MCSE 2003 to MCITP:EA 2008 or MCSE 2012?

wedge1988

Hi All,Not sure what to do about this.. I have an MCSE 2003, and am looking to upgrade it. I've seen that the 2008 upgrade exams are retiring very soon. I have done rather a lot of practice and testing but I am thinking i'm running out of time. They expire on 31st July this year, and I have to do the 70-649 and 70-647 exams. I have the 70-680.I've looked at how many exams the new 2012 MCSE track is and it's 5. Exactly the same as the number i'd need to do for the upgrade.What do you guys recommend? Should I skip 2008 and go straight to 2012? I could probably give the 70-647 a crack and pass it, but it's also a 4 hour exam and there are no exam times free at the moment in any local test centres.:)

Slowhand

At this stage, I'd skip the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator and do the MCITP: Server Administrator instead. There are three reasons for this:
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1. The difference between SA and EA are the applications, like Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Server). Since all of those have been upgraded or modified for 2012, you're looking at learning aging technology in the middle of trying to get current with long-standing stuff like AD itself, only to go back and re-learn the updated server applications for your MCSE 2012 track of choice.
2. Regardless of whether you have the MCITP: EA or SA, you'll still earn only the MCSA Windows Server 2008 credential along with them. You can't upgrade directly to one of the new MCSE certifications from the EA, you can only take the 70-417 exam and get MCSA Windows Server 2012 certified either way.
3. The 70-648 exam is less of a beast than the 70-649 exam, since it doesn't cover all those extra apps I talked about. While you have until July 31st to pass either upgrade exam before it retires, you don't want to put more work on yourself than you already have in front of you, (lots of tests to pass as it is.) If the July 31st deadline passes after you've done your upgrade exam, you won't have a choice but to take the 70-646 exam, since 70-647 will be retired at that time.

Slowhand

If you go the MCSE 2003 >> MCITP: SA >> MCSA 2012 >> MCSE 2012 route, you'll also have four new certifications to put on your resume: MCITP: Server Administrator, MCSA: Windows Server 2008, MCSA: Windows Server 2012, and (the new) MCSE.

Same number of exams, and you'll have both Windows Server 2008 and 2012 credentials to show for it.

ptilsen

I agree 100% with Slowhand. Here's the other big reason: MCITP: EA is a lot of extra work for only marginally better resume value. MCITP never took off as well as it should have, and so many employers just look for "MCITP" and don't keep track of the actual certification that one could generally get by with SA.

Additionally, even looking at actual exam value, I don't think you'll get much useful out of the higher-level 2008-era material. The differences between 2008 R2 and its successors and predecessors are not so great as to justify the time the 70-643 and 7-647 will take compared to just shooting for 2012 MCSE. Even if you end up professionally working with 2008 R2 implementations of RDS components or anything like that, you'll probably manage just fine without having studied it for the cert.

So, both for resume value and actual material, the MCITP:EA just isn't worth it at this point.

wedge1988

Thanks for the replies guys. So I Need to do the 70-646 and 70-648 exams if I go down the 2008 track?If I'm honest I'm thinking the server 2012 track would probably be better from a time perspective, plus having it on my CV faster than doing the 2008 as well would be beneficial. By the time I've done the 5 exams in a years time or possibly longer as I have other commitments, 2008 will probably be in the dust.I'll have to contemplate this one. I've done 2 months of study on the 647, albeit very briefly. I could possibly do that but the 4 hour exam time is very off-putting.

ptilsen

648 + 646 gets you MCSA 2008 and a one-exam upgrade to MCSA 2012, which is required for MCSE Server Infrastructure. It will only be marginally slower than going straight for 2012.

Also, I disagree very strongly as to where 2008 R2 will be. It will be the most-common Windows server OS until at least 2016. Judging from Server 2003 and 2000, it might even make it 2018 or so. While 2012 offers a lot of arguably compelling features, do not expect it to see wide adoption at larger organizations. SMBs will likely be going Office 365 or other options, so you just won't see it much for a year. Even when it becomes more common, you're going to see a lot more 2008 R2. Every senior systems engineer job I applied for nine months ago was for organizations still transition from 2003 or older to 2008 R2, and they were not going for 2012. I doubt my own will be off of 2003 before 2015, and everything we're deploying today is 2008 R2.

Long story short, 2008 R2 is going to be highly valuable as a skill, and having the cert won't hurt. Since it's actually the same number of tests (granted, 70-648 is two tests glued together) as going straight for MCSE 2012, I would highly recommend getting MCSA 2008, then upgrading to MCSA 2012.

wedge1988

My only concern is time. Why did microsoft retire the exams so early? It shouldn't be because the 2003 track is ending, that makes no sense.

ptilsen

MCITP never took off. People here were still debating not even a year ago whether going for MCSE 2003 made more career sense, because jobs were still largely asking for MCSE. Just as a big example, on job ads for different Premier Field Engineer positions, "MCSE strongly preferred" was the only mention of certification. Premier Field Engineer, if you don't know, is one of the highest-level MS infrastructure positions in existence, generally making between $100K and $300K working for Microsoft as a consultant. This was less than six months ago I was seeing this, on both AD and, IIRC, Exchange PFE positions. Again, just making the point that even MS wasn't drinking its own Kool-Aid on MCITP. Pretty much only MS partners who needed to meet competency requirements were asking for MCITP.

So, after messing around with us for Vista/2008 and 7/R2, MS up and decides to kill the whole thing and go back to MCSA/MCSE, but with some changes.

In any event, that doesn't effect what we're recommending. The 2008 R2 path gets you a distinct MCSA and an upgrade to MCSE. You have plenty of time to get it. It's not retiring, and you probably won't need more than a month for the 648 upgrade exam, and another for 646. If you actually use 2008 R2 hands on you won't even need a month, based on what I'd assume your experience is.

sratakhin

You can still do 70-640 and 70-642 instead of just one 70-648 exam after it's retired.

sratakhin

Ptilsen, don't you thin that the new MCSA hold less weight now? Here is the description from MS:

The Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) certification is for IT professionals and developers looking to get their first job in Microsoft technology.

Really? MCSA 2012 for those looking for an entry-level job? What is MTA then?
Reminds me of how Bachelor's degrees became a requirement for most positions that use to require just high school diploma or GED.

ptilsen

Not really. The individual MCSAs are aligned towards job roles. MCSA is still for server admins, which still are never really entry-level. I don't really view the dynamic as any different than old Admin/Engineer. Associate/Expert are more or less equivalent.

If anything, I like the new expert better than engineer because there used to be entry- and mid-level positions asking for MCSE, which never made sense. The next level up in MS world is mastery, and MCMs are few and far between. Associate vs. Admin really doesn't matter that much. It aligns with CCNA. Just as CompTIA can say CASP is for people with ten years of experience, MS can say MCSA Server 2008 is for entry-level jobs. It doesn't make either quite true.

tbgree00

I was in your exact same shoes and chose the MCITP:EA just because I didn't want to go back and regret not having it. I took the 649 so I'm only left with the 647 and I get the MCITP:EA title plus the MCSA:2008. I didn't want to regret letting it pass by plus it was a goal set at work. Really it all depends on what you do or may have to do at your job. The consultants at my firm work on 2008/R2 and are rolling out RDS/TS all the time so it makes sense for us to know that. None of the clients have 2012 and we wouldn't sell it to them so early anyway.

That said knowing what's next is great and most of the stuff is probably backwards compatible. I'll be taking some MCSA 2012 tests next.

wedge1988

Thanks for the replies people, i'll let you know how i get on.I have decided to do the 647 and 649. Purely because i have done a lot of revision on the 647 and i'm getting in the 90% range on practice tests. Test is booked for the 10th april, with a free second shot pass.Disappointed the exam fee is now £99 when i firt started doing the ms exams they were around £78 a go..Hopefully i'll pass it and then i can move on to the 649! - the 649 looks a little easier. I hate case study exams

wedge1988

FYI guys, I passed the 70-647. 70-649 up next