The certification trains the candidate in coding required to build and manage the cloud. The certified IoT developer also sets up the physical devices for the organization.
- Prerequisites: The candidate should have a basic awareness of cloud solutions in IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS
- Price: The cost of this certification is $165.
- Certification Level: It is an associate-level certification
- Skills Required: You should be skilled in Microsoft Azure fundamentals.
- Required Exam: The exam is a little challenging. You require more than 700 marks to qualify it.
- Validity: The certification is valid only for one year.
Do You Need to be Cloud Certified?
Before thinking of Azure certification, it is important to know whether getting any cloud certification is worth it for your career.
- Immense growth of the cloud: The cloud is rapidly transforming the IT industry, with market revenue for cloud services increasing by 20% annually, according to IDC, Gartner, and Forbes.
- Businesses powered by the cloud: Companies of all sizes are adopting cloud solutions. Enterprises view PaaS as a scalable, secure application development platform, and it’s predicted that most IT spending will soon focus on cloud-based infrastructure, applications, and services.
- Shortage of cloud expertise: Despite the cloud’s growing importance, many businesses struggle to maximize its benefits due to a lack of skilled professionals. This skill gap not only limits cloud adoption but also results in revenue loss for enterprises. Cloud expertise is in high demand, making certification valuable for career growth.
Which Cloud Certification Exam Should You Take?
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) certifications demonstrate IT and developer expertise through industry-recognized exams. Upon passing your first qualifying MCP exam, you automatically become a Microsoft Certified Professional.
Though the MCP certification is no longer available, it will still be added to your transcript upon passing an MCP exam. However, full program benefits may only be accessible once you earn your first certification.
The main question is which exam to take first. Consider these factors:
- Technological experience: Your experience in the technical field will help determine if you should pursue an advanced or fundamental certification. For example, a professional with two years of experience shouldn’t attempt an architect-level certification, which requires a strong technical background.
- Present job role: It’s advisable to choose a certification related to your current job. A Windows or network admin might pursue Azure Infrastructure Solutions, while a .NET developer could focus on Azure developer certification. If you’re new to the field, start with the Fundamentals certification.
- Objective: Your certification should align with future career goals. For example, aspiring big data architects should first pursue a big data cloud certification, followed by an architect-level one. A solid background prepares you for roles that match your certifications.
Key Reasons to Get a Certification in Microsoft Azure
- Public cloud is on the focus: Around 88% of companies have already used the public cloud, 13% of which are already running over 1000 virtual machines in the public cloud. It is an impressive statistic that should convince you to take some time to learn cloud technologies such as MS Azure.
- Microsoft Azure holds a fair share of the market: Azure is catching up to its competition at an amazing rate. In fact, a recently conducted survey has found the user base of Azure to be quite comparable to that of AWS.
- A future-proof technology: The rate at which cloud technologies such as Azure are evolving is tremendous. It is growing at a rate that is faster than the IT sector in its entirety.
- Easy to learn and adaptable: Microsoft has monopolized the American personal computer market. Most regular users are familiar with the Windows operating system from Microsoft. What this means is that the learning curve for Microsoft is flatter as compared to other platforms. It is definitely advantageous to be aware of the working principles of Azure. If you are exposed to Microsoft tools at work, you will find it easy to learn concepts like Operational Insights and Azure automation.
- Extreme Potential: The IT space is set to be dominated by the cloud infrastructure. The potential of MS Azure is evident from its rate of growth, which is faster than any other cloud services provider.
- Extremely efficient tool: Azure can handle most of the conventional tasks of designing, deploying and managing platforms. For gauging the efficiency of cloud platforms such as Azure, the following factors need to be considered:
- The value added to a large app development project.
- Assistance provided to the Ops facet of Dev/Ops
- Integration provided with Powershell integration
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Why Azure Certification over AWS Certification?
An IT professional considering taking a cloud certification may be confused whether to go for Microsoft Azure or AWS (Amazon Web Services) certification. For such professionals, the following points should be considered before making a decision:
- Azure is growing rapidly: The rate of growth of Azure has been better in comparison to AWS over the recent past. It seems Microsoft is beginning to bridge the gap that exists between the two. Microsoft is also improving integration with on-premise software.
- Azure for Microsoft products: Microsoft has always been associated with large enterprises. Microsoft’s products and services are being used by almost all Fortune 500 companies. Azure remains a worthy proposition for those enterprises that have heavily invested in Microsoft based developer skills and technology.
- Open source and Linux incorporation: Microsoft didn’t have an open source community until recently. On the other hand, AWS has been open source since the beginning, which is what gave it an advantage over Azure in the open source cloud hosting space. Microsoft and Azure are incorporating open source both in the cloud and on-premises. Moreover, around 1 in every 3 Azure virtual machines run on Linux. .NET Core and PowerShell are open sourced, Hyper-V will run Docker and SQL Server is running on Linux.
Microsoft Azure meets all the needs for satisfying millions of users across the world. Now that you have all the information regarding the different Azure certifications, you can select the one that best suits your needs. To learn about the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, check out Microsoft Azure Fundamentals course.
Conclusion
A career in cloud computing is promising and secure and comes with excellent monetary advantages. Moreover, the demand for cloud experts is high and expected to increase even more, which makes it an attractive career option. However, building a career in this competitive market is challenging. As it is an alluring option, you will find many enthusiasts trying their luck in this industry. So, you should stand out and brush your skills to an exceptional level to sail through.
That is where the best Azure certifications help. You can choose the certification program you want depending on the level you are at and where you want to reach as a cloud expert. It will prepare you to do the job efficiently, win the trust of your employers, and enjoy a fruitful professional journey.
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