Steve Miles - Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification and Beyond: Simplified cloud concepts and core Azure fundamentals for absolute beginners to pass the AZ-900 exam

Simplified cloud concepts and core Azure fundamentals for absolute beginners to pass the AZ-900 exam

Steve Miles

BIRMINGHAMMUMBAI

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Thank you for getting certified in Azure Fundamentals and using this book to help you in your journey. Trust me, this step is the starting point for the rest of your career. Obtaining a technical certification such as AZ-900 will propel your cloud skills and lay the foundation for more Azure certifications to come. I took my first Microsoft exam in 1996 on Windows NT4 Workstation, and I've lost count of how many certifications I have obtained in the last 25 years, but I guess I'm close to 100. Getting certified truly can be a life-changer (hey, it landed me a job at Microsoft!). You put time and effort into learning, deploying, building, and working toward understanding more about a technology. It makes you proud to be part of a worldwide club of Microsoft technology adepts like yourself. It can be a ticket for a pay rise, for a promotion, for moving to a new role but, most of all, it's a statement to yourself that "I know this stuff!!"

I met Steve several years ago when I was delivering an Azure cloud workshop for UK partners, organized by his company. While at first he hid behind his (pre)sales job title, Steve was actually a lot more technical and also seemed a frequent Microsoft exam-taker. After that joyful week, we stayed in touch to share Azure cloud stories. So, when Steve reached out, asking whether I wanted to be a technical reviewer for his Azure Fundamentals exam prep book, I didn't hesitate a second.

By going through the first chapter, I knew this book was a great read and help for anyone looking to learn about Azure. Besides mapping with the core AZ-900 Microsoft exam objectives, Steve adds a lot of his own experiences, examples, and knowledge into it, as well as closing each chapter with hands-on exercises. That's, to me, the best of both worlds. Whether you learn by reading or by doing, this book will get you on that path to Azure Fundamentals certification, and more. And if you look at the diagrams, know Steve created each of them himself!

If, after reading this book, you have an appetite for more Azure learning content and are thinking of taking more Microsoft exams, make sure you bookmark the Microsoft Learn website (https://aka.ms/learn), with more than 3,000 modules for you to read, watch, or follow along. Azure is a dynamic platform, and so is the certification path. You will love it.

Good luck with your studying journey, and welcome to the club of Microsoft Certified professionals. Let me know when you pass that exam!

Peter De Tender, Business Program Manager, Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI) Microsoft World Wide Learning (WWL), Azure Technical Trainer

Steve Miles, aka smiles, has over 20 years of experience in networking, security, data center infrastructure, managed hosting, and cloud solutions.

His experience comes from working for Microsoft's gold partners, including global telco hosters, managed hosting and colocation/data center services providers, global network and public cloud security vendors, hardware, and cloud distribution.

Steve is currently working for a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) indirect distributor based in the UK and Dublin in a cloud and hybrid technology leadership role. He is happiest when in front of a whiteboard, prefers to communicate in illustrations, and is renowned for analogies.

He has over 20 Microsoft certifications, 14 of those being Azure, with many other vendor certifications.

I want to thank the people who have been close to me and supported me, especially my wife, Pippa, aka Mrs Smiles, and my family.

Tariq Younas is a senior cloud solution architect with more than 15 years of experience in Microsoft technologies, particularly Azure, Azure Stack Hub (Hybrid Cloud), SharePoint, Office 365, DevOps automation, and cloud-native architectures. He has been awarded the Microsoft Azure Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award twice.

His areas of interest include public/hybrid cloud, IoT, edge computing, and enterprise architecture. He has successfully worked on application modernization and several IaaS/PaaS migrations. He is an international speaker/author/blogger and a member of IASA Global, an association for all IT architects, and the Association of Enterprise Architects (AEA).

I would like to thank my wife, Sabina Tariq, for her continued support and encouragement with everything that I do. You have always pushed me toward new adventures, accomplishing my goals, and doing what is right. I genuinely appreciate what you have done for us.

Peter De Tender has more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry, with a focus on Microsoft technologies. In early 2012, Peter quickly jumped onto the Azure platform, working as a cloud solution architect and trainer. In mid-2019, Peter took on a position as Azure Technical Trainer within Microsoft, providing Azure Readiness Workshops to large customers and partners within the EMEA region and globally, with a focus on Azure DevOps and Azure architecture.

Peter was an Azure MVP for 6 years, has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) for more than 12 years, and is still actively involved in the community as a public speaker, technical writer, book author, and publisher.