How to Use Azure – Improve Your Skills with These Resources
The benefits of using Azure are vast, and if you want to keep up with the changing technologies in the cloud, it’s essential that you learn how to use it. However, sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start. This list of resources will help you understand Azure better so that you can start using it more efficiently and effectively whether you’re just starting out or want to improve your existing skills.
Why should you learn about Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and it’s pretty great. You can use Microsoft Azure for many things, but for developers there are some great services that make it easy to build, deploy, and manage enterprise-grade web apps. Check out these resources if you want to get started. You could also consider signing up for an account so you can start playing around with Microsoft Azure’s developer tools. If you have any questions or just want someone to talk through what they mean, head over to Stack Overflow’s forum on Developing on Microsoft Azure. Happy coding.
What are some ways you can leverage it in your career?
Here are some ways you can leverage your skills in your career. First and foremost, if you already have data science skills, then why not look into working at a company like Microsoft. The main products which utilize advanced language models include Bing search engine, Office 365 software suite (Word, PowerPoint), Azure Analysis Services cloud services, and LinkedIn. There are a number of other job opportunities out there for people who have specialized data science knowledge; what matters is finding something that utilizes your skill set and interests. If you don’t know where to start then try using LinkedIn advanced search tools to help you find companies hiring for jobs which utilize data science skills. If you’re looking for more education in Data Science check out these programs from top universities here.
What data types and languages does it support?
Azure supports many different data types and languages. Below are just a few examples of language and data type support: C#, Java, Python, Node.js, PHP, F# and R on VMs; advanced analytics languages such as R and Python; Hadoop data types like Java Objects/Java Bins/Json; SQL Server 2016 Data Types (varbinary(max), varchar(max), nvarchar(max), xml); Parquet & ORC Files; NoSQL Databases such as DocumentDB & SQL Database; Graph DBs including Cosmos DB. The number of possible use cases for Azure is only limited by your imagination.
How can I improve my skill set?
Because a data science career is such a hot commodity, there are many avenues for improving your skills. The first place you should start is by brushing up on your math and statistics skills. If you want to strengthen your foundation in data science fundamentals, consider earning an online master’s degree in mathematics or statistics. Once you’ve taken care of those basics, it’s time to build on them. To improve in any discipline, whether it be statistics or machine learning, study under experienced professionals who can help sharpen your existing skill set and pass along tips for mastering new tools and methodologies.
How do I best get started learning about it?
The first thing you’ll want to do is check out Microsoft’s own resources. There are several beginner-level courses on Data Science available right now. Also, there’s a solid overview of data science at Microsoft on MSDN that you should definitely take a look at. If you have some programming experience under your belt, they also have several Courses (that link goes directly to Microsoft offerings). One final resource: if you’re interested in applying machine learning and advanced models in general, TensorFlow has released a library for all three major clouds: Windows/Azure, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services.
