Azure 109 Certification: Mastering Cloud Fundamentals

The Azure 109 certification is a must-have for anyone looking to establish a solid foundation in cloud computing. This certification validates your understanding of cloud fundamentals, including Azure services, security, and deployment.

To pass the exam, you'll need to have a good grasp of Azure services, such as Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Storage, and Azure Networking. These services are the building blocks of cloud computing and are used to deploy and manage applications in the cloud.

Understanding Azure security is also crucial, as it helps protect your cloud-based applications and data from unauthorized access. Azure provides a range of security features, including encryption, firewalls, and access controls.

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To get started with Azure, I recommend beginning with Azure Fundamentals—a six-part series that covers basic cloud concepts. This will give you a solid foundation to build upon.

You can get a streamlined overview of Azure services and practical exercises to deploy your first services at no cost. This is a great way to dip your toes into the world of Azure without breaking the bank.

To pass the Azure 109 certification, you'll need to demonstrate foundational knowledge of cloud concepts and Azure services.

You'll be able to describe Azure architectural components and services like Compute, Networking, and Storage.

Azure architectural components include Compute, Networking, and Storage.

You'll also need to describe features and tools to secure, govern, and administer Azure.

To be eligible for this certification, you should have skills and experience working with an area of IT, such as infrastructure management, database management, or software development.

The skills measured for this certification include managing Azure identities and governance, implementing and managing storage, and deploying and managing Azure compute resources.

Here are the key skills measured for the Azure 109 certification:

Azure 109 certification requires a solid understanding of Azure's core architectural components. Azure regions, region pairs, and sovereign regions are used to deploy Azure services, with each region having multiple availability zones to ensure high availability.

Azure datacenters house the physical infrastructure for Azure services, while Azure resources and resource groups are used to organize and manage these services. Subscriptions are used to track and manage costs, and management groups are used to group subscriptions for better management.

To deploy and manage Azure services effectively, it's essential to understand the hierarchy of resource groups, subscriptions, and management groups. Here's a quick summary of the hierarchy:

As you build your cloud infrastructure, it's essential to understand the different types of cloud services available. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, allowing you to provision and manage your own infrastructure.

IaaS is ideal for applications that require customized infrastructure, such as databases, big data analytics, and high-performance computing.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) offers a complete development and deployment environment for applications, freeing you from worrying about the underlying infrastructure. This is perfect for web applications, mobile applications, and APIs.

PaaS is also great for developers who want to focus on writing code rather than managing servers.

Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers software applications over the internet, eliminating the need for local installation and maintenance. SaaS is suitable for applications like customer relationship management, human capital management, and marketing automation.

Here's a brief summary of the three cloud service types:

Azure Storage services offer a range of options to meet your data storage needs. You can choose from different storage tiers, such as Hot, Cool, and Archive, each with varying levels of access frequency and storage costs.

Azure Storage services also provide redundancy options, including locally redundant storage (LRS), zone-redundant storage (ZRS), and geo-redundant storage (GRS).

When it comes to storage accounts, you can choose from various options, including general-purpose v2 storage accounts, file storage accounts, and blob storage accounts.

To move files to Azure Storage, you can use tools like AzCopy, Azure Storage Explorer, and Azure File Sync.

If you're migrating data to Azure, you can use services like Azure Migrate and Azure Data Box to simplify the process.

Azure has a complex infrastructure, but understanding its core architectural components is key to building scalable and reliable applications. Azure regions are the primary building blocks of this infrastructure, and they can be paired in a way that ensures high availability and disaster recovery.

There are three types of Azure regions: standard regions, region pairs, and sovereign regions. Standard regions are the most common type, while region pairs are designed for high availability and disaster recovery. Sovereign regions, on the other hand, are designed for governments and organizations that require data to be stored within their own borders.

Azure regions are further divided into availability zones, which are physically separate datacenters that provide high availability and redundancy. Each availability zone is a separate entity that can be managed independently.

Azure datacenters are the physical infrastructure that hosts Azure resources, and they are typically located in or near Azure regions. Each datacenter is a massive facility that houses thousands of servers and provides a high level of redundancy and availability.

Azure resources are the building blocks of Azure applications, and they can be grouped together into resource groups for easier management. Resource groups can contain a wide range of resources, including virtual machines, storage accounts, and networking resources.

Subscriptions are the top-level entity in Azure, and they provide a way to organize and manage Azure resources. Subscriptions can contain multiple resource groups, and they provide a way to track costs and usage.

Management groups are a higher-level entity than subscriptions, and they provide a way to organize and manage multiple subscriptions. Management groups can contain multiple subscriptions, and they provide a way to apply policies and settings across multiple subscriptions.

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The hierarchy of resource groups, subscriptions, and management groups is as follows:

This hierarchy provides a clear and organized way to manage Azure resources and subscriptions, and it helps to ensure that resources are properly grouped and managed.