AZ-300 – Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Exam – December 2019 Updates

As you may have heard, Microsoft recently made some changes to the AZ-300 course curriculum which you can download at https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VzwB 

To summarize and save you going through the entire doc, below you’ll find curriculum changes and what it means for the AZ-300 Skylines Academy course:  

MODIFIED: View alerts in Azure Monitor 
This is a change to Azure monitor but was already part of the course. Make sure you continue to enhance your knowledge around monitoring and alerting. 

MODIFIED: Utilize log queries in Azure Monitor
This has been renamed from Log Analytics and is still covered in the Skylines Academy AZ-300 course. I highly recommend you check out these lectures and demos as they will be immensely help in your job as an Azure Admin. 

NEW: Visualize diagnostics data using Azure Monitor Workbooks 
This is a new add and requires you to understand Azure Monitor Workbooks (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/usage-workbooks). These workbooks allow you to combine text, queries, metrics and other data into complete reports for consumption. We will look to provide a new video on this in the future. Please make sure to read the documentation linked to ensure your understanding of this topic. 

MODIFIED: Storage - Implement Azure AD Authentication
This is a new update focusing on the ability to use Azure AD Authentication for Storage. This is covered in the updated AZ Copy v10 demo. I also suggest you review the following documentation section https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-auth-aad. 

MODIFIED: Configure Virtual Machine Size 
This was most likely added for clarification. Virtual Machine sizing is covered in the course already. 

NEW: Implement Dedicated Hosts 
This is a new add focusing on the utilization of dedicated hosts which many customers use now when they don’t want to be on shared infrastructure, or for various licensing considerations. While we get a new video prepped for this piece, please check out the documentation at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/virtual-machines/dedicated-host/. 

REMOVED: NSG Tagging
This section has been removed from the curriculum. Any references to it in lectures/demos will remain. 

REMOVED: Configure Enterprise State Roaming
This section has been removed from the curriculum. Any references to it in lectures/demos will remain in the course.

MODIFIED: Implement solutions that use virtual machines (VMs) -

• Provision VMs 

• Create ARM Templates 

• Configure Azure Disk Encryption for VMs 

• Implement Azure Backup for VMs 

All of these areas were previously covered in the Skylines Academy courses and assumed to be relevant. No changes expected to the course, and please ensure you understand them going into the exam. 

REMOVED: Implement Application Load Balancing 
This section has been removed, but given how core it is to Azure Architects, we will leave the training in the course here. It may be that Microsoft is moving this section to a new networking focused  exam like AWS and GCP. 

MODIFIED – Critical: Server Migration 
This section has been modified to remove ASR and focus on Azure Migrate. We will work to update videos in this section to avoid confusion. This is a high priority update and will aim to be out in Q1 2020. 

NEW: Configure Virtual WAN 
New module on Virtual WAN will be created to coincide with this update. You can find a great tutorial from Microsoft at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-wan/virtual-wan-site-to-site-portal while you wait for this update. 

MODIFIED/REMOVED: Azure Container Service 
ACS appears to have been removed from the curriculum with a focus on AKS. This is already the focus area of the training course but we will review for any key updates in Q1 2020. 

NEW: Implement Authentication 

• Implement OAuth2 Auth 

• Implement Managed Identities for Azure resources Service Principal authentication 

This is an updated piece of the curriculum and we will look to provide new content on this ASAP. Please review the authentication scenarios  documentation until then - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/authentication-scenarios 

NEW: Create Solutions that use Cosmos DB 
We do have a section on Cosmos DB in AZ-301. I would suggest viewing those videos until we circle back around to update them in AZ-300. You can also refer to the Cosmos DB documentation - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/introduction 

NEW: Create Solutions that use a relational DB 
Just like Cosmos DB, this is currently included in the AZ-301 course. We will work to update this section in AZ-300 as well going forward. You can reference the documentation at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/ 

Summary: 

Overall these changes are positive for the AZ-300 exam. I’m not sure I agree with dropping the application load balancing, but I expect we will see a network cert come out soon that uses that question set. The major areas that are new focus around authentication, Azure SQL, and Cosmos DB. 

We will look to get video updates out ASAP. Thanks for your understanding and please utilization the Azure docs to prepare for your exam in the meanwhile. 

Good luck!  
Nick Colyer