Azure, is a cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers. It provides software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and supports many different programming languages, tools, and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems. Azure is the largest commercial cloud vendor by revenue, although that designation stems in part from the company's "power of incumbency in Office 365 Commercial and Microsoft 365," which may artificially inflate the company's "pure cloud" revenue totals.

Azure, announced at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October 2008, went by the internal project codename "Project Red Dog", and formally released in February 2010, as Windows Azure before being renamed to Microsoft Azure on March 25, 2014.

Languages: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Spanish, German, French

Retirement date: none

This exam measures your ability to describe the following concepts: cloud concepts; core Azure services; core solutions and management tools on Azure; general security and network security features; identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features; and Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements.

Candidates for this exam should have foundational knowledge of cloud services and how those services are provided with Microsoft Azure. The exam is intended for candidates who are just beginning to work with cloud-based solutions and services or are new to Azure.

Azure Fundamentals exam is an opportunity to prove knowledge of cloud concepts, Azure services, Azure workloads, security and privacy in Azure, as well as Azure pricing and support. Candidates should be familiar with the general technology concepts, including concepts of networking, storage, compute, application support, and application development.

Azure Fundamentals can be used to prepare for other Azure role-based or specialty certifications, but it is not a prerequisite for any of them.