Microsoft AZ-120 is an active exam for professionals who plan, deploy and administer SAP workloads on Azure. Its official study guide was updated for skills measured as of April 17, 2026. The corresponding Microsoft Certified: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty credential addresses a demanding intersection of SAP application knowledge and cloud infrastructure, but it is not a generic Azure fundamentals test. Candidates are expected to reason about SAP-compatible compute, storage, networking, high availability, migrations, monitoring and operations. The exam must be approached through supported SAP deployment requirements rather than a promise of automatic salary growth or a memorized list of Azure resources.<\/p>\n
Microsoft’s certification overview describes a candidate who designs and manages SAP landscapes and works with cloud administrators, database specialists and customers, including scenarios involving RISE with SAP. Relevant products include SAP HANA, SAP Business Suite and SAP NetWeaver. A high-quality preparation plan starts by identifying the source workload and its support restrictions. Not every Azure virtual machine that has enough memory is SAP-certified for a specific database and operating system combination. A test lab can demonstrate a function; a production recommendation also needs issuer and SAP support-matrix validation.<\/p>\n
The AZ-120 guide organizes measured skills around migration to Azure, design and implementation of supporting infrastructure, high availability and disaster recovery, and maintenance of SAP workloads. It also addresses cost and performance optimization within the relevant task statements. The exact skills list and weighting belong to the currently published Microsoft Learn guide; candidates should not substitute a historical beta outline or a third-party static list. Compared with ordinary infrastructure exams, the scenarios are shaped by SAP-specific dependencies and operational calendars rather than generic web application deployment.<\/p>\n
Microsoft’s public certification page describes a 100-minute assessment and encourages Azure Administrator Associate experience, but that associate credential is a recommendation rather than a blanket statement that every applicant must first earn it. The exam is a Microsoft credential, distinct from SAP’s own certifications and product-specific support approvals. Check scheduling availability, current blueprint and renewal rules through the issuer. An SAP Basis engineer can bring deep application knowledge while needing more Azure networking experience; a cloud architect may have the opposite gap. The study plan should account for both.<\/p>\n
An SAP system may include application servers, central services, a relational database, shared file systems, batch-processing tools and interfaces to other business applications. Inventory development, test and production dependencies and understand the effect of each on availability. Determine which source architecture is being moved, which software versions are in support and whether transformation is planned alongside hosting migration. Network reachability to a database is necessary but not sufficient when SAP transactions depend on identity, hostnames, shared services and integration schedules.<\/p>\n
A sizing exercise should use observed SAP workload and database requirements, not a generic calculator assumption. HANA memory demand, storage IO, log throughput and application-server scale are significant constraints. Azure VM families differ in certified configurations and performance profiles, so verify the supported combination with SAP and Microsoft guidance. A system-copy rehearsal should confirm that the selected target can host the application and its backup\/recovery procedures. An apparently cheap virtual machine can become expensive if it repeatedly fails critical month-end processing.<\/p>\n
SAP application and database tiers need documented address plans, routing, DNS and appropriate private connectivity. Check on-premises address overlap, latency to users and external integrations, ExpressRoute or VPN needs, firewall policy and redundancy of the hybrid path. A security rule that opens all management ports may make a demonstration work but fails a production least-privilege review. A sound Azure network design<\/a> explains which systems must communicate, the required ports, who owns the route and how failures can be diagnosed.<\/p>\n Use Azure identity and role controls for cloud-resource administration and SAP’s own application authorization for SAP business activities. One does not replace the other. Encryption and key access must support both normal operations and recovery in the approved location. When data residency restrictions apply, confirm where backups, replicas and diagnostic records will be stored. A cloud platform provides technical controls but does not automatically satisfy a regulation without the necessary configuration, policies and evidence.<\/p>\n High availability reduces interruptions from specified component failures. For SAP landscapes, the design may involve availability zone or set placement, clustering, database replication and supported SAP central-services recovery arrangements. Each component has separate failover behavior, and the correct design depends on the supported database and SAP software version. A multi-Zone deployment of application servers does not itself guarantee the database can fail over. Use the SAP-specific availability requirements to choose architecture rather than copying a generic load-balanced web tier.<\/p>\n Disaster recovery addresses more extensive loss and must be measured against accepted recovery time and recovery point objectives. A backup does not guarantee a short restoration time until the process is practiced, and a replica can carry accidental logical changes. Test database recovery, SAP central-services availability, authentication, DNS, network routes and a representative business transaction. Azure Backup capabilities<\/a> can support some protected resources, but application-consistent recovery and supported SAP procedures must still be verified for the specific workload.<\/p>\n A migration might use supported backup-and-restore, system copy, replication or database migration tools depending on source and target combinations. Plan discovery, prerequisite checks, sizing, test migrations, data reconciliation and the final cutover. A cutover schedule should specify when source writes stop, how final changes are transferred and who accepts the restored system. Do not promise zero downtime without a supported and tested design. A migration can complete technically while business interfaces, certificates or scheduled jobs remain broken.<\/p>\n Run a rehearsal with representative data and actual business processes. Record transfer, restore and application validation times separately and compare them with the approved window. Verify database consistency, user authorizations and integrations. A test that restores only a small empty instance is not sufficient evidence for a multi-terabyte HANA production database. Document the decision point at which the business can still return to the source environment and how any subsequent transactions would be reconciled.<\/p>\n Operational tasks include supported OS and SAP maintenance, backup checks, monitoring, scaling, cost analysis and incident response. Set alerts for database latency, application availability, batch processing and shared services in addition to underlying VM metrics. A healthy host may still fail to process a critical SAP transaction. Record the person who responds to each alert and the first diagnostic action they will take. Azure Monitor<\/a> can help provide platform telemetry, but application and SAP-specific data sources need explicit integration and analysis.<\/p>\n Performance tuning should compare observed behavior across realistic business periods. A scale increase can reduce contention but raise cost or alter certified configuration constraints. Licensing is often governed separately from Azure infrastructure pricing, so any budget must distinguish software entitlements, support and cloud usage. A reliable platform team can justify right-sizing through measurement rather than claiming that all migrations save a fixed percentage. Design documents should identify optimization opportunities alongside the risk of violating SAP sizing and supportability.<\/p>\n Use the updated first-party exam guide to choose lab topics and official modules. Begin with an architecture and support-matrix exercise, then work through networking, storage, migration selection, high availability and operational troubleshooting. Where a full SAP landscape is impractical in a training account, use a design review and small component labs while honestly describing which SAP-specific behaviors were not directly tested. Do not claim that a generic VM lab demonstrates HANA failover competence; supplement with supported architecture evidence and expert review.<\/p>\nHigh Availability and Disaster Recovery Need Different Tests<\/h2>\n
Migrate with a Rehearsed Cutover<\/h2>\n
Operate SAP on Azure After Launch<\/h2>\n
Build a Practical AZ-120 Study Routine<\/h2>\n