70-473 Study Guide: Designing and Implementing Cloud Data Platform Solutions
The 70-473 Designing and Implementing Cloud Data Platform Solutions exam is one of the two Azure exams required to get your Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) Cloud Platform . This 70-473 study guide was created to help you find materials to study, and ace the exam. I will share both free and paid options, whether books, video training or simply links to articles and blog posts. I will not share any dumps as those are against the Microsoft Terms of Service, and by using dumps, we decrease the value of our certifications.
Certification Path
| Exam Name | Link to Exam on Microsoft Learning | Study Guide |
| Choose two exams from those below | ||
| 70-532 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions | ||
| 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions | 70-533 Study Guide: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions | |
| 70-534 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions | ||
| 70-473 Designing and Implementing Cloud Data Platform Solutions | 70-473 Study Guide: Designing and Implementing Cloud Data Platform Solutions | |
| 70-475 Designing and Implementing Big Data Analytics Solutions | 70-475 Study Guide: Designing and Implementing Big Data Analytics Solutions | |
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Books
| Pro SQL Server on Microsoft Azure Learn the basics of Microsoft Azure and see how SQL Server on Azure VMs (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and Azure SQL Databases (Platform-as-a-Service) work. This concise book shows you how to deploy, operate, and maintain your data using any one or a combination of these offerings along with your on-premise environment. Links:
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Video Training for the exam
NOTE: Pluralsight is a paid resource unlike Channel9 and Microsoft Virtual Academy which are free. The quality they provide is also superior because of all the quality checks they go through, and the instructors are one of the best in the industry. The Pluralsight courses have a link to where you can get a free trial and decide for yourself if paying a subscription or not is worth it, but the 10-day free trial should allow you to view all those courses for free.
 | Azure SQL Database for the SQL Server DBA Azure SQL Database is Microsoft’s Database as a Service offering. This course will help you take advantage of your existing SQL Server skills and learn about managing, high availability, and performance of this cloud first solution.
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| Azure SQL Data Warehouse: First Look Azure SQL Data Warehouse is Microsoft Azure’s Database as a Service offering. This course teaches the differences between this service and SQL Server, designing your database for the service, loading and migrating data, scaling and basic monitoring.
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| SQL Azure SQL Azure is Microsoft’s RDBMS for the cloud. This course shows how to use SQL Azure for applications that live in your department, in your datacenter, and in the cloud.
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| Cert Exam Prep: Exam 70-473: Cloud Data Platform Solutions This Certification Exam Prep session is designed for people experienced with Cloud Data Platforms who are interested in taking the 70-473 exam. Attendees of this session can expect to review the topics covered in this exam in a fast-paced format, as well as receive some valuable test taking techniques. Attendees leave with an understanding of how Microsoft certification works, what are the key topics covered in the exams, and an exhaustive look at resources for finalizing getting ready for the exam. The session is led by a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), experienced in delivering sessions on these topics. |
Instructor-led training (Microsoft Official Courses)
| Course 40441A: Designing and Implementing Cloud Data Platform Solutions (3 Days) The focus of this three-day instructor-led Microsoft Training course is on designing and implementing cloud data platform solutions with the Microsoft Data Platform by using SQL Server on-premises, hybrid and cloud data platform solutions. It describes how to design and implement and optimize workloads in hybrid scenarios with both on-premises and Microsoft Azure cloud-based solutions, and how to implement high availability and disaster recovery solutions. |
Articles / Blog Posts per objective <In Progress>
Design and implement database solutions for Microsoft SQL Server and SQL Database (20–25%)
- Design a hybrid SQL Server solution
- Design Geo/DR topology, design a data storage architecture, design a security architecture, design a data load strategy
- Implement SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines (VMs)
- Provision SQL Server in an Azure VM, configure firewall rules, configure and optimize storage, migrate an on-premises database to Microsoft Azure, configure and optimize VM sizes by workload
- Design a SQL Database solution
- Design a solution architecture, design Geo/DR topology, design a security architecture, design a data load strategy, determine the appropriate service tier
- Implement SQL Database
- Provision SQL Database, configure firewall rules, configure active geo-replication, migrate an on-premises database to SQL Database, configure for scale and performance
- Design and implement data warehousing on Azure
- Design a data warehousing solution on Azure, design a data load strategy and topology, configure SQL Data Warehouse, migrate an on-premises database to SQL Data Warehouse
Manage database management systems (DBMS) security (25–30%)
- Design and implement SQL Server Database security
- Configure firewalls; manage logins, users, and roles; assign permissions; configure auditing; configure transparent database encryption
- Implement Azure SQL Database security
- Configure firewalls; manage logins, users, and roles; assign permissions; configure auditing; configure row-level security; configure data encryption; configure data masking; configure Always Encrypted
Design for high availability, disaster recovery, and scalability (25–30%)
- Design and implement high availability solutions
- Design a high availability solution topology, implement high availability solutions between on-premises and Azure, design cloud-based backup solutions, implement backup and recovery strategies
- Design and implement scalable solutions
- Design a scale-out solution, implement multi-master scenarios with database replication, implement elastic scale for SQL Database
- Design and implement SQL Database data recovery
- Design a backup solution for SQL Database, implement self-service restore, copy and export databases
Monitor and manage database implementations on Azure (25–30%)
- Monitor and troubleshoot SQL Server VMs on Azure
- Monitor database and instance activity, monitor using dynamic management views (DMVs) and dynamic management functions (DMFs), monitor performance and scalability
- Monitor and troubleshoot SQL Database
- Monitor and troubleshoot SQL Database, monitor database activity, monitor using DMVs and DMFs, monitor performance and scalability
- Automate and manage database implementations on Azure
- Manage SQL Server in Azure VMs with PowerShell, manage Azure SQL Database with PowerShell, configure Automation and Runbooks
Additional Tips
I think the best thing that you can do after reading this, or even meanwhile, is to open a free Azure Trial (or a few), and play with those features, follow the tutorials and you shouldn’t have any problems with the exam!
Did I miss any cool links in this guide? Let me know in the comments!
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