Upgrade Your Mcse Skills

By Author: yvonne
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These new programs are supposed to make it easier for prospective employers to judge an applicant's mcsa exams skills and talents by having tightly focused certifications that emphasize job roles found in the real world. However, imagine the mouthful your new titles will become as you list your various MCTS and MCITP credentials.
Microsoft strives to keep their certifications current by outing expiration dates on the new certifications. While this move ensures that certified professionals are on top of the latest technologies, it also generates an ongoing revenue stream for Microsoft.
The MCTS certifications actually expire when the specific technology itself does. The MCITP requires renewal and re-certification every three years. This process usually involves passing a single exam which is most likely going to be the latest related MCTS exam.
Does all of this mean you must start at ground zero? Not necessarily. You can upgrade your MCSE skills to Windows Server through different upgrade paths.
For example, if you are an MCSE in Windows Server 2003, you can transfer ...
... your skills to the new MCTS track for Windows Server 2008. If you want to move beyond the MCTS, you can continue on to the desired MCITP certification.
Passing exam #70-649: TS: Upgrading your MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to MCTS MCSE Certifications on Windows Server 2008 will earn you the following three MCTS credentials:
MCTS: Windows Server 2008 - Active Directory Configuration
MCTS: Windows Server 2008 - Network Infrastructure Configuration
MCTS: Windows Server 2008 - Application Platform Configuration

If you don't want to take such a huge exam, you can also take each of the MCTS exams individually.
Microsoft is providing transitional exams to the TS level but doesn't have a plan in place to upgrade MCSEs to the Professional level. Naturally, you can achieve MCITP status but you must first achieve MCTS status before going through the MCITP process.
For example, if you have your MCSE in Server 2003 and want to earn your MCITP Enterprise Administrator certificate you must first transition to the new MCTS by taking exam #70-649 as well as select a desktop MCTS and pass the required exam before finally taking the Enterprise Administrator Professional exam (70-647).
The same is not true if you are transitioning from Windows 2000 MCSE to Server 2008. For any MCSE predating Windows Server 2003, you'll find that there is no established transition path! You have two choices if you want to get on track for Server 2008 certification: Upgrade to Windows Server 2003 and take the transitional path to Server 2008 as described above or start from the ground up and work toward earning your Windows Server 2008 certification.
It's up to you but depending on how far you are in your existing efforts to upgrade to Server 2003, it might be easier to continue upgrading and then transition over to mcts windows server 2008. However, you will need to act quickly because the exams that you will need to upgrade your 2000 MCSE to Server 2003 certification will be discontinued on March 31, 2008.