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Final Windows .NET Server exams will be released starting next summer (2003), a Microsoft Corp. certification strategist said this week. The MCSA version will come out next summer, and the MCSE version will be out in the fall of 2003, according to Dan Truax, Group Manager of Microsoft Certification Strategies, in Redmond, Wash. Beta exams for both certification titles will be out sometime in spring 2003. Individuals can take beta exams by invitation only. To find out how to qualify to take the beta exam, click here.
Truax said that the release of Microsofts certification exams is tied to the release date of the related product—in this case .NET Server, which is due to be released to manufacturing at the end of this year. The exam release timeframe varies based on the complexity of that product and how it affects the job role on which an individual credential is focused, he said.
So how complex will .NET be, and how will it change relevant job skills and roles? Not very, and not much, according to Truax.
“I dont believe Windows .NET Server as it exists today will significantly alter job roles of system administrators or system engineers,” he said. “The core technologies those job roles are using are still there, and the new product only builds on that great foundation. Active Directory is a good example. That core technology builds on from Windows 2000. It will not be a revolution in the way those people do their jobs. There will obviously be new tasks people will need to perform that are .Net Server-specific, but it will not be a major change to the job role, as it might have been between [Windows] NT 4 and Windows 2000.”