Azure Solution Architect

Course overview

Skills Measured

NOTE: The bullets that follow each of the skills measured are intended to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. This list is not definitive or exhaustive. NOTE: Most questions cover features that are General Availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used

Design Monitoring (10-15%)

Design for cost optimization

• recommend a solution for cost management and cost reporting
• recommend solutions to minimize costs

Design a solution for logging and monitoring

• determine levels and storage locations for logs
• plan for integration with monitoring tools including Azure Monitor and Azure Sentinel
• recommend appropriate monitoring tool(s) for a solution
• choose a mechanism for event routing and escalation
• recommend a logging solution for compliance requirements

Design Identity and Security (25-30%)

Design authentication

• Recommend a solution for single-sign on
• Recommend a solution for authentication
• Recommend a solution for Conditional Access, including multi-factor authentication
• Recommend a solution for network access authentication
• Recommend a solution for a hybrid identity including Azure AD Connect, Azure AD Connect cloud sync and Azure AD Connect Health
• Recommend a solution for user self-service
• Recommend and implement a solution for B2B integration

Design authorization

• Choose an authorization approach
• Recommend a hierarchical structure that includes management groups, subscriptions and resource groups
• Recommend an access management solution including RBAC policies, access reviews, role assignments, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Azure AD Identity Protection, Just In Time (JIT) access

Design governance

• recommend a strategy for tagging
• recommend a solution for using Azure Policy
• recommend a solution for using Azure Blueprints
• recommend a solution that leverages Azure Resource Graph

Design security for applications

• recommend a solution that includes Key Vault
• recommend a solution that includes managed identities
• recommend a solution for integrating applications into Azure AD

Design Data Storage (15-20%)

Design a solution for databases

• Select an appropriate data platform based on requirements
• recommend database service tier sizing
• recommend a solution for database scalability
• recommend a solution for encrypting data at rest, data in transmission, and data in use

Design data integration

•  recommend a data flow to meet business requirements
• recommend a solution for data integration, including Azure Data Factory, Azure
• Databricks, Azure Data Lake, Azure Synapse Analytics

Select an appropriate storage account

• choose between storage tiers
• recommend a storage access solution
• recommend storage management tools

Design Business Continuity (10-15%)

Design a solution for backup and recovery

• recommend a recovery solution for Azure hybrid and on-premises workloads that meets recovery objectives (RTO, RLO, RPO)
• design and Azure Site Recovery solution
• recommend a solution for recovery in different regions
• recommend a solution for geo-redundancy of workloads
• recommend a solution for Azure Backup management
• design a solution for data archiving and retention

Design for high availability

• recommend a solution for application and workload redundancy, including compute,  database, and storage
• recommend a solution for autoscaling
• identify resources that require high availability
• identify storage types for high availability

Design Infrastructure (25-30%)

Design a compute solution

• recommend a solution for compute provisioning
• determine appropriate compute technologies, including virtual machines, App Services, Service Fabric, Azure Functions, Azure Virtual Desktop, Batch, HPC and containers
• recommend a solution for containers
• recommend a solution for automating compute management

Design a network solution

• recommend a network architecture (hub and spoke, Virtual WAN)
• recommend a solution for network addressing and name resolution
• recommend a solution for network provisioning
• recommend a solution for network security including Private Link, firewalls, gateways, network segmentation (perimeter networks/DMZs/NVAs)
• recommend a solution for network connectivity to the Internet, on-premises networks, and other Azure virtual networks
• recommend a solution for automating network management
• recommend a solution for load balancing and traffic routing

Design an application architecture

• recommend a microservices architecture including Event Grid, Event Hubs, Service Bus,
• Azure Queue Storage, Logic Apps, Azure Functions, Service Fabric, AKS, Azure App Configuration and webhooks
• recommend an orchestration solution for deployment and maintenance of applications including ARM templates, Azure Automation, Azure Pipelines, Logic Apps, or Azure Functions
• recommend a solution for API integration

Design migrations

• assess and interpret on-premises servers, data, and applications for migration
• recommend a solution for migrating applications and VMs
• recommend a solution for migration of databases
• determine migration scope, including redundant, related, trivial, and outdated data
• recommend a solution for migrating data (Storage Migration Service, Azure Data Box, Azure File Sync-based migration to hybrid file server)