My Journey with the Power Platform
I've spent the past few years working in Power BI, helping businesses by transforming and visualising data by creating dashboards and reports. Power BI's capabilities are focused towards data transformation and visualisation.
I've also used Power Automate and Power Apps for expanded functionality by using high-level coding to create task flows and simple user interfaces to interact with datasets. However, I realised that to really scale these business solutions, I need a solid foundation in cloud-based data management which is where Azure Data Engineer training comes in. Now I'd like to deep-dive into data engineering to better understand how data is stored, prepared and processed before it's splashed onto a dashboard.
Azure Data Engineer Certification - The Right Step for Me
Bridging the Gap
Azure Data Engineer certification is an excellent link between my current experience in with Power Platform apps and my future goal in data engineering and machine learning.
Azure as a Backbone
Out of the major cloud data platforms, Azure is in the same suite as Power Platform making it a great foundation to build my Power BI projects on. I will be able to learn how data flows through the cloud and how to optimise it for real-time analytics and large-scale reporting.
A Future-Proof Me
As more companies migrate their data operations to the cloud, Azure will continue to be a major player in data solutions. By certifying as a data engineer, I'll be well-equipped for future roles that require managing and processing vast amounts of cloud data.
What I Hope to Learn
Building Data Pipelines
I have experience analysing and visualising data however the problems I often get stuck on is setting up a data pipeline to turn confusing data into something neat and organised for my dashboards to ingest. With more and more of my projects, this becomes a more and more time-consuming chore.
Big Data in the Cloud
With limited experience with cloud environments, I want to get my hands dirty with managing data in Azure Data Lake and Azure SQL Database. This will give me a deeper understanding of how to work with big data and integrate these tools with my existing knowledge of Power BI.
Optimisation
I have some experience with optimisation (Power Automate vs Power BI vs Python for Handling Multiple Excel Files - My Experience) but I want an all-encompassing understanding of performance optimisation and data security and accessibility which are crucial skills for anyone involved in data analytics or data engineering.
How it Fits into my Long-Term Roadmap
Machine Learning
I want to be able to develop and deploy ML models in the future, Azure is a powerful platform that integrates will with AI services and tools like Azure ML. Having the data engineering knowledge covered sets me up for success when I begin working with ML models.
Growing Demand
With more companies adopting Azure for their data operations, this certification will keep me competitive in the job market, especially as demand for data engineers continue to rise.
Closing Thoughts
This certification isn't just a career booster, it's a natural progression for my journey to become a well-rounded data professional. It will help make the leap from working with Power Platform to developing ML models.