The 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification exam is being released as a replacement for the older 70-534 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions exam. In the past Microsoft has simply updated the exam objectives of the 70-534 exam periodically over time. Although, this update is a significant update to the exam and they’ve decided to change the exam number to better signify the larger shift in skills measured on the exam.

The exam objectives listed in this post for the 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification exam are “tentative” as the exam hasn’t been officially released yet. You should expect these details to updated / changed when Microsoft does release the exam.

Currently, the 70-535 exam is scheduled to be made available on November 30, 2017. After that date you will no longer be able to register for the older 70-534 exam.

Exam Target Audience

The 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification exam is targeted towards Solutions Architects or Software Architects. This this is an architecture exam, and as such does focus a bit higher level than the Developing Azure Solutions (70-532) and Implementing Azure Solutions (70-533) exams. This is fitting, since when working as an Architect, you need to have a better understanding of how the various technologies within Microsoft Azure work; including how they can be configured to work with one another. As a result this exam does not cover as much of the lower level, development or implementation details as the other two exams. It also has a greater emphasis at analyzing solution requirements and enterprise scenarios with architecture case studies to test your ability to design an appropriate solution using Azure services.

Skills Measured

Here is a level list of the “tentative” skills and objectives measured on this exam. The percentages next to each represents the number of questions on the exam are in each category.

These objectives listed are “tentative” since Microsoft hasn’t officially released or made the 70-535 exam available yet. Microsoft has announced a “tentative” list of exam objectives. This post will be updated when more final objective information is released.

Design Compute Infrastructure (20-25%)

• Design solutions using virtual machines
  • Design VM deployments by leveraging availability sets, fault domains, and update domains in Azure; use web app for containers; design VM Scale Sets; design for compute-intensive tasks using Azure Batch; define a migration strategy from cloud services; recommend use of Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery
• Design solutions for server less computing
  • Use Azure Functions to implement event-driven actions; design for serverless computing using Azure Container Instances; design application solutions by using Azure Logic Apps, Azure Functions, or both; determine when to use API management service
• Design micro services-based solutions
  • Determine when a container-based solution is appropriate; determine when container-orchestration is appropriate; determine when Azure Service Fabric (ASF) is appropriate; determine when Azure Functions is appropriate; determine when to use API management service; determine when Web API is appropriate; determine which platform is appropriate for container orchestration; consider migrating existing assets versus cloud native deployment; design lifecycle management strategies
• Design web applications
  • Design Azure App Service Web Apps; design custom web API; secure Web API; design Web Apps for scalability and performance; design for high availability using Azure Web Apps in multiple regions; determine which App service plan to use; design Web Apps for business continuity; determine when to use Azure App Service Environment (ASE); design for API apps; determine when to use API management service; determine when to use Web Apps on Linux; determine when to use a CDN; determine when to use a cache, including Azure Redis cache
• Create compute-intensive applications
  • Design high-performance computing (HPC) and other compute-intensive applications using Azure Services; determine when to use Azure Batch; design stateless components to accommodate scale; design lifecycle strategy for Azure Batch

Design Data Implementations (15-20%)

• Design for Azure Storage solutions
  • Determine when to use Azure Blob Storage, blob tiers, Azure Files, disks, and StorSimple
• Design for Azure Data Services
  • Determine when to use Data Catalog, Azure Data Factory, SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Data Lake Analytics, Azure Analysis Services, and Azure HDInsight
• Design for relational database storage
  • Determine when to use Azure SQL Database and SQL Server Stretch Database; design for scalability and features; determine when to use Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL; design for HA/DR, geo-replication; design a backup and recovery strategy
• Design for NoSQL storage
  • Determine when to use Azure Redis Cache, Azure Table Storage, Azure Data Lake, Azure Search, Time Series Insights
• Design for CosmosDB storage
  • Determine when to use MongoDB API, DocumentDB API, Graph API, Azure Tables API; design for cost, performance, data consistency, availability, and business continuity

Design Networking Implementation (15-20%)

• Design Azure virtual networks
  • Design solutions that use Azure networking services: design for load balancing using Azure Load Balancer and Azure Traffic Manager; define DNS, DHCP, and IP strategies; determine when to use Azure Application Gateway; determine when to use multi-node application gateways, Traffic Manager and load balancers
• Design external connectivity for Azure Virtual Networks
  • Determine when to use Azure VPN, ExpressRoute and Virtual Network Peering architecture and design; determine when to use User Defined Routes (UDRs); determine when to use VPN gateway site-to-site failover for ExpressRoute
• Design security strategies
  • Determine when to use network virtual appliances; design a perimeter network (DMZ); determine when to use a Web Application Firewall (WAF), Network Security Group (NSG), and virtual network service tunneling
• Design connectivity for hybrid applications
  • Design connectivity to on-premises data from Azure applications using Azure Relay Service, Azure Data Management Gateway for Data Factory, Azure On-Premises Data Gateway, Hybrid Connections, or Azure Web App’s virtual private network (VPN) capability; identify constraints for connectivity with VPN; identify options for joining VMs to domains

Design Security and Identity Solutions (20-25%)

• Design an identity solution
  • Design AD Connect synchronization; design federated identities using Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS); design solutions for Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA); design an architecture using Active Directory on-premises and Azure Active Directory (AAD); determine when to use Azure AD Domain Services; design security for Mobile Apps using AAD
• Secure resources by using identity providers
  • Design solutions that use external or consumer identity providers such as Microsoft account, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo; determine when to use Azure AD B2C and Azure AD B2B; design mobile apps using AAD B2C or AAD B2B
• Design a data security solution
  • Design data security solutions for Azure services; determine when to use Azure Storage encryption, Azure Disk Encryption, Azure SQL Database security capabilities, and Azure Key Vault; design for protecting secrets in ARM templates using Azure Key Vault; design for protecting application secrets using Azure Key Vault; design a solution for managing certificates using Azure Key Vault; design solutions that use Azure AD Managed Service Identity
• Design a mechanism of governance and policies for administering Azure resources
  • Determine when to use Azure RBAC standard roles and custom roles; define an Azure RBAC strategy; determine when to use Azure resource policies; determine when to use Azure AD Privileged Identity Management; design solutions that use Azure AD Managed Service Identity; determine when to use HSM-backed keys
• Manage security risks by using an appropriate security solution
  • Identify, assess, and mitigate security risks by using Azure Security Center, Operations Management Suite Security and Audit solutions, and other services; determine when to use Azure AD Identity Protection; determine when to use Advanced Threat Detection; determine an appropriate endpoint protection strategy

Design Solutions by using Platform Services (10-15%)

• Design for Artificial Intelligence Services
  • Determine when to use the appropriate Cognitive Services, Azure Bot Service, Azure Machine Learning, and other categories that fall under cognitive AI
• Design for IoT
  • Determine when to use Stream Analytics, IoT Hubs, Event Hubs, real-time analytics, Time Series Insights, IoT Edge, Notification Hubs, Event Grid, and other categories that fall under IoT
• Design messaging solution architectures
  • Design a messaging architecture; determine when to use Azure Storage Queues, Azure Service Bus, Azure Event Hubs, Event Grid, Azure Relay, Azure Functions, and Azure Logic Apps; design a push notification strategy for Mobile Apps; design for performance and scale
• Design for media service solutions
  • Define solutions using Azure Media Services, video indexer, video API, computer vision API, preview, and other media related services

Design for Operations (10-15%)

• Design an application monitoring and alerting strategy
  • Determine the appropriate Microsoft products and services for monitoring applications on Azure; define solutions for analyzing logs and enabling alerts using Azure Log Analytics; define solutions for analyzing performance metrics and enabling alerts using Azure Monitor; define a solution for monitoring applications and enabling alerts using Application Insights
• Design a platform monitoring and alerting strategy
  • Determine the appropriate Microsoft products and services for monitoring Azure platform solutions; define a monitoring solution using Azure Health, Azure Advisor, and Activity Log; define a monitoring solution for Azure Networks using Log Analytics and Network Watcher service; monitor security with Azure Security Center
• Design an operations automation strategy
  • Determine when to use Azure Automation, Chef, Puppet, PowerShell, Desired State Configuration (DSC), Event Grid, and Azure Logic Apps; define a strategy for auto-scaling; define a strategy for enabling periodic processes and tasks

Among the objectives measured on the exam, you will need to understand DevOps technologies, provisioning Azure resources using ARM Templates, and designing highly resilient workloads running in Microsoft Azure.

You can also download a PDF of these “tentative” exam objectives that was released by Microsoft.

Training Material

While you could use the study materials for the older 70-534 exam to study for a large part of the 70-535 exam, the upcoming Exam Ref 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions book from MS Press will provide the perfect reading material for training up to pass this exam.

The 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions Exam Ref is the official study guide for Microsoft certification exams. Featuring concise, objective-by-objective reviews and strategic case scenarios and Thought Experiments, exam candidates get professional-level preparation for the exam. The Exam Ref helps candidates maximize their performance on the exam and sharpen their job-role skills. It organizes material by the exam’s objective domains. This Exam Ref is a complete guide for the 70-535 exam covering architecting cloud solutions on Azure including all aspects of designing and creating a strategy for a complete solution leveraging the Microsoft Azure Cloud. This includes Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, Networking, Security, application storage and data access, advanced applications, web and mobile apps, compute infrastructure, and managing, monitoring and creating a business continuity strategy.

Happy Studying!!

About the Author

Chris Pietschmann

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.