Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification and Beyond : A Complete AZ-900 Exam Guide with Online Mock Exams, Flashcards, and Hands-On Activities.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miles, Steve.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Microsoft Azure (Computing platform).

Cloud computing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (331 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Birmingham : Packt Publishing, Limited, 2024.

Summary:

Advance your cloud career by mastering Azure Fundamentals with this practical AZ-900 guide, featuring real-world scenarios, hands-on labs, mock exams, and interactive flashcards to reinforce learning and exam readiness Key Features Complete coverage of AZ-900 skills measured, aligned with the January 2026 exam update Beginner-friendly.

Contents:

Intro

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification and Beyond

Third Edition

A complete AZ-900 exam guide with online mock exams, flashcards, and hands-on activities

Foreword

Contributors

About the author

About the reviewers

Table of Contents

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Download the color images

Conventions used

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Part 1

Cloud Concepts

1

Introduction to Cloud Computing

What is cloud computing?

The NIST definition of cloud computing

How has cloud computing evolved?

Cloud computing architecture models

Why do organizations adopt cloud computing?

Who uses cloud computing?

What is the cloud computing hierarchy of needs?

What are the cloud computing delivery models?

Comparing the cloud computing delivery models

Characteristics of public cloud computing resources

Characteristics of private cloud computing resources

Characteristics of hybrid cloud computing resources

What are the cloud computing service types?

A closer look at the cloud computing service models

What is serverless computing?

How do the cloud computing service types compare?

Characteristics of IaaS

Characteristics of PaaS

Characteristics of FaaS (serverless)

Characteristics of SaaS

What is the shared responsibility model?

Summary

Additional information and study references

Exam Readiness Drill - Chapter Review Questions

First time accessing the online resources?

2

The Benefits of Using Cloud Services.

How does the cloud enable digital transformation?

Digital transformation triggers

Migration approach

What is the cloud computing mindset?

What is the traditional computing model mindset?

What are the key characteristics of a cloud computing mindset?

What is the cloud operations model?

Operational benefits of cloud computing

What is scalability?

What are elasticity and agility?

What is high availability?

What is disaster recovery?

Comparing disaster recovery, HA, and backup

Challenges of implementing business continuity

How does cloud change IT economics?

Consumption model

Defining the expenditure models

Applying cost expenditure models to cloud computing

Part 2

Azure Architecture and Services

3

Azure Core Architectural Components

Azure global infrastructure

Azure regions and geographies

Azure Edge Zones

Azure sovereign regions

Availability components

Adopting an availability model

Availability sets

Fault domains

Update domains

Availability zones

Proximity placement groups

Azure resource management

Azure management scopes

Azure management groups

Azure subscriptions

Relationship between subscriptions and tenants

Multiple subscriptions

ARM

Resource groups

Resource group characteristics

Azure resource group organization

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4

Azure Compute Services

Azure Compute Services overview

Virtual machines in Azure

Physical machines versus virtual machines

VM types

VM deployment considerations

Containers in Azure

Virtualization versus containerization.

Traditional approach

Virtualization approach

Containerization approach

Azure Container Instances

Azure Container Apps

Azure Kubernetes Service

Azure App Service

Azure Functions

Azure Virtual Desktop

5

Azure Storage Services

Storage account types in Azure

Storage redundancy options

Storage tiers in Azure

File, object, and disk storage options

File storage

Container (Blob) storage

Queue Storage

Disk storage

Moving data into Azure Storage

Data stores

6

Azure Network Services

Azure networking overview

Virtual networks and subnets

VNet segmentation

Internal Virtual Network (VNet) routing

External Virtual Network (VNet) routing

Virtual network peering

Virtual Private Network gateways

Point-to-Site VPN

Site-to-Site VPN

ExpressRoute

Name resolution in Azure

Azure DNS private zones

Azure DNS drawbacks

Windows Server DNS on Azure VMs

Hybrid name resolution

7

Azure Identity and Access

Authentication and authorization

Microsoft Entra ID

Comparing AD and Microsoft Entra ID

Microsoft Entra Domain Services

Single sign-on

MFA and conditional access

Passwordless authentication

Identity and access management in Azure

Role-based access control

Azure subscription access control

Azure roles

External identity access

8

Azure Security.

Threat landscape

Common threats

Emerging threats: AI-amplified attacks

Kill chains

What can be done to prevent threats?

Security posture

Zero Trust

Why identity became the new perimeter

Defense in-depth

Designing for control failure

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Security posture management versus workload protection

Why security fundamentals still matter

Part 3

Azure Management and Governance

9

Azure Cost Management

Cost factors in Azure

Purchasing model

Resource type and selected service tier (SKU)

Location (region)

Usage period

Network traffic

Unused billable resources

Reducing and controlling costs

Optimize resources

Azure Hybrid Benefit

Azure reservations

Spot pricing

Azure Pricing Calculator

10

Azure Governance and Compliance

Microsoft Purview in Azure

Data classification and sensitivity labels

Protecting sensitive information

Microsoft Purview and Azure governance tools

Microsoft Purview in practice

Azure Policy

Azure Policy versus Azure role-based access control

How Azure Policy works

Azure Policy in practice

Azure Resource Locks

Lock inheritance and scope

Managing Resource Locks

Resource Locks in practice

Tags

Tag structure and behavior

Tags and cost management

Tags in practice

Microsoft Trusted Cloud Principles

11

Azure Resource Deployment and Management

Azure portal

Azure PowerShell

Azure CLI

Azure Cloud Shell

ARM templates in Azure.

Azure Arc

Microsoft Copilot in Azure

12

Azure Monitoring Tools

Azure Advisor

Purpose and role of Azure Advisor

Viewing and managing recommendations

How Azure Advisor generates recommendations

Acting on Azure Advisor recommendations

Azure Advisor in an exam and operational context

Azure Monitor

Purpose and scope of Azure Monitor

How Azure Monitor generates recommendations

Azure Monitor architecture overview

Logs and metrics as fundamental data types

Logs

Metrics

Alerting and notifications in Azure Monitor

Application Insights within Azure Monitor

Azure Service Health

Purpose and positioning of Azure Service Health

Azure Service Health and Azure Monitor integration

Types of information provided by Azure Service Health

Azure Service Health versus the Azure status page

Navigating from the Azure status page to Azure Service Health

13

Appendix: Assessing AZ-900 Exam Skills

Skills measured

14

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Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

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ISBN:

1-80670-240-1

9781806702404

OCLC:

1581078695