Udacity’s School of Cloud Computing has historically focused on Amazon Web Services for its cloud Nanodegree offerings. That changed with the launch of the DevOps Engineer for Microsoft Azure Nanodegree program, which began its inaugural cohort on September 2, 2020. The program is a result of the partnership between Udacity and Microsoft, previously announced in June 2020 with an initial emphasis on Azure Machine Learning. This newer Nanodegree shifts focus to mainstream cloud DevOps practices within the Azure ecosystem.
What Is a Cloud DevOps Engineer?
Cloud DevOps Engineers serve as the critical link between software development and production deployment. Their work spans continuous integration and delivery pipelines, infrastructure automation, service reliability, and security. Key responsibilities typically include:
- Designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
- Managing cloud infrastructure at scale
- Ensuring application security, scalability, and reliability
- Running automated testing across multiple environment tiers
- Performing monitoring and root cause analysis
This role is increasingly essential as organizations adopt agile development workflows and rely on cloud platforms to ship code quickly and safely.
Program Overview
The Nanodegree is a 3-month, project-centric program designed for people with programming backgrounds who want to work in cloud computing, as well as software engineers looking to improve their deployment practices. On completing the program, students are prepared to sit the Microsoft AZ-400 DevOps Engineer Expert certification exam.
Core technologies and services covered throughout the program include:
- Azure Pipelines
- Azure App Services
- Terraform (Infrastructure as Code)
- Packer (machine image creation)
- Azure Security Center
- Flask (for application deployment projects)
- Trello (agile project management)
Curriculum: Three Hands-On Projects
Like other Udacity Nanodegrees, this program is built around real-world projects rather than passive video lectures. There are three core projects:
Project 1: Deploy a Web Application
Students use Terraform to deploy infrastructure as code and Packer to build reusable virtual machine images for hosting custom web applications. This project covers resource creation and management through both the Azure Portal and the Azure CLI, and reinforces security best practices using the Azure Security Center.
Project 2: Build a Continuous Delivery Pipeline
Students deploy a Flask Machine Learning application by constructing a full Continuous Delivery pipeline using Azure Pipelines and Azure App Services (Platform as a Service). The project also incorporates agile tooling — including Trello for task tracking — and demonstrates how Infrastructure as Code integrates with a live CD workflow.
Project 3: Run Automated Tests
This project focuses on creating disposable test environments with Terraform and applying IaC principles to support multiple environment tiers (development, staging, production). Testing types covered include performance, functional UI, and integration testing. Students also learn to monitor application behavior and conduct root cause analysis using log data.
Prerequisites
Before enrolling, students should meet the following requirements:
- At least one year of Python experience
- Fundamental knowledge of scripting and Linux shell commands
- A working understanding of core cloud computing concepts (virtual machines, databases, networking, etc.)
For those who need a foundation in cloud computing before enrolling, Udacity offered a free, beginner-level Intro to Cloud Computing course at the time of launch.
Related Udacity Cloud Nanodegree Programs
For engineers focused on Amazon Web Services rather than Azure, Udacity’s School of Cloud Computing also offered several AWS-oriented programs that restarted around the same period:
- Cloud DevOps Engineer Nanodegree (intermediate level, AWS)
- AWS Cloud Architect Nanodegree Program (advanced level)
- Cloud Developer Nanodegree Program
The Microsoft Azure DevOps Nanodegree represents a meaningful expansion of Udacity’s cloud curriculum, giving learners a structured, certification-aligned path for one of the most in-demand cloud platforms in enterprise environments.
Note: Program details, pricing, start dates, and curriculum content may have changed since the original publication date of August 2020. Visit the Udacity School of Cloud Computing for current information.