The AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator certification exam tests and validates your expertise as an Azure Administrator. Candidates should also have a strong understanding of core Azure services, workloads, security, and governance.

Certification Target Audience

The AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator certification exam is geared towards Azure Administrator candidates with at minimum 6-months of hands-on experience administering Azure. They should also have a strong understanding of core Azure services, workloads, security, and governance. Candidates for this exam, and certification, should have experience using PowerShell, Command-Line Interface (CLI), Azure Portal, and ARM (Azure Resource Manager) Templates.

Exam Objective Domains

Here is a list of the skills and objective domains measured on the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator certification exam. The percentages next to each objective area represents the number of questions in that objective area on the exam.

• 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%)
• Monitor and maintain Azure resources (10-15%)

Training Courses

With the AZ-104 Azure Administrator exam objectives just recently being announced, and the exam not yet being available, there aren’t any specific video courses that target this new exam just yet. Although, with this exam being a replacement for the similar AZ-103 Azure Administrator exam, you could begin studying for this exam now by utilizing existing AZ-103 training courses and comparing them to the AZ-104 exam objectives as your guided study path.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate

Once a candidate has passed either the AZ-103 or AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator certification exams they will earn the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification.

The Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate is part of a job-role based restructuring of the Microsoft certifications. This particular certification is geared towards candidates who are Azure Administrators using Microsoft Azure in their daily job.

Start with Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 Exam First

The AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator certification exam does not have any prerequisites to take. However, if candidates are new to Microsoft Azure development, then they may want to take the AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification exam first. This will validate their knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of Microsoft Azure.

If candidates are new to the cloud, or to Microsoft Azure, then the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals could be a good place to start.

Upgrade to Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert

Once a candidate has already earned the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification they can take another exam to upgrade to the Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certification. The DevOps Engineer Expert certification is earned on top of the Azure Developer Associate by taking and passing the additional AZ-400 Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions certification exam.

Original Article Source: AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Exam written by Chris Pietschmann (If you're reading this somewhere other than Build5Nines.com, it was republished without permission.)