AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

What's inside

AZ-305 doesn't test where a setting lives in the portal. It tests whether you can choose the right design, and explain why.

This independent study guide for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert exam distils what AZ-305 really expects you to understand into the comparisons, trade-offs and traps that architecture decisions turn on. No padding, no screenshots, no memorised answers: just the reasoning you need to pick the right service, tier and topology for a set of requirements.

Organised by technology

Fourteen chapters, each readable on its own and together covering all four AZ-305 skills areas:

• Identity, governance and monitoring: Microsoft Entra ID, Conditional Access, PIM and access reviews, management groups, Azure Policy, Key Vault and Azure Monitor.
• Data storage: storage redundancy and access tiers, Azure SQL deployment options and service tiers, Cosmos DB consistency, Data Factory, Synapse, Databricks and Fabric.
• Business continuity: availability zones, SQL high availability and geo-replication, Azure Backup, Site Recovery, RPO and RTO.
• Infrastructure: VMs, App Service, Functions, containers and AKS, messaging and API Management, Virtual WAN, ExpressRoute, private endpoints, load balancing and migration.

Inside

• Comparison tables for every close call, such as which load balancer, which SQL option or which redundancy setting fits which requirement.
• 80+ Common trap callouts that name the answers that look right but aren't, and explain what's right instead.
• 18 architecture diagrams, from hybrid identity and OAuth flows to storage redundancy and private endpoint DNS.
• Key takeaways at the end of every chapter for fast revision.
• A glossary of 600+ terms, each linked to Microsoft Learn, with a free online version for print readers.

Up to date

Azure changes quickly. This edition reflects Microsoft's documentation as of September 2026, including recent retirements and replacements, and notes where the exam's traditional answer and today's product differ.

Understanding, not memorising

This book contains no exam questions. It explains the knowledge the exam expects, so you can answer questions you have never seen and use the same judgement in real design reviews long after exam day.

Written by Tony Rough, a cloud architect with more than twenty years in IT infrastructure who holds the Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure Administrator and Azure Security Engineer certifications.

Part of the Ultra Transcenders series from Distilled Press. An independent publication, not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation.

Chapters

1. Identity and access with Microsoft Entra ID
2. Governance, policy and cost management
3. Keys, secrets and API protection
4. Monitoring and observability
5. Azure Storage
6. Relational databases: Azure SQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL
7. Azure Cosmos DB
8. Data integration and analytics
9. Compute: virtual machines, App Service, Functions and HPC
10. Containers
11. Application integration: messaging, APIs and caching
12. Networking
13. Backup and disaster recovery
14. Migrating to Azure

Plus an appendix glossary of 600+ terms, each linked to Microsoft Learn, and free online for print readers.

Sample diagrams