Microsoft announced five new certifications at its Build 2022 event last week. These new certs focus on a diverse range of topics, including cybersecurity, automation, and data analysis, to prepare users for future roles.
Microsoft Power Automate RPA Developer Associate certificate
Prerequisite: None
Required skills: JSON, cloud flows, and desktop flows; integrating solutions with REST and SOAP services; data analysis using Microsoft Excel, VBScript, and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); HTML; JavaScript; one or more programming languages; and the Microsoft Power Platform suite of tools.
Official study guide: Online (free), instructor-led (paid)
Exam cost: US$165
This new developer-centric exam aims to increase competency in creating automated solutions using Microsoft Power Automate. In addition to designing, deploying, and troubleshooting automated solutions, this certification will also prepare the candidate to work with stakeholders to improve business workflows.
Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert certificate
Prerequisite (any one of the following): Security Operations Analyst Associate certificate, Identity and Access Administrator Associate certificate, Azure Security Engineer Associate certificate, Security Administrator Associate certificate
Required skills: None
Official study guide: Online (free), instructor-led (paid)
Exam cost: US$165
The Microsoft Cyber Security Architect Expert certificate caters to administrators and security engineers. It aims to enhance their knowledge in designing cybersecurity strategies to protect an organization’s mission and business processes across the architecture. Topics covered in this certificate include managing identity and access, implementing platform protection, and securing and mitigating threats using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Cloud.
Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Support Engineer Specialty certificate
Prerequisite: None
Required skills: None listed, but the training materials require an understanding of networking fundamentals, PowerShell and Exchange PowerShell, and mail protocols.
Official study guide: Online (free), instructor-led (paid)
Exam cost: US$165
This specialty exam targets support engineers and admins. It prepares the candidate for tackling common email issues in Microsoft Outlook. Successful candidates are equipped to resolve mail client issues, mail flow issues, and hybrid and migration issues.
Microsoft Azure Support Engineer for Connectivity Specialty certificate
Prerequisite: None
Required skills: An understanding of the OSI network layer model, Azure CLI, PowerShell, and how to use Cloud Shell to run commands
Official study guide: Online (free), instructor-led (paid)
Exam cost: US$165
A specialty certificate aimed at Azure support engineers and IT Admins. Successful candidates are equipped to address business continuity issues, hybrid and cloud connectivity issues, basic network issues, and virtual machine (VM) connectivity issues. The training material looks pretty basic but demands significant practice with tools such as Power BI, Azure tools, and Microsoft Sentinel.
Microsoft Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate certificate
Prerequisite: None
Required skills: A subject matter expertise in designing, creating and deploying enterprise-scale data analytics solutions
Official study guide: Online and instructor-led, no learning modules are available at the time of publication
Exam cost: US$165
This advanced data analyst certificate tests the candidate’s knowledge in implementing and managing a data analytics environment. The exam focuses on data governance in Power BI and Azure, managing analytics, and integrating an analytics platform into an existing IT infrastructure. It also tests the candidate’s ability to implement and manage data models, query and transform data, and turn them into visualizations. Because the certification page lists no training materials, there’s no telling what the prep looks like. View the DP-500 exam outline here.
