Topics that are required to Know Azure Fundamentals and also to clear AZ-900 Certification

Skills for Azure Fundamental Certification

• Describe cloud concepts (20-25%)
• Describe core Azure services (15-20%)
• Describe core solutions and management tools on Azure (10-15%)
• Describe general security and network security features (10-15%)
• Describe identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features (15-20%)
• Describe Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements (10-15%)

Topic Wise Skill Breakup With Study Notes

Describe cloud concepts (20-25%)

Identify the benefits and considerations of using cloud services

Cloud computing & Its Benefits
Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and Operational Expenditure (OpEx)
Consumption-based model

Describe the differences between categories of cloud services

Shared responsibility model
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS),
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
Serverless computing
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Identify a service type based on a use case

Describe the differences between types of cloud computing

Public cloud
Private cloud
Hybrid cloud
Compare and contrast the three types of cloud computing

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Public	+ High Scalability/Agility + PAYG (No CapEx, OpEx model) + Not responsible for hardware maintenance + Minimal technical knowledge required	– May not be able to meet specific security requirements – May not be able to meet specific compliance requirements – You don’t own the hardware and may not be able to manage them as you wish
Private	+ You have complete control + Can meet strict security and compliance requirements	– Upfront CapEx costs – Owning equipment limits agility to scale – Requires high technical knowledge
Hybrid	+ Advantages of both Public and Private	– Can be more expensive than selecting one deployment model – Can be more complicated to set up and manage

Describe core Azure services (30-35%)

Describe the core Azure architectural components

Regions and Region Pairs
Availability Zones
Resource Groups
Subscriptions
Management Groups
Azure Resource Manager
Azure resources

Describe core resources available in Azure

Compute | Virtual Machines, Azure App Services, Azure Container Instances (ACI), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and Azure Virtual Desktop
Network | Virtual Networks, VPN Gateway, Virtual Network peering, and ExpressRoute
Storage | Container (Blob) Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, and storage tiers
Database | Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and SQL Managed Instance
Azure Marketplace

The Marketplace allows customers to find, try, purchase, and provision applications and services from hundreds of leading service providers, all certified to run on Azure. Azure Marketplace is a service on Azure that helps connect end users with Microsoft partners, independent software vendors (ISVs), and start-ups that are offering their solutions and services, which are optimized to run on Azure

Core Solutions and Management Tools on Azure (10-15%)

Describe core solutions available in Azure

describe the benefits and usage of Internet of Things (IoT) Hub, IoT Central, and Azure Sphere
describe the benefits and usage of Azure Synapse Analytics, HDInsight, and Azure Databricks
describe the benefits and usage of Azure Machine Learning, Cognitive Services and Azure Bot Service
describe the benefits and usage of serverless computing solutions that include Azure Functions and Logic Apps
describe the benefits and usage of Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitHub Actions, and Azure DevTest Labs

Describe Azure management tools

Azure Tools | Portal, PowerShell, CLI, CloudShell and Azure Mobile App
Azure Advisor
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
Azure Monitor
Azure Service Health

General security and network security features (10-15%)

Describe Azure security features

describe basic features of Azure Security Center, including policy compliance, security alerts, secure score, and resource hygiene
describe the functionality and usage of Key Vault
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Sentinel
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Dedicated Hosts

Describe Azure network security

describe the concept of defense in depth
describe the functionality and usage of Network Security Groups (NSG)
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Firewall
describe the functionality and usage of Azure DDoS protection

Identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features (15-20%)

Describe core Azure identity services

explain the difference between authentication and authorization
define Azure Active Directory
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Active Directory
describe the functionality and usage of Conditional Access, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and Single Sign-On (SSO)

Describe Azure governance features

describe the functionality and usage of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
describe the functionality and usage of resource locks
describe the functionality and usage of tags
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Policy
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Blueprints
describe the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure

Describe privacy and compliance resources

describe the Microsoft core tenets of Security, Privacy, and Compliance
describe the purpose of the Microsoft Privacy Statement, Online Services Terms (OST) and Data Protection Amendment (DPA)
describe the purpose of the Trust Center
describe the purpose of the Azure compliance documentation
describe the purpose of Azure Sovereign Regions (Azure Government cloud services and Azure China cloud services)

Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements (10-15%)

Describe methods for planning and managing costs

Factors that can affect costs (resource types, services, locations, ingress and egress traffic)
identify factors that can reduce costs (reserved instances, reserved capacity, hybrid use benefit, spot pricing)
describe the functionality and usage of the Pricing calculator and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Cost Management

Describe Azure Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and service lifecycles

describe the purpose of an Azure Service Level Agreement (SLA)
identify actions that can impact an SLA (i.e. Availability Zones)
describe the service lifecycle in Azure (Public Preview and General Availability)