This lesson introduces you to Azure App Service, Microsoft's Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution for hosting web applications, APIs, and serverless functions. You'll discover how App Service eliminates infrastructure management while providing enterprise-grade features for modern application development.

This lesson introduces you to Azure Functions, Microsoft's premier serverless computing platform that enables you to build event-driven applications without managing infrastructure. You'll explore the fundamentals of serverless architecture, learning how Azure Functions automatically scales from zero to thousands of instances while you pay only for actual execution time. The lesson covers the three main hosting plans (Consumption, Premium, and Dedicated), helping you understand when to choose each based on performance requirements, cost considerations, and cold start tolerance. You'll master various trigger types including HTTP, Timer, Blob Storage, Queue, and Event Hub triggers, along with input and output bindings that seamlessly connect your functions to other Azure services. Through practical examples and hands-on coding, you'll learn development best practices including dependency injection, error handling, security patterns, and performance optimization techniques. The lesson culminates with a comprehensive exercise where you'll build three different function types: an HTTP-triggered echo service, a timer-based recurring function, and a blob-integrated function that reads from Azure Storage. You'll gain experience with local development using Azure Functions Core Tools, testing strategies, configuration management, and cloud deployment processes, providing you with the complete skillset needed to build production-ready serverless applications on Azure.

This comprehensive lesson teaches you how to develop cloud storage solutions using Azure Blob Storage and the .NET SDK. You'll master the fundamentals of Microsoft's object storage service, learning to build applications that can store and manage massive amounts of unstructured data like images, videos, documents, and application files. Through hands-on development with the Azure Storage SDK for .NET, you'll gain practical experience with storage account architecture, container management, and blob operations. The lesson covers essential topics including different blob types (Block, Append, and Page blobs), security implementation with authentication methods like Managed Identity and Shared Access Signatures, and performance optimization techniques. You'll build a complete blob management application that demonstrates real-world patterns for connecting to storage accounts, creating containers, uploading and downloading files, and managing metadata. By the end of this lesson, you'll have the skills to implement robust, secure, and efficient blob storage solutions that are ready for production use in Azure cloud applications.

This lesson provides comprehensive training on developing scalable data solutions using Azure Cosmos DB, Microsoft's globally distributed, multi-model database service. You'll explore the fundamentals of NoSQL database design, learning how to leverage Cosmos DB's unique capabilities including global distribution, multiple consistency levels, and elastic throughput scaling. The lesson covers critical concepts like partition key selection strategies, Request Units (RUs) for cost optimization, and the five consistency levels from Strong to Eventual consistency. Through hands-on development with the Azure Cosmos DB SDK for .NET, you'll master CRUD operations, advanced SQL API querying techniques, and performance optimization patterns. You'll build a complete polyglot data solution that integrates Azure Cosmos DB with Azure Blob Storage, creating an e-commerce application that demonstrates real-world patterns for handling JSON documents, managing throughput models (serverless, provisioned, and autoscale), and implementing proper error handling and retry logic. By the end of this lesson, you'll have the expertise to design and implement planet-scale applications with Azure Cosmos DB, understanding how to choose the right consistency level for your use case, optimize costs through proper partitioning strategies, and build resilient, high-performance database solutions for modern cloud applications.

This comprehensive lesson teaches you how to deploy modern compute workloads using containerization technologies and Azure's container services. You'll master the fundamentals of Docker containerization, learning how to package applications into portable, lightweight containers that run consistently across different environments. The lesson covers essential Docker concepts including Dockerfile creation, multi-stage builds for optimized production images, and container security best practices. You'll gain hands-on experience with Azure Container Registry for secure private image storage, Azure Container Instances for simple serverless container deployments, and Azure Container Apps for advanced scalable container solutions with auto-scaling and traffic management. Through practical exercises, you'll build a complete container deployment pipeline, creating a .NET application, containerizing it with Docker, pushing it to a private registry, and deploying it across multiple Azure container services. You'll learn critical production skills including image optimization, security hardening, monitoring and logging, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) patterns for containerized workloads. By the end of this lesson, you'll have the expertise to design and implement enterprise-grade containerized solutions that leverage Azure's managed container services for scalable, secure, and cost-effective application deployment.

This comprehensive lesson teaches you how to implement secure authentication in modern applications using Microsoft Entra ID, OpenID Connect protocols, and the Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL). You'll master the fundamentals of cloud identity and access management, learning how to integrate enterprise-grade authentication into ASP.NET Core web applications. The lesson covers essential identity concepts including the differences between authentication and authorization, single-tenant versus multi-tenant applications, and the OpenID Connect authentication flow. You'll gain hands-on experience with Microsoft.Identity.Web library for seamless Entra ID integration, learning how to properly handle JWT tokens, manage user sessions, and implement secure token caching strategies. Through practical exercises, you'll build a complete authentication solution that demonstrates real-world patterns including user sign-in/sign-out flows, API protection with bearer tokens, conditional access handling, and multi-factor authentication scenarios. You'll explore advanced topics such as calling downstream APIs with user tokens, implementing proper error handling for authentication failures, and applying security best practices for token management. By the end of this lesson, you'll have the expertise to design and implement production-ready authentication systems that leverage Microsoft's identity platform, ensuring your applications meet enterprise security requirements while providing seamless user experiences across web, mobile, and API scenarios.

This comprehensive lesson teaches you how to implement enterprise-grade security for cloud applications by eliminating hardcoded credentials and implementing zero-trust architecture using Azure Key Vault and managed identities. You'll master the fundamentals of secure secret management, learning how to store, access, and manage sensitive information like connection strings, API keys, and certificates without ever exposing them in your application code or configuration files. The lesson covers essential security concepts including the differences between system-assigned and user-assigned managed identities, Key Vault access policies versus role-based access control (RBAC), and proper secret lifecycle management with versioning and rotation. Through hands-on development with the Azure Key Vault SDK for .NET, you'll build applications that seamlessly authenticate to Azure services using managed identities, eliminating the need to manage credentials entirely. You'll explore advanced topics such as network security with private endpoints, Key Vault references in application settings, performance optimization with secret caching, and comprehensive audit logging for compliance requirements. By the end of this lesson, you'll have the expertise to design and implement production-ready security architectures that follow the principle of least privilege, ensure secrets are never stored in code, and provide automated, secure service-to-service authentication across your entire Azure infrastructure.

This comprehensive lesson teaches you how to design and implement scalable multi-tier architectures using Azure API Management as the central gateway for modern cloud applications. You'll master the fundamentals of API gateway patterns, learning how to create a sophisticated façade layer that handles authentication, transformation, monitoring, and traffic management for your backend services. The lesson covers essential concepts including multi-tier application design, where you'll understand how to properly separate presentation, business logic, and data layers for maximum scalability and maintainability. Through hands-on development with Azure API Management, you'll explore advanced features including policy-driven request and response transformation, XML to JSON conversion, custom header injection, and intelligent request routing. You'll gain practical experience deploying containerized backend services using Azure App Service, then integrating them seamlessly with API Management policies for sophisticated traffic control and data transformation. The lesson covers critical production topics including API versioning strategies, rate limiting and throttling, comprehensive monitoring and analytics, and security best practices for enterprise API gateways. By the end of this lesson, you'll have the expertise to architect and implement production-ready multi-tier solutions that leverage Azure's managed services to create scalable, secure, and observable API ecosystems that can serve everything from web applications to mobile apps and partner integrations.

This comprehensive lesson teaches you how to design and implement modern event-driven architectures using Azure's messaging and event services to build scalable, loosely coupled cloud applications. You'll master the fundamentals of event-driven programming, learning how to move beyond traditional synchronous communication patterns to create resilient systems that can handle high-throughput scenarios and complex business workflows. The lesson covers the three core Azure event services: Event Grid for discrete event routing with HTTP delivery, Service Bus for enterprise messaging with guaranteed delivery and transactions, and Event Hubs for high-throughput streaming and big data scenarios. Through hands-on development with the Azure SDK for .NET, you'll build complete event publishing and consumption applications, implementing patterns like publisher-subscriber, event sourcing, CQRS, and distributed saga orchestration. You'll explore advanced topics including event schema design, partition strategies for Event Hubs, dead letter queue processing for Service Bus, and comprehensive error handling and retry policies. The lesson emphasizes real-world applications such as IoT telemetry processing, e-commerce order workflows, microservices communication, and audit logging systems. By the end of this lesson, you'll have the expertise to architect and implement production-ready event-driven solutions that leverage Azure's managed messaging services to create highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and observable distributed systems.

This comprehensive lesson teaches you how to implement world-class monitoring, logging, and observability solutions for cloud applications using Azure Application Insights and modern telemetry practices. You'll master the fundamentals of application performance monitoring (APM), learning how to transform black-box applications into fully observable systems that provide deep insights into performance, user experience, and system health. The lesson covers the three pillars of observability—metrics, logs, and traces—showing you how to collect, analyze, and act on comprehensive telemetry data to maintain healthy production systems. Through hands-on development with the Application Insights SDK for .NET, you'll implement advanced instrumentation including custom telemetry collection, structured logging with Serilog, distributed tracing across microservices, and intelligent sampling strategies to control costs while maintaining accuracy. You'll explore critical production topics including autoscaling configuration based on application metrics, smart alerting strategies with automated remediation, custom dashboard creation for real-time monitoring, and comprehensive error tracking with dead letter queue analysis. The lesson emphasizes proactive monitoring approaches that detect issues before they impact users, including predictive scaling, anomaly detection, business metric tracking, and incident response automation. By the end of this lesson, you'll have the expertise to design and implement enterprise-grade observability solutions that provide 360-degree visibility into your applications, enable data-driven performance optimization, and ensure exceptional user experiences through proactive monitoring and intelligent autoscaling.

Use this Azure sandbox to practice concepts from AZ-204. Ask Skill Me UP Steve questions as you go for help!

Allowed Services and SKUs for your practice sandbox:

App Service (Web Apps & Function Apps)

• Resource types: Microsoft.Web/sites, Microsoft.Web/serverfarms

• Plans (SKUs): Free (F1) or Basic (B1)

• Notes: Function Apps must run on an App Service Plan that uses F1 or B1 in this sandbox.

Azure API Management

• Resource type: Microsoft.ApiManagement/service

• SKU: Consumption

Azure Container Registry (ACR)

• Resource type: Microsoft.ContainerRegistry/registries

• SKU: Basic

Azure Container Instances (ACI)

• Resource type: Microsoft.ContainerInstance/containerGroups

• SKU: Standard (container groups created with 1 vCPU / ~1.5 GB RAM as used in the labs are OK)

Azure Container Apps

• Resource type: Microsoft.App/containerApps

• Workload profiles allowed: Consumption or Standard

• Ingress: external is allowed (used in the labs)

Azure Storage (Blob/Queue/etc.)

• Resource type: Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts

• SKU: Standard_LRS

Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL

• Resource type: Microsoft.DocumentDB/databaseAccounts

• SKU: Standard

Azure Service Bus

• Resource type: Microsoft.ServiceBus/namespaces

• Use the default/standard tiers used in the labs. (Other tiers may be blocked by policy or quota.)

Azure Event Hubs

• Resource type: Microsoft.EventHub/namespaces

• Use the default/standard tiers used in the labs.

Azure Event Grid

• Resource type: Microsoft.EventGrid/topics

• No SKU selection needed (custom topic + event subscription used in labs are allowed)

Azure Key Vault

• Resource type: Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults

• Secrets operations are allowed

Azure App Configuration

• Resource type: Microsoft.AppConfiguration/configurationStores

Application Insights

• Resource type: Microsoft.Insights/components

• Autoinstrumentation for App Service is allowed

User-Assigned Managed Identity 

• Resource type: Microsoft.ManagedIdentity/userAssignedIdentities

Quick tips if you hit a policy error

• Double-check you’re using the exact SKU/tier listed above.

• For App Service plans, switch to F1 or B1.

• For registries, pick ACR Basic.

• For storage, pick Standard_LRS.

• If you still get blocked, delete the failed deployment and recreate the resource with the supported SKU.