Course Syllabus

About this course;

Business and technical professions need training in the new ways infrastructure products and software services are being delivered. Microsoft Azure represents one of a growing collection of integrated public cloud services including analytics, Virtual Machines, databases, mobile, networking, storage, and web. IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS, represent the most common, low cost way for entrepreneurs and business to have a presence on the Internet. This course provides instruction in formulating Information Technology solutions from these high level building blocks. This course is intended to be part of a VMWare virtualization or cloud computing degree or certificate program.

Azure administrator skills training needed to be successful deploying Software-as-a-Service (Saas), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions. Includes training in planning IaaS solutions for fault tolerance and performance, deployment of Virtual Machines (VMs), and systems management using Windows Powershell and the Azure CLI V2.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT

Student must be able to create an Azure account which will be used as a practice platform during this course. This account could be created for free at Microsoft Azure Portal . Azure will ask for a means of identification such as a credit card. There may be minimal charges after the first month, based on the practice level of the student and student's willingness to do so.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon completion of this course, a student will be able to:

1. Configure Azure administration and accounts.
2. Select appropriate service plans for balanced configuration of computation, data transit, and storage.
3. Select and deploy network monitoring framework and virtual machines.
4. Configure scaling and redundancy in cloud computing infrastructure.
5. Create reports on cost of deployed infrastructure.

CONTENTS

1. Survey of Azure service platforms
   1. Accounts and credentials
   2. Dashboards
   3. Public key infrastructure (PKI)
   4. Remote access methods
   5. Billing and usage accounting
2. Azure service solution bundles
   1. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)
   2. Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
   3. Mobile
   4. Web
   5. Media
   6. Identity and access management
   7. Development and testing
   8. Data management
3. Compute services
   1. Web sites
   2. Virtual machines (VM)
   3. Software Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) selection for multi-tenant services
   4. Cloud services
   5. Mobile services
   6. Software-as-a-service (SaaS)
4. Network services
   1. Virtual networks
   2. Traffic management
5. Data services
   1. SQL and SQLite databases
   2. Azure SQL Database
   3. NoSQL database
   4. BLOB services
6. App services
   1. Active Directory
   2. Multi-factor authentication
   3. Message queues
   4. Service bus
   5. Notification hubs
   6. Media services
7. Patterns for defining infrastructure
   1. Environments
   2. Organizing infrastructure
   3. Basic pipeline designs
   4. Using a local sandbox
8. Patterns for updating and changing servers
   1. Patterns for continuous deployment
   2. Patterns for immutable servers
   3. Practices for managing configuration definition
9. Testing infrastructure changes
   1. Roles and workflow for testing
   2. Change management
   3. Zero down-time changes

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODOLOGY

1. Classwork
   1. Discussions: Weekly discussions around various subjects included but limited to cloud computing and Azure subjects. students are required to actively participate in the discussions.
   2. hands-on-labs: Various virtual labs are assigned from Microsoft Azure's labs series. These labs include but are not limited to; Manage entire virtual machine's life cycle through command line interface (CLI) and Portal.Read reference manuals and other course materials on the different services, service levels, components, and geographic diversity available at targeted subscription level. Create a document describing business continuity under disaster conditions, disaster recovery, and return to normal business operations.Create a diagram illustrating the topology of a business information system that meets assigned specifications.
   3. Projects: Create three projects on SaaS, IaaS, PaaS.
2. Evaluation
   1. Exams/Quizzes/Tests: Quizzes based on assigned reading in textbook and online resources on topics such as service platforms, services, and infrastructure definitions.
   2. Written work: Documentation and diagrams describing infrastructure designs evaluated for accuracy and completeness.
   3. Portfolio: Projects implementing use cases for systems and infrastructure showing ability to select appropriate components, deploy pre-defined configurations, and validate operation within pre-determined performance guidelines.
   4. Final Assessment: Implementation in Azure of an Information System design based on a written specification in a comprehensive process including inception, validation, verification, presentation, and user acceptance. The ability to select, configure, and deploy will be assessed through completeness and accuracy of design artifacts corresponding to each phase of the process; requirements document, topological diagrams, and utilization reports. Student will present final project in a user acceptance presentation to their classmates.
3. Representative Textbooks and Other Instructional Materials
   1. Tulloch, Mitch. 2013. Introducing Windows Azure for IT Professionals 1st Edition . Microsoft Press. Secondary; Exam Ref 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, By Michael Washam and Rick Rainey
   2. Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure, Second Edition Michael S. Collier, and Robin E. Shahan , Free Downlod , ISBN: 978-1-5093-0296-3
   3. Microsoft intro to Azure, Library of Congress Control Number: 2013949894ISBN: 978-0-7356-8288-7

Note: PDF of the textbooks will be provided by the instructor.