AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals: Beginner to Certified 2026

Create your Azure free account by signing in with a Google email, adding a credit card, and activating $200 credit for 30 days plus 12-month services in the Azure portal.

Explore how Azure regions cluster data centers in nearby geographic areas to reduce latency, meet data residency and compliance needs, and support disaster recovery through region pairs and automatic replication.

Provide protection against downtime by using Azure availability zones, which use physically separate data centers within a region with independent power, cooling, and private fiber connectivity for high availability.

Learn how Azure availability sets provide high availability by distributing virtual machines across multiple fault domains and update domains, especially in regions without availability zones, ensuring redundancy and resilience.

Explore how Azure resources are organized into resource groups, grouping related resources across regions. Learn how Azure Resource Manager enables create, update, delete operations and templates for infrastructure as code.

Learn how Azure subscriptions authenticate and authorize access, manage billing, and control resources across departments. Distinguish subscriptions from resource groups and resources using practical department examples.

Explore how management groups organize multiple Azure subscriptions, apply permissions across all linked subscriptions, and support a nested hierarchy up to six levels, with practical navigation and setup.

Explore Azure compute services as on-demand resources to host applications, featuring disk, CPU, memory, and networking, with pay-as-you-go pricing and options like virtual machines and containers.

Explore how Azure Virtual Machines enable virtual machines, software emulations of physical computers, sharing CPU, memory, NIC, and disk via a hypervisor to streamline hardware maintenance.

Explore Azure virtual machines, an infrastructure-as-a-service solution that enables on-demand, pay-as-you-go compute, scalable virtual machines, and disaster recovery, including virtual machine scale sets and lift-and-shift migrations.

Create and access a Windows Server virtual machine in Azure, including selecting Windows 2022, configuring a resource group and networking, and enabling RDP access.

Learn to create an Ubuntu Linux virtual machine in Azure, set up SSH access with a key pair, and connect via SSH or PuTTY.

Understand Azure App Service as a platform as a service to build and host web apps, APIs, and mobile backends with automatic scaling, high availability, and git-based deployment from repos.

Learn to configure Azure App Service, create a free East US app service plan, deploy a PHP web page using FTP, and explore deployment centers, FTP credentials, and scaling options.

Explore Azure serverless computing, contrasting virtual machine provisioning with automatic scaling, and learn how Azure Functions and Logic Apps run code on demand with pay-per-use pricing.

Create and deploy an Azure function app in the portal, configure a resource group and storage, and run an http-triggered dotnet function using a ready-to-use template.

Discover how the Azure function app delivers serverless code execution on demand, triggered by events like image uploads to blob storage, with pay-per-use pricing.

Learn how Azure Logic Apps enable serverless, event-driven workflows with a graphical designer, triggering actions across Azure services and on-premises data sources via JSON-defined logic.

Create an Azure logic app in the portal and build a simple http request–response workflow. Learn about triggers, actions, consumption plan, and testing through the logic app designer.

Compare Azure functions and Logic Apps, noting stateless durable function state, and stateful logic app flows; contrast code-based execution with designer, declarative workflows and extensive connectors.

discover how Azure virtual network isolates resources, enables secure communication between VNet resources, and uses subnets and NAT gateway for internet access and hybrid connectivity.

Configure an Azure virtual network with three subnets and a NAT gateway, enabling outbound internet via a public IP, then deploy three in-subnet VMs and verify connectivity.

Explore how VPN connects on premises and cloud via site-to-site and client VPN, review Azure VPN gateway types and sizes, discuss high availability for hybrid cloud connectivity with Azure VNet.

Explore how to connect an Azure vnet to on-premises networks through an Azure virtual network gateway and vpn gateway. Compare route-based and policy-based vpn setups for site-to-site and vnet-to-vnet connections.

Set up a point-to-site vpn with an Azure vpn gateway and vnet, using ikev2 and Azure certificate authentication. Generate and upload a self-signed certificate, download the vpn client, and connect.

Learn how to enable VNet to VNet communication using VPN gateways, compare encryption with peering, set up multi-site connections, and verify connectivity with private IP ping.

Explore how site-to-site virtual private networks connect on-premises networks with Azure in a hybrid cloud setup, using a VPN gateway and encrypted connections over the internet.

Azure express route provides a private fiber optic connection from your on-premises network to Azure VNet, avoiding the internet for secure, low-latency, high-throughput connectivity.

Explore high availability scenarios for Azure ExpressRoute and VPN gateway, including active standby, active active, ExpressRoute failover, and zone redundant gateway.

Learn to connect two Azure VNets with VNet peering, including virtual network peering and global peering, using Microsoft backbone, no internet traffic, not encrypted, and test via ICMP.

Explore Azure disk options and block storage by understanding Azure managed disks, OS disks, data disks, and temporary disks for Azure virtual machines.

Explore Azure managed disks, comparing locally redundant storage and zone redundant storage, and review disk types: ultra disk, premium SSD, standard SSD/HDD, along with performance metrics and OS disk encryption.

Explore Azure disk storage by creating a Windows Server VM with premium SSD OS disk and adding a data disk. Learn to attach, detach, and resize disks using disk management.

Master Azure managed snapshots to back up disks with crash-consistent, read-only copies. Understand that snapshot size reflects used data and enables restore and attaching disks.

Explore azure storage accounts, their unique namespace and supported data objects. Learn to configure storage types and redundancy options like lsr, zrs, and grs for primary and secondary regions.

Explore Azure file share basics within storage accounts, using SMB for Windows/Linux/macOS access, with high availability and cross-VM read/write, plus on-premises data transfer options like Azure File Sync and AzCopy.

Create an Azure file share and connect two Windows virtual machines, configuring a storage account, file share, and a Z drive using a connect script for simultaneous access.

Compare the four Azure file share storage tiers—premium, transaction optimized, hot, and cool—and explain their performance, availability, and SMB and NFS support.

Explore Azure Blob Storage, a Microsoft object storage solution for the cloud that handles massive amounts of unstructured data, accessible via HTTP/HTTPS, Rest API, Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI.

Learn azure blob storage basics by detailing storage accounts, containers, and blob types (block, append, page) and choosing between standard and premium tiers.

Learn to upload, access, and manage blobs in a public Azure blob storage container, including downloading, copying the link, and planning private containers with shared access signatures.

DiscoverAzure table storage basics as a NoSQL, schema-less data store in a storage account. Learn about tables, entities, partition key, row key, and access via O data protocol.

Create a storage account and table, add entities with partition key, row key, and timestamp. Understand the schema-less design and unique key constraints, plus programmatic access via OData and .NET.

Explore the foundations of database management systems and SQL, learning how data for products, customers, and inventory is stored, queried, and managed in apps like Amazon.

Explore relational databases and their interconnected tables, using row and column structures to store data. See examples like Oracle, MySQL, and ERP systems.

Explore NoSQL databases, built to handle unstructured data, with flexible schemas and scalable models across document, key-value, column-family, and graph types.

Explore how multimodal databases, such as Cosmos DB, support both relational and NoSQL models, enabling hybrid storage of key-value, document, column, graph, and relational data.

Explore distributed databases, where data spans multiple machines to boost scalability and high availability, via replication (two identical databases synchronized for speed) or fragmentation (data split across locations).

Learn how object oriented databases use objects and classes from programming to manage complex data and relationships in CAD and multimedia applications.

Explore graph databases, modeling data as nodes and edges for one-to-many relationships with many connections. See Cosmos DB, Amazon Neptune, and OrientDB for social media suggestions and activity insights.

Explore OLTP, a real-time database feature enabling fast, transactional tasks like withdrawals and bookings while preventing concurrent double-spending in relational databases.

Explore open source databases and how they differ from proprietary systems, with examples like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB, and note that they can be relational or non-relational.

Explore how cloud databases offer scalable, flexible, cost-effective data storage managed by cloud providers like Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform, enabling internet access and disaster recovery.

Learn how the self-driving database uses artificial intelligence and automation to tune, backup, update, and scale itself in the cloud, reducing the need for database administrators.

Explore data lake vs data warehouse concepts, differentiating raw unprocessed data stored from diverse sources in a lake from structured processed data in a warehouse, with Netflix examples.

Compare relational SQL databases with NoSQL databases, highlighting predefined schema versus flexible key-value, document, graph structures; emphasize horizontal scalability and distributed systems, plus vertical scalability trade-offs.

Explore Azure Cosmos DB as a multi-model NoSQL database with SQL API, MongoDB API, and Gremlin API. Learn its global distribution, elastic scalability, low-latency access, PostgreSQL support.

Explore Azure database capabilities with Azure SQL Database, including fully managed, scalable, secure services across SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB; learn scalability, security, performance, and migration tools.

Explore the Azure SQL family, fully managed, secure, and intelligent with deployment options from SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine to Azure SQL Database, managed instance, and Azure SQL Edge.

Explore Azure database for MySQL, a 100% managed, open-source compatible service with no operating system installation, offering scalability, high availability, security, and versions 5.7 and 8.0.

Explore Azure database for PostgreSQL as a fully managed, scalable, secure service built on PostgreSQL, with versions 10 and 11, and its comparison to Azure SQL and MariaDB.

Explore the basics of the internet of things and how cloud and Azure services power IoT applications across smart homes, agriculture, healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing.

Discover how IoT improves efficiency, enables real-time data analytics, and enables remote monitoring and control. Also explore energy efficiency, scalability, interoperability, and AI integration with IoT.

Understand how IoT devices connect over the internet using a user interface, authentication, and an IoT hub to check car status via sensors, actuators, gateways, and vehicle control units.

Azure IoT Central is a fully managed IoT platform as a service that simplifies building, deploying, and managing solutions with device templates, secure data transmission, and real-time monitoring.

Learn how the Azure IoT Hub enables secure bidirectional device-to-cloud and cloud-to-device communication, supports device management and firmware updates, and scales across millions of devices with Azure services.

Azure Sphere provides a secure end-to-end solution for IoT devices, combining an MCU brain, a Linux-based OS, and a cloud security service with Azure IoT hub integration.

Explore the fundamentals of big data, its scale and why it matters for Azure services, using YouTube as a running example to illustrate storage, processing, and insights.

Explore the five v's of big data—volume, velocity, variety, veracity, and value—and see how data volume, real-time processing, diverse data types, data quality, and insights drive decision making.

Big data tools and data processing frameworks transform and analyze large data volumes with scalable, fault-tolerant, distributed computing across clusters, as shown by YouTube analyzing historical views and recommendations.

Explore streaming platforms for real-time data processing and ingestion, enabling low latency and high throughput with tools like Apache Kafka, Flink, and Azure Stream Analytics.

Explore NoSQL databases, non-relational systems for large volumes of unstructured and semi-structured data in a scalable, distributed environment with horizontal scaling; examples include Azure Cosmos DB, MongoDB, and DynamoDB.

Explore how search and analytics engines index, search, and analyze massive data to deliver real-time insights and fast, relevant results using distributed architectures and full-text search.

Explore big data tools with data lake and data warehousing, storing structured and semi-structured data in a central warehouse to enable efficient access, querying, integration, transformation, and business intelligence reporting.

Explore Azure Synapse, a fully integrated analytics service that unites big data and data warehousing, enabling ingestion, preparation, analysis with Spark, SQL, Power BI, and machine learning.

Explore Azure HDInsight, a fully managed big data service that deploys Apache Hadoop, Spark, Hive, and Kafka on scalable clusters with integration to Azure Blob Storage and Data Lake Storage.

Explore Azure Databricks, a cloud-based Spark platform with interactive notebooks, scalable clusters, and integrated machine learning tools like MLflow, and contrast it with Synapse and HDInsight.

Explore Azure CLI as a cross-platform, command-line tool to automate Azure resources, from virtual machines to storage and databases, using installation, Cloud Shell, and az login for streamlined workflows.

master Azure CLI to create a virtual machine from a resource group using a six-step process, including vnet, subnet, NSG, public IP, and NIC, with SSH login.

Learn how Azure PowerShell enables managing Azure resources via cmdlets. Install the Azure PowerShell module on Windows, Linux, or macOS and authenticate with Connect-AzAccount to use verb-noun cmdlets like Get-AzResourceGroup.

Learn to create an Azure VM with Azure PowerShell, including resource group, VNet, subnet, NSG, and public IP, opening ports 22 and 80 for Ubuntu, with SSH access.

Azure cloud shell lets you run Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell from a browser on any device, with no installation. It provides bash and PowerShell environments and optional persistent storage.

Explore how Azure Resource Manager templates use JSON to define and deploy resources, enabling infrastructure as code with resource groups, access control, tagging, and repeatable deployments.

Azure Advisor provides free, personalized recommendations to optimize cost, security, performance, and reliability, including resizing underutilized virtual machines and enabling multifactor authentication.

Explore how Azure Monitor provides a centralized platform to monitor Azure resources, collect telemetry, and support performance, health, troubleshooting, alerts, analysis, visualization, and security and compliance.

Explore the key components of Azure Monitor: data collection with metrics and logs, Azure Monitor Agent, Log Analytics, and alerting.

Compare Azure Monitor and Azure Advisor to clarify they improve resource efficiency, with Monitor offering real-time alerts and telemetry and Advisor delivering weekly or monthly recommendations based on historical data.

Discover Azure service health's personalized view of your resources, with real-time notifications, incident details, and alerts for maintenance and issues, plus dashboards and integrations with Azure Monitor and Azure DevOps.

Defense in depth applies a multilayered security approach across physical security, identity and access, perimeter networks, networks, compute, application, and data to protect Azure resources.

Explore the shared security model in Azure, clarifying customer and Microsoft responsibilities across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, and covering data governance, rights management, and access controls.

Protect cloud and hybrid resources with Microsoft Defender for cloud across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. Explore threat protection, vulnerability management, network security, container security, third-party integrations, and compliance reporting.

Learn how Azure Sentinel, a security information and event management tool, collects data from logs and security devices, analyzes for unusual activity, investigates incidents, and automates responses with visual dashboards.

Azure Defender protects specific resources such as virtual machines, storage accounts, and databases, acting as a bodyguard. Azure Sentinel monitors the overall environment, detects suspicious activity, and guides incident investigation.

Explore how a dedicated host provides an isolated, non-shared hardware environment in Azure, delivering improved security, consistent performance, customization, and compliance for your VMs.

Azure key vault securely stores secrets like passwords, encryption keys, and certificates, enabling access control and audit logs so apps fetch credentials without embedding them in code.

Explore the seven OSI layers and how TCP and UDP ports carry application traffic, detailing well-known ports and how NSG and Azure Firewall use this for secure traffic control.

Explore network security groups (NSG) in Azure as firewalls filtering inbound and outbound traffic, attach NSG to subnets or NICs, and apply stateful tcp/udp port rules with default inbound deny.

Learn to configure Azure network security groups for Ubuntu web server, create NSG, and manage inbound rules to allow HTTP 80 and SSH, while demonstrating deny rules and priorities.

Azure firewall is a managed cloud-based security service that protects your VNet and VMs by filtering traffic at layers 3 to 7, with FQDN and application filtering.

Explain how Azure DDoS protection guards web applications from DDoS attacks, compare basic and standard tiers, and highlight machine-learning protection, metrics, alerting, and cost protection.