CertByte: Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104)
By Chris Hare, N2K Project Management Specialist and Content Developer
Oct 23, 2024

CertByte is a bi-weekly blog and segment on the CyberWire Daily podcast hosted by Chris Hare, a content developer and project management specialist at N2K. On CertByte, we share practice questions from our suite of industry-leading content and a study tip to help you achieve the professional certifications you need to fast-track your career growth. View our CertByte series on YouTube.

CertByte: Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104)

As your news-to-knowledge partner, N2K will advance your career while bringing you the industry news and trends that help you stay a step ahead. Through our bi-weekly episodes of CertByte on the CyberWire Daily podcast, and these companion articles, we aim to support your certification journey and fast-track your career growth in IT, cybersecurity, and project management. As your host, I’ll share a practice question from N2K’s suite of industry-leading content and a study tip (or study “bit” as I like to call it) to increase your confidence and readiness on exam day.   

In this segment, I’m joined once again by my teammate George Monsalvatge to break down a question from N2K’s Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) Practice Test. Once again we turned the tables, and George, as the Microsoft SME, asked me the question. For a bit of background, the AZ-104 is  an intermediate exam that tests your ability to implement, manage, and monitor an organization’s Microsoft Azure environment. The question George posed to me is a sample from N2K’s AZ-104 practice test*, and not from the actual Microsoft® exam. 

Quick Microsoft Azure Administrator  AZ-104 study bit.

George shared an important study bit that you should know before you sit for the AZ-104 exam. Microsoft frequently updates their exams, so he suggests that candidates visit the Microsoft website for the study guide for AZ-104 to check if anything has been added to or subtracted from the exam. For example, if they added a new concept or objective, it would be important to include that in your study, as missing a single question could make the difference between passing and failing this test. A bonus bit: Our N2K’s AZ-104 practice test is regularly updated following all of Microsoft's updates, so you’ll be well-prepared. Microsoft last updated this exam on 1/28/23.

This week’s question.

You need the ability to gauge Azure Backup health, storage usage patterns, and backup restore trends within your production Azure subscription. It is important to use an open data model and leverage data visualization capabilities that can be shared among business owners. 

What feature will meet the reporting requirements for Azure Backup services? 

Answer choices: 

  1. Azure Monitor
  2. Application Insights
  3. Power BI
  4. Log Analytics

Working through the logic of each answer choice.

Before assessing each answer option, I posed a couple of questions to George. First, I asked him if all of the answer options were part of the Azure subscription (which he validated), and if there were any trick answers (which he asserted there were none). I then asked if all of the answer options included some level of reporting and visualization capabilities, which George somewhat confirmed; however, one of the answer choices would be the “beaconing light” among the options regarding reporting and visualization. 

Finally, I asked George if backup reporting can also happen from the data or application layer, hoping this may help me further refine my answers. George replied that this would depend upon what you are backing up, but it is better to focus on the key part of this question, which is what will meet the reporting requirement for Azure Backup Services. All that said, I decided to take the wild guess tactic and stated that the answer was: “B. Application Insights.”

George broke the news gently that this was unfortunately the incorrect answer. His hinting strategy touched on reporting requirements as a major consideration. Given the question mentioned visualization, which is a major feature of Power BI services that Microsoft uses in Azure for dashboards and reports, the correct answer was “C. Power BI.” George continued that the other answer options: “Azure Monitor,” “Application Insights,” and “Log Analytics” can all give you performance data, but it is Power BI that really brings the visualization and reporting data to life. 

As Microsoft updates their exams regularly, George shared that N2K recently published the practice test for Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900) and is in the process of working on one of the advanced exams, which is the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102) — coming soon. In addition, N2K published the practice tests for Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst (PL-300) and Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900), all of which are available for purchase on our website at n2k.com/certify

Want more help with this exam?

Whether you are actively studying for the Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) or would like to suggest a future certification question, email us at certbyte at n2k.com.

Premium certification prep tools.

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Happy certifying!