Picking 2010 vs 2013 Certification and the future

Background: Completed MCSA: 2012 and MCSA: Office 365. I have 6 years of experience in IT. I have worked with Exchange 2003/2007/2010/2013. I think I have average Exchange experience for this point in my career. I could build a new Exchange environment for an SMB without referencing TechNet. I'm familiar with the server roles, mail flow and basic policies. My experience is however limited to the SMB world, so I have not worked with complex DAG/CAS Array (for example) configurations in production. On the Office 365 side, I have completed many migrations to Exchange Online, mostly from on-premises/hosted Exchange environments. I was able to pass the MCSA: Office 365 without much study time.

Future: I've hit a difficult period of burnout in my career. After taking a break and then knocking out certs I am asking myself what my passions are. Exchange is a technology that excites me. Someone posted on this site that "Exchange separates the men from the boys". I like that statement. I want out of the SMB world, I want to run with the big dogs. I'm hungry for the mystique and challenge of "real" IT work. I figure an Exchange certification is a step in that direction.

I'm not decided yet, but leaning towards doing the Exchange 2010 track instead of Exchange 2013. My reasoning is that it seems the IT world is moving towards Office 365. In many cases I think it makes sense too. So the majority of new messaging projects will be Office 365, not deploying Exchange 2013. Next, from the production environments I work in that still have Exchange in house, it's all 2007/2010 (luckily we've migrated everyone off 2003 now). So it feels like I’m much more likely to be dealing with Exchange 2010 in production than 2013.

I’m interested in anyone’s thoughts who is working in the big leagues. Are your seeing most mail projects going to Office 365? For those still on-premises, is it typically Exchange 2007/2010? If you were the hiring manager and had a mid-twenties guy like myself would you rather see Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2013 certification? Am I too late to IT world to have some fun with Exchange?

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Grimmy

meestaplunk wrote: »

Background: Completed MCSA: 2012 and MCSA: Office 365. I have 6 years of experience in IT. I have worked with Exchange 2003/2007/2010/2013. I think I have average Exchange experience for this point in my career. I could build a new Exchange environment for an SMB without referencing TechNet. I'm familiar with the server roles, mail flow and basic policies. My experience is however limited to the SMB world, so I have not worked with complex DAG/CAS Array (for example) configurations in production. On the Office 365 side, I have completed many migrations to Exchange Online, mostly from on-premises/hosted Exchange environments. I was able to pass the MCSA: Office 365 without much study time.

Future: I've hit a difficult period of burnout in my career. After taking a break and then knocking out certs I am asking myself what my passions are. Exchange is a technology that excites me. Someone posted on this site that "Exchange separates the men from the boys". I like that statement. I want out of the SMB world, I want to run with the big dogs. I'm hungry for the mystique and challenge of "real" IT work. I figure an Exchange certification is a step in that direction.

I'm not decided yet, but leaning towards doing the Exchange 2010 track instead of Exchange 2013. My reasoning is that it seems the IT world is moving towards Office 365. In many cases I think it makes sense too. So the majority of new messaging projects will be Office 365, not deploying Exchange 2013. Next, from the production environments I work in that still have Exchange in house, it's all 2007/2010 (luckily we've migrated everyone off 2003 now). So it feels like I’m much more likely to be dealing with Exchange 2010 in production than 2013.

I’m interested in anyone’s thoughts who is working in the big leagues. Are your seeing most mail projects going to Office 365? For those still on-premises, is it typically Exchange 2007/2010? If you were the hiring manager and had a mid-twenties guy like myself would you rather see Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2013 certification? Am I too late to IT world to have some fun with Exchange?

I believe Office 365 uses Exchange Server 2013 for their systems, and Microsoft is preparing the next version of Exchange (V.next: Microsoft Ignite - Sessions ). I believe there are enough changes/improvements in 2013 to consider that route, instead of 2010.

powerfool

I call it: swimming in the deep end of the pool.

Now, when it comes to Exchange there are vastly different experiences between the SMB place with Exchange and Enterprises. Vendors have different points for delineating between those... I use 5k. If you are 5k mailboxes, or above, you are in an "enterprise" Exchange environment. If you are in an "enterprise" mail environment, you can build out an on-premise Exchange deployment that is cheaper than Exchange Online if you follow the Preferred Architecture. If you are below that 5k mark, it becomes more difficult to do so and basically impossible (at 1k mailboxes), when you compare the resiliency, to build a feature complete solution that is cheaper than Exchange Online.

So, here are my classifications:

<1k mailboxes - small: Go straight to Exchange Online, unless you have some overarching reason (you really don't)
1k<x<5k mailboxes - medium: You should seriously consider Exchange Online; if you have an Enterprise Agreement and qualified folks, or are planning to grow to enterprise size, consider on-premise
>5k mailboxes - enterprise: Go on-premise unless you have a super majority of users that are road warriors and/or work from home or small offices (10-20 or less)

If you want to keep working Exchange on-premise... get yourself into the enterprise space. If you are going to be doing Exchange Online (you still need to understand the Preferred Architecture, as this is what Microsoft deploys (with very few exceptions).

Exchange has become progressively more difficult to deploy for smaller environment (another good reason to move to Exchange Online); conversely, Exchange has become progressively easier to deploy for enterprise deployments (still a lot to it, though).

I have been so busy working that I haven't taken the 2013 exams yet... I will be taking the Core Solutions exam tomorrow (first exam in about four years). I have been running migrations non-stop since 2011 (plenty before then, but no break since that time). It was all to Exchange 2010 until February of last year... and I have done nine migrations (three enterprise, two medium, and four small). Finally have some breathing room to get some exams done... I say do 2013; this is what the current Exchange Online runs (well, it probably has components of Exchange v.Next already, as there have been some interface changes). If you are thinking about Office 365, Exchange 2013 knowledge is key.

Claymoore

Learn 2013. Office 365 Exchange Online is built on 2013.

My primary role the last 6 years was as an Exchange consultant. I am moving away from Exchange because all of my clients are moving to Office 365. I have done 3 2013 on-premise deployments, and only one was purely on-premise. Another was using online archiving, while the third just started their migration to O365. There is plenty of Exchange admin work to be done in O365, but architects are not needed anymore.