What career paths can a person choose after passing the Microsoft AZ-304 exam?

The professionals who want to boost their career in the field of Microsoft Azure should consider obtaining the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. There are many job roles that they can explore and there is also room for rapid career growth with this certificate. Some positions that these specialists can apply for include a Microsoft Solution Architect, a Cloud Architect, a Product Manager, a Senior Azure Architect, an O365 Solution Architect, a .Net Solution Architect, etc. The potential salary averages $110,000 while some can earn as high as $170,000 per year.

Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-304

Design Infrastructure: 25-30%

• Design network solutions: the individuals should be able to recommend solutions for name resolution and network addressing, network provisioning, network security, and network connectivity to on-premises networks, internet, and other Azure VNs.
• Design migration: this requires one’s expertise in assessing and interpreting on-premises applications, data, and servers for migration; recommending solutions for migrating VMs and applications; recommending solutions for database migration.
• Design compute solutions: the test takers need the relevant skills in recommending solutions for compute provisioning; determining the relevant compute technologies, such as VMs, App Services, Azure Functions, Service Fabric, containers, and Virtual Desktop; recommending solutions for containing and automating compute management.
• Design application architectures: this covers the examinees’ skills in recommending micro-services architectures, including Service Bus, Event Grid, Storage Queues, Event Hubs, Logic Apps, webhooks, and Azure Functions. It also covers their competency in recommending orchestration solutions for deploying applications, such as Logic Apps, Azure Functions, or ARM templates. The students also need competence in recommending an appropriate solution for API integration.

Jobs, Responsibilities, and Pay

After acing your AZ-304 exam and the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Expert certification has been achieved, you can now apply to work as an Azure solutions architect in a company of your choosing. Responsibilities are such as guiding stakeholders and interpreting requirements for business into cloud solutions that meet scalability, security, and reliability. Your role is to perform while cooperating with Cloud DBAs, administrators, and clients to make it possible to execute the needed solutions. The career paths involved include an IT director, senior solutions architect, and enterprise architect. Roughly, the median earnings for these positions are $119,412 as PayScale.com divulges. To be specific, the salary for IT directors will be $120,874, and that for senior solutions architects will be $135,436. Additionally, enterprise architects will be earning $133,720 per year.