Microsoft is an industry leader in IT certifications because of its innovative products and rock-solid recognition in the job market. Microsoft Azure is the cloud platform that is quickly becoming a platform of choice worldwide. Right now it is the second-largest platform in the industry but its phenomenal growth is quickly closing the gap with the top slot. With a 60% year-over-year growth, it is quickly expanding its footprint on the global cloud sphere. According to Microsoft, 95% of the Fortune 500 companies trust Azure as their preferred cloud platform.
Microsoft Azure Security: An Overview
Microsoft invests more than $1 billion per year in cybersecurity research and development to make Azure secure. With more than 90 compliance certifications for different industry and government standards, Microsoft Azure carries the biggest portfolio among its competitors.
Azure Security Engineer Associate: The Certification
Microsoft offers a specialized certification for those who want to begin a career in Azure security. Azure Security Engineer Associate is an intermediate-level certification. To earn this certification the candidate needs to qualify in Microsoft Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies. This certification validates the candidate for the job role of a security engineer in an Azure environment.
Azure Security Engineer: An Introduction
Azure Security Engineers implement security controls and threat protection, manage identity and access, and protect data, applications and networks in cloud and hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.
Azure Security Engineer: The Job Role
Responsibilities for this role include maintaining the security posture, identifying and remediating vulnerabilities by using a variety of security tools, implementing threat protection and responding to security incident escalations.
Azure Security Engineers often serve as part of a larger team dedicated to cloud-based management and security or hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.
Azure Security Engineer: The Expertise
Candidates for the Azure Security Engineer certification should have subject matter expertise implementing security controls and threat protection, managing identity and access, and protecting data, applications and networks in cloud and hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.
A candidate for this certification should have strong skills in scripting and automation; a deep understanding of networking, virtualization and cloud N-tier architecture; and a strong familiarity with cloud capabilities and products and services for Azure, plus other Microsoft products and services.
According to Microsoft, after successfully completing the Microsoft AZ-500 Exam, a professional can perform the following tasks:
- Implement enterprise governance strategies including role-based access control, Azure policies and resource locks.
- Implement an Azure AD infrastructure including user groups and multi-factor authentication.
- Implement Azure AD Identity Protection including risk policies, conditional access and access reviews.
- Implement Azure AD Privileged Identity Management including Azure AD roles and Azure resources.
- Implement Azure AD Connect including authentication methods and on-premises directory synchronization.
- Implement perimeter security strategies including Azure Firewall.
- Implement network security strategies including Network Security Groups and Application Security Groups.
- Implement host security strategies including endpoint protection, remote access management, update management and disk encryption.
- Implement container security strategies including Azure Container Instances, Azure Container Registry and Azure Kubernetes.
- Implement Azure Key Vault including certificates, keys and secrets.
- Implement application security strategies including app registration, managed identities and service endpoints.
- Implement storage security strategies including shared access signatures, blob retention policies and Azure Files authentication.
- Implement database security strategies including authentication, data classification, dynamic data masking and always encrypted.
- Implement Azure Monitor including connected sources, log analytics and alerts.
- Implement Azure Security Center including policies, recommendations and just-in-time virtual machine access.
- Implement Azure Sentinel including workbooks, incidents and playbooks.
Microsoft Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies
This exam measures a candidate’s ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: manage identity and access; implement platform protection; manage security operations; and secure data and applications.
The exam is offered in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified) and Korean.
Contents of the Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies are updated on March 23, 2021. The updated skill assessment is as follows:
- Manage identity and access (30-35%)
- Implement platform protection (15-20%)
- Manage security operations (25-30%)
- Secure data and applications (20-25%)
Microsoft Exam AZ-500: Preparing For The Exam
Preparing for a certification exam has always been tricky. The specific job roles exams are always a mix of theoretical and practical knowledge. Neither of these alone can guarantee success for a candidate. You have to have a grip on both to sail through an exam. For Microsoft Exam AZ-500, besides prior knowledge of the subject matter, thorough studying is required. With the evolution of certification, the art of taking exams has also evolved. With the help of different innovative study resources, it has become easier to prepare for an exam with a more focused approach. With online study resources like video tutorials, study guides, practice exams, dumps and testing simulators, you can prepare yourself for the exam in much less time than before. Training materials are available as both free and paid resources. Free resources involve more work on your part; paid resources can be classified according to affordability.
Microsoft offers instructor-led training with access to their specially designed study guides. The typical fee for Microsoft Exam AZ-500 training by Microsoft is slightly more than $2,000, which is more than what many candidates can afford. However, there are many other training resources available in the market that are comparatively more affordable.
Some companies offer the study resources for Microsoft AZ-500 Exam Dumps at a fraction of the price as compared to the expensive training. One of these companies is named Marks4Sure. They are known for their dependable content and simple and informative Microsoft training material. Marks4Sure also offers free demo tests. With a money-back guarantee, Marks4Sure offers promised success for the Microsoft Exam AZ-500. Very reasonably priced Marks4Sure offers an irresistible assurance of success in Microsoft Exam AZ-500. With an eagerness for success and budget constraints in mind, one needs to be very careful while choosing a training provider.
Conclusion
Microsoft Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies leads you to earn a prestigious Microsoft Certification: Azure Security Engineer Associate, which paves your way for a desirable career as an Azure Security Engineer.