I'm a developer in Madagascar planning a structured Azure learning path, starting with AZ-900 and eventually moving to AZ-104. The problem is that Madagascar isn't supported for Azure free accounts or billing setup, so I can't use a free trial or pay-as-you-go subscription directly. For anyone in a similar situation, how did you get practical experience with AZ-104 topics such as virtual machines, VNets, RBAC, and monitoring?
4 Answers
Availability and demand can vary a lot by country and company. Some organizations use AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud in parallel, so don't rule Azure out solely because local access is difficult. Compare the skills requested in the jobs you're targeting, then build as much hands-on practice as possible through labs, temporary training environments, or an approved account arranged through an employer or school.
You can rent a virtual machine from another cloud provider and use it to experiment with concepts such as networking, compute, and nested virtualization. Some learners have used that kind of setup to explore Azure Stack HCI evaluation environments. It won't be identical to working in Azure itself, but it can still provide useful practical experience.
That sounds worth trying. I'll look into using another provider for a lab environment.
AZ-900 is largely theory, so you can prepare with the official learning material and practice tests without needing much hands-on access. For AZ-104, look for guided labs, demonstrations, and Azure emulators. Projects such as floci-az may help you experiment with some Azure-like concepts, although they won't perfectly reproduce the real portal or services.
It may also be worth checking which cloud platforms are most accessible and commonly used where you plan to work. If Azure services and jobs are limited locally, AWS or another provider could be a more practical starting point unless a specific role requires Azure. That said, demand varies by employer, so checking current job listings is better than assuming one platform dominates.

That makes sense. Local job listings and the kinds of companies I want to work for should help me decide how much effort to put into Azure versus another provider.