Are Azure Certifications Still in Demand?

The cloud storage services industry has grown to the worth of $50 billion and is still expected to grow at an annual compounded rate of 22.3% by 2025. Cloud computing technology has been adopted widely by large organizations, companies, small businesses, and individuals. Computing had once upon a time been considered the future of IT. Today, the future is here and cloud computing is making remarkable headway in the IT sector.  

Public cloud services like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM cloud have dominated the cloud computing market. They offer highly cost-effective cloud service products to the market that is now shifting away from the costly classical on-premise hosting environments. While AWS has been in the market longer and is leading the pack in terms of its 40% market share, Microsoft Azure happens to be the fastest-growing and widely adopted cloud service platform thanks to its stability.

Therefore if you are wondering whether Azure training is worthwhile, you need to reconsider. Azure training is offered to both corporations and individuals.  

About Microsoft Azure 

Microsoft Azure is a product of the Microsoft Corporation. It is the second most popular cloud services platform offering a range of services under IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. 

From merely operating systems and business operations software, Microsoft Azure has expanded its offerings to include cloud computing products. Today, Microsoft Azure has more than 6,000 product offerings including basic cloud hosting products like virtual machines, machine learning, containerized deployments, and AI-powered services. It also offers storage services, web hosting, compute, analytics, directories, networking, and more.

Microsoft Azure uses a pay-as-you-go billing model for its products. This means that users only get to pay for the resources they have consumed during the month.   

Azure by the numbers 

From the statistics released by Microsoft, more than 1,000 users sign up for Azure cloud every day. Azure has been adopted by at least 80% of the Fortune 500 companies and other notable agencies like The U.S defense force. In the USA alone, Microsoft Azure has claimed the second spot in the cloud market after AWS and the numbers are rising by the day. More than 450,000 websites are currently hosted on the Azure cloud. Clearly, Microsoft Azure is growing at a faster rate than AWS and other cloud service companies. 

In terms of revenue, Azure’s revenue from its commercial cloud products has grown tremendously since it was first launched in 2010. From $880 million in 2015, Azure’s revenue had grown to $12 billion in 2019 with the cloud product revenue contributing up to 10.5% of Microsoft’s total revenue the same year. 

From 2016, Azure has increased its cloud market share by 9% to 16% in 2019 which goes on to reflect the steady use and adoption of its products. Azure is steadily warming the hearts of potential users across the globe as it explores other opportunities in the cloud market. With Azure’s market share steadily increasing, the demand for Azure skills is also on the rise. 

Are Azure certifications still in demand?

Based on the above statistics and the fact that Azure is an in-demand skill in the cloud computing space, Azure certifications will certainly be in demand in the years to come. Let us put this into perspective by looking at some figures in the Job market.  

3 Azure certifications among the top ten most valuable cloud certifications 

Three of Azure certifications are among the top 10 most valued cloud certifications by recruiters. These are:

• Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Azure is preferred more by organizations

Going by Google, searches for AWS dropped by 9.22%, Google cloud by 5.5%, while searches for Azure increased by 15.39%. 

Microsoft Azure offers better security features, easy scaling, and flexibility which makes it more popular among organizations. These same organizations are keen on hiring individuals with provable Azure skills. This means that those with Azure certifications and some years of experience have an upper hand securing Azure roles. Certifications are a demonstration of a professional’s skills and knowledge in a specific domain. Azure professionals with certifications earn over $100,000 annually compared to their counterparts on average IT roles. 

Microsoft Azure jobs outlook 

Between June 2019 and May 2020, more than 2 million jobs with Azure as a required skill were advertised on various job boards and the numbers keep rising. Top advertised roles include:

• Software developers
• General computer roles
• Network/systems administration roles 
• Information security analyst roles 
• Web developer roles 
• Information systems manager roles 

Top paying Azure roles 

Interestingly, most of the roles listed above fall under the top paying Azure roles category. These are:

• Azure developers – $136,768 average annual salary 
• Azure solutions architects – $152,879 average annual salary 
• Azure DevOps engineer – $125,000 average annual salary at junior level and $185,000 at senior level
• Azure security engineer-  $120,0000 – $225,000 average annual salary range 
• Azure data scientist – $ 120,000 – $175,000 average annual salary range 

Conclusion

Evidently, Microsoft Azure certifications are still in high demand. Azure has become the popular cloud service and the rate at which it is growing in market share is an indication that its skills and certifications will be more in demand in the future. More than acquiring certifications, developing practical Azure knowledge comes with more rewarding benefits. Recruiters are after skills and experience as they seek the best talent they can get. Simply put, professionals should not focus on merely earning certifications. They should consider building their skills and experience.