Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification and Beyond

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification and Beyond

by Steve Miles
Released January 2022
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781801073301

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Book description

Gain in-depth knowledge of Azure fundamentals that will make it easy for you to achieve AZ-900 certification

Key Features

  • Get fundamental knowledge of cloud concepts and the Microsoft Azure platform
  • Explore practical exercises to gain experience of working with the Microsoft Azure platform in the real world
  • Prepare to achieve AZ-900 certification on the first go with the help of simplified examples covered in the book

Book Description

This is the digital and cloud era, and Microsoft Azure is one of the top cloud computing platforms. It’s now more important than ever to understand how the cloud functions and the different services that can be leveraged across the cloud.

This book will give you a solid understanding of cloud concepts and Microsoft Azure, starting by taking you through cloud concepts in depth, then focusing on the core Azure architectural components, solutions, and management tools. Next, you will understand security concepts, defense-in-depth, and key security services such as Network Security Groups and Azure Firewall, as well as security operations tooling such as Azure Security Center and Azure Sentinel. As you progress, you will understand how identity, governance, privacy, and compliance are managed in Azure. Finally, you will get to grips with cost management, service-level agreements, and service life cycles. Throughout, the book features a number of hands-on exercises to support the concepts, services, and solutions discussed. This provides you with a glimpse of real-world scenarios, before finally concluding with practice questions for AZ-900 exam preparation.

By the end of this Azure book, you will have a thorough understanding of cloud concepts and Azure fundamentals, enabling you to pass the AZ-900 certification exam easily.

What you will learn

  • Explore cloud computing with Azure cloud
  • Gain an understanding of the core Azure architectural components
  • Acquire knowledge of core services and management tools on Azure
  • Get up and running with security concepts, security operations, and protection from threats
  • Focus on identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features
  • Understand Azure cost management, SLAs, and service life cycles

Who this book is for

This Azure fundamentals book is both for those with technical backgrounds and non-technical backgrounds who want to learn and explore the field of cloud computing, especially with Azure. This book will also help anyone who wants to develop a good foundation for achieving advanced Azure certifications. There is no prerequisite for this book except a willingness to learn and explore cloud concepts and Microsoft Azure.

Table of contents

  1. Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification and Beyond
  2. Foreword
  3. Contributors
  4. About the author
  5. About the reviewers
  6. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the color images
    5. Conventions used
    6. Get in touch
    7. Share Your Thoughts
  7. Section 1: Cloud Concepts
  8. Chapter 1: Introduction to Cloud Computing
    1. Where has the cloud computing model evolved from?
      1. Evolution of cloud computing architectures
    2. What is the Shared Responsibility model?
    3. What are the cloud computing delivery models?
      1. Comparing the cloud computing delivery models
    4. What are the cloud computing service models?
      1. A closer look at the cloud computing service models
      2. What is serverless computing?
      3. Comparing the cloud computing service models
    5. Summary
    6. Further reading
    7. Skills check
  9. Chapter 2: Benefits of Cloud Computing
    1. Why cloud computing?
    2. Cloud computing as a digital transformation enabler
      1. Digital transformation triggers
      2. Migration approach
    3. Cloud computing's target audience
      1. Cloud computing mindset
      2. What is a traditional computing model mindset?
      3. What is a cloud computing mindset?
    4. Cloud computing hierarchy of needs
    5. Cloud computing operations model
      1. Operational benefits of cloud computing
    6. The economics of cloud computing
      1. Consumption-based model?
      2. Defining the expenditure models
      3. Applying cost expenditure models to cloud computing
    7. Thought exercise
      1. Migration assessment discovery output
      2. Migration solution proposal
    8. Summary
    9. Further reading
    10. Skills check
  10. Section 2: Core Azure Services
  11. Chapter 3: Core Azure Architectural Components
    1. Azure global infrastructure
      1. Azure regions and geographies
      2. Availability components
    2. Azure resource management
      1. Azure management scopes
      2. Azure management groups
      3. Azure subscriptions
      4. Azure Resource Manager
    3. Hands-on exercises
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – Azure management groups
      3. Exercise 2 – Azure access assignment
      4. Exercise 3 – resource groups
      5. Exercise 4 – proximity placement groups
      6. Exercise 5 – availability sets
    4. Summary
    5. Further reading
    6. Skills check
  12. Chapter 4: Core Azure Resources
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Azure resources
    3. Azure Marketplace
    4. Azure compute services
      1. Virtual machines
      2. Container services
      3. Azure Container Instances
      4. Azure Kubernetes Service
      5. Azure App Service
      6. The Azure Virtual Desktop service
    5. Azure network services
      1. Azure VNets
      2. Virtual network peering
      3. Virtual private network gateways
      4. ExpressRoute
    6. Azure storage services
      1. Storage accounts
      2. Storage tiers
      3. Storage replication
      4. Data stores
      5. Disk Storage
      6. File storage
      7. Container (Blob) storage
    7. Azure database services
      1. Azure SQL Managed Instance
      2. Azure SQL Database
      3. Azure Database for MySQL
      4. Azure Database for PostgreSQL
      5. Cosmos DB
    8. Hands-on exercises
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – creating a VNet
      3. Exercise 2 – creating a storage account
      4. Exercise 3 – creating a VM
      5. Exercise 4 – creating an Azure container instance
      6. Exercise 5 – creating an Azure web app
    9. Summary
    10. Additional information and study references
    11. Skill check
  13. Section 3: Core Solutions and Management Tools
  14. Chapter 5: Core Azure Solutions
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Serverless computing solutions
      1. Azure Functions
      2. Azure Logic Apps
    3. Artificial intelligence solutions
      1. Azure Machine Learning
      2. Azure Cognitive Services
      3. Azure Bot Service
    4. Internet of Things solutions
      1. Azure IoT solutions
    5. Big data and analytics solutions
      1. Azure Synapse Analytics
      2. Azure HDInsight
      3. Azure Databricks
    6. DevOps solutions
      1. The history of DevOps
      2. What is DevOps?
      3. Azure DevOps
      4. GitHub and GitHub Actions
      5. Azure DevTest Labs
    7. Thought exercise
    8. Hands-on exercises
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – Creating a serverless solution using an Azure Function
      3. Exercise 2 – Creating a serverless solution using an Azure Logic App
      4. Exercise 3 – Creating an IoT solution using an Azure IoT Hub
      5. Exercise 4 – Creating an AI solution using a Bot Service
    9. Summary
    10. Further reading
    11. Skills check
  15. Chapter 6: Azure Management Tools
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Azure portal
    3. Azure PowerShell
    4. The Azure CLI
    5. Azure Cloud Shell
    6. Terraform on Azure
    7. Azure mobile app
    8. Azure Advisor
    9. Azure Monitor
    10. Azure Service Health
    11. Thought exercise
    12. Hands-on exercise
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – installing Azure PowerShell
      3. Exercise 2 – installing the Azure CLI
      4. Exercise 3 – creating resources using PowerShell from Cloud Shell
      5. Exercise 4 – creating resources using the Azure CLI from Cloud Shell
      6. Exercise 5 – exploring Azure Service Health
    13. Summary
    14. Further reading
    15. Skill check
  16. Section 4: Security
  17. Chapter 7: Azure Security
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Threat modeling
    3. Zero Trust
    4. Defense in depth
    5. Network and application protection
      1. NSGs
      2. Azure Firewall
      3. Azure DDoS protection
    6. Azure Key Vault
    7. Azure Dedicated Host
    8. Azure Sentinel
    9. Azure Security Center
    10. Other protection solutions
    11. Hands-on exercise
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – Create an Azure key vault
      3. Exercise 2 – Secure network access using an NSG
    12. Summary
    13. Additional information and study references
    14. Skills check
  18. Section 5: Identity, Governance, Privacy, and Compliance
  19. Chapter 8: Azure Identity Services
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Azure AD
    3. Authentication and authorization
    4. Single sign-on
    5. MFA and Conditional Access
    6. Hands-on exercises
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – creating a new tenant instance of Azure AD
      3. Exercise 2 – creating users and groups in Azure AD
    7. Summary
    8. Further reading
    9. Skills check
  20. Chapter 9: Azure Governance
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Resource tags
    3. Resource locks
    4. Role-based access control
    5. Azure Policy
    6. Azure Blueprints
    7. The Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
    8. Hands-on exercises
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – assigning access with RBAC
      3. Exercise 2 – creating a custom RBAC role
      4. Exercise 3 – creating resource locks
      5. Exercise 4 – enabling resource tagging with Azure Policy
      6. Exercise 5 – limiting the resource creation location with Azure Policy
    9. Summary
    10. Further reading
    11. Skills check
  21. Chapter 10: Azure Privacy and Compliance
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Core security, privacy, and compliance tenets
    3. Trust Center
    4. Microsoft Privacy Statement
    5. The Product Terms site
    6. Data Protection Addendum
    7. Azure compliance documentation
    8. Azure Sovereign Regions
    9. Thought exercise
    10. Hands-on exercise
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise – exploring Microsoft Trust Center Portal
    11. Summary
    12. Additional information and study references
    13. Skills check
  22. Section 6: Cost Management and Service-Level Agreements
  23. Chapter 11: Azure Cost Planning and Management
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Factors that affect costs
    3. Reducing and controlling costs
    4. Azure Cost Management
    5. Azure Pricing calculator
    6. TCO calculator
    7. Hands-on exercises
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – using the Azure Pricing calculator
      3. Exercise 2 – using the TCO calculator
    8. Summary
    9. Further reading
    10. Skills check
  24. Chapter 12: Azure Service-Level Agreements
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Azure SLAs
    3. Azure service life cycle
    4. Thought exercise
    5. Hands-on exercise
      1. Getting started
      2. Exercise 1 – exploring the SLA for a service
      3. Exercise 2 – exploring Azure Preview features
    6. Summary
    7. Additional information and study references
    8. Skills check
  25. Chapter 13: Exam Preparation Practice Tests
    1. Test questions
      1. Practice test 1 – cloud concepts
      2. Practice test 2 – core Azure services
      3. Practice test 3 – core solutions and management tools
      4. Practice test 4 – security features
      5. Practice test 5 – identity, governance, privacy, compliance
      6. Practice test 6 – cost management, SLA, and service life cycle
    2. Test answers
      1. Practice test 1 – cloud concepts
      2. Practice test 2 – core Azure services
      3. Practice test 3 – core solutions and management tools
      4. Practice test 4 – security features
      5. Practice test 5 – identity, governance, privacy, compliance
      6. Practice test 6 – cost management, SLA, and service life cycle
    3. Summary
    4. Additional information and study references
    5. Why subscribe?
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Product information

  • Title: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification and Beyond
  • Author(s): Steve Miles
  • Release date: January 2022
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781801073301