Merging cloud skills with networking has always been an interest of mine for a while but have never made that plunge, until recently that is. Finally cracked the seal in venturing into the cloud space and let me tell you my time learning about what can be done in the cloud has opened some many new opportunities I can choose from.

We have three huge competitors in the cloud field; AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. All three of these providers bring something unique to the table while also sharing similarities. I’ve chosen to Azure to start things off and as for the reasoning behind this choice is mostly due to the fact that most industries run on Microsoft software, from desktop to servers, which seemed like a logical choice. I understand that AWS currently has the largest market space and I do have plans to dig deep into AWS once I have more time. Additionally, I have recently been seeing a lot of job postings for network engineers with Azure experience so that has kind of guided my choice a bit more.

To begin my studies I’m currently pulling from two main sources, Microsoft Learn and Udemy. Microsoft learn offers a complete course broken into three major modules. Once you complete the module you’re able to assess your knowledge with a free practice test. The site also includes an Exam Sandbox which lets you demo some of the features covered in the modules but you’re also free to explore other areas of Azure through this medium. The Udemy course I’ve chosen is called “AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam Prep” by Scott Duffy. It is video course with 8+ hours with of content. Just finished the videos and Scott does an excellent job of going over the topics found in the exam objectives. He will sometimes pair the topics with a demo video of the same topic so that you can follow along with your own Azure subscription or if you’re using the sandbox Microsoft provides. Once you’ve gone over all the videos he also provides a practice test to test your knowledge.

While studying I also did create some flashcards with Quizlet which has proven to be quite helpful. Mainly use it in exam mode which jumbles up the terms and definitions so that I can match them. This is a good form of active recall studying.

This is a pretty entry level certification so I didn’t feel the need to expand beyond my chosen resources and tools. Most of what is required for this certification is describing concepts and services which is very surface level knowledge.

Will be posting my exam experience soon as I hope to take it in the next two days so wish me luck.