As many of you are probably aware, there is already a Microsoft certification path for those looking for Azure skill set recognition. Recently at the Microsoft Inspire partner conference, Microsoft announced that this would be replaced.

There will now be three roles defined with new qualification to earn.

1. Azure Adminitstrator
2. Azure Developer
3. Azure Solutions Architect

These new roles and certifications are an attempt to better line-up with industry demands and standards.

As with most current MCSA qualifications, it will take two exams to earn a certification. The Beta exams for Azure Administrator are live right now. AZ100 and AZ101 test a broad range of skills across the Azure sphere including, Compute, Networking, Identity, Storage among others.

If you already have the previous exam, 70-533, you can take a transition exam to earn an Azure Administrator certification – AZ102. Again, this is in Beta so places are limited.

The time frame for the remaining roles and certifications was also shown, so expect a follow-up post on this later this year.

Also, thanks to Microsoft MVP Thomas Maurer, here is a link to discount codes should you wish to book any of the Beta exams. The link is the Microsoft Learning blog, so I will paste it here in full in case anyone is worried about dodgy code pages! 🙂

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/community-blog-post.aspx?BlogId=8&Id=375147

If you would like to watch the announcement in full, you can do so here – https://myinspire.microsoft.com/videos/fb7c3db2-1c65-4a69-aceb-fd06c19bf971