According to IDC, the global data usage was more than 59 zettabytes (1 ZB = 1 billion terabytes) in 2020. Also, in the next 2–3 years, the global data usage will be more than what was used in the past 30 years combined. As per a report published on Forbes, around 94 percent of workloads will be hosted on cloud services. Later in this blog, we will let you know how Azure Data Engineers help utilize this data.
The cloud is majorly utilized for storing, analyzing, and delivering data in various forms. Data Engineers with the help of cloud services work on the data to make it structured and useful. According to PayScale, Data Engineers have the highest average salary closely followed by Data Scientists.
Hence, pursuing a Data Engineer career will never let you down. If you are considering a Data Engineer job title, read on the blog that covers all the necessary topics for you to know, especially the right certifications and training, to become a certified Data Engineer.
Let’s quickly take a look at the topics covered in this blog. If you want to go to a particular one, you can click on it.
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Who is an Azure Data Engineer?
Azure Data Engineer is a broad term. These are highly skilled professionals and have many roles to play in an organization. To learn about this title comprehensively, take a look at the following example.
An organization named Intellipaat wants to increase business revenue by utilizing the customer behavioral data on its website. Intellipaat uses Azure for its operations, so it hires an Azure Data Engineer named Jack and also a Data Scientist.
Jack is a Microsoft Certified Azure Data Engineer, and the certification has helped him land this crucial job.
Let’s see how Jack fulfills Intellipaat’s requirements.
First, Jack creates a data warehouse for the organization. A data warehouse is the storage of structured and query-able data. It contains data from various resources such as new user logs, clicks, existing customer data, etc. Jack structures this data, stores it, and monitors it in the data warehouse.
Second, Jack communicates with the Data Scientist to understand the data requirement. He also communicates with the business team to know the business requirements of the organization. He has to keep in mind the business needs when dealing with the data in hand.
Intellipaat’s business team requires a dashboard tool for the visualization of key insights. It helps the team read the data insights easily. The Data Scientist also needs a tool for the deployment of the data as required. He further needs tools and software to analyze and create insights from the processed data. As the company mentions the requirement to develop and deploy the dashboard tools, Jack should be proficient in a high-level programming language such as Java in the first place.
Jack now constantly processes, analyzes, and monitors the data in the pipeline-centric method for Intellipaat. He basically creates a data pipeline through which the data is integrated with all the crucial stages of the data flow. He also makes sure the pipeline is always efficient and secure.
This scenario has given you a clear picture of who an Azure Data Engineer is and what the primary roles need to be played by the professional. Now, let’s move ahead and discuss why should you clear Azure Data Engineer Certification.
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Why should you clear Azure Data Engineer Certification?
According to Microsoft, every year around 365,000 new companies register themselves on Azure. More than 95 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are utilizing Azure cloud services. This in turn increases the number of job opportunities for Azure Data Engineers constantly.
Azure’s growth rate is reaching close to that of AWS every year, and major companies are beginning to trust and adopt Azure more and more. Organizations shifting to Azure, or already are utilizing it, regularly need Microsoft certified professionals who can work on Azure and handle big data. In the above example, you saw how Intellipaat wanted to increase business revenue with the help of a Data Engineer.
According to a survey from Global Knowledge, in 2020, two of the top five highest-paying certifications were from Azure. Microsoft-certified professionals have an edge when they lookout for better opportunities in the cloud career. As in the case of any other technology, companies that use Azure also prefer Microsoft-certified professionals to their non-certified counterparts.
Let’s move ahead and learn about who should go for this certification.
Who should go for Azure Data Engineer Certification?
There’s no hard and fast rule for who should go for this certification. Practically, any Azure or Data enthusiast can and should go for it. However, the following professionals are most suitable for this certification:
- IT professionals who are having experience working with Azure
- Data Engineers with minimum 1-year experience
- IT professionals who want to upskill and upscale their career as an Azure Data Engineer
To get certified, one has to pass the exam, and for that, one needs to know what questions will be asked in it and what the exam pattern will be. In the upcoming section, let’s discuss how you can prepare for this certification exam.
Learn the difference between Data Engineer and Data Scientist in our blog on Data Engineer vs Data Scientist!
Exam Preparation
Clearing the certification exam is not an easy task as it covers a wide range of domains and requires knowledge of several tools. Let’s discuss various methods by which you can learn and prepare yourself and pass the exam with flying colors.
First, let’s briefly discuss the exams passing which will award you this particular certification. A few months earlier, you would have to give the following two exams to attain Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Certification.
But now, Microsoft has replaced both these exams with just one, i.e., DP-203: Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure. The Azure Data Engineer Certification cost varies with the country you are taking the exam in. In India, it is ₹4,800; whereas, in the USA, it is US$165.
By clearing this exam, you can attain the Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Associate certification. Although you can still give the above two exams till June 30, 2021, and attain the certification, it is preferable to give this one exam, i.e., DP-203 (Beta) for the certification. In the Beta version, the certification is valid. However, in the Beta stage, you will not get exam results just after attempting the exam. Rather, it takes up to 10 days.
If you have given any one of the above two exams, you can still sit for the latter one before June 30, 2021, and obtain the certification.
The skills or domains that are tested in the examination cover a broad range of topics. In the image below, you can see the syllabus outline for the DP-203 exam, which shows various domains and the weightage of each of them. For more subtopics and details, check out this course guide by Microsoft.
Since now you know the topics that are covered in the examination, let’s see how you can prepare for this certification.
- Tutorials and Documentation
- Intellipaat: Intellipaat’s Azure Tutorial series gives you a comprehensive explanation of Azure services.
- Microsoft: Microsoft’s documentation gives you a theory course for the DP 203 exam.
- Youtube Videos
- Intellipaat: Intellipaat’s YouTube videos provide a simple and visualized method for understanding Azure. The Azure Tutorial Video and Azure Data Factory Video full course will help you in understanding the respective topics easily.
You can check out all the above-mentioned resources to prepare for the exam. It will require some time and effort from your end to prepare thoroughly. However, if you want to learn from an expert, Intellipaat is your best option as its training programs are designed and led by industry professionals.
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In the next topic, you will come across the Azure Data Engineer certification path.
Path to Become an Azure Data Engineer
The path to becoming a Microsoft Certified Azure Data Engineer includes many steps. Go through these steps and prepare at your pace to attain the certification. However, you have to note that the Azure Data Engineer learning path is not the same for everyone. If you are a fresher or an IT professional who wants to switch your career, the path to attain this certification is similar for both. If you are already working in this domain and want to attain this certification to advance in your career, then the path will be much easier for you.
Once you achieve the certification, it validates your knowledge and/or experience in the domain. It complements your skills as an Azure Data Engineer.
Prepare for the Azure Interview and crack like a pro with these Azure Interview Questions.
Why do companies hire Data Engineers?
As per Forbes, more than 80 percent of data analysis work is done by Data Engineers. As data is one of the most crucial resources of any organization, Data Engineers are required to perform key tasks for them. Let’s understand thoroughly, the reasons why Data Engineers are hired:
- Architecture: Data Engineers have to design the entire architecture of the data flow and align it with business requirements.
- Data warehouse: Data Engineers create a data warehouse for the proper storage of analytical data. It makes it easy and fast to query data for analysis.
- ETL: ETL stands for Extract, Transform, and Load. The ETL process is one of the key tasks of Data Engineers. They need to extract data from multiple resources, transform it into structured query-able data, and then load this data into the company’s storage service for further business evaluations by Data Scientists.
- Data monitoring: Data Engineers make sure that ETL is performed in a proper way, and the data is available anywhere it is needed.
- Data security: Ensuring data security is also a major responsibility of Data Engineers. The data needs to be secure at each step of the process without any leaks or exposure.
- Collaboration: They have to constantly communicate with the business team to check if the team needs data insights. Collaborating with Data Scientists is also necessary to deliver the data as per their needs.
- Deployment: If the business team requires data on a certain platform in a structured manner to understand insights, logs, reports, etc., then the Data Engineers need to deploy the platform. To do so, they must know high-level programming languages, such as Java. The same happens if Data Scientists or Data Analysts require the data delivered to them on a platform, Data Engineers will have to deploy and maintain such a platform.
- Analytics: Data Engineers analyze the data and look for patterns to transform it into a structured and useful format. They need to have strong analytical and mathematical skills to perform analyses.
- Automation: They have to automate certain processes, which require minimal human intervention, such as extraction.
These are the reasons why organizations hire Data Engineers. Now, let’s take a look at a sample job description of a Data Engineer. This job description is posted by IBM India for Data Engineers.
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Organizations that look for these Azure Data Engineer roles and responsibilities to fulfill organizational requirements. Organizations hire Data Engineers based on their projects and architecture. Depending on the job description posted by an organization, often the required skills vary. For example, while some organizations require Java, some others may require Scala programming language to be learned by Data Engineers.
In the above sample job description of Azure Data Engineer, you may have noticed that Azure Data Factory, Databricks, and Azure Data Lake Storage are some of the highly preferred skills. As organizations running on Azure need Data Engineers who are proficient in such Azure Data Services, these are some common skills required from aspiring Azure Data Engineers.
Now, let’s move ahead and discuss the benefits you will get from attaining the Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Associate certification.
Preparing for job interviews? Check out our Azure Data Engineer Interview Questions list now!
Key Benefits of Azure Data Engineer Certification
According to a survey by Dice Marketing, Data Engineering is the fastest-growing tech job with more than 50 percent growth annually. In this ever-growing path, Microsoft certification offers more benefits to professionals. Let’s see what these benefits are in the following list:
- Validation: Microsoft certification is trusted by employers and organizations across the IT industry. It validates your knowledge and expertise as an Azure Data Engineer.
- Salary hike: According to Microsoft, 23 percent of Microsoft-certified professionals receive a 20 percent salary hike after obtaining the certification. Considering the growth of Azure in upcoming years, a salary hike is one of the key benefits of earning the certification.
- Opportunities: Certification opens up the door to more and better opportunities in the industry for professionals looking to work in their dream companies.
- Digital badge: Certification provides you a digital badge that can act as a highlight in your LinkedIn profile or your CV. It can easily catch recruiters’ eyes and make them trust your skills.
Conclusion
As mentioned, data is a crucial factor for organizations as they can utilize it for various purposes. Cloud services, especially those offered by Azure, are utilized for managing key data-related tasks in organizations. Data and Azure are going to be the highlights in the IT industry for years to come. A Microsoft Certified Azure Data Engineer Associate is a role that fits in the best way possible in these two domains. Therefore, achieving the Microsoft Certification can easily open up doors to new opportunities, better projects, and better organizations. Its value is just going to increase in the near future.
So, why not get certified and validate your expertise? If you want to start your career in Azure, enroll today in Intellipaat’s Microsoft Azure Training certification course.
We hope that this blog has opened up the door to learn about the Azure Data Engineer jobs, roles and responsibilities, certification along with its benefits. If you have more queries, drop a comment below, and let us reach out to you.