Empower your teams with comprehensive Azure skill-building tools

Keeping pace with technology can sometimes feel like an uphill marathon with a shifting finish line. From AI breakthroughs to cloud optimization strategies, data analytics advancements, and beyond, IT skills require continuous renewal.

To that end, we’re pleased to share this quarterly recap of the latest Azure learning resources—your curated guide to upskilling on Azure. Read on to find current training opportunities to help elevate your cloud skills and open career doors.

Become an AI trailblazer with Azure Cosmos DB

Azure AI capabilities offer a unique opportunity to make the most of cloud-based intelligent solutions. Learn to create innovative experiences and push boundaries in the evolving landscape of AI-powered interactions.

The Microsoft Developers AI Learning Hackathon, held in June 2024, was an exciting opportunity for developers to explore the world of AI and build innovative applications by using Azure Cosmos DB. The hackathon demonstrated how Azure Cosmos DB provides the speed, scalability, and reliability needed to power the next generation of intelligent applications.

Don’t worry if you missed the hackathon—we have plenty of other Azure Cosmos DB skill-building resources:

• As part of the newly launched Plans on Microsoft Learn, Data for the era of AI: Build intelligent apps with Azure Cosmos DB guides you through selecting the right database for your AI needs, integrating AI into technical or non-technical solutions, and even building your own AI copilot by using Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB.
• Azure Cosmos DB AI Developer Guide, a recent episode of the Azure Enablement Show, reviews the new Azure Cosmos DB + Azure OpenAI Node.js Developer Guide and Azure Cosmos DB + Azure OpenAI Python Developer Guide.
• The new learning path Build an AI copilot with vCore-based Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB and Azure OpenAI teaches you how to build a copilot by using Azure Cosmos DB and Azure OpenAI Service.
• A Microsoft Reactor session from May 2024, Learn to Build Your Own AI Apps with Azure Cosmos DB, part 2, explores core AI concepts, like Vector Search LangChain and UI development, to build your own custom copilot. Watch the video and gain practical insights on effectively using Azure for your AI projects, regardless of your technical experience.
• In the Azure Enablement Show episode Build a copilot with Azure AI Studio, Microsoft experts demonstrate how to build a copilot with prompt flow connected to a searchable index. They also discuss documentation and training resources.
• If you’re looking for other ways to build amazing AI-powered apps, check out Build AI Apps with Azure Database for PostgreSQL. This new Official Plan is designed to help you better understand how to build and manage AI apps with PostgreSQL, a popular, powerful open-source database system. Plus, we have many new learning paths and modules that cover Azure Database for PostgreSQL, including:
  • Configure and migrate to Azure Database for PostgreSQL
  • Migrate open-source databases to Azure
  • Explore PostgreSQL architecture
  • Secure Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Uncover data-driven insights with Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Fabric analytics unveil hidden insights in data-rich environments, enabling smarter decision-making and empowering businesses to drive growth and mitigate risks.

As part of a comprehensive skill-building plan, Make your data AI ready with Microsoft Fabric offers instruction on data ingestion through shortcuts, pipelines, and dataflows, followed by transformation techniques using procedures, notebooks, and more. With this Official Plan, discover how to store data in lakehouses and data warehouses, along with how to create reusable semantic models in Power BI.

If you’re looking to take your data analytics skills to the next level, don’t miss these Microsoft Virtual Training Days—two four-hour sessions, packed with practical knowledge and interactive exercises:

• Microsoft Azure Virtual Training Day: Data Fundamentals
• Microsoft Azure Virtual Training Day: Implementing a Data Lakehouse with Microsoft Fabric

Ignite developer efficiency

In the era of complex intelligent applications, empowering developer productivity is crucial. We have the resources and opportunities to help you learn strategies to streamline workflows, work smarter, and unlock your coding potential in this rapidly evolving digital landscape.

AI tools are helping developers to build custom solutions more quickly and efficiently, increasing their overall productivity. During the April–May 2024 Microsoft Generative AI Hackathon, participants learned how to how to use Azure AI and GitHub Copilot to build multimodal apps that combine text, image, video, and voice inputs and outputs.

• For Python developers who want to incorporate AI into their cutting-edge applications, a new episode of the Azure Enablement Show, Build intelligent apps with Python, demonstrates the comprehensive tools and resources from Microsoft for Python development on Azure, covering AI, data analysis, and app deployment.
• Microsoft Learn offers interactive modules to guide you through the entire development process, from deploying web apps to building machine learning models. The Accelerate app development by using GitHub Copilot learning path focuses on how GitHub Copilot (available for organizations or individuals) offers intelligent code suggestions in many programming languages.
• The DevOps foundations: The core principles and practices learning path explores DevOps practices using GitHub and the challenges associated with traditional application lifecycles. Learn about DevOps culture, which emphasizes collaboration, shared responsibility, and continuous learning. Plus, find out how DevOps benefits organizations by accelerating delivery, enhancing adaptability, helping to ensure reliability, and improving the entire application lifecycle management.
• The Automate Azure Load Testing by Using GitHub learning path reviews GitHub Actions, a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) platform for automating software development workflows, offering features like automated processes and custom applications. This learning path covers core components, workflow implementation, and effective use of GitHub Actions in projects.

Migrate to the cloud for boundless innovation

Cloud migration offers agility, scalability, and reduced IT overhead. Explore these Azure resources to guide your journey in migrating and modernizing your technology stack, unlocking new possibilities for your organization.

Official Plans on Microsoft Learn can help you to build your migration knowledge and experience:

• Migrate and modernize with Azure cloud-scale databases to enable AI highlights how to build and manage cloud-native and hybrid data platforms by using SQL Server and Azure SQL Database services. Learn to migrate SQL Server workloads to Azure SQL, optimize operational resources in Azure SQL, and work with MySQL databases on Azure.
• Migrate Linux and PostgreSQL workloads to Azure guides you through the migration and management of your Linux workloads on Azure, exploring cloud computing concepts, Linux solutions, and Azure services. Learn about PostgreSQL features, implementation options, and configuration for your needs in Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

Continue your SQL migration journey with the Official Collection Refreshed SQL DMA Microsoft Learn Modules, which includes guidance on migrating SQL Server workloads to Azure SQL, Azure SQL Managed Instance, SQL Database, and more.

Don’t miss upcoming Microsoft Virtual Training Days sessions for Migrate and Secure Windows Server and SQL Server Workloads. And check out the recent Azure Enablement Show, Learn How to Migrate Windows Servers to Azure, which discusses how doing so can provide a flexible, secure, and scalable infrastructure that enables agility, cost efficiency, and innovation.

Unlock business value

Building Azure skills with Azure Essentials can help you make the most of your cloud and AI investments and maximize the reliability, security, and ongoing performance of your Azure environments and workloads. Azure Essentials offers a resource kit, use cases for enhancing new and existing Azure projects, customer success stories, and much more.

And Microsoft Learn training resources can help both new and seasoned Azure pros improve performance, boost return on investment (ROI), and achieve success through intelligent resource management strategies:

• The Improve Cloud Reliability, Security, and Performance on Azure Official Plan includes a set of milestones to help you across your cloud journey. Prepare to adopt and build optimized workloads and environments, and then manage and help ensure reliability and continuous improvement.
• Another recent episode of the Azure Enablement Show, Learn Optimization Skills on Learn Live, explores the path to cloud optimization and confident cloud operations, along with an understanding of how to manage reliability, security, sustainability, and cost efficiency. It also discusses how to optimize your architecture and workloads effectively to take full advantage of the cloud.

As you and your teams explore Azure training opportunities, make the most of this quarterly recap of the latest Azure learning resources—your curated guide to upskilling on Azure. From trailblazing with Azure Cosmos DB, uncovering data-driven insights with Fabric, and empowering developer efficiency with AI, find what you need in this curated guide. Plus, get all the details on training, like Azure Essentials, to help you migrate to the cloud and unlock business value with Azure skills. We have the offerings you need to skill up, drive success, and make the most of your organization’s Azure and AI investments.