Should I take 70-270 or 70-680?

Hello everyone!

After several years of working in IT industry, after getting laid off 8 months ago, after getting through certification preparation training (MCSA/MCITP), I am finally on my way to get Microsoft Certified!

Since I completed the training, I passed two exams: 70-290 and 70-291. Although we were going over Windows 7 in the classroom (briefly) I am kind of unfamiliar with that OS. My next step to gaining MCSA certification is to take a client exam and later on: Exchange 2007 (70-236).

The next step after getting MCSA will be to upgrade to MCITP: Server Admin by taking 70-646 and 70-648 exams.

Which would you recommend to take: 70-270 (XP) or should I get more familiar and study really hard for the "7" and take the 70-680 instead?

How will taking the 7 client exam benefit me except not having the MCTS credential.

Please let me know what do you guys think?

Thanks!

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Comments

earweed

Can't really say how it will benefit you except I think a lot of XP shops will probably be shifting to 7 so it may benefit you in the long run to get familiar with 7.

Niko

That's a good valid point! Time to hit the books again

MentholMoose

The 680 satisfies most of the requirements that are satisfied by 270, such as MCSA and MCSE client exam requirement. However, some MCITP certs require the 680, such as the EDA7 and EA. So if you want to continue on to MCITP, I'd say do the 680.

ipconfig.all

70-680

I would take that if I were you. The 70-270 exam is too old and not much companies use XP now.

ipconfig.all

phoeneous wrote: »

This is an epic false.

Sorry Phoeneous what I was ment to say was not much companies and individuals use XP as before, it is still popular dont get me wrong but not as before and newer MS OS are taking over (win vista, win 7 etc)

earweed

7 may take over but by the time they do there will be another MS OS. Vista was a big fail and is the reason most shops which still use XP use XP, well besides it's cheaper to stay with XP.
I see Windows 7 as being the "new XP" and if MS is in too big of a hurry to "update the technology" there next OS may be a failure also but for different reasons. It'll fail because MS is in too big of a hurry to rush out new technology without a market to support it.

Devilsbane

If you only want to spend the money on one exam, go 680.

Here is my belief. XP is still here, and will continue to be here for quite some time. Companies are slowly migrating to windows 7, but it is a very slow migration.

As it was already pointed out, thinking that XP isn't used anymore is false. I work for a company that has thousands and thousands of XP machines and no plans to upgrade. Migration is slow because things need to be fully tested. Nobody wants to upgrade all of their systems to find out that one of their core applications doesn't run correctly on the new OS. As far as I know my company isn't even considering 7, if they are it is in a back room and they aren't spreading it around.

What I am doing is getting the MCSA before it expires. I took the 270 exam, and learned quite a bit of things from it. You could take the 680 to satisfy this requirement and kill 2 birds with one stone, but that is up to you. Neither route will hurt you. (Unless you take the 680 and land a job in a pure XP enviornment and have a head full of Vista/7 knowledge. And even that isn't that bad. With the similarities and google, you should manage.)

Devilsbane

phoeneous wrote: »

Id go as far as saying that XP will still be the dominant os in the windows market (more than 50%) for the next two years or whenever it gets end of life.

I can believe that.

As of July 13th of this year, service pack 2 will receive end of life. Service Pack 3 is scheduled to be retired in April of 2014 I believe. And if a service pack 4 is created (which may, or may not happen.) XP could be extended even further.

I think before widespread Windows 7 migration happens, there will have to be a service pack release to make it look and feel more windows xpish. Users don't want to learn a new way to do their normal jobs.

petedude

ipconfig.all wrote: »

Sorry Phoeneous what I was ment to say was not much companies and individuals use XP as before, it is still popular dont get me wrong but not as before and newer MS OS are taking over (win vista, win 7 etc)

Or as I would say. . . many large firms will be transitioning to Win7 soon.

earweed

XP will probably be around for a while. I personally think MS released Vista with hopes that people would jump on it quickly and then have to jump quickly to the next OS released because it was so bad..lol

Claymoore

Take both.

Use 270 for your MCSA/E client and 680 for your MCSA/E elective, and later the 680 will count as the MCITP:EA client exam. I can appreciate your wanting to take 236 as an elective, but unless you already have some experience with Exchange 2007 you will find that exam far more challenging than the 680.

Michael.J.Palmer

Claymoore wrote: »

Take both.

I'm with this guy, taking both if you can is definitely the best route to go for a bunch of reasons. Most companies are still using Windows XP in the corporate world and why would they change now? Microsoft will continue to support XP until 2014, there's no rush to throw all that money out to upgrade to Windows 7 right now.

Me personally I'm going the route of MCDST (XP support) and then taking the 680 to get MCTS: Win 7. Basically my plan is to be around when those companies are looking to upgrade to Windows 7. When that happens they'll need people who know how to do migrations from XP to 7 (because from what I've heard and seen there is no clean upgrade from XP to 7, so a migration is needed to make sure everything carries over). That means you with your 270 and 680 exams passed and certs are certified to work with XP as well as install and configure Windows 7. That'll give you a first hand push towards getting those upgrade jobs (and maybe postitioned as an admin afterwards to help make sure all active directory features stay put after the upgrade).

Just an idea to maybe take into account. Windows 7 is the new technology but XP is far from dead.

Devilsbane

phoeneous wrote: »

Correct, you cannot upgrade directly from xp to 7.

You can do a fresh install though, and then just migrate any information over if you chose to back it up.

The company that offered me a job for rolling out win 7 was just installing fresh. They were only updating machines that needed replaced anyways so there is really no difference whether they do a fresh xp install or a fresh 7 install.