Sysadmin to cloud: Azure and AWS certifications
For a system administrator, the cloud move on this site runs through Azure: AZ-104 (Azure Administrator Associate) is the main exam, AZ-802 is the alternative if the work stays mostly Windows Server, and AZ-305 follows for design. On the AWS side the site covers only the AI exams, AIF-C01 and MLA-C02; it has no guide to an AWS infrastructure or administrator exam, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
Example profiles, not real people. The scenarios below are illustrative planning examples built from the official exam outline. They are not reviews or reports of anyone’s result.
The decision rule
Choose by what your servers will be doing in two years.
- Most of the work moves into Azure subscriptions, networks, storage and identity: take AZ-104. The site’s career page reads Microsoft’s audience profile as fitting an on-premises administrator who already runs Windows Server, Active Directory and virtual machines and needs the Azure equivalents.
- The estate stays largely on-premises or hybrid, and you manage domain controllers, Hyper-V, file services and DNS: take AZ-802. Its largest domain is AD DS at 20 to 25 percent, and Azure Arc and Azure Update Manager are in scope for hybrid management.
- You want to design, not operate: AZ-104 first, because Microsoft requires the Azure Administrator Associate certification for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert, then AZ-305. The Azure route shows the order.
- You have no cloud vocabulary at all: AZ-900 is optional, never expires, and takes four weeks at four to six hours a week. Skip it if you already work with Azure or another cloud.
If your employer is an AWS shop, be honest about the gap in this site’s coverage: the AWS exams here are about AI, not about running EC2, networking or storage. AIF-C01 is a conceptual foundation (90 minutes, 65 questions of which 50 are scored, 100 USD). MLA-C02 is the associate exam for machine learning engineering and assumes about a year with SageMaker AI and Bedrock plus CI/CD and infrastructure as code. Neither is an AWS equivalent of AZ-104. For an AWS infrastructure route, use AWS’s own certification pages.
What AZ-104 asks of an on-premises administrator
AZ-104 is 100 minutes with a passing score of 700 out of 1000. Microsoft does not publish the question count. The five domains:
| Domain | Weight | How it relates to on-premises work |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20 to 25% | Entra ID and Azure RBAC replace much of what AD groups and delegation did |
| Deploy and manage compute resources | 20 to 25% | Virtual machines map across; Bicep, containers and App Service are new |
| Implement and manage storage | 15 to 20% | Redundancy names and access tiers are the new vocabulary |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15 to 20% | Subnets and NSGs map from firewalls and VLANs |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10 to 15% | Backup and Azure Monitor replace local tooling |
The exam also expects you to read PowerShell, Azure CLI, ARM or Bicep snippets, not only click through the portal. The site’s career page lists what AZ-104 does not prove: design judgement, delivery pipelines, deep Windows Server and security engineering.
What AZ-802 covers instead
AZ-802 is 120 minutes, English only, passing score 700, and replaced AZ-800 and AZ-801, which Microsoft retired on September 30, 2026. Its seven domains include AD DS (20 to 25 percent), storage and file services (15 to 20), monitoring and troubleshooting (15 to 20), and hybrid management, virtual machines, networking and security at 10 to 15 each. The exam page says the official practice assessment was not yet available, so check the study guide’s date before booking.
Constraints to plan for
- Renewal. AZ-104 and AZ-802 are valid for 12 months and renew free, open book and unproctored, in the six months before expiry. Renewing early does not shift the clock. If it lapses you sit the exam again.
- Retakes. Microsoft allows a retake after 24 hours, then 14 days between later attempts, at most five in 12 months, with the fee paid each time. AWS requires 14 calendar days and sets no attempt limit.
- Hands-on practice. A free or pay-as-you-go subscription with a budget alert set on day one is the site’s recommendation. Forgotten VMs are the usual cost.
- English. AZ-104 is offered in ten languages and AZ-802 in English only. AWS lets non-native English speakers request a 30-minute extension once.
- Moving outlines. AZ-104’s outline was last updated on April 17, 2026. Localised versions follow the English update by about eight weeks.
A scenario: Windows Server administrator, no cloud
This is an illustrative planning example, not a report. Take a candidate who administers Windows Server, Active Directory and Hyper-V daily, has never deployed anything in Azure, and wants to be Azure-capable within a few months.
Starting point. Strong on directory services, DNS, DHCP and virtualisation. Unfamiliar with Entra ID, RBAC scopes, storage account redundancy and Bicep.
Budget. The AZ-104 plan is four weeks at 8 to 10 hours (32 to 40 hours) for someone who already works with a cloud, and the site says to double the timeline without cloud or server administration experience, which is 64 to 80 hours. A server administrator without cloud sits in between, so a reasonable planning assumption is about 40 to 60 hours.
Where the time goes. Out of roughly 50 hours, identity and governance and compute take about 10 to 12 hours each; storage and networking about 8 to 10 each; monitoring and backup about 5 to 7.
Order. Identity and governance first, because every later lab needs roles and resource groups; then storage; then compute; then networking and monitoring in the last week.
The trap. Assuming that AD knowledge covers the identity domain. Entra ID and Azure RBAC use different concepts and the exam asks about scopes, role types and Policy versus locks. Another is treating the exam as portal-only when it reads commands and templates.
None of this guarantees a pass.
Next steps
Read the AZ-104 study plan and AZ-104 renewal and retake rules, and use AZ-104 versus AZ-305 when design work appeals. If the networking side is your gap, help desk to networking or security certifications explains the CompTIA route. For fitting study around work, see studying while working full time.