Which Microsoft Azure certification is best for you?

 By Sarah Morgan

Adoption of cloud infrastructure is no longer a new trend or unknown entity. Cloud computing is now a mainstay in the IT industry and the numbers back this up. According to a 2016 IDC study, public cloud spending is growing at 6 times the rate of overall IT spending growth, due to reach £96 billion annually by 2019. Plus, there are now over 18 million cloud jobs worldwide.

Alongside cloud technology, usage of Microsoft Azure is also growing rapidly. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, said there are now over 5 million organisations using Azure Active Directory, and over 50 trillion objects stored in Azure as a whole. This highlights the scale of Microsoft’s cloud operations, with Microsoft keen to grow and develop its cloud services in the near future.

Image from Microsoft

80% of Fortune 500 companies are now using Microsoft cloud technology and Azure is gaining 90,000 new customers a month. With worldwide adoption of Azure infrastructure increasing, having the skills to manage Azure systems is now a great asset to you and your business. Also, helping you take advantage of Azure’s benefits like Microsoft support resources, interoperability with many devices and high flexibility and versatility of Azure virtual machines. The range of Azure courses on offer has steadily grown alongside the cloud platform and there are now many to choose from, each offering you Azure skills suitable for different roles.  To help you decide which is best for you, in no particular order, below is a breakdown of all current Microsoft’s Azure certifications.

Specialist: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

The Microsoft Specialist: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions certification is aimed at Server Engineers or Architects. It proves you know have the knowledge and skills to migrate your existing on premise architecture to Microsoft Azure. Perfect for anyone needing to migrate their legacy systems to the cloud where you'll need to create Azure virtual machines and networks, implement and manage Azure storage solutions, implement cloud and mobile services among other skills in migrating and implementing Azure.

To achieve the Specialist: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions certification, you’ll need to pass Microsoft exam 70-533. If you're looking to develop the skills and knowledge to pass this exam, you'll need to get to grips with course 20533B: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, which is aligned to the 70-533 exam. 

Firebrand has a 3 day accelerated version of the Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions course, 50% faster than traditional courses. You'll learn how to:

• move your virtual machines, websites, storage and data services to Microsoft Azure
• manage it all in the long term
• get skilled up on Azure features like: 
• Active Directory 
• Content Delivery Network 
• SQL Data Services 
• managing Azure in a hybrid environment.

Image from Microsoft

Specialist: Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions

The  Specialist: Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions certification is aimed at Developers looking to specialise and take their skills onto Azure. This certification proves you can create an environment for web development on Azure virtual machines as well as design cloud applications on Azure.

You need to pass Microsoft Exam 70-532 to achieve the certification. You should look to sit course 20532B: Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions as this is aligned to the 70-532 exam.  This will give you the best possible chance of getting Specialist: Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions certified.

Firebrand has an accelerated 3 day Specialist: Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions course. This is 50% faster than traditional training courses and will teach you to develop the following skills: 

• ASP.NET web architecture and development skills 
• Hosting on Azure 
• Storage and management of SQL data on Azure.

Specialist: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions

The Microsoft Specialist: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification is most suited to Azure Cloud Architects or Azure Consultants. It demonstrates your skills to design and manage the technologies Azure offers and how they work together. It is best suited to those looking to design public and hybrid Azure solutions in their business.

In order to achieve the Microsoft Specialist: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification, you’ll need to pass exam 70-534: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions. Whilst there is no specific course aligned to the exam, you can sit Firebrand’s accelerated 7 day course which includes all the skills you’ll need for the 70-534 exam. It covers topics like:

• Designing best practices for virtual networks 
• Network Security Groups (NSGs) and how they help to create perimeter networks
• System Centre products and how they integrate with Azure

MCSD: Azure Solutions Architect

The MCSD: Azure Solutions Architect is the most comprehensive Azure specific certification currently available and combines all three of the Specialist certifications. As the title suggests, it is aimed at Azure Solutions Architects, proving you have all the skills to design, build and deploy an entire solution on Azure. To achieve the certification, you have to pass all three specialist exams 70-532, 70-533 and 70-534.

This means the best way to pass these is to sit all three Microsoft Specialist courses,  aligned to each exam. 

The best way to this is by sitting Firebrand’s accelerated 7 day MCSD: Azure Solutions Architect course, which is 40% faster than traditional training. It includes curriculum for Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions and Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions, which are aligned to all three exams. This covers the full range of Azure topics including:

• Designing cloud applications for resiliency
• Hosting web applications on Azure
• Implementing and managing virtual networks
• Planning and implementing data services 

MCSA: Linux on Azure

The newest Azure certification on the market, the MCSA: Linux on Azure, is the first ever certification from a Microsoft and Linux collaboration. It is aimed at Linux Systems Administrators, Engineers and support staff. It proves your skills as a Linux systems administrator and your abilities to migrate and use these systems on Microsoft Azure.

You need to pass exam 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions and the Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) exam. Sitting courses 20533B and LFS220: Linux System Administration will prepare you for both exams. 

On LFS220, you’ll learn about Linux processes, filesystems, backup and recovery methods and networking. The 20533B course will then cover Azure migration, so you can use your Linux systems on Azure. Firebrand has an accelerated MCSA: Linux on Azure course, which can get you certified in just 5 days.

What else?

As well as the Azure specific certifications we’ve mentioned above, there are other Microsoft certifications that include very useful skills relating to Azure. These could be useful to you before specialising with an Azure certification. Check out a breakdown of these below:

MCSA: Windows 10 – Microsoft’s cross-platform vision is led by Windows 10 and included in this is its combination and integration with Azure. Microsoft’s MCSA: Windows 10 certification is aimed at Support Technicians and Systems Administrators and teaches you about security, administration and technical support for Microsoft’s newest operating system. Crucially, the course also covers how to integrate Windows 10 with Microsoft Azure and features like Active Directory, Microsoft Intune and Azure Rights Management. 

MCSA: Office 365 – Office 365 is a cloud-based technology. This means it is closely linked to Azure. Much of what the MCSA: Office 365 covers is integrating Office 365 with supporting technologies including Azure Active Directory, SharePoint Online and Exchange Online. All of these are based in the cloud. Getting MCSA: Office 365 certified is a great way to start building your cloud and Azure skills, whilst of course getting in depth skills on Office 365. This certification is aimed at Systems Administrators looking to specialise in Office 365, or if you need to setup Office 365 in your business.

MCSA: Windows Server 2012 – Getting certified in another of Microsoft’s most prominent technologies is most useful for Server Engineers, Server Support or Server Administrators. It gives you all the skills to implement, configure and manage Windows Server 2012. The certification also includes a brief overview of Azure and how Windows Server 2012 relates to it. This is an important factor as many System Administrators are using Azure cloud infrastructure that uses Windows Server 2012. If you’re planning to run your Azure architecture with Windows Server 2012, this certification gives you a useful bridge between the two technologies.


Now you know what skills each Azure certification demonstrates, you should be able to find an Azure certification that helps you achieve your goals. The range of Azure certifications from Microsoft is still relatively young and growing and as Azure develops, so will the accompanying certifications. This means if there isn’t an Azure certification that helps you do exactly what you need right now, Microsoft may well develop one in the near future.

About the Author:        
Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry.

5 ways the UK Government is rewarding Firebrand IT apprentice employers

 By Sarah Morgan

With apprenticeship starts making up 22% of the total number of people starting higher education in 2015, the UK Government is accelerating its Apprenticeships reforms in England. Substantial changes in legislation have already been made as part of a wider plan to make apprenticeships more accessible for employers, students and the industry.

Not only are current employers enjoying the financial and practical benefits of hiring an IT apprentice, they’re also taking advantage of the rewards offered by the UK government by doing so. Here’s how employers are benefitting from hiring IT apprentices – and how you could too...

1. Access brand new Trailblazer Apprenticeship programmes

The Trailblazer Initiative has given employers in the IT industry the power to design brand new apprenticeship standards. These standards have been specifically designed by major players and SMEs in the IT sector - so we know that our IT apprentices get certified with the right skills for their employer.

The IT Trailblazer group is constantly developing new standards to bring to the industry, meaning employers and their apprentices know their training programme is right for them. To see a full list of Firebrand programmes, head to our programmes page.

2. Pay nothing on National Insurance

The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills has scrapped all Employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices under the age of 25. This means that as of April 2016, it’s now even better value for you to hire IT apprentices as a way of bringing new skills to your business.

3. Access the £2.5 billion apprenticeships budget

The UK government has put aside over £2.5 billion towards training apprentices until 2020, according to FE Week. From April 2017, employers who pay more than £3 million in wage bills (less than 2% of businesses) will pay a 0.5% payroll levy to fund apprenticeships in England. Unclaimed funds from contributing employers of the Apprenticeship Levy will be used to support apprenticeships at 5.3 million employers, providing the financial means to upskill and develop their staff with apprenticeships.

4. Get paid to hire IT apprentices

Trailblazer Apprenticeship employers receive up to £10,800 in cash incentives from the government. How much money you receive depends on a few factors, including the size of your business and the age of your apprentice.

5. Only pay a third of all training costs

Trailblazer IT apprenticeship programmes like Level 3 Infrastructure Technician and Level 4 Network Engineer are eligible for maximum funding from the government. This means that for every £1,000 you contribute to your apprentice's training, the government adds a further £2,000 – so you’ll pay a maximum of a third of the costs to train with Tech Industry Gold providers like Firebrand.

With apprenticeships high on the agenda for this government, now’s the time to reconsider how you or your business will be bringing in new tech talent in 2016.

how to use blended search to rank well across local search

BLENDED SEARCH RESULTS :5  Ways it Impacts your organic search results 

The introduction of Google’s ‘Snack Pack” results was perhaps the biggest local search shakeup since Google Pigeon rolled out back in July of 2014 which  had about 7 parameters on : local search rank"However of late, Google started to blend 7 snack pack into 3 snack packs which are considered the most crucial ranking parameter for local search

 Blended search results means" when google " starts searching and  ranking your site, its tries to use blended factors to find out how effective you are  in terms of vertical search. Blended results such as local, shopping,images, real time videos , news are taken into account  and have begun to play an important and crucial role in addition to  the standard search results factors.

Here is a lowdown on Blended search results  that might help you to rank specially across Local search which might help you to index your site much faster 

HOW BLENDED SEARCH HELPS TO RANK ACROSS LOCAL SEARCH

1. The business has a listing in the local index including, Google Places ,Yahoo Local, Bing local listings 
2. The actual business location has the same address as mentioned in in the website  and search engine query friendly
3. The business has a local phone number for the searched location.
4. The website contains local address and phone number for the query
5. The website should have more positive and superior ratings by users  
6. Social Signals : How are your business shared across social media,how much clicks do you manage to generate out of your local ad business cross facebook, twitter , Klout and linkedin among others
   

1. videos that describes the local institution or something about the product and services which are tagged 
2. The local listings ( google local ) has to be claimed by local owners and verified as their busines videos that describes the local institution or something about the product and services which are tagged 
3. The local listings ( google local ) has to be claimed by local owners and verified as their business

Click on the image below to know more

1. Foursquare checkins, mobile clickthrough rates
2. Of late behavioral and/or mobile signals to make up 9.5% of the algorithm across  localized organic results
3. High Numerical ratings on Google Local/ Ratings by Google users ( Google Local) 
4. The listing title  and the description has to have atleast 3 keyword in order to search across blended search SERPS
5. The business  should be listed across third party data providers and Yellow pages
6. Geo-tagged images on photo uploading sites, like Flickr, Dropbox and Panoramio , along with a caption that explain the " Geotagged images and local business

struggling with organic search : 5 seo parameters which you need to improve

5 Reasons why you are not succeeding in Organic Search  

While  most of us know the algorithm of google search results to determine the ranking of the site . Externally ,that is off page optimization,the most important are 1) web page text
2) the linking sites
3)the number and quality of the sites linking back to you 
4) The anchor text
However lets find out what"most search engine cares about.Here is a quick lowdown on the most important factors which is affecting your organic search results .

5 Factors to keep in mind for organic search

INBOUND ANCHOR TEXT : ask webmasters when asking for a link to include " your anchor text" The anchor text should be relevant to the basic theme of the website.Lets say your have a website on Hotels and you are approaching a travel site for a link, and your target keywords are Cheap Hotels with great facilities" Use this anchor text to ask webmasters to link to your site, or you  can also ask webmasters to link to your internal page

SITE AUTHORITY : how other sites see your website. Are you considered as the " best website in terms of cheal hotel site ? For example how many back links does your nearest competitor have as compared to you

periodic table of  elements and factors for better search engine ranking

VISIBLE HTML ON YOUR PAGE : Avoid dynamic links, java script and flash, Most of your ebsite needs to be in html, as the search spider are more comfortable in picking up html content

AGE OF THE DOMAIN : the earlier your website has been registered,and online  is considered more relevant as compared with a website that has started recently

NATURE OF INBOUND LINKS: quality, relevance and quantity are the most important tha decides the most important factors for " Organic factors of SEO

AUTHORITY : how other sites see your website. Are you considered as the " best website in terms of cheal hotel site ? For example how many back links does your nearest competitor have as compared to you

CONTENT PRIMACY : do you have an unique content, which has not been existing in any other site ? or you have copied the content, and add a few stuff from your own.. This may take some time, but the more you write original content, the search engine views this as fresh content with unique webiste

SPEED: the faster your site's loading time, the better it is for both search engines and usersthe A slower speed  harms your website in too ways, bounce rate increases, and as google website comes with specific bandwidth , the  harder it  will be for the bots to find your websiteb

DISCLAIMER : These are some of the most important seo parameters , there re more than 100  parameters which search engines use to rank websitesyIn the above site ,

5 tips to help you pass your Six Sigma Green Belt exam

 By Sarah Morgan

Lean Six Sigma’s Green Belt certification introduces managers to process improvement, waste minimisation and value maximisation. You don’t need to possess any specific prerequisites to take the Green Belt exam. It is aimed at professionals with a definite interest or need for process improvement techniques in their role. 

If this sounds like you, and you’d like to implement Lean Six Sigma’s methodologies in your workplace, the Green Belt certification can be of huge benefit. It teaches you to reduce errors, control costs, streamline processes and improve the success rates of your team’s projects.

Below are a list of tips to help you study for the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt exam. These will help you gain as much knowledge and skills as possible whilst preparing for the exam. Follow these study tips and you should have the best possible chance at exam success.

1. Practice questions

The Lean Six Sigma Green Belt exam is in a multiple choice format. Whilst it’s clearly extremely important to gain as much knowledge as you can, try and tailor your exam preparation around the format. Completing numerous practice tests is the best way you can do this, honing your exam technique.

sixsigmastudyguide.com has a broad collection of practice tests, exams and questions from a range of sources. This gives you good variety in the sorts of tests and questions you’re answering, whilst still remaining true to the real thing. 

Another website useful for your Lean Six Sigma studies is sixsigmatrainingfree.com. This also has a great selection of resources. This includes practice exams specifically for Green Belt as well as for general Six Sigma study. It also contains a host of other resources that can help you answer any questions or issues that arise during your studies. 

2. Use a Lean Six Sigma study guide

There are a wide range of study guides specifically designed to help you study for the Green Belt exam, as you may have seen in our previous post, “10 best books to help you pass your Six Sigma certification”. This post gives you further detail on Lean Six Sigma study guides. However, for your Green Belt exam, either or both of the two below will be sure to help your studies.

The “Six SIGMA Green Belt Study Guide: Test Prep and Practice Questions for the Six SIGMA Green Belt Exam” from Trivium Test Prep is the one of the most direct study guides available for the Green Belt exam. It doesn’t include any distractions from what you need to know, whilst still fully explaining every exam topic. The book’s uncomplicated style makes for very efficient and productive studying. 

If you don’t learn best through intense study and revision, there is a study guide that can assist you through practical learning for the Green Belt exam. If you’re already trying to implement Lean Six Sigma methodologies in your team or business, the “Lean Six Sigma and Minitab (4th Edition): The Complete Toolbox Guide for Business Improvement” by Quentin Brook, is the book for you. This is designed to give practical advice to people using Lean Six Sigma. Having already sold over 100,000 copies, it helps managers implement process improvement all over the globe. Its features include easy to navigate DMAIC tabs, interactive examples and logical routemaps through the Six Sigma DMAIC flow. 

3. Sit a course

The best way to prepare for any certification’s exam, is to sit a course. They are specially designed to give you as much knowledge and skills as possible to pass the exam and to use the methodology in the real business environment. The benefits you receive depend of the type of course you choose to sit. A classroom based course gives you the benefits of an instructor available at all times to answer your questions as well as other students learning at the same pace who you can bounce questions and ideas off. 

Firebrand’s accelerated and combined Green and Black belt course gives you 12 hour training days, giving you the most learning time possible in a distraction free environment. You can also learn skills from the Black Belt certification while your Green Belt knowledge is still fresh. 

4. Immerse yourself in the methodology

With many topics and exams, an invaluable tip would be to get hands on and learn through your experiences with a trial version of the product or technology. With the Lean Six Sigma methodology, that’s a little trickier. The best alternative though, is to immerse yourself as much as you can in Lean Six Sigma outside of directly studying for your exam.

To do this, you should take advantage of the myriad of websites, blogs and other content available online that gives you information on Lean Six Sigma at a Green Belt level. For example, www.leansixsigmaninja.com is an excellent website created by a Green Belt alumni that breaks down Green Belt in a straightforward and easily digestible fashion. It has a lot of information for “newbies” and explains many of Lean Six Sigma’s tools and terminologies. Getting truly familiar with these will help your learning a great deal going forward.

There are many writers out there blogging about the latest trends and developments in Lean Six Sigma, and specifically the Green Belt’s exam content. Reading and staying current with these can give you a wider understanding of the methodology; how it’s evolving and how your knowledge and skills can be utilised in the real world business environment. Check out the full list of 20 Lean Six Sigma blogs here.

5. Use a Six Sigma Green Belt forum

Image courtesy of David Castillo
Dominici at freedigitalphotos.net

Due to the broad and widely applicable nature of project management there are a wide range of forums and discussions you can find online – all with varying levels of quality. One the best out there, with a large number of contributors and topics is from isixsigma.com. It has a comprehensive range of Lean Six Sigma topics and is nicely divided into topic areas for easy navigation. As with all online forums though, be aware that not everyone is an expert and not all contributions will be applicable or useful. 


If you use these five tips, you should give yourself the best possible chance of passing the Lean Six Sigma Green belt exam. Also, learning as much as you can in preparation for the exam, should put you in a great position after the exam to bringing the knowledge you’ve learned into your business, improving processes and reducing errors.

About the Author:        

Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. 

planning a navigation for non human visitor and search bots

SITE MAP TO BE FOLLOWED  BY SEARCH ENGINE SPIDERS  : 5 ways to ensure bots visit at your web site

The most crucial fact you have to understand that the search engine does not look the same as a human visitor .By creating an robot friendly navigation  you encourage the  search bots visit your site more often which in turn  increase the visibility of your site. Increasing visits by search bots ensure your content gets indexed  faster, your cache( when google spiders visits your site the cache shows when they have visited last. If you see google's cache showing very recent visit, it means, your content is getting  updated faster,, and this improves your visibility in the SERPS.sees it.o perform better in search engine listings, your most important content should be in HTML text format. Images,

Things not to do : Avoid Flash files, Java applets, and other non-text content and emphasis more on html pages .This is because   search bots often ignore or devalue these codes  

see the entire post below




how do you get to do this : 1) by providing search engines robots with links to navigate the through your website
 2)by pointing search engine robots to dynamic or hard to read pages that might not be able to accessible other wise.
3) By providing a possible link to landing page
4) By ensuring your 404 error has a link pointing to a page ( preferably home page 5) by using ready to use content if a page is not available or a url that is broken

VC exits from technology start ups

2015 TECH EXITS BY VC's There were over 3,400 exits in 2015, a 14% increase from 2014. But exits by quarter are trending downward with just 717 exits in Q4’15 – the lowest quarterly total since Q1’14.

VC exits from top 10 biggest Technology start ups

Global tech exits including M&A, IPO trends, and much mores 

1 billion mobile subscribers,with 10 times mobile traffic being added every 6 month

By the end of 2015 half of the world’s population had at least one mobile subscription, totaling over 3.6 billion unique mobile subscribers. By 2020, around three-fifths of the global population will have a mobile subscription with 4.6 billion users with a growth of 4% CAGR with close to one billion new subscribers being added in 6 months

 At the end of 2015 half of the world’s population had at least one mobile subscription, totaling over 3.6 billion unique mobile subscribers. By 2020, around three-fifths of the global population will have a mobile subscription with 4.6 billion users with a growth of 4% CAGR  with close to one billion new subscribers being added in 6 months  

Developed markets are growing more slowly as penetration rates approach levels close to saturation. For example, in Europe and North America, unique subscriber growth was below 1% in 2015. At the other end of the spectrum, Sub-Saharan Africa was still the world’s most under-penetrated region with subscriber growth at nearly 12%. 

GLOBAL MOBILE  PENETRATION:: From 50% in 2015 ,,penetration will  exceed 59% by 2020
3G/4G MOBILE CONNECTIONS : 3G and 4g connections across the world  will exceed 69% in 2020  from 39% in 2015
NUMBER OF SMARTPHONES: Number from Smartphones across the world will reach 5.9billion by 2020 compared to 2.6 billion as of 2015
MOBILE TRAFFIC" set to grow 10 fold by 2019   

GLOBAL SIM CONNECTIONS :.Global SIM Connections  is set to reach 10 billion from 7.3 billion by 2020 Mobile operator revenues will growth from $1.15 trillion to $1.40 trillion, which is a growth of 3.1% CAGR