AZ-900 is Microsoft's introductory Azure certification. Unlike some of the certifications I've worked on previously, the goal isn't to prove that I can configure or troubleshoot every Azure service. Instead, the exam focuses on understanding how Azure works, what the major services are used for, and how cloud infrastructure is organized.

Microsoft currently divides the exam into three main areas: cloud concepts (25–30%), Azure architecture and services (35–40%), and Azure management and governance (30–35%).

For me, AZ-900 is less of a destination and more of a starting point.

How This Applies to My Current Role

I currently work as an IT Service Desk Technician II, where a large part of my job already involves Microsoft cloud services.

On a normal day, I may be working with Microsoft Entra ID, Intune, Exchange Online, Microsoft 365, authentication issues, device enrollment, permissions, or a hybrid Active Directory environment.

Because of that, parts of AZ-900 aren't completely new territory.

For example, I've worked with Entra ID from the administrative side when dealing with user accounts, authentication, MFA, device objects, and access issues. AZ-900 takes some of those technologies I'm already using and explains where they fit within the larger Azure ecosystem.

The biggest difference is that I'll be moving beyond supporting individual users and endpoints and starting to understand the infrastructure behind the services.

That means learning how Azure organizes resources, how virtual networks work, how virtual machines are deployed, how storage is structured, and how identity and permissions are managed across an Azure environment.

What I'll Be Studying

The first part of AZ-900 covers general cloud concepts.

This includes public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, the shared responsibility model, consumption-based pricing, scalability, high availability, and the differences between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

The second section gets much more Azure-specific.

I'll be studying Azure regions and availability zones, subscriptions, resource groups, management groups, virtual machines, containers, Azure Functions, virtual networks, subnets, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, DNS, storage accounts, storage redundancy, and migration tools.

Identity is also a significant part of the exam. This includes Entra ID, MFA, passwordless authentication, Conditional Access, role-based access control, Zero Trust, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

A lot of that connects directly to technologies I already see at work.

The final major section covers managing Azure environments. That includes cost management, Azure Policy, resource locks, Azure Resource Manager, ARM templates, infrastructure as code, Azure CLI, PowerShell, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Azure Advisor, and Azure Service Health.

Infrastructure as code is one area I'm especially interested in because it also connects with technologies I want to learn outside of Azure, such as Terraform and automated infrastructure deployments.

Where AZ-900 Fits Into My Larger Plan

I'm not expecting AZ-900 by itself to qualify me for an Azure engineering position.

Microsoft considers Azure Fundamentals a beginner-level certification and describes it as a common starting point for someone moving toward a career working with Azure.

That's exactly how I'm approaching it.

My next major Azure certification after AZ-900 will be AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator.

AZ-104 moves away from simply identifying Azure services and gets into actually administering an Azure environment. It covers identities and governance, storage, Azure compute resources, virtual networking, and monitoring. Microsoft also expects candidates to be familiar with operating systems, networking, servers, virtualization, PowerShell, Azure CLI, ARM/Bicep, and Entra ID.

That certification lines up much more closely with where I want to take my career.

The rough path I'm working toward is:

AZ-900 → AZ-104 with hands-on Azure projects → more specialized Azure certifications

Eventually, AZ-305 is another certification I'm interested in. AZ-305 focuses on designing Azure infrastructure solutions across compute, networking, storage, monitoring, security, business continuity, and governance. Combined with the Azure Administrator Associate certification, it leads to the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert credential.

There are also specialization options along the way. For example, AZ-700 focuses specifically on Azure networking, including hybrid connectivity, routing, application delivery, private access, and network security.

For now, though, the goal is much simpler.

I want AZ-900 to give me a solid understanding of Azure terminology and architecture before I start going deeper into actually building and administering Azure environments.

I've spent the last few years learning IT primarily from the support side: troubleshooting accounts, endpoints, authentication, applications, and Microsoft 365 services. The next step is understanding more of the infrastructure those services run on.

AZ-900 is the first step in making that transition.