Greetings! Welcome to the Cloud Academy Microsoft Azure Design Solutions using Platform Services course! I am delighted to have you join me on what is bound to be yet another educational and delightful adventure into the world of Microsoft Azure. 

First I will let you know a bit about myself before I get into the course outline. My name is Jonathan. I am one of the course developers with Cloud Academy. I work professionally as a technical consultant specializing in DevOps, data engineering, and security. I am also a former high school teacher, so it is a treat to get back into teaching all you lovely people about technology.

So enough about me, let’s get into this course. Who is this course for exactly? This course is also for anyone looking to improve their knowledge of Azure platform solutions in the fields mentioned above. If you happen to be a software engineer, a product manager, a CTO, or just someone who happens to be trying to build a product using Microsoft Azure, then this course could save you a lot of time and money as you discover Azure’s powerful product toolset.

So what exactly are the prerequisites for this course then - what do I expect you to know in order to understand the material? Well, not too much actually. You don’t need to be a programmer or have a deep knowledge of computer science. The course will focus mostly on explaining Microsoft Azure systems and how to use the Azure user interface. You should have a general understanding of the domains related to each product category. You will need a basic understanding of terms like “Internet of Things,” “Machine Learning,” “Messaging Queue,” and, “File Encoder.” If you have no idea what any of these things are, this course may be premature for you.

The course will cover a lot of information given its short length. We are going into detail on a number of Azure services and practices. Our goal is to explain in depth each Azure service and ensure that you have a stronger understanding of which service to choose to solve a particular problem. After going through all of the content, you should have a thorough grasp of several Azure products. You should be ready to start creating products in any of the four domains described above. 

So as you may have gathered, there are four core learning objectives - takeaways, if you will: 1. The student will have an in-depth knowledge of Azure artificial intelligence services and know when to opt for specific offerings. 2. The student will have an in-depth knowledge of Azure IoT services and know when to opt for specific offerings. 3. The student will be able to design a scalable messaging architecture using Azure services. 4. The student will have a deep understanding of Azure media services.

Lastly, I want to encourage everyone to leave feedback. Email support@cloudacademy.com if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns. We always appreciate people taking the time. Now without further ado, let’s get started.