AZ Landscape study guide
AZ Landscape · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
AZ Landscape is a breadth-first Azure exam: instead of drilling into a single workload, it asks you to reason across the whole platform - cloud concepts and the Azure architecture (regions, availability zones, resource hierarchy), compute and hosting models, networking and hybrid connectivity, storage and data movement, identity and security posture, governance and cost control, analytics, AI and integration services, and monitoring and resilience. It suits architects, consultants, and senior administrators who already touch several services and need to choose between them rather than configure one deeply. The AZ Landscape study guide has 8 sections and about 2,558 words.
01Cloud Concepts and the Azure Architecture Landscape
Azure is a consumption-based cloud platform. Candidates must distinguish IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, and understand the shared responsibility model: the provider secures the physical layer while the customer owns identity, data, and configuration.
321 words, about 2 min02Compute Services and Application Hosting Models
Azure compute spans infrastructure and platform models. Virtual Machines provide full OS control and are ideal for lift-and-shift.
357 words, about 2 min03Networking, Connectivity, and Hybrid Integration
A Virtual Network (VNet) is the isolation boundary for Azure networking. Subnets segment address space; Network Security Groups (NSGs) filter traffic by rules; Application Security Groups group VMs by workload.
317 words, about 2 min04Storage, Data Platform, and Data Movement Options
Azure Storage accounts provide Blob, File, Queue, Table, and Disk services. Blob storage is for unstructured objects; choose access tiers (hot, cool, cold, archive) based on access frequency.
326 words, about 2 min05Identity, Access, and Security Posture
Microsoft Entra ID is the cloud identity provider. A tenant is the identity boundary; subscriptions are billing and resource boundaries.
306 words, about 2 min06Governance, Cost Management, and Subscription Organization
Management groups organize subscriptions into a hierarchy for policy and access inheritance. Subscriptions are units of billing, quota, and scale.
313 words, about 2 min07Analytics, AI, and Integration Services Overview
Azure Synapse Analytics combines SQL pools, Spark, and pipelines for enterprise analytics. Azure Databricks provides a collaborative Apache Spark platform.
324 words, about 2 min08Monitoring, Resilience, and Operational Lifecycle
Azure Monitor is the central observability platform. Metrics are numeric time-series data; logs are stored in Log Analytics workspaces.
294 words, about 1 min