Exam Ref AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

1. Cloud Cost Factors: Resource Type, Purchase Options, and Location

Cloud providers take savings a step further by offering the ability to use only those computing resources you require at any particular time.

Resource consumption. The type of Azure resource you choose significantly impacts costs. Virtual machines, storage accounts, and databases all have different pricing models based on usage. Understanding these models is crucial for cost optimization. For example, VMs are billed by the hour or minute, while storage is billed by the amount of data stored and the number of transactions.

Purchase strategy. How you purchase Azure resources also affects costs. Pay-as-you-go pricing offers flexibility but can be more expensive than reserved instances or enterprise agreements. Reserved instances provide significant discounts for committing to a specific resource for one or three years. Enterprise Agreements offer customized pricing and benefits for large organizations.

Location matters. The Azure region where you deploy your resources impacts costs. Different regions have different pricing due to varying infrastructure costs. For example, deploying a VM in the East US region might be cheaper than deploying it in the Central US region. Also, network traffic between regions can incur additional costs, so choosing the right region is essential for cost optimization.

2. Strategic Cost Reduction: Reservations, Hybrid Benefits, and Spot VMs

By taking advantage of the fault tolerant systems and implementing a disaster recovery plan, you can realize the predictability afforded by the cloud.

Commitment saves. Azure Reservations offer substantial discounts (up to 72%) compared to pay-as-you-go pricing by committing to specific instance types for one or three years. This is ideal for predictable workloads. For example, if you know you'll need a certain number of VMs running 24/7, reserving them can lead to significant savings.

Leverage existing licenses. Azure Hybrid Benefit allows you to use your on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses in Azure, reducing the cost of running these workloads. This is a great option if you already have these licenses and want to migrate to the cloud. For example, if you're running Windows VMs, using your existing licenses can save you up to 40%.

Unused capacity. Azure Spot VMs offer significant discounts (up to 90%) by utilizing unused Azure compute capacity. However, these VMs can be evicted with short notice (24-hour), making them suitable for fault-tolerant workloads that can handle interruptions. For example, batch processing jobs or non-critical development environments are good candidates for Spot VMs.

3. Azure Pricing and TCO Calculators: Estimating Cloud Expenses

The purpose of the AZ-900 exam is to test your understanding of the fundamentals of Azure.

Pricing insights. The Azure Pricing Calculator helps estimate the cost of Azure services based on your specific configuration and usage patterns. You can select the services you plan to use, configure their settings (e.g., instance size, storage capacity), and see an estimated monthly cost. This is useful for planning new deployments and comparing different service options.

On-prem vs. cloud. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator compares the cost of running workloads on-premises versus in Azure. It takes into account factors like hardware, software, IT labor, and power costs to provide a comprehensive comparison. This is useful for justifying a migration to the cloud and identifying potential cost savings.

Data-driven decisions. Both calculators provide valuable data to inform your cloud strategy and optimize your spending. By using these tools, you can make more informed decisions about which services to use, how to configure them, and how to manage your costs over time. For example, you can use the TCO calculator to justify a move to Azure by showing the cost savings compared to maintaining your on-premises infrastructure.

4. Cost Management and Billing: Budgets, Alerts, and Analysis

Microsoft certifications distinguish you by proving your command of a broad set of skills and experience with current Microsoft products and technologies.

Spending control. Azure Cost Management and Billing provides tools to monitor and control your Azure spending. You can create budgets to set spending limits and configure alerts to notify you when you're approaching those limits. This helps prevent unexpected costs and ensures you stay within your budget.

Proactive alerts. Setting up budget alerts is crucial for proactive cost management. You can configure alerts to be sent to specific email addresses when you reach certain spending thresholds (e.g., 50%, 75%, 100% of your budget). This allows you to take action before you exceed your budget.

Granular insights. Cost analysis provides detailed insights into your Azure spending, allowing you to identify cost drivers and optimize your resource usage. You can filter costs by resource, resource group, service, location, and tags to understand where your money is going. For example, you can use cost analysis to identify which VMs are consuming the most resources and consider resizing them or shutting them down when not in use.

5. Tagging Resources: Categorizing and Tracking Expenses

Tags add an additional layer of flexibility and power when viewing your Azure resources.

Metadata matters. Tags are key-value pairs that you can apply to Azure resources to categorize and organize them. This allows you to track costs, manage resources, and enforce policies based on specific criteria. For example, you can tag resources by department, project, environment (e.g., dev, test, prod), or cost center.

Cost allocation. Tagging resources enables you to accurately allocate costs to different departments or projects. By tagging resources with a cost center tag, you can easily generate reports that show how much each department is spending on Azure. This is essential for financial accountability and budget management.

Policy enforcement. Tags can also be used to enforce policies. For example, you can create a policy that requires all resources to have a specific tag (e.g., "Environment: Prod") and prevent the creation of resources that don't comply. This helps ensure consistency and compliance across your Azure environment.

6. Azure Blueprints: Standardizing Cloud Deployments

Azure Stack allows you to run Azure services on-premises, making it easy to then transfer applications to the cloud with a minimal amount of work.

Repeatable deployments. Azure Blueprints enable you to define and deploy repeatable sets of Azure resources, policies, and role assignments. This ensures consistency and compliance across your cloud deployments. Blueprints are ideal for creating standardized environments for development, testing, and production.

Artifacts defined. Blueprints consist of artifacts, which are the building blocks of your deployment. Artifacts can include resource groups, ARM templates, policy assignments, and role assignments. By combining these artifacts into a blueprint, you can define the entire configuration of an environment in a single, reusable package.

Version control. Blueprints are versioned, allowing you to track changes and roll back to previous versions if needed. This is essential for managing complex deployments and ensuring that you can easily revert to a known good state. For example, if you make a change to a blueprint and it causes problems, you can easily revert to the previous version.

7. Azure Policy: Enforcing Governance and Compliance

Cloud providers offer governance features to allow you control over who can access your resources and what they can do with them.

Guardrails in the cloud. Azure Policy enables you to define and enforce rules that govern the creation and configuration of Azure resources. This helps ensure compliance with your organization's policies and regulatory requirements. Policies can be applied at the subscription, resource group, or resource level.

Proactive enforcement. Azure Policy proactively enforces your rules, preventing non-compliant resources from being created or modified. This helps avoid costly mistakes and ensures that your environment remains compliant. For example, you can create a policy that prevents the creation of VMs in unauthorized regions or requires all storage accounts to be encrypted.

Initiatives for scale. Azure Policy initiatives are collections of policies that are grouped together to achieve a specific goal. This makes it easier to manage complex sets of rules and ensure consistent governance across your environment. For example, you can create an initiative that includes all the policies required to comply with a specific regulatory standard.

8. Resource Locks: Protecting Critical Resources

When you delete a resource group, all the resources in that resource group are automatically deleted.

Prevent accidental changes. Resource locks prevent accidental deletion or modification of critical Azure resources. This helps protect your environment from unintended disruptions and ensures that important resources remain available. Locks can be applied at the resource, resource group, or subscription level.

Two lock types. Azure offers two types of resource locks: ReadOnly and Delete. A ReadOnly lock prevents any changes to the resource, while a Delete lock prevents the resource from being deleted. Choosing the right lock type depends on the level of protection you need.

Inheritance and enforcement. Locks are inherited by all resources within a resource group or subscription. This ensures that all resources are protected by the lock. Locks are enforced by Azure Resource Manager (ARM), preventing unauthorized operations from being performed.

9. Service Trust Portal: Accessing Compliance and Security Information

Microsoft is keenly aware of those fears, and Azure has been designed from the ground up to instill confidence in this area.

Centralized repository. The Service Trust Portal (STP) is a centralized repository for Microsoft's compliance and security information. It provides access to audit reports, compliance guides, white papers, and other resources. The STP is a valuable resource for understanding Microsoft's commitment to trust, security, and compliance.

Compliance insights. The STP provides insights into Microsoft's compliance with various industry standards and regulations, such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, and HIPAA. This helps you assess the compliance posture of Azure and determine whether it meets your organization's requirements.

Transparency and trust. The STP promotes transparency and builds trust by providing access to detailed information about Microsoft's security practices and compliance certifications. This helps you make informed decisions about using Azure and ensures that your data is protected.

10. Azure Management Tools: Portal, PowerShell, and CLI

Microsoft has recently added new concepts, services, and Azure features to the AZ-900 exam, and we’ve added those to this edition.

Graphical interface. The Azure portal provides a web-based graphical interface for managing Azure resources. It's easy to use and provides a visual representation of your environment. The portal is ideal for ad-hoc tasks and exploring Azure services.

Scripting automation. Azure PowerShell and Azure CLI provide command-line interfaces for managing Azure resources. These tools are ideal for scripting and automating tasks. PowerShell is based on .NET and provides a rich set of cmdlets for managing Azure. The Azure CLI is cross-platform and can be used with various scripting languages.

Flexibility and control. Choosing the right management tool depends on your preferences and requirements. The portal is great for visual management, while PowerShell and CLI are better for automation and scripting. By mastering all three tools, you can effectively manage your Azure environment.

11. Azure Cloud Shell: Command-Line Access from Anywhere

In this chapter, we dive into the many services and solutions that Azure offers.

Browser-based shell. Azure Cloud Shell provides a browser-based command-line interface for managing Azure resources. It's pre-configured with the Azure CLI and PowerShell Az module, so you can start managing your resources immediately. Cloud Shell is accessible from anywhere with a web browser.

Persistent storage. Cloud Shell provides persistent storage in Azure Storage, so your files and settings are preserved between sessions. This allows you to easily manage your resources from different devices without having to reconfigure your environment each time.

Integrated tools. Cloud Shell includes a built-in code editor, file browser, and web preview feature, making it a powerful tool for developers. You can use the code editor to create and modify scripts, the file browser to manage your files, and the web preview feature to test your web applications.

12. Azure Arc: Extending Management to Hybrid Environments

The concept of cloud computing is quite a bit more complex than many people realize.

Unified management. Azure Arc extends Azure management and governance capabilities to on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments. This allows you to manage all your resources from a single control plane, regardless of where they are located. Azure Arc simplifies hybrid and multi-cloud management.

Arc-enabled servers. Azure Arc-enabled servers allow you to manage Windows and Linux servers running outside of Azure as if they were Azure VMs. This includes applying policies, managing configurations, and monitoring performance. Arc-enabled servers bring the benefits of Azure management to your on-premises and multi-cloud environments.

Arc-enabled Kubernetes. Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes allows you to manage Kubernetes clusters running on-premises or in other cloud providers. This includes deploying applications, managing configurations, and monitoring health. Arc-enabled Kubernetes provides a consistent management experience across all your Kubernetes clusters.

Last updated: April 17, 2025