Smashing the Fundamentals: My Learning Journey into Cloud
Someone recently asked me about the certifications I completed when I first started my journey into cloud. It’s a great question, because that learning shaped everything I do today.
When I decided to move into cloud, I knew one thing: I needed a strong foundation. It’s easy to feel pressure when colleagues are diving into advanced services and certifications, but without the basics, you’re building on sand. So I set myself a clear goal: smash the fundamentals.
The Path I Took
I kicked things off with Azure Fundamentals. This was my entry point into the cloud world. The course gave me the big picture: what Azure is, why it matters, and how it fits into modern IT. No deep dives yet, just a solid grounding.
Next came GitHub Foundations. Infrastructure-as-code is critical for any organisation operating in the cloud, but working on code in isolation doesn’t cut it. Cloud is all about collaboration and automation. GitHub is the backbone of that, and this course taught me the essentials: collaboration, GitHub products, Git basics, and working within repositories.
Then I moved on to Azure AI Fundamentals. AI is everywhere, and this course helped me cut through the buzzwords. Machine learning, cognitive services and responsible AI all started to make sense.
Security was non-negotiable, so I tackled Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals. This course showed me why zero trust isn’t just a slogan but a critical strategy. It also gave me a solid grounding in Microsoft Entra, a tool every cloud professional should know.
After that, I wanted to understand all the elements of cloud, not just the infrastructure and services. So I took Microsoft 365 Fundamentals. This course gave me a complete picture of how cloud empowers people - how productivity, security and collaboration fit alongside the technical pieces. It wasn’t about apps; it was about seeing the full ecosystem and how everything connects.
Finally, I wrapped up the fundamentals with Azure Data Fundamentals. Data is the fuel for modern organisations: analytics, AI, insights. Understanding relational vs non-relational, batch vs streaming, and how Azure handles it all was key in supporting infrastructure like Azure Data Factory.
Why This Order?
I wanted breadth before depth. By covering cloud, collaboration, AI, security, productivity and data, I built a foundation that makes every advanced topic easier to understand.
What's next?
I’ve kept the momentum going by earning the Azure Administrator Associate, a key milestone for any Cloud Engineer. Beyond that, I’ve explored topics that spark my interest, like GitHub Copilot, which comes with its own certification and unlocks all the powerful features that make coding smarter and faster.
But here’s the takeaway: start with the basics. Smash them. Own them. Everything else gets easier.