Microsoft over the weekend kicked off its Azure Cloud trainings for tech professionals.
In her early December blog post last year, Microsoft's Corporate VP for Worldwide Partner Group Gavriella Schuster announced Microsoft's cloud trainings for next-generation technical professionals planned for this year.
"Microsoft is investing in a variety of technical training, tools and resources, including the Microsoft Virtual Academy, the Cloud + Enterprise University Boot Camps, and the Microsoft Professional Program," she said.
The best part about the training is that it's absolutely free.
Yes, free.
Participants get digital certificates once they finish the self-paced online learning courses. Microsoft is also throwing in discounts for Azure (Microsoft Certified Professional) certifications.
There are also special courses for Amazon Web Services (AWS) administrators who want to be fully-trained to handle Azure and be certified in multiple cloud platforms. AWS is one of the main competitors of the Azure service in the Cloud industry.
"Over 90% of the Fortune 500 companies now use at least one of Microsoft's enterprise-grade services, and more than 60% are using three or more Microsoft cloud technologies," Microsoft Azure VP Julia White said.
"With the rapid innovation cycle of Azure, it's critical to stay up to date on the latest technology and methodologies," she added.
The Microsoft Azure trainings are based on an interactive model called Massively Open Online Course (MOOC). Participants get access to various training videos, interactive lab sessions, graded assessments and training hours monitoring among other training materials.
The trainings are listed here and are divided into three main categories: Azure Fundamentals, Microsoft Azure for AWS Experts and Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine.
There is no word as to how long these courses are going to be offered for free, so those who want to start their Cloud-based IT careers best take advantage of these offerings from one of the world's largest technology companies.
