Microsoft Azure Management and Security Course

Lesson 1 • Core Azure Service Categories

Surveys compute, storage, networking, and database services at a conceptual level. Provides the service map students will explore in depth later.

Lesson 2 • Azure Portal and CLI Navigation

Introduces the Azure portal, Azure CLI, and PowerShell for resource management. Builds hands-on navigation skills used throughout the course.

Lesson 3 • Azure Global Infrastructure Overview

Examines Azure regions, availability zones, and data centre geography. Connects infrastructure design to reliability and compliance decisions.

Lesson 4 • Azure Pricing and Cost Management Basics

Explains the Azure pricing model, free tier, and cost estimation tools. Prepares students to make cost-aware architecture decisions from the start.

Lesson 1 • External Identities and B2B Collaboration

Manages guest users, B2B invitations, and cross-tenant access settings. Enables secure collaboration without compromising internal identity controls.

Lesson 2 • Multi-Factor Authentication and Conditional Access

Configures MFA methods and Conditional Access policies to enforce context-aware authentication. Reduces credential-based attack risk across the tenant.

Lesson 3 • Azure Active Directory Fundamentals

Covers Azure AD tenants, users, groups, and directory roles. Establishes identity as the primary security perimeter in Azure.

Lesson 4 • Role-Based Access Control Design

Teaches built-in and custom RBAC roles, scope hierarchy, and assignment best practices. Directly enables least-privilege enforcement across subscriptions.

Lesson 1 • Virtual Network Architecture

Covers VNet creation, address space planning, and subnet segmentation. Provides the network foundation all subsequent connectivity topics build upon.

Lesson 2 • Network Security Groups and Application Security Groups

Configures NSG inbound and outbound rules and ASG-based rule simplification. Enforces traffic filtering at the subnet and NIC level.

Lesson 3 • VNet Peering and Hybrid Connectivity

Establishes VNet peering, VPN Gateway, and ExpressRoute for hybrid scenarios. Connects on-premises environments securely to Azure.

Lesson 4 • Azure Load Balancing Services

Compares Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway, and Traffic Manager. Enables high availability and traffic distribution for applications.

Lesson 1 • Azure Storage Account Management

Configures Blob, File, Queue, and Table storage with appropriate redundancy and access tiers. Aligns storage selection to performance and cost requirements.

Lesson 2 • Azure Container Services

Introduces Azure Container Instances and Azure Kubernetes Service for containerised workloads. Prepares students for modern application deployment patterns.

Lesson 3 • Backup and Disaster Recovery

Implements Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery for VM and data protection. Ensures business continuity objectives are met for critical workloads.

Lesson 4 • Virtual Machine Provisioning and Configuration

Covers VM size selection, OS disk types, and availability options. Builds core VM lifecycle management skills applied throughout the course.

Lesson 1 • Cost Governance and Tagging Strategy

Enforces resource tagging policies and configures budgets with alert thresholds. Aligns financial accountability with technical resource ownership.

Lesson 2 • Azure Blueprints and Landing Zones

Packages RBAC, policies, and resource templates into Blueprints for repeatable deployments. Accelerates compliant environment provisioning at scale.

Lesson 3 • Management Groups and Subscription Hierarchy

Designs Management Group hierarchies to apply governance at scale across subscriptions. Establishes the structural foundation for all policy and RBAC inheritance.

Lesson 4 • Azure Policy Definition and Assignment

Creates built-in and custom policy definitions and assigns them with parameters. Enforces resource configuration standards across the environment.

Lesson 1 • Defender for Cloud Architecture

Explains the Defender for Cloud data plane, control plane, and agent deployment. Establishes how the service collects and analyses security signals.

Lesson 2 • Secure Score and Security Recommendations

Interprets Secure Score metrics and prioritises remediation using built-in recommendations. Drives measurable improvement in the organisation's security posture.

Lesson 3 • Security Alerts and Threat Detection

Analyses Defender for Cloud security alerts and maps them to MITRE ATT&CK tactics. Enables rapid triage and response to detected threats.

Lesson 4 • Just-in-Time VM Access

Configures JIT VM access to reduce attack surface on management ports. Demonstrates practical application of least-privilege at the network level.

Lesson 1 • Application Insights and Distributed Tracing

Instruments applications with Application Insights for end-to-end performance monitoring. Connects application telemetry to infrastructure observability.

Lesson 2 • Log Analytics Workspace and KQL Queries

Creates Log Analytics workspaces and writes KQL queries to extract operational insights. Enables data-driven investigation of performance and security events.

Lesson 3 • Azure Dashboards and Workbooks

Builds shared dashboards and Azure Monitor Workbooks for operational visibility. Delivers role-appropriate views for operations and security teams.

Lesson 4 • Azure Monitor Architecture and Data Sources

Maps Azure Monitor data sources including metrics, logs, and traces to their collection pipelines. Provides the observability framework for all monitoring tasks.

Lesson 1 • Incident Management and Investigation

Manages Sentinel incidents through triage, investigation graph, and entity analysis. Builds structured investigation skills for cloud security events.

Lesson 2 • Threat Hunting and Incident Reporting

Conducts proactive threat hunts using KQL and Sentinel notebooks, then documents findings. Closes the security operations loop with structured reporting.

Lesson 3 • Automation and SOAR Playbooks

Builds Logic App-based playbooks triggered by Sentinel incidents for automated response. Reduces analyst workload and accelerates containment actions.

Lesson 4 • Microsoft Sentinel Architecture and Onboarding

Deploys Microsoft Sentinel, connects data connectors, and configures workspace settings. Establishes the SIEM foundation for all detection and response activities.