Exam Material = Real World?

Just wondering for those of you that may currently be in network administration roles how much of what is covered in the MCITP SA and EA exams is actually used daily on the job?

I worked with MS based network environments several years ago in an network admin support role and most of what I did on a day to day basis was setup network shares, create new users/security groups in AD and assign permissions, create exchange mailboxes, install SSL certs on exchange mail servers, occasionally doing a dcpromo, work with terminal servers etc

I see that in studying for the MCITP SA as I am now there is stuff I have never heard of and seems like it would be pretty obscure in the real world.

Just wanted to get the input of those on the job now.

I should also mention that I live in NH where business for the most part is small business. I imagine that business and the IT function looks very different in large metropolitan areas. But I have the career goal in mind that I'd like to work for a managed services IT company whose clientele consist mostly of SMBs where I currently reside.

Thanks guys.

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AlexNguyen

The exam is based on the Microsoft products only, no mention about third party products. In "real" world, I won't use a Windows machine connected directly to the internet. I'll put it behind a third party hardware firewall. I won't use Windows NLB, I'll use a hardware NLB solution. I won't use RemoteApp, I'll use Citrix XenApp. I won't use Hyper-V, I'll use VMware vSphere. Etc.

hackmer

In real life, working for the state organization, in a very important national project, we use the TMG 2010, Hyper-in, Windows NLB and Failover Clustering. Fully implemented active directory federation server and right management services. SCOM 2007 R2 as monitoring. You ask a very strange question. Why learn MCITP:EA if in real life will not deal with such things?
It is a relative question "what use"

AlexNguyen

hackmer wrote: »

Why learn MCITP:EA if in real life will not deal with such things?

In "real" life, someone can deal with "some" of the MS products included in the cert. But you have to learn the "other stuffs" that you won't use to get the MCITP:EA.

Even the Microsoft guy told us to use a hardware NLB solution in production, only use Windows NLB as last resort.

it2b

As our comapny is "Drinking the Microsoft Cool Aid" and taking full advantage of our Enterprise Agreement, I am finding we are starting to consider Microsoft technologies I would have never thought we would.

For example, we are looking at using ADFS with UAG to implement a SharePoint extranet. As VMWare costs are getting higher, we are considering Hyper-V for our smaller sites. We might even implement Forefront since it is covered under the EA and our current Anti-virus software is very expensive. We are replacing Citrix with RDS and that is working well. We are using Exchange 2010 archiving instead of a third party like Mimosa.

I just went through my first implementation of Lync 2010 in a branch site. It was successful and we will most likely be replacing Cisco and Nortel with Microsoft Lync in the rest of the company.

While noone will use a server as a router, Microsoft has come a long way with supplying viable alternatives to other things people would only use third party products for before. And studying the MCITP materials is helping me keep up with the dialogs we are having.

blargoe

AlexNguyen wrote: »

The exam is based on the Microsoft products only, no mention about third party products. In "real" world, I won't use a Windows machine connected directly to the internet. I'll put it behind a third party hardware firewall. I won't use Windows NLB, I'll use a hardware NLB solution. I won't use RemoteApp, I'll use Citrix XenApp. I won't use Hyper-V, I'll use VMware vSphere. Etc.

That's how I would characterize the exams vs the real world... your questions might reflect how you would design solution using Microsoft technology, but in reality, a very very small percentage of enterprises are going to use MS as a router, VPN appliance, app virtualization, etc.

it2b

blargoe wrote: »

... but in reality, a very very small percentage of enterprises are going to use MS as a router, VPN appliance, app virtualization, etc.

Agree 100% on the Router. But I am seeing RDS being used as a Citrix replacement more frequently. And DirectAccess with Server 2008 R2/Windows 7 is replacing VPN in some companies I have done business with as well.