“AZ-305 Explained: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions”

📌 Overview of the Tool / Exam

Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions (AZ-305) is a Microsoft certification exam for cloud and infrastructure architects. It measures your ability to design Azure solutions that address identity, governance, monitoring, storage, networking, business continuity, and infrastructure as a whole. Passing this exam contributes to the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.

Unlike traditional software tools, AZ-305 is an exam that validates skills in designing and planning Azure infrastructure solutions rather than a specific piece of software.

⭐ Key Features / Skills Covered

The AZ-305 exam tests competencies across multiple architectural design areas:

🧠 Core Skill Domains

• Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions – secure access, policies, logs, metrics.
• Design data storage solutions – relational & non-relational storage strategies.
• Design business continuity and disaster recovery solutions – high availability, backups.
• Design infrastructure solutions – compute, network connectivity, application architectures, migrations.

These areas ensure you can architect complete Azure solutions that are secure, resilient, performant, and aligned with business needs.

🔁 How It Fits into DevOps / DevSecOps

Although AZ-305 is not a DevOps tool, it strongly connects to DevOps and DevSecOps practices:

🛠️ DevOps Alignment

• Focus on Infrastructure as Code (IaC) — designing infrastructure that can be automated and deployed consistently. ([examcollection.com][3])
• Supports architects working with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps teams to deliver solutions that integrate with Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions for automated rollouts.

🔐 DevSecOps Alignment

• Security and governance are explicitly tested (identity, access, policy). ([Microsoft Learn][1])
• Ensures designs embed security best practices, continuous compliance with policies, and resilience against threats. ([examcollection.com][3])

So AZ-305 complements DevOps/DevSecOps processes by validating the architectural skills needed to design secure, reliable, and automated cloud infrastructure.

💻 Programming Language

AZ-305 does not mandate a specific programming language because it’s an architectural design exam rather than a coding certification. However, you’ll often work with languages and tools in practice such as:

• CLI and scripting: PowerShell, Azure CLI
• IaC tools’ languages: Bicep, ARM templates, Terraform (HCL)
• General clouds and application languages like C#, Python, JavaScript may be used in solutions you design

These languages are used to implement and automate the infrastructure, but not specifically tested as “coding” questions in the exam.

🏢 Parent Organization

• Owner & Sponsor: Microsoft Corporation
• Certification Path: Part of Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert — this credential reflects advanced expertise in Azure design and architecture.

There’s no single company behind “AZ-305” other than Microsoft itself, since it’s a proprietary exam within the Microsoft certification ecosystem.

💰 Open Source or Paid?

AZ-305 Exam 🔒 Paid – You must pay an exam fee (e.g., ~$165 USD; varies by region).
Microsoft Learn study resources 🆓 Free – Official documentation and learning paths are free.
Third-party training courses 💸 Often Paid – Courses and practice exams from other providers may cost money

AZ-305 itself is a paid, proprietary Microsoft exam, not an open-source tool or free certification.