Microsoft Certifications Program Guide 2020
1. Summary
For more than a decade, Microsoft has been transitioning away from one-time sales of packaged software (Windows disks, for example) to multi-year services contracts.
Historically, Microsoft's business model has been based on selling software licenses. In fiscal 2004, roughly 82% of all Microsoft revenue came from licensing Windows, Windows Server, and Office.
Cloud-based services are now supplanting local software installations and licenses across the industry, for consumers and massive corporations.
Nowadays Microsoft has 3 major Operating Segments:
1. More Personal Computing: Segment revenue is derived from the sale of operating systems, devices, gaming offerings, and search products.
2. Intelligent cloud: Segment revenue is derived from the sale of public, private, and hybrid server products, and related cloud services.
3. Productivity and Business Processes: Segment revenue is derived from the sale of subscription to Office, revenues from LinkedIn and from Microsoft’s on premise and cloud (Dynamics 365) enterprise solutions (including CRM and ERP).
Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud business is expected to make up 31.2% of Microsoft's $290.4 billion in expected revenues for 2020. Productivity and business processes segments are expected to contribute for 33.7%.
When people think about Cloud, the first name that comes to mind is Amazon Web Services. Amazon started to deliver Cloud services in 2006, 4 years earlier when Microsoft released its first Azure datacenter. This allowed Amazon to gain consensus and competitiveness, by acquiring some great customers such as Netflix, Twitch, LinkedIn, Facebook, AirBnb and others.
However, the Microsoft Cloud future seems to be bright:
In the last three years, Microsoft Public Cloud adoption grew up 18%, versus 4% of AWS.
In order to best perform their role in the Digital Transformation landscape, IT engineers, architects, developers, project managers, marketing specialists and sales should acquire and keep their skills updated.
This document represents a guide about the current Microsoft training and certifications.
2. IT Training and certifications trends
The 2017 Value of IT Certification survey was conducted online from September to October 2017. Survey invitations were emailed to individuals who took a certification exam in the last year and had opted-in to receive marketing communications from Pearson VUE.
The survey yielded over 29,000 completed responses from around the globe. Following some relevant slides:
3. Microsoft training and certifications
The terms MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solution Associate), MCSE (Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert or formerly also known as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), and MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer) are going away.
Training and certifications are evolving away from product-focus, and more towards role-based focused.
At time of writing we can divide the Microsoft training and certifications in 4 areas:
· Azure Apps and Infrastructure: it includes the Azure Administrator, Architect and Developer learning paths;
· Azure Data and AI: it includes the Azure Data Scientist, Data Engineer and AI Engineer learning paths;
· Modern Workplace: it includes Microsoft 365 Desktop Administrator, Teamwork Administrator, Microsoft 365 Developer, Security Administrator and others Microsoft 365 Administrator roles learning paths.
· Business Applications: it includes Dynamics 365 Consultant and Developer roles learning paths.
The above areas are described in the following sections.
3.1 Azure Apps and Infrastructure
Azure Apps and Infrastructure certifications are mainly designed for IT professionals and developers. The Azure Fundamentals can also suit the need of Sales, PM and Manager roles.
There are the following role-based certifications available in this area:
Fundamentals
· Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals – This exam focus on cloud concepts, core Azure Services, Azure pricing and support, and the fundamentals of cloud security, privacy, compliance, and trust. It builds the foundation of the Azure exams and requires the base knowledge about Microsoft Azure and cloud computing in general. TIP: Start from here if you are new about basic cloud concepts, or if you are in a Sales, Project Manager, Marketing role.
Associate and Expert roles
· Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate – This exam focus on implementing, monitor, and maintaining Microsoft Azure solutions, including primary services related to compute, storage, network, and security. It covers topics infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and others, which makes sure you have the technical Azure foundation. TIP: Skip the Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals and start from here if you already have good understanding of basic cloud concepts, and at the same time you prefer to approach gradually your training path to Azure.
· Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate – Main focus on designing, building, testing, and maintaining cloud solutions, such as applications and services, partnering with cloud solution architects, cloud DBAs, cloud administrators, and clients to implement these solutions. With this focus, the certification is great for developers to understand different Azure services.
· Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate – Focuses on implementing security controls and threat protection, managing identity and access, and protecting data, applications, and networks in cloud and hybrid environments as part of the end-to-end infrastructure. This certification goes through different security configuration, architectures, and services. TIP: Get certified on Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate before to approach this certification if you do not already have a strong understanding of Azure Infrastructure services.
· Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert – Azure DevOps professionals combine people, process, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end-user needs and business objectives. This exam not only focuses on Azure DevOps but also on different general DevOps practices, such as source control, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).
· Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert – The Azure Solution Architect exam focuses on expertise in compute, network, storage, and security so that they can design solutions that run on Azure. This exam has a strong emphasis on understanding different Azure services and architecting solutions on Azure. TIP: Skip the Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals and Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate and start from here if you already have strong understanding of Azure Infrastructure services.
The following table shows the exams and prerequisites:
Other two special certifications are available in this area:
· Microsoft Certified: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty
· Microsoft Certified: Azure IoT Developer Specialty
3.2 Azure Data and AI
Azure Data and AI certifications are mainly designed for Data Scientist, Data and AI Engineer roles.
In addition to the Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals and Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert described in the 3.1 section, three certifications are available in this area:
· Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate – Has focus on Azure’s machine learning techniques to train, evaluate, and deploy models that solve business problems.
· Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate - Azure Data Engineers design and implement the management, monitoring, security, and privacy of data using the full stack of Azure data services to satisfy business needs.
· Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate - Azure AI Engineers use Cognitive Services, Machine Learning, and Knowledge Mining to architect and implement Microsoft AI solutions involving natural language processing, speech, computer vision, bots, and agents.
The following table shows the exams and prerequisites:
3.3 Modern Workplace
The Modern Workplace path is all about fostering operational efficiency and collaboration in today’s organizations. This path covers products like Microsoft 365, Office 365, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams.
Fundamentals
· Microsoft Certified: Microsoft 365 Fundamentals – With a focus on cloud concepts, core Microsoft 365 services and concepts, core security, compliance and privacy in Microsoft 365, pricing and support. TIP: Start from here if you are new about basic cloud and Office 365 concepts, or if you are in a Sales, PM, Manager role.
Associate and Expert roles
· Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator Associate – Has a focus on deploying, managing, updating, Windows devices, configuring connectivity, managing policies and profiles and data protection.
· Microsoft 365 Certified: Teamwork Administrator Associate – The Teamwork Administrators configure and manage Sharepoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Tems, workload integrations, Sharepoint On-Premises, migration and hybrid scenarios.
· Microsoft 365 Certified: Messaging Administrator Associate – The Messaging Administrators manage modern messaging infrastructure based on Microsoft Exchange Server, configure mail flow topology, recipients and devices, plan and implement migration and hybrid scenarios, secure the messaging environment.
· Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate – The Security Administrators implement and manage identity, access, threat protection, information protection, governance and compliance feature in Microsoft 365.
· Microsoft 365 Certified: Teams Administrator Associate – This recent certification is focussed on planning and configuring a Microsoft Teams environment, managing Chat, Calling, and Meetings, managing Teams and App Policies.
· Microsoft 365 Certified: Developer Associate – The Microsoft 365 Developers Implement Microsoft Identity, build apps with Microsoft Graph, extend and customize SharePoint, extend Teams and Office
· Microsoft 365 Certified: Enterprise Administrator Expert – The Enterprise Administrators design and implement Microsoft 365 services, manage user identity and roles, manage access and authentication, plan Office 365 workloads and applications, implement Microsoft 365 security and threat management, manage Microsoft 365 governance and compliance.
The following table shows the exams and prerequisites:
3.4 Business Applications
The Business Applications learning paths cover the Dynamics 365 training and certifications and they are out of the scope of this documents.
Domenico Alemagna
March 25 2020