Become a cloud pro by designing, deploying, and managing robust Azure solutions. Get hands-on with automation, cost management, and security. No setup, no cleanup, no hassle.

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This hands-on course empowers you with the skills to design, deploy, and manage robust cloud solutions on Microsoft Azure. Azure offers various services enabling organizations to scale up and accelerate their digital transformation. 

In this course, you’ll explore the core principles of cloud architecture and learn industry best practices. You’ll be introduced to cloud computing basics, followed by topics like SLAs, databases, app services, and VMs. Next, you’ll learn about various automation services like Azure WebJobs, Azure Service Bus, and Azure Queue Storage. Cost management and monitoring tools like Azure Log Analytics, Azure Dashboards, Application Insights, and Azure Monitor are also covered. The course discusses securing the data and VMs using tools and services like Microsoft Entra ID, IAM, and administrative units. 

After completing this course, you can complete Microsoft’s Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification and be ready for cloud and IT management and consulting roles.

Dhruv Kinger

SWE at ThrivePass || Project Reviewer, Mentor & Tutor at Udacity

Azure Cloud Solutions Architect Program

Congratulations on coming this far and completing the entire course! 🎉 We hope that you enjoyed the overall course and went through all the lectures, assessments, and projects in the course. 

# Summary

Let’s quickly recap what we‘ve covered in this course:

* **Cloud service models like IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS:** IaaS offers virtualized computing resources like VMs and storage, letting us manage OS and applications. PaaS provides a development environment with tools and frameworks for app creation, and SaaS delivers complete software apps via the internet. We only need to use them, and all the management is done by those who built them.

   Examples of the Azure services that set them in these different cloud models are #key# Azure Disk Storage: This provides scalable and high-performance storage for virtual machines, databases, and other applications. #key# in IaaS. #key# Azure App Service: This platform lets us build, deploy, and scale web apps quickly, abstracting away infrastructure management and enabling us to focus on coding. #key# in PaaS. #key#  Microsoft 365: It provides a suite of productivity software like Word, Excel, and Outlook, delivered as a service over the internet. #key# in SaaS. 

* **Azure Databases and Azure Storage containers:** Azure Databases offer managed services for a spectrum of data types, from relational to NoSQL, ensuring compatibility with diverse application requirements. Azure Storage containers provide a flexible way for managing and storing the various data objects in the Cloud. Understanding both these services helps us to design data architectures that drive innovation, scalability, and reliability. 

* **Azure App Service and Logic Apps:** Azure App Service is a PaaS offering from Microsoft Azure that allows us to build, deploy, and manage web applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
We can deploy web applications developed using various programming languages and frameworks, including .NET, Java, Node.js, Python, etc.

   Azure Logic Apps is a cloud-based service offering that enables us to automate workflows and integrate various applications, data sources, and services, without writing extensive code. Logic Apps seamlessly integrate with other Azure services, enabling us to create robust end-to-end solutions. 

* **Managing the Azure VMs:** We’ve learned to select appropriate VM sizes based on compute, memory, and storage needs, aligning them with workload demands to optimize cost and performance. We can use the expertise to monitor the VM performance, diagnose issues, and optimize resources. By using Azure Monitor and other tools, we can proactively identify bottlenecks, optimize resource allocation, and improve overall system efficiency.

* **Load balancers and NSGs:** Load balancers are responsible for managing the incoming network traffic across multiple servers or instances. They help us ensure high availability, scalability, and fault tolerance by evenly distributing workloads. Load balancers can be either hardware- or software-based and are configured to route traffic based on various algorithms. They play a crucial role in optimizing application performance and are a fundamental part of modern cloud deployments, enhancing reliability and performance.

* **Automated deployments using ARM Templates:** This refers to the practice of provisioning and configuring Azure resources and services in a systematic and repeatable manner through the use of Azure Resource Manager and ARM templates. ARM templates can be integrated into continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, allowing for the automated testing and deployment of infrastructure changes, ensuring a streamlined and efficient development process.

* **Azure WebJobs and Azure Queue Storage:** Azure WebJobs is a feature of Azure App Service that allows us to run the background tasks or scheduled jobs alongside with our web application. These background tasks can be written in various programming languages like C#, Python, Node.js, etc. 

   Azure Queue Storage is a messaging service provided by Azure Storage that allows asynchronous communication between different components of an application or between different applications. It allows us to decouple and scale the individual members of our application by sending messages between them. 

* **Cost estimations using TCO and Azure Pricing calculator:** Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate that calculates the total cost associated with owning and operating a particular IT infrastructure or technology solution over its entire life cycle. TCO analysis helps organizations understand the full cost implications of using cloud services compared to traditional on-premises solutions.

   The Azure Pricing calculator is a web-based tool to help organizations estimate the cost of using Azure services. It allows users to define their specific resource requirements, it generates the cost estimates for their Azure deployments. The Azure Pricing calculator offers a user-friendly interface that helps architects understand the cost implications of their cloud solutions.

* **Setting up budgets and customizing Azure dashboards:** It refers to the practice of tracking the threshold costs for our Azure resources and services. Budgets help organizations manage their cloud spending by providing visibility into cost trends and alerts when spending exceeds the predefined limits. Azure budgets allow us to monitor and track our cloud spending across various subscriptions, or resource groups, giving us a clear understanding of where our resources are allocated.

   Customizing Azure dashboards involves creating personalized, interactive dashboards within the Azure Portal that display relevant metrics, charts, and resources for our specific needs. Azure dashboards provide a centralized view of our Azure resources and can help us monitor and manage your cloud environment efficiently.

* **Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):** IAM is used to establish and manage digital identities for users, devices, and services within a computing environment, particularly in the cloud. It involves authentication, and authorization, of user accounts and their associated access permissions to ensure efficient resource utilization in the cloud.

   RBAC is a type of access control that assigns permissions and privileges to roles rather than individual users or entities. RBAC manages access management by defining roles, associating them with specific access rights, and then assigning users or entities to these roles based on their responsibilities. This allows organizations to enhance their security, simplify administration, and manage access within the cloud environment.

* **Azure Firewall and Azure Key Vault:** Azure Firewall is a cloud-based, fully managed network security service provided by Microsoft Azure. It offers features like application and network-level filtering, threat intelligence integration, and centralized policy management. It’s designed to secure our cloud-based applications and services by allowing or denying traffic based on predefined rules.

   Azure Key Vault is a secure, and fully managed service for managing cryptographic keys, secrets, and certificates used by cloud applications and services. It provides a centralized and secure location to store and manage sensitive information like API keys, connection strings, passwords, and encryption keys. It offers features such as access control and permissions management, key rotation, and integration with other Azure services and applications.

* **Azure Bastion:** Azure Bastion is a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS) offering by Microsoft Azure that provides secure and seamless Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell (SSH) access to virtual machines (VMs) in Azure virtual network. Azure Bastion eliminates the need for a public IP address, Network Security Group (NSG) rules, or a VPN connection to access Azure VMs, significantly enhancing the security posture of Azure environments.

* **Protection and monitoring using Microsoft Defender for Cloud:** Protection and monitoring using Microsoft Defender for Cloud refers to the ways to secure and safeguard cloud resources and workloads hosted on Microsoft Azure. Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a cloud-based security management solution that offers robust features for both proactive protection and continuous monitoring.

Recall the topics you’ve covered in this course.

Introduction to the Cloud Architect Program

Cloud Capabilities

Assessment 1: Cloud Concepts

Creating a Simple Web App with a Database and Storage Account

Virtual Machine Types

Automation

Assessment 2: Virtual Machines and Azure Automations

Cost Refining

Monitoring Efficiency

Assessment 3: Cost Refining and Monitoring Efficiency

Integrate Application Insights to the Azure Web App

Security Basics

Protection and Monitoring

Assessment 4: Protection and Monitoring

Conclusion

Wrap Up

Summary