Microsoft security & Azure — articles and certification training

AZ-500 is gone. SC-500 is a different exam.

Microsoft retired AZ-500 on 31 August 2026. Its successor now scores Copilot data exposure, Entra Agent ID and Foundry agent guardrails — material that did not exist on the old blueprint. Plenty of prep still predates the change. The Lowdown Lab has been writing about this stack since 2023; the study guides are what that turned into.

Join the waitlist What changed in 2026

Objective domains verified against Microsoft Learn — 15 Sep 2026.
Independent study material. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.

The 2026 reshuffle

Fourteen Microsoft exams moved this year — in the Azure and security track alone.

This is the actual retirement and revision calendar. If a guide you're reading was written before the date next to its exam, you're studying objectives that are no longer scored.

31 Mar 2026 MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals retired.
17 Apr 2026 AZ-104 / 305 Both revised. Container Apps and Bicep expanded on AZ-104; AZ-305 tightened around the Well-Architected Framework.
27 Apr 2026 SC-300 Objectives revised. Global Secure Access and Defender for Cloud Apps folded into access management.
01 Jun 2026 DP-100 Azure Data Scientist retired.
30 Jun 2026 AI-900 / 102 Azure AI Fundamentals and AI Engineer both retired.
20 Jul 2026 AZ-900 Objectives revised. Compute, networking, deployment tooling and monitoring all updated.
28 Jul 2026 SC-200 Objectives revised. Sentinel Graph, data lake KQL jobs, the Sentinel MCP Server and agentic-AI incident investigation are now scored.
31 Jul 2026 AZ-204 Azure Developer retired.
31 Aug 2026 AZ-500 Azure Security Engineer retired — succeeded by SC-500, which adds a full AI-security domain. Existing AZ-500 holders keep the credential on their transcript but can no longer renew it.
30 Sep 2026 AZ-800/1 Windows Server Hybrid Administrator retires. Last sitting date.
30 Nov 2026 MS-102 Microsoft 365 Administrator Expert retires.

In production

Five guides, in the order you should sit them

Each guide is structured against Microsoft's published skills-measured breakdown and weighted the same way the exam is, so you spend your study time in proportion to what's actually scored. The numbering is the study path — fundamentals through architect.

Step 01

Azure Fundamentals

AZ-900
Revised Jul 26

The entry point. Cloud models, Azure architecture and the governance and cost tooling — enough to hold a sensible conversation about Azure before you touch the portal in anger.

Objective weighting

Azure architecture & services 35u201340%
Management & governance 30u201335%
Cloud concepts 25u201330%
Step 02

Azure Administrator

AZ-104
Revised Apr 26

The infrastructure foundation most security candidates skip and then regret. Identity, storage, compute, virtual networking and monitoring — the prerequisite knowledge SC-500 assumes you have.

Objective weighting

Identities & governance 20u201325%
Compute resources 20u201325%
Storage 15u201320%
Virtual networking 15u201320%
Monitor & maintain 10u201315%
Step 03

Cloud & AI Security Engineer

SC-500
New

The AZ-500 successor, and the reason this catalog exists. Adds Entra Agent ID, Copilot data exposure via Purview DSPM, Foundry agent guardrails and Defender for AI. Microsoft’s own practice assessment isn’t out yet.

Objective weighting

Storage, databases & networking 25u201330%
Identity, access & governance 20u201325%
Secure compute & AI workloads 20u201325%
Manage & monitor security posture 20u201325%
Step 04

Azure Solutions Architect

AZ-305
Expert

Designing identity, governance, data storage, business continuity and infrastructure solutions. Design-tradeoff drills with written justifications — the format the exam actually rewards.

Objective weighting

Infrastructure solutions 30u201335%
Identity, governance & monitoring 25u201330%
Data storage solutions 20u201325%
Business continuity 15u201320%
Step 05

Cybersecurity Architect

SC-100
Expert

The expert-tier design exam, and the top of the path. Zero Trust strategy, regulatory compliance posture and security architecture across identity, data, applications and infrastructure.

Format

Case-study and design-scenario heavy u2014 built around worked architecture decisions rather than feature recall. Assumes you already hold an associate cert.
Coming soon

The guides aren't for sale yet

They're being written against the objectives above, and they'll go on sale when they're finished — not before. If you're sitting one of these exams, tell me which and I'll let you know the moment yours is ready.

  • Waitlist first — early access before general release
  • Launch pricing for people on the list
  • Tell me your background and I'll say which exam to sit, in what order
  • Team and corporate licensing available at launch
Join the waitlist Ask about team licensing

From the Lab

The writing came first

The Lowdown Lab has been publishing on Azure, identity and the Microsoft security stack since 2023. The articles are free and they stay free — the study guides are the same work, organised against an exam blueprint.

27 Mar 2024

Power Tools for the System Admin

The Azure services worth wiring into your day-to-day admin workflow, and the ones that just add tabs.

 20 Feb 2023

Deploying Azure Files

Getting a file share into production: identity, networking and the decisions that are hard to undo later.

 08 Feb 2023

The Magic of Kubernetes

What the orchestrator actually does for you, and where the abstraction stops being free.

 Feb 2023

Defender for Office 365

Email-based attacks keep getting more sophisticated. The Defender features that actually move the needle.

 Feb 2023

Planning for Azure Files

Sizing, tiering and access design before you deploy — the planning half of the deployment story.

 Jan 2023

Azure Network Security Explained

NSGs, ASGs, Firewall and Private Link — what each one is for and how they stack together.
Read the blog Join the Discord
Name John Alves
Role Security Architect
Based Dallas, Texas
Langs English / Español

Who writes the guides

I do this work on weekdays. The guides are the notes.

I'm a security architect — Entra tenants, Defender and Sentinel deployments, vendor risk assessments against NIST CSF 2.0. These guides come out of the same reading I do to keep my own work current, which is why they track Microsoft's objective changes instead of lagging a year behind them.

A study guide written from a retired exam blueprint isn't a shortcut. It's a detour.

Every guide is dated and sourced. Each one opens with the Microsoft Learn revision date it was written against, so you can check for yourself whether it's current before you spend a weekend on it. When an objective domain moves, I re-cut the affected sections and reissue.

Guides are written in English. If you'd rather work through the material in Spanish, say so in the form below — I handle those personally.

Common questions

Straight answers

I already passed AZ-500. Is it worthless now?
No. AZ-500 retired on 31 August 2026, but an earned certification stays on your Microsoft Learn transcript permanently. What you lose is the renewal path — Microsoft associate certifications expire annually and renew through a free online assessment, and that assessment is no longer offered for a retired exam. If you want a current, renewable credential in that space, SC-500 is the successor.
What's actually different about SC-500 versus AZ-500?
The Azure security fundamentals carry over — Key Vault, NSGs, Defender for Cloud, Azure Policy, Sentinel ingestion. What's new is an entire AI-security block: identifying Copilot data overexposure through Purview DSPM, Conditional Access for Entra Agent ID, blast-radius analysis in Defender XDR, AI Gateway in API Management for Foundry, and Defender for AI Service. Roughly a fifth of the compute domain is material that did not exist on AZ-500.
When do the guides go on sale, and what will they cost?
They go on sale when they're written, and not before — I'd rather be late than ship a guide against objectives I haven't worked through properly. Pricing isn't set yet. Join the waitlist and you'll hear about both first, with launch pricing for people on the list.
What score do I need to pass?
700 or higher on Microsoft's scaled scoring, which is not a percentage — it's a scaled score across a variable question set. Each guide includes a realistic readiness benchmark rather than a false "you need 70% correct" rule.
Are these brain dumps or real practice questions?
Real questions, written from the published objective domains. Live exam content is under NDA and reproducing it will get your certification revoked and your Microsoft Learn profile banned. The practice questions here are written to match the reasoning the exam asks for, not to leak it.
Which exam should I start with?
If you administer Azure day to day, go straight at SC-500. If you don't, AZ-104 first — and AZ-900 before that if Azure is new to you. The SC-500 audience profile assumes practical experience with Azure compute, networking and storage, plus familiarity with Entra ID and Microsoft 365 administration. Tell me your background in the form and I'll give you a straight recommendation, including "don't buy anything yet" when that's the honest answer.
Do you do team or corporate licensing?
Yes, at launch. Use the form and include your headcount and which exams the team is targeting, and I'll come back to you with volume pricing and invoiced billing options.

Get on the list

Tell me which exam you're sitting

I'll let you know when your guide is ready. Tell me what you work on and where you're trying to get to, and I'll also tell you which exam fits and in what order — including whether you need a guide at all.

Team licensing and Spanish-language material go through this form too.

This opens a pre-written email to info@lightsailstudios.com — nothing is sent until you send it.