Change of Career to Server

IT_gorrilla83

Good Morning,
Been working as a Network Engineer for the past 6 years to a decent CCNP Level, However I have been bored/stale and would like to make the exciting transition into Windows Server Management.

Question is really for studying purposes, Would you recommend that I go down the Server 2012 or 2016 MCSA route?

Any thoughts or questions are greatly appreciated.

poolmanjim

Either is a valid choice right now.
If you go with the 2012 route, you will find more vetted material for study and a larger pool of individuals who have passed the exam and can give pointers. The downside is the tests have been vetted so the questions are not necessarily the best and are built less around the content and more around anti-cheating. A lot of people are still looking for qualified Server 2012 admins, those skills are in high demand.

If you go with 2016, you will find less material and fewer exam takers. However, I believe the tests are better written and they are more direct with the exam objectives. The tests aren't in a review yet so most of the questions are geared around the content. 2016 is still new and most organizations haven't begun deploying it yet.

Either way you will encounter challenges and difficulties. No one is easier than the other. I think the content is pretty close with both and there weren't a lot of dramatic changes with the OSes that you would be poorly served learning one over the other.

Good luck.