products and technologies. The exams and corresponding certifications are developed to validate your mastery of critical competencies as you design and develop, or implement and support, solutions with Microsoft products and technologies both on-premises and in the cloud. Certification brings a variety of benefits to the individual and to employers and organizations.
Quick access to online references
Throughout this book are addresses to webpages that the author has recommended you visit for more information. Some of these links can be very long and painstaking to type, so we’ve shortened them for you to make them easier to visit. We’ve also compiled them into a single list that readers of the print edition can refer to while they read.
Download the list at https://MicrosoftPressStore.com/ExamRefAZ900SecondEdition/downloads
The URLs are organized by chapter and heading. Every time you come across a URL in the book, find the hyperlink in the list to go directly to the webpage.
Errata, updates, & book support
We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its companion content. You can access updates to this book—in the form of a list of submitted errata and their related corrections—at:
https://MicrosoftPressStore.com/ExamRefAZ900SecondEdition/errata
If you discover an error that is not already listed, please submit it to us at the same page.
For additional book support and information, please visit
https://MicrosoftPressStore.com/Support.
Please note that product support for Microsoft software and hardware is not offered through the previous addresses. For help with Microsoft software or hardware, go to https://support.microsoft.com.
Stay in touch
Let’s keep the conversation going! We’re on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/MicrosoftPress.
You can also follow the author of this book, Jim Cheshire, on Twitter at @az900examref.