Should I bother getting the MCITP in Desktop Administration or Focus on EA?

MeanDrunkR2D2

Not sure how much the MCITP would help out in my current position (Desktop Admin) especially since I plan on wrapping up my MCITP: EA in the next year or so, as I'm looking to move onto the systems admin side of work in the near future. Would any of you bother with the Desktop MCITP, or should I just continue on my planned path to get the EA cert?

Just not sure I want to delay my path by a month or two just to get a quick MCITP.

tr1x

You're looking to move out of the desktop admin role, therefore why would you get the desktop admin cert? You've answered your own question. Go straight for the EA.

MeanDrunkR2D2

That's my plan. I've done these support type roles the past 6 years, and I'm ready to move onto new challenges in my company and I know that if I have the EA cert, it will get me there quicker than trying to find one on my own.

I pretty much have been looking at what would benefit me the most and if it was even worthwhile (Yea, I do have the 70-680 already) in the long run or even short term. Thanks for your advice.

ptilsen

Let's not confuse terms. "Desktop Administration" for most of the industry, is a specialization of systems administration. Desktop administrators are typically responsible for the centralized, automated management of desktop configuration as well as deployment of desktop images and physical workstations themselves. A "desktop administration" role is 90% server-side work and technologies. This is not to be confused with desktop support, even though in many cases the term might be used to mean that.

The MCITP: EDA certification is designed with the interpretation above in mind. As such, it has some overlap with 7-643, 70-647, and it expands on some of the material from 70-680.

As far as whether it will help you, that really depends. If you are looking to specialize in desktop administration, I think it is valuable in showing that specialization and that the material will legitimately help in that regard. If you're going to be designing and engaging in deployment projects in particular, it is helpful. I've actually seen "desktop engineer" positions actually ask for EDA.

All that being said, EDA in and of itself will not add tremendous career value. EA is more valuable overall, covers much of the same material, and ultimately is what you will want. I would only strong consider EDA if you are really going to be doing a lot of deployments or going for positions centered around deployments.

kriscamaro68

I would say it depends. If you will be working with SCCM, WDS, or any deployment of workstations then there is value. Same goes for Branch cache, APP-V, and many other services that are both setup on the server and then configured to work on the client. There is a market for it. I am actually going for the MCITP-EDA. I am a Windows Sys Admin but I deal a lot with SCCM and the like so it will help me implement new things that will help streamline the process. In the end it will depend what you will be doing as a Sys Admin.

barringtonjr

I was going for the Desktop admin , i also passed the 680 last month and planning on going towards EA. I just wanted to fully get everything I could know from Win7 trouble shooting and feel desktop admin would be nice to get before moving on to server certs. But after some thought I went towards the Desktop Support (685). Unfortunately I failed the test today and going to retake in a week, but alot of test questions go over server side issues, like AD.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Well, I will admit that I am currently working on deployments to new machines and working on setting up a good strategy to do this as easy and painless as possible, so I could see the good in taking this certification in the future. Our biggest stumbling block is finding a deployment strategy/master image that plays nicely with PGP 10.2 encryption as we have used other programs, only to find that it has an issue with the SID's of the machines and makes decrypting/unlocking those machines difficult, if not impossible. However, I just bought the 70-640 book and will be focusing on that certification first, however if the 70-686 seems to be a good fit for what I am doing now and in the future, it could be a worthwhile certification to pick up in the near future.

(currently looking at imaging close to 600 PC's in the next 4 months)

Thanks again for additional advice (which is what I am looking at all angles). My work will reimburse me for all the materials/exams so it's probably not a bad one to go for in the long term.

MeanDrunkR2D2

And here I am back in this thread again.

Now my work is asking for me to work on a certification that includes using sccm to deploy windows 7. We have pretty good sized launch of machines that we'll be doing come July, and they would like for me to be up to snuff and know about this and how to run/plan/etc the whole operation. And if I remember correctly, the 70-686 does have portions that deals with using SCCM, but I'm not sure how in depth it is. They'll even go ahead and send me off to a MS training course to learn this as well and pick up the certification, but will be rather quickly to be done due to our current timeline.

barringtonjr

Go for 686 it will help you with planning a deployment also covers ZTI deployment and I'm sure that is SCCM is covered there.

kriscamaro68

I second going for the 70-686 there is enough info their to know how to deploy a ZTI through SCCM. Look at the 70-686 training kit it has what is needed and what to do.

MeanDrunkR2D2

So what would be a good book to pick up for this course? Looking on Amazon, there really doesn't appear to be alot. I do like the Poulton books, but don't believe he has one for this cert. Also, work will pay for and send me to a class for it as well.

kriscamaro68

Here is what I am using for it:
Safari Books Online | I have a work paid subscription to this and it gets me these books: Amazon.com: MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-686): Windows 7 Desktop Administrator (978073562717: Craig Zacker, Orin Thomas: Books
Amazon.com: Windows 7 Portable Command Guide: MCTS 70-680, 70-685 and 70-686 (978078974735: Darril Gibson: Books
Amazon.com: Windows 7 Desktop Support and Administration: Real World Skills for MCITP Certification and Beyond (Exams 70-685 and 70-686) (9780470597095): Darril Gibson: Books

You will also want to check this free ebook out: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=12616

also dont forget about the resources on this site for this exam here:http://www.techexams.net/forums/windows-7-exams/46703-70-686-resources.html

I will also be using these: MCITP Exam 70-686 - Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Administrator Training -this is $25 a month for baisc sub for $45 for premium sub
https://secure.cbtnuggets.com/it-training-videos/series/microsoft-desktop-support-pro-windows-7-enterprise-administration -I will be doing the 24 hours for $24 on this and not paying full price.

Now if you have an employer that will pay for all this stuff then you could buy all those plus this: Microsoft 70-686 Pro: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Administrator Certification Training Course | QuickCert

I checked all the sources and they are all legit.

When are you planning on taking the exam?

MeanDrunkR2D2

Most likely it will be in a month so I have some time to study up and take the course from MS on it. Just depends on the scheduling of it all and when the course is offered. Luckily there is a MS partner that offers the course here in my work building.

kriscamaro68

Well keep us posted. I take mine of May 14th so hopefully we both a get a pass on this.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Hopefully I will be on a quick timeline and get this wrapped up soon. Would be nice to have it done and out of the way so I can focus on the next in my line.