How challenging is it to get into and learn MS messaging?

N2IT

For some reason I have seen several jobs out there looking for people to admin and support MS messaging. I presume they are talking about Office Communicator.

Sorry I don't have many detail, I was just wondering the opinion of the masses.

undomiel

My first thought would actually be Exchange with possibly Office Communicator/Lync responsibilities added on. I've never seen a stand alone Office Communicator job before. I can't comment on the OCS side of things as I have very little experience with it but I've found Exchange is not too difficult to learn to support if you have a very solid AD/DNS and networking foundation to build upon. The admins I've seen that have mild to severe difficulties with Exchange are either lacking in their understanding of networking, their understanding of DNS or their understanding of AD. Or a combination of all of the above.

Essendon

In addition to what undomiel said, MS messaging wouldn't be too hard to get into as most sys admin roles would have a component of Exchange administration. How well you can administer Exchange depends on the factors that undomiel has outlined. MS messaging could include Exchange Server administration, end-user (Outlook) administration, Lync, OCS or a combo of two or more of these products. Are you considering applying for such roles?

N2IT

Essendon wrote: »

In addition to what undomiel said, MS messaging wouldn't be too hard to get into as most sys admin roles would have a component of Exchange administration. How well you can administer Exchange depends on the factors that undomiel has outlined. MS messaging could include Exchange Server administration, end-user (Outlook) administration, Lync, OCS or a combo of two or more of these products. Are you considering applying for such roles?

I don't have the skill sets to pull that off imo. I have some networking and a high level understanding of DHCP and DNS. But never directly supported MS exchange or any of the add-ons that goes along with Exchange.

cshkuru

Lync is run off of Lync server. Microsoft has some materials available here The Next Generation of Unified Communications - Microsoft Lync and some Lync client training here Download Lync 2010 training - Communicator - Office.com

ptilsen

I don't find Exchange or Lync to be exceptionally difficult products to use for a seasoned Windows administrator, but they do have some depth to them, especially when you get into larger, more complex implementations. I have seen standalone jobs for both at big enterprises and at larger consulting firms and service providers.

The certification path is pretty straightforward to get into either or both, but to really be doing just messaging as your job you have to work for a larger organization and have a pretty significant amount of experience doing it. To do messaging off an on as an admin or consultant you really just need MCSA/MCITP:SA level admin skills and experience.

Chivalry1

Overall the understanding of Messaging is not too difficult. But as the number of users increase so does the level of difficulty. Which in my opinion a increased level of Active Directory/DNS/Information Security/Powershell Scripting experience will be required. Some topics you should consider:

E-Discovery/Legal Discovery (Email)
Data Leak prevention / DLP (Email)
Transmission encryption.
Mobile Device Management (Active Sync/Blackberry)
Storage understanding (SAN/NAS)
Electronic Document management and delivery/Fax
Unified Communication /Voice

N2IT

Thanks for the great information. Very informative

It was more of just a question relating to the job market. I have noticed a lot of BA and messaging admins on the job boards. And with me not having a lot of experience in that space I wanted to see what the experts had to say. [I mean that sincerely]

the_Grinch

I did some Exchange related tasks and troubleshooting at work, not to hard to pick up and get good at. If you find yourself on a helpdesk (especially at an MSP) you'll touch it more then you like. My company wanted me to become Exchange certified (as part of our Partner status) and I said no thanks. Takes a special kind of person to want to play in that world day in and day out.....

Everyone

I've been involved with messaging systems for most of my career. I had a break from it for a few years and did other things, but it has been my main focus/specialization for the last 6 years now. I personally don't think it is difficult to learn, however I've met a lot of people who just don't get it. I've also met a lot of people who think they get it just because they had some exposure to it, but they really don't get it at all.


If you don't have a lot of experience with it, a job that is pure messaging will be out of your reach. That being said, with a little knowledge and experience, a job that also happens to include some messaging responsibilities can be easily attained. Transitioning from that job that also happens to include some messaging responsibilities to one that is pure messaging can be very difficult for some people.

Like others have said, as the user count increases, so does the difficulty. I'll add to that by saying the importance an organization puts on e-mail will also impact difficulty. Things get really interesting when you add any regulatory compliance or high availability requirements into the mix.

the_Grinch wrote:

Takes a special kind of person to want to play in that world day in and day out.....

Yes, yes it does. There aren't that many of us either.

blargoe

Any general-purpose systems admin/generalist with experience could pick up the nuances of MS Exchange, OCS, e-mail administration in general pretty easily. Most "day-to-day" tasks are pretty straightforward and, in my case, I've handed off a lot of those things to admins who came in the door with no experience in Exchange and had no problems. If you have no Exchange expertise, find an IT shop that is small enough to not require a dedicated Exchange admin, and you'll have plenty of chances to learn.