Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service that gives software, infrastructure, and platform as a service and supports various programming languages, frameworks, and tools, including third-party and Microsoft-specific software and systems. The fact that it’s a flexible platform makes it a great choice and is why 95% of Fortune 500 companies trust their business on Azure.
With such prevalence, it’s not surprising that Azure certified developers, cloud architects, and administrators have been in demand as more companies have started using Azure to shift their on-premise apps and software. By taking the time to learn Microsoft Azure, you can open up a whole new range of career opportunities both in the corporate world as well as in the startup ecosystem.
That’s why I’ve put together a guide to the best Microsoft Azure classes online, ranking them on a variety of factors that include the quality of the course content, ease of use and accessibility, value for money, teacher experience and expertise, and more (click here to learn about our entire Editorial Process & Methodology for product reviews).
What are the Best Microsoft Azure Classes Online?
Here are our picks for the top classes to earn Microsoft Azure certifications and training experience…
1. Azure DevOps Fundamentals for Beginners (Udemy)
Azure DevOps Fundamentals for Beginners | Udemy
Discover the essentials of planning, managing, and deploying your initial Azure DevOps application with practical, hands-on demos and real-world use cases in this excellent online course.
Price
Duration
3 hrs 24 mins
This class is an excellent resource for anyone looking to dive into the world of Azure DevOps. Its comprehensive and practical approach to teaching makes it one of my favorites I’ve come across.
From the beginning, the course is designed to be accessible to those new to DevOps concepts, making no assumptions about prior knowledge. This approach is particularly beneficial for beginners, as it eases them into the complex world of DevOps with a clear and structured learning path.
The course covers essential topics such as creating an Azure DevOps organization, aligning work items using Agile or Scrum processes, integrating code repositories with GitHub, and understanding the basic vocabulary of DevOps, including Continuous Implementation and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD).
What sets this course apart is its hands-on approach. The instructor, Brian Culp, guides students through practical demos and use cases, allowing them to apply what they’ve learned in real-world scenarios. This practical experience is invaluable, as it not only reinforces the theoretical knowledge but also provides a deeper understanding of how Azure DevOps can be applied in various project settings.
This course is great for IT professionals who don’t have an experience in DevOps and for people who are product owners or project managers and want to understand how CD/CI workflow is used by developers. It’s also good for novices as well who just want to check if DevOps is a good career for them or not.
Another thing I really like is that the course is updated and relevant, so you know it’s in line with the latest trends and practices in the industry.
The instructor’s expertise and engaging teaching style make complex concepts easier to grasp, and the course is laid out in a way that ensures that each new concept builds upon the previous one, creating a cohesive and comprehensive learning experience.
What You Will Learn
- Create an Azure DevOps Organization.
- Align the work items of Azure DevOps with the help of Scrum, Agile, or other basic work procedures.
- Integrate a code of Azure DevOps repository with GitHub.
- Clone and Fork code with the help of various tools.
- Understand the vocabulary of DevOps such as what it is and why it is important.
- Understand how pipelines will be facilitating Continuous Deployment and Continuous Implementation.
- Commit changes in the code and track to pull requests.
- Push a code Repo from the command line of an IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
2. AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam Prep (Udemy)
AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam Prep | Udemy
Master the basics of Azure and earn your certification with this comprehensive beginner's AZ-900 course, complete with a practice test!
Price
Duration
4 hrs and 47 mins.
This is a good class for anyone looking to get started in Azure and cloud computing.
The course is really built for beginners, making it accessible to a wide range of learners, including those with non-technical backgrounds. It starts with the basics of cloud computing and gradually builds up to more complex concepts, ensuring a solid foundation in Azure services and solutions.
One advantage over a lot of other Azure courses is that this course is continually updated, which means it stays relevant with the latest trends and changes in Azure.
One of the things that really makes this course unique and appealing is the inclusion of a practice test, which is super useful for those preparing for the Microsoft AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals certification exam. This practice test, along with the course’s detailed lectures, helps solidify the knowledge gained and boosts confidence in taking the actual exam.
Additionally, the course is taught by Scott Duffy, a well-known and respected instructor in the field of cloud computing and Azure. His teaching style is clear and engaging, making complex topics easy to understand. This, combined with the course’s interactive elements like quizzes and a downloadable study guide, creates an effective learning environment that caters to different learning styles.
What You Will Learn
- Introduction to Azure storage services architecture.
- Creating groups of Virtual Network and network security.
- Introduction to computing building blocks like the creation of virtual machines, and availability sets, storage.
- Azure app services building blocks like creating and managing mobile applications and website applications.
- Azure database services like creating and managing the SQL database
- Delivering big data solutions
- Deliver App integration
- Introduction to security and safety services on Azure.
- Services like Monitoring and Diagnostics.
- Azure infrastructure in the form of a code.
- Introduction of Azure DevOps.
3. Azure Kubernetes Service with Azure DevOps and Terraform (Udemy)
Azure Kubernetes Service with Azure DevOps and Terraform | Udemy
This course offers an in-depth guide to mastering Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure DevOps, and Terraform, equipping learners with practical skills in deploying and managing robust applications on Azure.
Price
Duration
27 hrs and 29 minutes.
This is another highly recommended course for expert developers who are willing to master Azure. In this course, you will get to know the most important tools and technologies of DevOps like Docker, Azure Disks, Kubernetes, Terraform, AKS, DevOps, ACR, Active Directory, Ingress, Virtual Nodes, and DNS Zones.
This course is perfect for Azure Architects or Developers who want to be an expert at Azure Kubernetes Service for running apps on Kubernetes.
The best thing about this course is that it contains hands-on experience with detailed explanations which helps you understand what, how, and why parts of every concept.
What You Will Learn
- Building Azure AKS Production grade clusters with the help of Azure AKS CLI.
- Basics of Terraform and creating terraform manifests to provision Azure AKS Production grade clusters.
- Provisioning of Azure AKS Cluster with the help of Azure DevOps and Terraform.
- 30+ concepts of Kubernetes and use 21 services of Azure combined with Azure AKS.
- Use DevOps concepts with Azure DevOps CI pipelines and CD pipelines.
- Kubernetes Fundamentals in declarative and imperative approaches.
- Learn using ACR combined with AKS in three different ways namely ACR Attach, on Virtual Noces, using service principal.
- Learn how to enable autoscaling features like Cluster Autoscaler and HPA.
- Learn Docker fundamentals by using use cases such as downloading an image from Docker Hub and opening it on a local desktop and building an image locally, testing and posting to Docker Hub.
- Learn many Kubectl commands during the process.
4. Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (PluralSight)
Price
Get access to this course and others with a Premium plan for $45 per month (or $37.42/month when billed annually). Try Pluralsight free for 10 days!
Duration
4 hrs 57 minutes.
This is a great course from Pluralsight that teaches you Microsoft Azure fundamentals from the ground up. This course will introduce you to another world of cloud computing and how to build on an Azure platform.
You will learn about Windows Azure computing, store, SQL Azure, and cloud computing tradeoffs. This course will also help you understand the limitations and constraints put by the cloud computing model that is offered by the Windows Azure Platform currently.
Matt, the owner of this course, is a true Azure expert and has a knack for making complex concepts easier to understand which helps immensely when learning a subject like cloud computing.
What You Will Learn
- Introduction of Microsoft Azure
- Microsoft Azure fundamentals
- Architecture and Tools of Microsoft Azure
- Roles of Windows Azure
- Storage of Windows Azure, mainly its tables and queues
- Blobs and drives of Azure
- SQL Azure
- Shifting a website application to Microsoft Azure
5. Microsoft Azure: The Big Picture (PluralSight)
Price
Get access to this course and others for $29 per month (or $16.58/month when billed annually). Try Pluralsight free for 10 days!
Duration
4 hrs 37 min in total.
Microsoft Azure is a collection of services that help in building apps in the cloud. This is one of the best beginner courses of Azure on Pluralsight, which is a great online platform for developers and programmers.
In this course, Microsoft Azure: The Big Picture, you will be understanding the fundamental knowledge to start planning solutions with the help of Microsoft Azure. Firstly, you will be learning cloud computing and various ways of running your application code.
Then, you will discover data processing, storage, and analysis capabilities in Microsoft Azure. And finally, you will explore creating networks such as integrating, managing, and securing your apps and developing with the use of Azure.
When you finish learning this course, you will have enough knowledge and skills of Microsoft Azure that you can start working on your cloud solutions immediately.
What You Will Learn
- Understanding the basics of the Microsoft Azure platform
- Computing or Running code
- Processing and Storing data
- Integrating Apps
- Analyzing data
- Networking in Microsoft Azure.
- Monitoring and Managing things
- Using Security and Identity
- Considering other services
6. Configuring Virtual Machines in Microsoft Azure (PluralSight)
Price
Get access to this course and others for $29 per month (or $16.58/month when billed annually). Try Pluralsight free for 10 days! (see our Pluralsight review for more info)
Duration
1 hr 42 mins.
In this course, you will be learning how to configure Linux and Windows server virtual machines in Azure for better availability, security, and performance. Firstly, you will learn how to manage the configurations of Virtual machines like storage, extensions, and networking.
Then, you will explore how to increase the VM availability, involving sets and zones of availability and Azure Advisor. Finally, you will get to know how to add virtual machine security in Azure including RBAC and Azure Security Centre.
When you get done with this course, you will have a proper understanding of Azure Virtual Machine Configuration which will help you in moving forward in your career as a Microsoft Azure solution Architect or an administrator.
What You Will Learn
- Managing Virtual Machine Configuration.
- Managing Virtual Machine Availability.
- Managing Virtual Machine Security.
7. Azure Data Engineer Technologies for Beginners [Bundle] (Udemy)
Price
Regularly $109.99 but often goes on sale
Duration
33 hrs and 39 minutes.
As its title tells, this course is perfect for people who want to be a Data Engineer and want to work on the Azure Cloud platform. Microsoft Azure Data Engineering is a quickly growing and in-demand field for people who practice Data Science.
In this course, you will be learning about Data Technologies of Azure like Azure SQL Database, Data Factory, Cosmos DB, HDInsight, Data Lake, Synapse Analytics, and Databricks.
This is a huge course with around 34 hours of content and more than 50 articles to learn about the important data technologies you should be learning in Azure.
What You Will Learn
- Introducing Azure Cloud Computing.
- Introducing Data Engineer Profile.
- SQL Database in Azure.
- SQL Database Warehouse
- Data Lake in Azure.
- NoSQL Databases
- Cosmos Database
- Streaming Analytics
- Databricks
8. Microsoft Azure – Beginner’s Guide + AZ-900 (Udemy)
Price
Duration
15 hrs and 4 mins.
Cloud computing is going to be a huge thing, just look around yourself and see how the digital world has been evolving. Big companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are working for the goal of letting users embrace cloud computing. Microsoft has made big changes in this domain, and it is no surprise why they are the leaders in Cloud Computing.
This course has been made for helping students in getting familiar with the cloud platform known as Microsoft Azure. In this course, you will be learning how to create a free account on Azure, how to work with VM, how to work with Azure storage, and many more things.
So, don’t get left behind. Digital world transformation is your current need and its backbone is Cloud computing!
What You Will Learn
- About Azure Virtual Machines.
- About Azure Networking.
- About Azure Storage.
- Understanding the concepts of Cloud.
- Understanding security, privacy, trust, and compliance.
- Understanding the pricing and support of Azure.
9. Azure Infrastructure Fundamentals (Coursera)
Price
Free to audit, paid upgrades available
Duration
30 hours
Microsoft Azure provides SaaS, PaaS, and laaS. It supports various programming languages and frameworks. You can use this platform alone or in a multi-vendor environment.
This course from Learnquest focuses on the basics of Azure Infrastructure including Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). It starts with the knowledge of the Azure subscription system, configuring safety, and storage. Then later, you will be building virtual machines and VNETS to begin working.
What You Will Learn
- Manage and Configure subscriptions of Azure.
- Manage and Create identities and resource groups.
- Configure and Manage backups and storage.
- Create and manage virtual networks and virtual machines.
- Managing Subscriptions.
- Managing Resource Groups.
- Managing Azure AD Identity.
- Storage in Azure.
- Virtual Networks
- Virtual Machines
Also, this course has subtitles of 9 various languages which include: English, Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
10. Implementing Microsoft Azure Backup (PluralSight)
Price
Get access to this course and others for $29 per month (or $16.58/month when billed annually). Try Pluralsight free for 10 days!
Duration
2 hrs and 9 minutes.
Backing up the data of your company is essential for every company. MS Azure Backup provides a convenient and great solution for protecting corporate assets.
In this course, you will gain the capability to use the cloud for all your needs related to backup. Firstly, you will be learning how to set up the recovery services vaults.
Then, you will be discovering how to backup your Azure IaaS VM and your servers and workloads which are on-premises. Finally, you will learn how to use the Backup Server of MS Azure. When you are done with this course, you will have the knowledge and skills of using Azure Backup that will help in protecting the crucial assets of your company.
What You Will Learn
- Configuring the Recovery Services Vault of MS Azure.
- Using the backup of Azure laaS VM.
- Using the Backup Agent
- Using the Backup Server
- Managing the Backup
11. Microsoft Azure SQL (Coursera)
Price
Free to audit, paid upgrades available
Duration
Approximately 7 hours
In this course, you will be learning the basics of database concepts in the cloud, getting basic skills in cloud data, and enhancing your knowledge of cloud data services with the help of Microsoft Azure.
You will be exploring relational data offerings, deploying and provisioning relational databases, and querying relational data with the help of cloud data solutions on Azure. You will learn about SQL and see how it is used to maintain and query data in a database and the various dialects available.
This course is perfect for professionals in the IT field or some other related field who want to learn the basic concepts of databases in a cloud environment. Also, it is the second course in the series of five courses to help you prepare for the Exam DP-900 MS Azure Data Fundamentals.
If you want to take this course successfully, you should have basic knowledge of computers and proficiency in the English Language. Successful students of this course started off with basic computing skills and gradually navigated their way upwards.
What You Will Learn
- Relational data services in MS Azure.
- The characteristics of relational data.
- Exploring, Deploying, and Querying relational data.
- Types of NoSQL and non-relational databases.
- Types of non-relational data.
Final Thoughts
As the world becomes more and more connected, the need for cloud computing skills is only going to increase.
Microsoft Azure is one of the leading cloud computing platforms, and taking classes online can help you gain the skills you need to be successful in this rapidly growing field. When you learn Microsoft Azure, you can build a strong foundation for building your career in cloud computing.
Remember, most of these course providers offer free trial periods, so you can check out classes at no cost and gain valuable skills to take your career to the next level.
Have any questions about the best online Microsoft Azure courses? Leave a comment below and we’ll help.