Cisco Data Center Exams Availability Is Extended

Cisco Data Center Unified Computing exams 642-993 DCUCD and 642-994 DCUCI are now available through May 31, 2013.

These two exams were scheduled to be removed from testing centers on February 28, 2013, but the removal date has been extended.

If you are interested in taking these exams, please contact Pearson VUE.

Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2012 (RTM Edition)

Mitch Tulloch has updated his very popular free ebook on Windows Server 2012 based on the RTM version of the software.

A key feature of this book is the inclusion of sidebars written by members of the Windows Server team, Microsoft Support engineers, Microsoft Consulting Services staff, and others who work at Microsoft. These sidebars provide an insider’s perspective that includes both “under-the-hood” information concerning how features work, and strategies, tips, and best practices from experts who have been working with the platform during product development.

Please see the links below to download one or all of the available formats.

PDF – Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition – PDF ebook 

EPUB – Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition – ePub format 

MOBI – Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition – MOBI format (for Kindle) 

If you prefer a hard copy of the book, you can order it here for $14.99 from our official distributor, O’Reilly Media.

A Visual Guide to Windows Server Training and Certification!

Windows Server Certification and Career Paths

Windows Server Certification and Career Paths

CompTIA certification testing moving to a single vendor (VUE)

To simplify the overall testing experience for certification candidates, CompTIA exams will be delivered exclusively with Pearson VUE via their network of more than 5,000 testing centers in 165 countries, effective July 9. CompTIA certification exams will no longer be available at Prometric testing centers at that time. Moving exclusively to Pearson VUE will provide certifications candidates with one point of contact to serve all of their testing needs.

Free Private Cloud Jump Start Training! Register Now!

Are you interested in attending two (2) days of free Cloud Training?

Over 4,000 global IT Professionals registered for the February 21-22, 2012 offering! To accommodate demand, Microsoft is running this course again on April 3-4, 2012. You don’t want to miss it, so register now!

Microsoft Learning and the Microsoft System Center 2012 team are partnering to bring provide IT Professionals an exciting opportunity to learn what they need to know to deploy, manage and maintain Microsoft’s private cloud solution. Leveraging the popular Jump Start virtual classroom approach, the industry’s most gifted cloud experts will show attendees why this new private cloud solution, based on System Center 2012 and Windows Server, has garnered so much attention. Here are the details:

• Course: “Creating and Managing a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 Jump Start”
• Date/Time: April 3-4, 2012 from 9:00am – 5:00pm PST | NEWLY ADDED
  IMPORTANT: The Feb. 21-22, 2012 class is fully booked and closed to new registrations
• Where: Live virtual classroom (online from wherever you are)
• Cost: FREE!
• Target audience: IT Professionals (IT Implementers, managers, decision makers)

REGISTER NOW

COURSE OUTLINE

Day 1: Deployment & Configuration
Part 1: Understanding the Microsoft Private Cloud
Part 2: Deploying the Infrastructure Components
Part 3: Deploying the Private Cloud Infrastructure
Part 4: Deploying the Service Layer
Part 5: Deploying the Applications & VMs

Day 2: Management & Operations
Part 6: Managing the Infrastructure Components
Part 7: Managing the Private Cloud Infrastructure
Part 8: Managing the Service Layer
Part 9: Managing the Applications & VMs

INSTRUCTOR TEAM
Students have the opportunity to learn from and interact with the industry’s best cloud technologists! This high-energy, demo-rich learning experience will help IT Professionals understand why Microsoft private cloud solutions are making a splash in the industry. Here are the instructors for this two-day event!

• Symon Perriman, Microsoft Technical Evangelist
• Kenon Owens, Technical Product Manager, System Center Cloud and Datacenter Infrastructure
• Adam Hall, Senior Technical Product Manager, System Center Application Management
• Sean Christensen, Senior Technical Product Manager, System Center Service Delivery & Automation
• Anant Sundaram, Senior Product Manager, System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management

What’s a “Jump Start” Course?
Training specifically designed for experienced technologists whose jobs demand they know how to best leverage new, emerging Microsoft technologies. These advanced courses assume a certain level of expertise and domain knowledge, so they move quickly and cover topics in a fashion that enables teams to effectively map new skills to real-world situations. Check out recordings of the Office 365 Jump Start and the Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals, too!

Register now for the Private Cloud Jump Start

Source: Microsoft Learning – Born To Learn

Employers value business skills as much as tech certifications

For IT Pros, Business Savvy Trumps Certifications: Foote

DATE: 2011-12-01 | By Ericka Chickowski

 

Having certifications may have led to higher salaries for IT professionals in the past, but the latest report from Foote Partners finds that business skills may be just as valuable.

IT skill certifications don’t hold the same value as they did during rosier economic times, according to the latest report from IT employment and consulting firm Foote Partners. 

Global instability and a lack of confidence in the U.S. economy are leading to a flattening of salaries between workers who have IT certifications and those who bring noncertified skills to the table.

In its IT Skills and Certification Pay Index report for the third quarter, released Nov. 29, the firm finds that 13% of noncertified skills got an increase in pay premiums over the last year while the same was true for only 5% of certified skill sets.

While in the past, simply having a string of accreditations displayed on a business card might be enough to bump up salaries, the current business environment asks for more, says David Foote, co-founder of Foote Partners.

“Private corporations may be holding on tightly to something like $2.5 million in liquid assets, but they have definitely been spending on skills and people during the recovery, albeit heavily in the services industry and in selective internal hires, The drivers for skills and talent acquisition in evidence today are more unique and compelling than prior downturns and won’t easily crumble under pressure,” Foote says.   

Most companies, he says, are hiring for vacant positions or looking internally for candidates. This kind of pressure forces companies to look less at specialists and more at what Foote Partners calls a “hybrid IT business professional.” Instead of candidates with specific certified skills, hiring managers are seeking candidates not only with a strong IT background, but also skills in business, sales and even marketing.

According to Foote, fewer than 20 percent of all IT professionals today now work within the walls of what could be considered the traditional IT department. And IT workers who are entrenched in the workings of other business units will need a diverse set of skills to continue to grow.

“They have not been valuing certified skills as much as they have those that are without certification, where the experience and on-the-job performance of a person accounts for more ‘juice’ in hiring and skills acquisition decisions than having an acronym on one’s business card,” Foote says.

Source: http://www.channelinsider.com/

Will IT certs get you jobs and raises? Survey says yes

60% of IT professionals surveyed say a certification led to a new job, and half say it gave a salary boost. But some certs are more valuable than others.

By Julie Bort, Network World – November 14, 2011

Debate rages among IT professionals over the value of certifications, but a survey of 700 network professionals jointly conducted by Network World and SolarWinds may help put that argument to rest. Among those who earned certifications, most saw a significant boost in their careers as a result.

Some 60% said a certification led to a new job; 50% said they earned more pay, with 40% saying their pay increased by more than 10% directly because of a certification; and 29% said a cert led to a promotion.

Respondents also offered advice on when to get certifications and which ones to get. Interestingly, they named Cisco certifications as both the most, and the least, valuable.

FULL SURVEY RESULTS: Survey: IT certifications lead to jobs, higher pay 

"I have certifications, and yes they’ve been a big help to me," says Jeff Schoonmaker, a junior network administrator in Portland, Ore., who has a Cisco CCNA, a Microsoft MCITP (Enterprise Desktop Administrator) and the CompTIA A+. Schoonmaker has been an IT professional for a little over a year and says his CCNA helped land him his job and the MCITP has already led to a promotion. He’s working on his CCNP, and when he achieves that, he’ll get another promotion.

"As far as my career is concerned, certifications are huge. I will continue to chase certs from Microsoft and Cisco throughout my career," he says.

Half of respondents said they pursued certifications to get a promotion or to be eligible for a new job. "My company wanted a Microsoft-certified IT manager, so the MCSA helped me get the job I am currently in," said one respondent. "I was able to stay working for a defense contractor when one contract expired by moving to a different contract due to the certifications I held," another said.

Since three-quarters of respondents had certifications, that means one-quarter (26%) saw no value in them. "I have no certs to my name at all. I do have an MBA. I have been in IT hardware and network admin/engineer roles for over a decade now without a single piece of paper related to the field. You learn as you go, better than you learn in some stupid classroom," commented James7360 on a Spiceworks forum.

But James7360 is in the minority. Even network professionals earning the highest wages — more than $110,000 — had as many, or more, certs as those in lower salary brackets.

That’s not to say that the certs themselves are solely responsible for these high salaries. Those earning the most money also had more years of experience (75% had more than 10 years) and more traditional education (25% had a master’s degree, compared to 11% in the lower salary brackets).

But even so, among the highest-paid IT professionals who had certs, 58% said a cert led to a salary boost or bonus, 63% said it led to a promotion, and 30% to a new job. These numbers are similar to those in the lower salary brackets, who also overwhelmingly said that certs lead to a salary boost or bonus (55%), new job (62%), or promotion (27%).

Those earning the highest wages, $110,000 or more a year, were also more likely to have particularly difficult (and expensive) certifications, like the CCIE, RHCE or CISSP.

"I have had a certification lead to a new job or promotion, the CISSP, which isn’t even a technical certification. It really teaches how to control and translate security into business objectives. But it is required for a lot of security jobs and has requirements like ongoing education in order to maintain it," says Lee Eddy II, a senior security analyst in Redwood City, Calif., with more than 10 years of experience as an IT professional. The CISSP helped Eddy land a job with a big salary increase, and is mandated for most of the higher-paid jobs in his field, he says.

The value of a certification clearly depends on a lot of factors. Some hiring managers want them more than others, and timing is an issue, too.

"I’d have to say certs tend to be more valuable when they are coupled with the building of experience," says Craig Norborg, a network engineer for Trowbridge & Trowbridge, Albuquerque, N.M., with more than 15 years of experience and a variety of certs, including the CCNP, CCDA, MCSE, SCP (Solarwinds Certified Professional) and others.

"If you get them too early, people think they’re book certs. If you get them too late, you’re just proving what you already know, which may not be required," Norborg points out. "Employers are pretty suspicious of many high-end certs from a young person, or someone just entering the field."

The difficulty of the certs and the type of technology they cover can also add value – or not. "My MCSE hasn’t really done anything for me. My last two employers actually would rather I not touch servers, but instead specialize in networking," Norborg says. Note that for Windows Server 8 and beyond, Microsoft has discontinued its umbrella MCSE certification in favor of a range of technology-specific, MCITP certs.

In a survey of network professionals, it’s not surprising that certifications on network technology were the most popular and deemed the most valuable. Some 67% of respondents had earned one, with Cisco certifications far and away the most popular. Forty-four percent of those making more than $110,000 had the ultra-hard (and expensive) CCIE. Among those with lower salaries, only 4% had earned it. Microsoft certs were held by 39% overall, and the CompTIA Network+ by almost one quarter.

Cisco certifications were named the most valuable – leading to more promotions, new jobs or pay raises than any other. But, oddly, Cisco certifications were also named among the least valuable.

"I do think networking certifications are the most valuable when coupled with some real-world experience. I wouldn’t have gotten my last two positions without them," Norborg says. "It also depends on the cert itself. CCNA is OK. CCNP, CCDA and CCDP are better. I’m sure CCIE is even better, but once again, they’d be suspicious of a very young person with one."

Eddy adds: "The reason Cisco certs are seen as most valuable and least valuable is that it depends on the certification. The CCNA is entry-level and easy to get, but the CCIE is still hard and a lot of employers want it."

Security certifications also came in strong. Over one-third of respondents had one, with the CompTIA Security+ the most common. Among respondents making more than $110,000 annually, security certifications were held by 38%, particularly the CCSP, earned by 36% of this group. In comparison, only 9% of those making less than $110,000 had the CCSP but 32% had the CompTIA Security+.

The least popular certifications were for network management technology – only 17% of our 700 respondents had one. While network management is often categorized as a mid-level job, surprisingly, those that earned the biggest salaries, over $110,000, were far more likely to have one (40%) than those under $110,000 (22%).

Linux certifications and sysadmin/virtualization certifications came in as middle of the pack in both popularity and value.

Least popular of all were certs involving virtualization technology from Citrix or Red Hat.

Beyond jobs and promotions, some certification holders felt that certs had other value. One said, "As I’m the only member of IT staff here, people have become aware of the more complicated jobs I perform here, having seen the certifications I’ve passed."

Twenty-seven percent of survey respondents said they chose to get a certification simply to learn about the technology, not to pocket more dough. While no one argues that a cert is more valuable than hands-on experience, "they can be helpful when implementing a new technology," Eddy says. "One of the things I like to negotiate with a new purchase order is that the vendor throws in the certification on their product."

He also says he gets the most value out of live classroom training. In a group setting, people will experience and troubleshoot a wider variety of problems as they learn. It will also help you build a network of other users to call on when you need it.

For more details on which certifications impact jobs and pay, see the full survey results.

Suggestions for Taking a High-Stakes IT Exam #Certification #Exam #Preparation

Part I: Exam Prep By Janet Pinkerton

1) Know your exam. Carefully read the exam description details to build your exam prep strategy. What are exam objectives or subjects covered? What question formats will be used: multiple-choice, simulated scenarios, essays or fill in the blank? How many questions will be in each exam section? How much time is given to complete the exam? How will the exam be graded?

2) Ask yourself: What kind of learner am I? How much do I know? Answering these questions can help you decide what tools to use to prepare for the exam. Test prep options include assessment software, instructor-led training, eLearning, books for classroom use and self-study, and computer-based materials.

3) Dedicate Time to Prepare. Give yourself a matter of weeks, not days, for preparation. Create and commit to a realistic schedule of study time blocks that are less likely to be disrupted by work or life events. Aim for balance with time management. If you neglect your personal or work life, you may add unwanted stress that will make it more difficult to study effectively.

4) Study in short blocks of time. Experts say the maximum human attention span is about 45 minutes and the average is about 20 to 30 minutes. Be good to yourself and take long breaks between study times.

5) Use multiple study/preparation resources, especially if you are a beginner. No single exam preparation resource is the best at covering every exam subject. Each has its strengths and weaknesses—both in approach and subject coverage. Using multiple preparation resources will help ensure that you cover all the subjects contained in a high-stakes exam.

6) Use high-quality preparation resources. For CompTIA certification exams, study with books and study guides reviewed by industry experts and approved by CompTIA through the CompTIA Approved Quality Content (CAQC) program. These materials are considered the best resource for self-study for an exam. Use the Search form here to find CAQC Study Materials. Be careful when purchasing study guides from second-hand sellers (on eBay or Craigslist, for example); make sure the materials directly apply to the exam you plan to take.

7) Drill, Baby, Drill! Drill with sample questions and exams to identify problem areas where more study is needed and reinforce the information you already understand. Sample questions for CompTIA exams can be obtained here. You can also purchase and practice questions online with authorized providers of certification practice tests. Beware of websites offering “exact copies” of real exam questions; experts say these typically provide no educational value and are often incorrect.

8) Time yourself. Timed exam practice help you get used to taking exams under time pressure.

9) Get Hands-on! Give yourself plenty of hands-on IT experience to reinforce study prep and also to prepare for long-term career success. Hands-on experience can range from working on projects in a home or school lab to shadowing experienced computer or network IT “gurus.”

10) Be Proactive and Think Positive. Exam anxiety is common, but careful preparation through study, drills and hands-on experience can dissolve the fears involved with high-stakes testing. If you are anxious about the exam environment itself, get information from your testing center about what to expect, what’s allowed, what’s prohibited in the testing room. Some testing centers even offer a “test drive” —a chance to experience the test center and go through all the testing procedures before the actual exam.

Source: CompTIA Blog

Sneak Peek: SQL Server 2012 learning products in development!

SQL Server 2012 is coming! Microsoft has already started developing some of the exams, courses, and books that will help our customers to learn SQL Server 2012 and to showcase their new skills. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s in the works.

The quick view

Title	Course	Book*	Exam
Querying Microsoft SQL Server	10774	Training Kit	70-461
Administering a Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Database	10775	Training Kit	70-462
Building Data Warehouses with Microsoft SQL Server 2012	10777	Training Kit	70-463
Developing a Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Database	10776	Exam Reference	70-464
Designing Database Solutions for SQL Server 2012	10778	Exam Reference	70-465
Implementing Data Models and Reports with Microsoft SQL Server 2012	TBD	Exam Reference	70-466
Designing Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Platform	TBD	Exam Reference	70-467

*There will be several other great SQL Server 2012 books as well, which won’t have corresponding exams and courses. More news on those later.

What’s different about the courses and books this time

• 1:1 mapping between exam, course, and book (no more two-course mapping!)
• An exam preparation book for each exam
• More real-world scenarios and business context

What’s different about the exams and certifications this time

• More community involvement in identifying the skills to be tested (over 300 people participated!)
• Higher expectations of skill level and experience for the successful candidate
• More direct focus on core skills such as querying and on business context
• Recertification required every three years at the Pro level

Wait just a minute. Did you say recertification?

Why yes, I did. In order to ensure that our certifications remain a meaningful and valuable indicator of candidate’s skills, SQL Server 2012 Professional-level certifications will require recertification every three years. Initially, the recertification requirement will be one or two exams. You can find out more by viewing the frequently asked questions about recertification on our web site.

Source: Krista Wall (Microsoft) via Born to Learn Blog!