Associate AZ-104
Core Azure administration cert covering identity, governance, storage, compute, networking, and monitoring. Essential for Azure admins and cloud engineers.
The Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) is one of the most popular Azure certifications and a key credential for cloud administrators. It validates the ability to manage day-to-day Azure environments: configuring identity and governance, implementing storage solutions, deploying and managing compute resources, configuring virtual networks, and monitoring Azure resources.
The exam covers five domains: Manage Azure Identities and Governance (20–25%), Implement and Manage Storage (15–20%), Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (20–25%), Implement and Manage Virtual Networking (15–20%), and Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources (10–15%). Core services include Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), Azure Virtual Machines, Azure App Service, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Storage, Virtual Networks, Load Balancer, Network Security Groups, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Azure Backup.
Unlike AWS certifications, Microsoft Azure certifications do not expire. The AZ-104 requires approximately 6 months of hands-on Azure experience and is widely considered the go-to credential for Azure sysadmins, cloud operations engineers, and IT administrators migrating from on-premises environments.
Azure administrators, cloud operations engineers, and IT administrators managing Azure subscriptions and resources.
Prerequisites: AZ-900 recommended. 6+ months of hands-on experience managing Azure subscriptions, including compute, storage, networking, and identity.