Azure · Fundamentals & AZ-900
What the cloud is.How Azure is built.What it costs.
A visual path through cloud computing and Azure: what the cloud actually is, who manages which layer, where your resources run, and what drives the bill. Aligned to the AZ-900 exam objectives.
Certification goalAZ-900 · Azure FundamentalsContoso's online shop
A simple three-tier application running on Contoso's own servers.
On-premises datacenter
Web frontend
- Browse products
- Add to cart
Web serverBackend
- Payment processing
- Inventory management
Application serverDatabase
- Product details
- Stock quantities
Database server
NetworkConnects the servers so the three tiers can communicate.Contoso is a fictional company used in Microsoft examples. We will follow this same shop throughout the lessons.
Microsoft's Contoso overviewStart your Azure journey
Twelve lessons, from cloud basics to running a workload in Azure.
Microsoft AzureContoso in the cloud
One Contoso shop: the web frontend, backend and database communicate inside an Azure region.
- East USServing requests
- West EuropeServing requests
- Southeast AsiaServing requests
Illustrative layout, not geographic placement. Data residency, replication and spare capacity require planning. Recovery takes time; asynchronous replication can lose recent writes.
Web frontend
Browse productsAdd to cart
Backend
Payment processingInventory management
Database
Product detailsStock quantities
Microsoft Azure
Cloud Concepts01 · 8 steps
Cloud Service Models02 · 7 steps
Organize Your Resources03 · 7 steps
Regions and Availability Zones04 · 9 steps
Azure Compute Options05 · 8 stepsAzure Networking Basics06 · 9 steps
Azure Storage Basics07 · 9 steps
Identity and Security Basics08 · 9 steps
Cost Management and Tags09 · 8 steps
Governance and Compliance10 · 8 steps
Manage and Deploy Azure11 · 8 steps
Monitoring Tools12 · 9 stepsGo deeper on Microsoft Learn
Each explainer is grounded in official documentation. Open the source for any stop.