Skills readiness path during the readiness phase of a migration journey

During the readiness phase of a migration journey, the objective is to prepare for the journey ahead. This phase is accomplished in two primary areas: organizational readiness and environmental (technical) readiness. Each area might require new skills for both technical and nontechnical contributors. The following sections describe a few options to help build the necessary skills.

Organizational readiness learning paths

Depending on the motivations and business outcomes associated with a cloud adoption effort, leaders might be required to establish new organizational structures or virtual teams to facilitate various functions. The following articles help to develop the skills that are necessary to structure those teams in accordance with desired outcomes:

• Initial organization alignment: Overview of organizational alignment and various team structures to facilitate specific goals.
• Break down silos and fiefdoms: Understand two common organizational antipatterns and ways to guide the team to productive collaboration.

Environmental (technical) readiness learning paths

During the readiness phase, technical staff are called upon to create a migration landing zone that's capable of hosting, operating, and governing workloads that were migrated to the cloud. Developing the necessary skills can be accelerated with the following learning paths:

• Create an Azure account: The first step to using Azure is to create an account. Your account holds the Azure services you provision and handles your personal settings like identity, billing, and preferences.
• Azure portal: Tour the Azure portal features and services, and customize the portal.
• Introduction to Azure: Get started with Azure by creating and configuring your first virtual machine in the cloud.
• Introduction to security in Azure: Discuss the basic concepts for protecting your infrastructure and data when you work in the cloud. Understand what responsibilities are yours and what Azure takes care of for you.
• Manage resources in Azure: Learn how to work with the Azure command line and web portal to create, manage, and control cloud-based resources.
• Create a VM: Create a virtual machine by using the Azure portal.
• Azure networking: Learn some of the Azure networking basics and how Azure networking helps improve resiliency and reduce latency.
• Azure compute options: Review the Azure compute services.
• Secure resources with Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC): Use Azure RBAC to secure resources.
• Data storage options: Benefits of Azure data storage.

During the readiness phase, architects are called upon to architect solutions that span all Azure environments. The following skill-building resources can prepare architects for these tasks:

• Foundations for Cloud Architecture: A Pluralsight course to help architect the right foundational solutions.
• Microsoft Azure Architecture: A Pluralsight course to ground architects in Azure architecture.
• Designing Migrations for Microsoft Azure: A Pluralsight course to help architects design a migration solution.

Deeper skills exploration

Various learning options beyond these initial options are available for developing skills.

Typical mappings of cloud IT roles

Microsoft and partners offer various options for all audiences to develop skills with Azure services.

• Map roles and skills: A resource for mapping your cloud career path. Learn about your cloud role and suggested skills. Follow a learning curriculum at your own pace to build the skills that you need most to stay relevant.

• Explore Azure certification training and exams to gain official recognition for your Azure knowledge.

Microsoft Learn

Microsoft Learn is a new approach to learning. Readiness for the new skills and responsibilities that come with cloud adoption doesn't come easily. Microsoft Learn provides a more rewarding approach to hands-on learning that helps you achieve your goals faster. Earn points and levels and achieve more.

The following examples are a few tailored learning paths that align to the Ready methodology of the Cloud Adoption Framework:

Azure fundamentals: Learn cloud concepts such as high availability, scalability, elasticity, agility, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery. Understand the benefits of cloud computing in Azure and how it can save you time and money. Compare and contrast basic strategies for transitioning to the Azure cloud. Explore the breadth of services available in Azure including compute, network, storage, and security.

Manage resources in Azure: Learn how to work with the Azure command line and web portal to create, manage, and control cloud-based resources.

Administer infrastructure resources in Azure: Learn how to create, manage, secure, and scale virtual machine resources.

Store data in Azure: Azure provides a variety of ways to store data: unstructured, archival, relational, and more. Learn the basics of storage management in Azure, how to create a storage account, and how to choose the right model for the data you want to store in the cloud.

Architect great solutions in Azure: Learn how to design and build secure, scalable, and high-performing solutions in Azure by examining the core principles found in sound architecture.

Learn more

For additional learning paths, browse the Microsoft Learn training catalog. Use the Roles filter to align learning paths with your role.