Ed Baker About the Author:
Ed Baker is employed by Firebrand training as a Microsoft Certified Trainer specializing in Server and Client products. Ed has 20 years of experience in the IT industry in roles ranging from Strategic management to first line support.
Ed Baker is employed by Firebrand training as a Microsoft Certified Trainer specializing in Server and Client products. Ed has 20 years of experience in the IT industry in roles ranging from Strategic management to first line support.
Having taken both Windows 8 Certification Tests recently (one live and one BETA), I am left in somewhat of a state of confusion. Not only about some of the questions and answers more fundamentally about the strategy behind the Windows client certification.
When Microsoft first released their MCSE premium qualification in the 1990’s (on NT 3.5), to become a Certified Systems Engineer required several core server type exams, some electives and ALWAYS a client exam.
This was carried on through all the variants until the certification was dropped in favour of the now defunct MCITP Enterprise Administrator premium qualification when Windows Server 2008 was launched. This required 6 exams including a client examination for Windows 7 or Windows Vista. The Server administrator qualification only required 3 exams which did not include a client.
When Microsoft brought back the MCSE earlier this year, it was trumpeted loud and wide, and was welcomed by many (although the real engineers of the past were heard muttering that it wasn't the same as the old one). They are in most part right (and wrong). Let me try and explain.
The new certification is the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) not engineer and the certification is not aimed at a product but at a set of skills to enable a cloud-bases solution. My point, however, and the purpose of this blog is to explain the client-side not the server.
To do so needs me to state that the MCSE does NOT require a client exam, it requires knowledge and skill of Windows 8 but no exam for the client, at all.
So finally my question, WHY train on the client, why take an exam on the client if there is no certification to gain? Well, the 70-687 – Windows 8 Configuring examination is titled the same as its predecessor (70-680) and is aimed squarely at the IT technician that uses, supports and deploys the client –below is the audience profile
Candidates for this exam are IT professionals who configure or support Windows 8 computers, devices, users and associated network and security resources. The networks with which these professionals typically work are configured as a domain-based or peer-to-peer environment with access to the Internet and cloud services. The IT professional could be a consultant, full-time desktop support technician, or an IT generalist who administers Windows 8-based computers and devices as a portion of their broader technical responsibilities.
The exam covers installing, upgrading, configuring, securing and maintaining the operating system on a local and small-scale sever basis. It covers permissions, printers, policies and other standard areas of study. I don’t consider any exam is easy, especially not for those just learning a subject, but this one is a friendly test of the most used areas of the product. The skills measured fall into seven categories.
Gone are the days (for now) of the Windows client exam being one of the hardest ones in the MCITP enterprise Administrator, these questions are not easy they are just less obscure.
- Install and Upgrade to Windows 8 (14%)
- Configure Hardware and Applications (16%)
- Configure Network Connectivity (15%)
- Configure Access to Resources (14%)
- Configure Remote Access and Mobility (14%)
- Monitor and Maintain Windows Clients (13%)
- Configure Backup and Recovery Options (14%)
So that’s all well and good and if you take and pass 70-687 as your first Microsoft exam, you become a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), but you do not become a technical specialist any more. The individual exams carry no certification beyond MCP (which you earn once for life – mine was NT4 in 1998).
So what certifications are available for the client in the world of Windows 8? As you might imagine there are only two standards in the cloudy world – MCSA and MCSE. There is no MCSE for Windows 8 but there is an MCSA and if you pass 70-687 AND the soon to be released 70-688 then that is exactly what you become. A Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate. What do I need to learn and what does it qualify me for?
The 70-688 examination (currently in BETA) is in a completely different league to the 70-687. The areas covered and skills measured for these exam are;
These are much higher level areas than to be found in the sister exam. So what is the audience profile?
- Design an Installation and Application Strategy (25%)
- Maintain Resource Access (27%)
- Maintain Windows Clients and Devices (27%)
- Manage Windows 8 Using Cloud Services and Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (21%)
Candidates for this exam are IT professionals who configure or support Windows 8 computers, devices, users and associated network and security resources. The networks with which these professionals typically work are configured as a domain-based or peer-to-peer environment with access to the Internet and cloud services. The IT professional could be a consultant, full-time desktop support technician, or an IT generalist who administers Windows 8-based computers and devices as a portion of their broader technical responsibilities.
So that would be the same, word for word as the 70-687.
It is clear, having sat the BETA that this too is to be cloud focused If you read my blog on the MCSE you will have seen that the level of knowledge needed for other products and supporting technologies or toolkits is much more detailed than it previously was.
This exam is no different Managing and Maintaining Windows 8 requires a detailed knowledge in;
MDT, MBAM, MDOP, DaRT, SkyDrive, Live Mesh, Office 365, Windows Intune, App-V client. Added to tablets, and other new features like Windows Store apps, side-loading etc.
When I say detailed knowledge I mean questions relating to how to achieve a goal using that product rather than can it do such and such. How many IT technicians at a client level will use all of these day to day?
Obviously the Non-disclosure agreements prevent detailed question explanations and when the exam goes live in January (and I re-take it as I was in no way prepared for its level or intensity, having sat the 687 and been lulled into a false sense of security) the situation may have changed.
What is my impression of the exam? It is fair, hard and challenging and to gain the MCSA you must have the skills and knowledge. My question still stands.
Who is going to train and take this exam as well as the MSCE Server or Desktop Infrastructure? What will it achieve? I can see the need for and the role intended for the MSCE’s and the MCSA at server level, but the client strategy seems confusing to me.
Microsoft are taking the risk that the client MCSA will be something that sits on an MCT’s transcript and is rarely called for or exercised in anger. Now if they added an exam or made it an MCSE then that’s a different matter.
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