Help teams learn Azure fundamentals (with course recommendations)

Whether your organization is just starting your cloud journey, adopting multicloud, or already in the midst of cloud transformation, you’re going to come across Azure. 

As one of the big three cloud providers alongside AWS and GCP, Azure is one of the most widely used cloud vendors, with more than 95% of Fortune 500 companies using their services.

If you need to get your teams up to speed to support cloud transformation or prep for a new project, where do you even start? Here’s how to help teams build the skills they need to work with and build in Azure environments.

The Azure cloud platform offers more than 200 products and services, which can make it hard to know where to focus. 

Luckily, your organization will be using only the tools needed to achieve their goals. If you don’t know what those are, talk with the stakeholders and decision makers in your organization. Then, tailor your Azure cloud computing training strategy to those solutions.

Regardless of your unique goals, building Azure fundamentals, providing hands-on practice, and working towards Azure certifications are great places to start.

If your organization is adopting Azure, everyone needs basic cloud and Azure skills. 

Cloud and IT professionals need a strong foundation to design, implement, monitor, and maintain Azure applications and infrastructure. At the same time, non-technical professionals, like folks in support roles, need to understand the fundamentals to speak a common language and collaborate with cloud professionals.

Upskill your teams in these topics to give them a solid baseline for cloud transformation with Azure:

Everyone should know basic cloud concepts like:

• What cloud computing is and how it works at a high level

• The difference between public, private, hybrid, and multicloud environments

• The shared responsibility model

• Cloud pricing and cost management in Azure

• Azure’s cloud adoption framework

These entry-level courses for learning cloud computing can help your teams build their Azure skills:

• Cloud Computing Foundations

• Understanding Azure Cost Drivers

• Assessing and Planning Microsoft Azure Migration

Now it’s time to get a little deeper into Azure architecture and services. Cloud and IT professionals should understand:

• Azure cloud computing architecture (like regions, availability zones, and data centers)

• Compute and networking services in Azure (including virtual machines, containers, functions, and virtual networking)

• Azure storage types and services, plus migration options

Boost your team’s Azure know-how with these courses and learning paths:

• Azure Architecture learning path

• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900): Azure Architecture and Services

• Managing and Operating Azure Virtual Machines

• Introduction to Azure Object Storage

When it comes to securing Azure cloud environments, teams need to know:

• Concepts like zero trust, role-based access control (RBAC), and multifactor authentication (MFA), and how they work in Azure

• Services like Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Entra Conditional Access, and Microsoft Entra Domain Services

Help your teams secure your cloud with these learning paths and courses:

• Zero Trust Security (ZTS) learning path

• Azure Security Fundamentals

• Implementing and Managing Identity and Access in Entra ID for MS-102

To ensure compliance without sacrificing speed, teams need:

• Familiarity with services like Microsoft Purview and Azure Policy

• A basic understanding of resource locks

Prep your teams with these courses, labs, and learning paths:

• Azure Governance and Compliance Fundamentals

• Governance with Azure Policy and Access Control hands-on lab

• Security and Compliance in Azure Pipelines

• Implementing and Managing Microsoft Purview learning path

To manage, deploy, and continuously monitor Azure resources, teams should know:

• Azure portal

• Services like Azure Advisor, Azure Monitor, and Azure Resource Manager 

• Concepts such as infrastructure as code (IaC) 

Boost your team’s Azure skills with these courses and labs:

• Azure Monitoring Fundamentals

• Infrastructure as Code on Azure Deep Dive

• Accessing and Using the Azure Portal hands-on lab

Getting your team ready for Azure cloud transformation requires going beyond concepts and theory. To build—and retain—production-ready cloud skills and confidence, teams need hands-on learning opportunities.

According to a report by the University of California, people generally only remember 10% of what they read and 20% of what they hear. But when they learn with a hands-on experience that engages all of their senses, retention rates can reach up to 75%.

Immersive learning experiences also allow employees to practice what they’ve learned without worrying about racking up cloud costs or making critical mistakes in your live environments. Instead, people are free to learn and correct mistakes before moving on to real production environments.

To help your teams learn Azure, provide hands-on learning opportunities like:

• Hands-on labs: Pre-configured labs for things like configuring virtual machines in Azure help teams practice skills and build confidence with new tools and technologies. They’re guided through each step and receive live feedback to correct and learn from mistakes. 

• Instructor-led training (ILT): Instructor-led training helps your teams learn cloud computing skills quickly in preparation for a migration or other critical projects. ILT combines instruction from expert practitioners with hands-on activities, webinars, hackathons, and more. 

• On-the-job projects: Find ways to incorporate Azure learning opportunities into daily work. This might include setting up a CI/CD pipeline, creating a basic chatbot, or pair programming with other engineers.

Certifications are a great way to build your team’s Azure skills and give them valuable credentials for their resumes. 

Azure has a range of certifications across four different tiers. If your organization is just starting its cloud or Azure journey, start with the Fundamental certifications.

The AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals certification is great for everyone, no matter what their role is. It covers foundational cloud and Azure knowledge and provides a great starting point for more advanced certifications and deeper cloud skills.

From there, consider the other two Azure Fundamentals certs: The AI-900 Azure AI Fundamentals and DP-900 Azure Data Fundamentals.

Like the name suggests, the AI-900 covers AI basics in Azure, making it ideal for developers and data or AI professionals. Meanwhile, the DP-900 focuses on core data concepts, so it’s perfect for developers, data analysts, or data or AI professionals.

Explore all Azure certification paths for administrators, solution architects, and other roles.

Earning any type of technical certification requires a hefty time commitment. A certification challenge encourages employees to earn a certification within a specific time frame (usually three to six weeks).

These challenges are often sponsored by an executive leader and give employees the time and resources they need to pass their exams. This includes dedicated study time, clear Azure certification paths, and practice exams.

Because certification challenges involve a lot of moving parts, they’re typically led by a program manager who coordinates schedules, reports on progress, shares resources, and motivates learners.

Why not host an AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals certification challenge to kickstart your team’s Azure journey? Learn how to set one up—get the Tech Upskilling Playbook.

Yes—anyone can learn Azure, regardless of role or experience.

A better question to ask is: Is it in the best interests of a business professional to learn Azure? In other words, how will Azure skills benefit them or impact their work?

A non-IT professional can benefit from learning Azure if they:

• Work closely with cloud teams and/or Azure developers

• Drive their organization’s tech or cloud strategy

• Want to transition to a cloud or Azure role

• Enjoy learning for personal development

When it comes to day-to-day responsibilities, many business professionals would benefit more from learning vendor-agnostic cloud fundamentals, rather than platform specifics. But that doesn’t mean they can’t, or shouldn’t, if they’re up for the challenge!

Explore cloud computing career paths.

You can learn Azure of your own—and many people do! But if you’re upskilling your team for a specific goal, outcome, or project, guiding their journey will help them learn much more efficiently than if they were left to their own devices.

They’ll know exactly which skills to focus on, what resources to turn to for accurate information, and how learning aligns with their goals.

In general, Azure is considered relatively easy to learn, but it gets more complicated as you advance.

Difficulty will also depend on someone’s existing knowledge and experience. For example, IT professionals have transferable skills that will make learning the Azure cloud platform easier.

You can make it easier for your people to pick up Azure skills by tailoring training to their roles and experience levels. Skill assessments and learning paths can help you do that.

Yes, Microsoft provides free online training resources to learn Azure fundamentals. For more in-depth training with immersive, hands-on experience, consider free team trials for online learning platforms like Pluralsight or end-to-end skills solutions like Cloud Ready for Azure.

When it comes to cloud transformation with Azure, adoption is only the first step. Teams need the skills to execute and deliver value. 

Cloud Ready—our new structured upskilling program—closes capability gaps so you can unlock AI at scale and turn cloud spend into measurable ROI. Learn more about Cloud Ready for Azure.

Related resources for Azure cloud computing training:

• Multicloud mastery: How to train teams in AWS, Azure, and GCP

• 6 cloud cost optimization strategies and tools for AWS, Azure, and GCP

• Can cloud actually drive ROI? Yes, if you've got the right talent