February 2026
Beginner
360 pages
8h 26m
English
Content preview from Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) Study Guide
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Chapter 1. Introduction to Cloud Computing
Welcome to the first chapter of the Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) Study Guide!
In this chapter, you’ll be introduced to the foundational ideas behind cloud computing—what it is, why it matters, and how it transforms traditional IT.
Tip
If you’re already familiar with these basics, feel free to skip ahead to Part II, beginning with Chapter 6.
The objective of this chapter is to help you build a strong base for everything that follows.
What Is Cloud Computing?
At its core, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services, including servers, storage, databases, networking, security, monitoring, and analytics. These services are hosted in secure, enterprise-grade datacenters managed by cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure (the focus of this study guide). Other popular cloud service providers include Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
One of the greatest advantages of the cloud is its enterprise-level security. Cloud providers, such as Microsoft Azure, invest billions of dollars into multilayered defenses, global threat intelligence, compliance frameworks, and continuous monitoring. This is far beyond what most organizations could implement on their own. For many businesses, this level of protection would be prohibitively expensive to build or maintain in a traditional on-premises setup.
You’ll learn more about security in Chapter 12.
Let’s start our journey into cloud computing with the two foundational building ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.