The Microsoft MCSE, MCSA—and Even MCSD—Ride Again!

There’s an old epigram that goes like this: “Everything old is new again.” I was reminded of this saying when I opened a PR email from Microsoft last Wednesday with links to a press release entitled “Microsoft Reinvents Certification Program Aligning to the Cloud.”

We’ve been hearing about cloud certifications from Microsoft since October/November of 2011, but now the impetus behind their efforts is finally made clear: the so-called Private Cloud Certification is actually the platform for a reinvention of the old stalwart MCSE certification which stands for Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert in its current incarnation (rather than Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, as it did somewhat problematically in its previous incarnation–the problems stem from legislation in many states including my own home state of Texas which forbids the use of the word Engineer in job titles that don’t require taking and passing the Professional Engineer or PE exam from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, or NCEES, currently limited to civil and mechanical engineering disciplines).

It turns out that Microsoft is launching a whole new slate of certifications that recycle some old and familiar abbreviations, capped by a new master-level credential, to leverage its growing current and planned future investments in cloud platforms, tools, and technologies. These are described more fully in a Microsoft new story called “Microsoft’s Certifications Reinvented for the Cloud” (also dated April 11, like the afore-cited press release), but the gist of this story is that Microsoft is taking a deep plunge into the clouds to “…help technology professionals gain the skills they need to plan, design, implement, and operate cloud and hybrid solutions today and into the future” (source: Don Field, senior director of product management for Microsoft Learning, and a regular source of information and interviews for yours truly).

 The new credentials are abbreviated and named as follows (taken in ascending order of depth, requirements, complexity, and cost):

1. Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA): a basic, three exam credential for some specific platform or toolset to establish basic solutions skills, knowledge and competency. There are current two new MCSA credentials available: the MCSA: Windows Server 2008 which requires exams 70-640 (Active Directory, Configuring), 70-642 (Network Infrastructure, Configuring), and 70-646 (Server Administrator), plus the MCSA: SQL Server (for SQL Server 2012), which requires exams 70-461 (Querying), 70-462 (Administering), and 70-463 (Implementing Data Warehouses)

2 .Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Adds two more exams to create an intermediate level platform or toolset credential to extend solution skills, knowledge and competency. There is the MCSE Private Cloud certification on the Windows Server 2008 side of the street, along with two different SQL Server 2012 MCSEs: one on the Data Platform, the other on Business Intelligence (follow the links for specific exam numbers, please).

3. Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD): No credential at this level are available as yet, but Microsoft tips its hand as to where it is going by recommending the MCPD on Visual Studio 2010 as the starting point for such certification. I expect that, as the MCSA is to the MCSE, so the MCPD will become to the MCSD: a pre-requisite that defines various platforms (Visual Studio, Web Developer, and Azure Developer, with an emphasis on cloud technologies) with three or four base level exams) to be followed by two or more additional exams to earn the MCSD credential.

4. Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM): This provides a cloud-oriented pinnacle certification to match the current areas of Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) specialization. Given the appearance of SQL Server 2012 in the MCS* credentials at the associate and expert levels, I’d expect this platform to move over from MCM to MCSM (or perhaps for cloud-oriented DBMS materials to make such a move). As far as I can tell, this one is the furthest from implementation, about which the least amount of information is currently available (in fact, the MCSM link on the Microsoft Certifications by Name page current leads to the MCM page with no explicit mention of MCSM there as yet).

Ed Tittel is a 30-year-plus veteran of the computing industry, who’s worked as a programmer, a technical manager, a classroom instructor, a network consultant and a technical evangelist for companies that include Burroughs, Schlumberger, Novell, IBM/Tivoli and NetQoS. He has written and blogged for numerous publications, including Tom's Hardware, and is the author of over 140 computing books with a special emphasis on information security, Web markup languages and development tools, and Windows operating systems.

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