Finding the right Microsoft Azure certification for you

Microsoft

Jun 26, 2020

Updated July 7, 2021

Looking to earn an Azure certification? Our portfolio spans from fundamentals to role-based and specialty certifications to help prove and advance your skills in modern cloud environments. For details, check out our blog post, Understanding Microsoft Azure certifications.

Why get a certification? Azure certifications give IT professionals an edge in this cloud-based and connected world. Job seekers can use Azure certifications to help advance their career, earn recognition, and validate their technical knowledge and abilities in current and future industry job roles. And organizations can use certifications to identify the talent they need and build the technical skills of their workforce. Want more details? Check out our blog post Need another reason to earn a Microsoft Certification?

Use your profession to find a certification

If you build, deploy, or manage on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge, we have certifications for you. You can also match a certification with your profession (or the one you aspire to). Some are more suited for system administrators (IT pros), developers, or data and artificial intelligence (AI) professionals, and others are a good fit for multiple technical audiences across professions. How should you decide which one is the best for you?

Explore our certifications by profession:

System administrators (IT pros)
Developers
Data and AI experts
Cross-profession

If you’re just getting into the workforce, new to the cloud, or even contemplating a career change, consider our fundamentals certifications. Check out our blog post Master the basics of Microsoft Azure—cloud, data, and AI.

Certifications for system administrators (IT pros). We recommend these certifications for IT pros who want to validate their skills in building, deploying, and managing on-premises, hybrid, or cloud infrastructure solutions. For additional IT pro certifications, see the “Cross-profession certifications” list that follows.

If you’re a cloud administrator who implements and manages your organization’s Azure environment, consider the Azure Administrator Associate certification and the related training. If you dive deep into implementing security controls and threat protection, managing identity and access, and protecting data, applications, and networks in cloud and hybrid environments, the Azure Security Engineer Associate could be a great fit for you. It’s also a nice complement to the Azure Administrator Associate certificate. Architects and engineers who have extensive familiarity with the SAP system landscape and industry standards that are specific to the long-term operation of an SAP solution on Azure might want to consider Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty. If your skills are in bringing cloud agility to on-premises environments, you should consider the Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate certification. Take advantage of the burgeoning growth of remote work and the urgent need for administrators ready to manage virtual desktop experiences and remote apps—for any device—on Azure, with the Azure Virtual Desktop Specialty certification.

Certifications for developers. Want to prove your ability to innovate with best-in-class apps? Check out these certifications. For additional developer certifications, see the “Cross-profession certification” list that follows.

Explore the Azure Developer Associate certification, which validates the skills necessary to design, build, test, and maintain cloud applications and services. Or focus on creating Azure IoT solutions, with the Azure IoT Developer Specialty, and demonstrate your ability to develop cloud and edge components.

Certifications for data and AI experts. To validate your skills in supporting apps and infrastructure with data and analytics, you’ve got quite a few options. For additional data and AI certifications, see the “Cross-profession certification” list that follows.

If you design and implement the management, monitoring, security, and privacy of data solutions using the full stack of Azure data services, consider earning your Azure Data Engineer Associate certification. Azure Database Administrator Associate validates the skills required to implement and manage cloud and on-premises relational databases built on top of SQL Server and Azure data services. To verify your data analytics and visualization skills and show how you maximize the value of your organization’s data using Microsoft Power BI, earn your Data Analyst Associate certification. If you’re implementing and running machine learning workloads on Azure Machine Learning, check out the Azure Data Scientist Associate certification.

Cross-profession certifications. Depending on the specific certification, these could be suitable for system administrators, data and AI pros, and developers.

If you’re a developer or an expert in data and AI consider the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification. This certification covers cognitive services, machine learning, and knowledge mining to architect and implement AI solutions involving natural language processing (NLP), speech, computer vision, and conversational AI. Are you an expert at working with people, processes, and technologies to continuously deliver business value? DevOps Engineer Expert is the role-based expert-level certification for you. It builds on the prerequisite Azure Administrator or Azure Developer certification. If you have the skills to design end-to-end solutions for Azure, consider the comprehensive Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification, which covers infrastructure, apps, and data and is suitable for IT pros, developers, and data professionals.

Fundamentals certifications. Looking to validate your foundational understanding of Microsoft technologies? To read about our fundamentals certifications, go to Master the basics of Microsoft Azure—cloud, data, and AI.

Choose your future!

Intrigued about certification? Every Azure certification, whether it’s fundamentals, role-based, or specialty, offers training to help you upskill and demonstrate your achievements. Choose your certification, and then decide how you want to learn and which platform best fits your learning style. You’ll have access to a breadth of options to help grow your confidence and expertise—from self-paced learning, training events, instructor-led training, and more. Take the next step to prepare for your certification exam and your career.

Check out the Level up... blog posts that will go into detail on each certification and how you can use it to level up your career.

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate

Level up with the Azure IoT Developer Specialty certification

Level up with the DevOps Engineer Expert certification

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate

Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate