August is for Learning Azure

Over the past couple months, Jerome Hardaway has been tweeting about reading the docs, and his latest tweet about the docs inspired me:

• (1) Jerome Hardaway 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 on Twitter: “This is your regular reminder to if you’re new to code to RTFD ( Read The F*cking Docs). They have whole teams dedicated to them now. Learn good stuff and help folks keep their jobs.” / Twitter

If you’re ever in a class or training environment with me in the instructor or coaching roles, you’ve probably witnessed me in action with the links to the docs. If you’ve seen me in the audience in one of the .NET or Visual Studio live streams or in the Azure Cosmos DB Global User Group meetup, you’ll see the links too. (I swear I’m not a bot.) I can’t help it – technical docs and learning sites whisper to me that I need to check them out and share them with others. Documents that live in Microsoft Docs and Microsoft Learn especially have illuminated concepts and given me examples to get running with.

So in this month of August, I’m going to share all sorts of links on learning about Azure and its various offerings. As I have a wide range of readers, I will try to share links to resources at all levels.

What is Microsoft Learn?

Microsoft Learn is a FREE training platform for learning Microsoft products. From videos – such as Learn TV – and documents explaining concepts to exercises that apply presented concepts to knowledge checks for testing your understanding of what they covered, there are a variety of steps for learning within the Learn environment.

What I appreciate most about the Microsoft Learn platform is the ability to filter courses and paths by product, roles, and levels. When I have folks reaching out to me about links, it’s most commonly by product and then level. Because I’m a generalist in my nature and because I’m a bridge between techies and non-techies, I find the role filter helpful whenever I’m recommending in my role as a consultant.

They do a great job of documenting their platform and have captured these frequently asked questions about Microsoft Learn in general.

I’ve also created a video to help others learn how to navigate through Microsoft Learn’s learning paths, modules, and units. I do call out a thing to watch for when working with the Azure portal sandbox. Check it out here:

What is Azure?

Today’s resources are for those unfamiliar with Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform. Shout out to Tori Brenneison for reaching out to me with the following question:

(1) Tori Brenneison on Twitter: “@sadukie Do you have any good “intro to Azure” resources? Asking for a student” / Twitter

Microsoft Learn has some great resources for learning about Azure concepts. These are some learning paths – collections of modules that cover a topic.

• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Describe core Azure concepts
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Describe cloud concepts
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Describe core Azure services
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Describe core solutions and management tools on Azure
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Describe Microsoft Cost Management and service level agreements

Are there other fundamentals?

Yes! There are fundamentals learning paths for other topics in Microsoft Learn, including:

• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals
• Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals
• Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals

There are more learning paths around fundamentals. You can search for them by taking the following steps:

1. Go to Microsoft Learn to browse courses.
2. In the Filters, under Types, select Learning Path.
3. In the Search textbox, search for fundamentals.

I will be linking to these paths as we get into their topics. I try to link these topics in context.

What services are covered in this blog series?

The services I’m covering in this series will apply to architects, developers, and data professionals.

• This first week will talk about getting started with Azure and some hosting platforms.
• There is a week for some data platforms.
• There is another week for AI, machine learning, and analysis.
• The last part includes more services that may be relevant and one that is out of this world.

Stay tuned!

Bonus: the Azure storefront!

This is for those of you who have heard me mention that this is not about the Azure store. I came across this store when my family made our ancestral trip to Hong Kong and China in 2018. We found this Azure store in Hong Kong. This is not the Azure I’m blogging about in the series: