AZ-700 : Microsoft Azure Network Engineer Associate

Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ-700)

Overview

The Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate certification validates your technical ability to design, implement, and maintain secure, reliable, and scalable network architectures in Microsoft Azure. As organizations expand their cloud footprint, maintaining hybrid connectivity, enterprise routing, robust application delivery, and zero-trust network security becomes paramount. The AZ-700: Designing and Implementing Microsoft Azure Networking Solutions exam tests your real-world skills in managing core network infrastructure, configuring private endpoints, deploying routing topologies, securing edge workloads, and monitoring cloud networks for optimal performance and compliance.

Benefits

• Industry Recognition: Earn an official credential from Microsoft certifying your specialized expertise as an enterprise cloud network engineer.
• Career Acceleration: Cloud networking skills are in high demand as enterprises migrate mission-critical applications and require hybrid cloud interconnectivity.
• Comprehensive Cloud Networking Mastery: Gain hands-on competence in deploying Virtual Networks (VNets), Azure ExpressRoute, Virtual WAN, and sophisticated load balancing services.
• Strengthened Security Posture: Learn how to implement industry-leading network security patterns including Azure Firewall, Network Security Groups (NSGs), and DDoS Protection.
• Measurable ROI for Organizations: Help employers optimize cloud networking costs, improve uptime, and eliminate latency bottlenecks across hybrid environments.

Who should take this exam

• Network Engineers and Administrators: Network specialists transitioning traditional on-premises networking expertise to cloud-native and hybrid environments.
• Azure Solutions Architects and Systems Engineers: Technical professionals who design, deploy, and maintain cloud infrastructure and need deep networking competencies.
• Cloud Security Specialists: Security engineers looking to enhance their understanding of private access configurations, segmentation, and perimeter defense in Azure.
• Infrastructure Consultants: Technical advisors guiding enterprise clients through cloud migrations, multi-region networking setups, and hybrid cloud integration.

Prerequisites

• Core Azure Knowledge: Basic understanding of Azure infrastructure, resource management, and services equivalent to AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals) or AZ-104 (Azure Administrator Associate).
• Foundational Networking Concepts: Practical experience with TCP/IP, DNS, routing protocols (such as BGP), subnets, virtual private networks (VPNs), and network security concepts.
• Hands-on Experience: At least six months to one year of experience working with networking components and deployment models in Microsoft Azure.

Learning outcomes

• Design Core Virtual Networks: Create and configure Azure Virtual Networks (VNets), IP addressing schemes, subnetting architectures, and public/private IP configurations.
• Implement Hybrid and Cloud Connectivity: Configure site-to-site VPNs, point-to-site VPNs, Azure Virtual Network peering, Azure ExpressRoute, and global Azure Virtual WAN hubs.
• Deploy Application Delivery Solutions: Architect resilient traffic routing using Azure Load Balancer, Azure Application Gateway, Azure Front Door, and Traffic Manager.
• Configure Private Access to Azure Services: Isolate platform-as-a-service (PaaS) traffic using Virtual Network service endpoints and Azure Private Link / Private Endpoints.
• Secure Network Traffic: Implement perimeter security, Azure Firewall, Azure DDoS Protection, Web Application Firewall (WAF) policies, and granular Network Security Groups (NSGs).
• Monitor and Troubleshoot Cloud Networks: Leverage Azure Network Watcher, connection monitors, flow logs, and Azure Monitor diagnostic settings to analyze and resolve network issues.

Career opportunities

• Azure Network Engineer: Design, deploy, and maintain enterprise-scale cloud network topologies and hybrid connections.
• Cloud Infrastructure Engineer: Oversee cloud compute, storage, and interconnectivity to maintain high availability.
• Network Security Engineer: Enforce zero-trust architectures, firewall management, and edge security across cloud workloads.
• Enterprise Cloud Architect: Guide strategic cloud adoption, multi-region network routing, and business continuity planning.
• DevOps Network Specialist: Automate network infrastructure deployments using ARM templates, Bicep, or Terraform within CI/CD pipelines.

Exam syllabus

Design and Implement Core Networking Infrastructure (20–25%)

• Design and implement IP addressing: Configure public and private IP addresses, IP allocation methods, and subnet design.
• Design and implement name resolution: Configure public and private Azure DNS zones, DNS forwarding rulesets, and private resolver endpoints.
• Design and implement VNet routing: Configure user-defined routes (UDRs), system routes, routing tables, and service endpoint policies.
• Monitor networks: Configure Azure Network Watcher, NSG flow logs, traffic analytics, and diagnostic logs.

Design and Implement Connectivity Services (20–25%)

• Design and implement Virtual Network peering: Plan and configure intra-region and global VNet peering, gateway transit, and remote gateways.
• Design and implement VPN gateways: Create and manage site-to-site VPN connections, point-to-site VPN configurations, and high availability architectures.
• Design and implement ExpressRoute: Configure Azure ExpressRoute circuits, peering types, FastPath, route filters, and connection monitoring.
• Design and implement Azure Virtual WAN: Deploy Virtual WAN hubs, hub routing, multi-hub interconnectivity, and integrated third-party network virtual appliances (NVAs).

Design and Implement Application Delivery Services (15–20%)

• Design and implement Azure Load Balancer: Configure public and internal load balancers, backend pools, health probes, load balancing rules, and outbound rules.
• Design and implement Azure Application Gateway: Deploy Application Gateway instances, routing rules, SSL/TLS termination, rewrite rules, and multi-site listeners.
• Design and implement Azure Front Door: Configure routing rules, health probes, origin groups, caching, and SSL/TLS offloading.
• Design and implement Azure Traffic Manager: Choose appropriate routing methods (priority, weighted, performance, geographic) and configure endpoints.

Design and Implement Private Access to Azure Services (10–15%)

• Design and implement Azure Private Link service and Private Endpoints: Create and manage private endpoints for Azure PaaS resources and configure DNS integration for private endpoints.
• Design and implement VNet service endpoints: Secure access to Azure services using service endpoints and service endpoint policies.

Secure Network Connectivity to Azure Resources (15–20%)

• Deploy and configure Azure Firewall: Implement Azure Firewall rules (network, application, and DNAT rules), firewall policies, and Azure Firewall Manager.
• Design and implement Network Security Groups (NSGs): Configure inbound and outbound security rules, application security groups (ASGs), and NSG diagnostics.
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF): Configure WAF policies on Azure Front Door and Azure Application Gateway with custom and managed rule sets.
• Design and implement Azure DDoS Protection: Deploy DDoS Network Protection plans and analyze threat telemetry.