Accelerate your career growth with Microsoft Azure Certification courses offered by Gold Learning Microsoft Partner. A wide array of trending Microsoft Azure training certifications are designed to help you adapt to the game-changing nuances of the platform. In addition, different Azure courses that address different skill gaps are offered. Some of these include cloud workshops, Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, developing Azure solutions, introduction to Azure for IT professionals, and more. A comprehensive suite of Microsoft Azure Certification courses will enable you to develop, implement and architect cutting-edge Azure solutions with our Microsoft Azure courses like an expert.
Insight into Azure Solutions Architect Expert– In September 2020, Microsoft retired the AZ-300 and AZ-301, the two exams required for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert role. These were replaced with the new AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design. (Both exams were updated further at the end of November 2020.) Here’s what you need to know about the new AZ-303 and AZ-304 exams for those looking to advance their Azure skills.
Getting a certification in these two exams makes you a subject matter expert in technologies related to the design and implementation of critical Azure technologies for an enterprise. Often people face confusion around these two exams and why and how they are different. Actually, in many ways, they have a lot of similarities, as both cover a lot of the same technologies. Here you can learn about the differences between the AZ-303 and AZ-304 exams. Read on to find out which exam should you take first and how do each of them ensure you have the knowledge of an expert Azure architect? Let us take an in-depth view of the same-
What are the differences between AZ-303 and AZ-304:
The Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies AZ-303 exam is for individuals having abilities in designing and implementing solutions running on Microsoft Azure, including aspects like compute, network, storage, and security. One should have advanced IT operations experience and knowledge, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platform, budgeting, and governance. This role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. The candidate must have expert-level skills in Azure administration with experience in Azure development and DevOps processes.
Microsoft Azure Architect Design AZ-304 exam assesses the candidate’s ability to accomplish technical tasks such as design monitoring, design identity and security; plan data storage; design business continuity; and design infrastructure. An Azure Solution Architect’s responsibilities include advising stakeholders and interpreting business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable cloud solutions.
Many Azure architects prefer to take the AZ-303 exam first and then subsequently move on to the AZ-304. Once you’ve understood the ins and outs of Azure services in the AZ-303, the AZ-304 exam helps you solidify your conceptual knowledge of architecting Azure solutions.
Differences between AZ-303 and AZ-304 Exam
AZ-303 exam has questions about how to implement technologies. On the other hand, the AZ-304 exam is about which technology best suits a given scenario. At times the differences between the two exams can be narrow, but the key point of differentiation is that the AZ-304 exam is based on questions about customer requirements, as against the AZ-303 exam, which is based on technical operations and its implementations. Also, the Microsoft AZ-304 exam focuses more on capturing business needs using real-world examples, constraints, and business objectives and selecting solution implementations based on the requests of an organization. While the AZ-303 exam focuses on taking those solutions and ensures that they are properly built, implemented, or migrated.
Exam Format of AZ-303 and AZ-304–
- Both AZ-303 and AZ-304 exams consist of around 40-60 questions. One must maintain high levels of accuracy and speed.Â
- AZ-303 exam questions may include scenario-based single answer questions, multiple-choice questions, arrange in the correct sequence type questions, drag & drop questions, mark review, drag, drop, etc.
- You need to score a minimum of 700 marks to pass the exam. Hence, it becomes crucial to have all learning resources ready to obtain this Microsoft AZ-303 exam passing score successfully.
- Further, these exams are available in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and Korean languages.
Course Outlines- AZ-303 and AZ-304-
If we compare the course outlines of the AZ-303 and AZ-304, both the exams have a little bit in common, and at the same time, they are vastly different from one another. The AZ-303 incorporates the Implementing storage accounts, VMs for Windows and Linux, virtual networking, container-based applications, Azure Active Directory, managing hybrid identities, workloads in Azure, security for applications, etc. On the other hand, AZ-304 includes solutions for single-sign-on authentication, Conditional Access, multi-factor authentication, user self-service, Azure Policy, database scalability, encrypting data at rest, data in transmission, and data in use, site recovery capacity, etc.
Azure Certification is considered to be one of the most highly recognized certifications in the era of technology. The Azure Certification has set a standard for its certifications all around the globe and holds the potential to take your career to new heights.
