There were some recent announcements about upcoming Microsoft Certification Retirement Plans. Among these plans is included the retirement of the 70-534 Architecting Azure Solutions exam. At first, this is a little surprising since the 70-534 exam is 1 of 3 core Azure certification exams, however, this retirement is much different than typical exam retirements.
Normally, when Microsoft retires a certification exam it’s reached end of life and the technology covered is no longer current. With the 70-534 exam, Microsoft is implementing a significant content update / upgrade to the exam to keep it current with the current state of Azure Architecture. As a result, rather than simply updating the exam content, they have decided to retire the exam December 31, 2017 and replace it with a new exam; the 70-535 exam with the same name.
The 70-535: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification exam will replace the old 70-534. The core exam content will largely be the same, but the updates / changes are significant enough that a new exam number will help differentiate the difference. This is really a good thing, as it will likely help reduce confusion between the older version of 70-534 and the newer 70-535 content.
Full exam objective details haven’t been announced by Microsoft yet, but the new 70-535: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions exam will replace the old 70-534. As a result, it looks like the 70-535 will count towards the MCSA: Cloud Platform and MCSE: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure certifications. This would mean a direct replacement for the 70-534 as it’s been.
To get more information about the 70-535 certification exam objectives and requirements, along with other certification news, please subscribe. I’ll post more information as it’s announced.
About the Author
Chris Pietschmann
Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.
Terraform: If/Else Conditional Resource and Module Deployment
Azure Functions: Extend Execution Timeout Past 5 Minutes
IPv4 Address CIDR Range Reference and Calculator
Terraform: Import Existing Azure Resource Group
Terraform: Use for_each to deploy multiple resources
I’m in the process of studying for 534 now. Hoping I can get it before December. One more to go for MCSE!
You can do it!!
And then what happens to those who are already certified on 70-534 (and the rest) after Dec 2017? Do we need to appear for 70-535 again to keep the overall MCSA/MCSE Azure Certification?
No, the MCSA or MCSE earned will remain.
Hi Chris, I would like to know when would exam 70-538 release officially. Is this exam toward developement or infrastructure
I don’t know when the 70-538 Implementing Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions exam or objectives list will be published. Since it’s DevOps and has Implementing in the title, I assume it’ll be a bit more on the Infrastructure side, but depending on how much they pull in VSTS into the content, it could be balanced between both Development and Infrastructure. We’ll have to wait and see. 🙂