The MCSE is back!

Microsoft has turned their supertanker around yet again.

Thankfully Microsoft certifications are rock solid.

The MCSE is back!

Oh, dear.

My first blog post will be my first impressions of Microsoft's about turn. Microsoft have had a problem with their MCSE. Their “Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer”: in certain countries they could not use the term Engineer. This is especially so in Spanish speaking countries. In Argentina it is illegal for anyone to call themselves an engineer without having the proper accreditation. There will be a few MCSE qualified professionals who do hold an engineering degree, but there won't be that many.

So: Microsoft got around to dealing with the problem. As far as I could see, the MCITP certifications were as good an answer as any. They levelled a very bumpy playing field. It meant an equivalence of stature that reached across a whole spectrum of software technologies.

It is a typically reactionary response. Ill considered and poorly thought out. Microsoft have pulled the rug from under their best qualifications yet, just at the point where they were about to take off. With Microsoft's muddying of the waters nobody quite knows what is going on. Will they need an MCITP? Will they need an MCSE? Will they be cross-matched? Is it any surprise that nobody is looking to get a MCITP certification now? Who would blame them!

If you make a decision, stick with it. Make the best of it. Please do not turn the Microsoft supertanker around yet again and create waves where none are needed. Sure, it is in the news. It is in the news for all the wrong reasons. That is a big problem.

There is one glimmer of hope here. The examination departments of Microsoft are extremely well set up. They have systems that are extraordinarily rigorous. Their excellence in testing is unquestioned. They need to be: with 90% of the world's computer systems relying on them.

The one thing that will not change is the quality of certification that you get from Microsoft. Whatever they call it, it will be bulletproof.

What was the problem with the MCITP?

The problem for Microsoft was that nobody wanted the MCITP. Everyone was advertising for MCSEs and so on. This was not because the MCITP wasn't a good qualification, it was simply that nobody had heard of it. Nor did they need to either. Even today – late April 2012 – some 60% of business computers run on Windows XP. You need certifications that run with XP and not anything else.

The poor take-up of the MCITP was directly the result of another Microsoft bungle. It was called Windows Vista. Whilst the bosses at Microsoft thought it a brilliant idea, the business world took one look, and left the building. Whilst it had lots of toys and widgets and super things to put on your desktop, this is not what business needs. They stuck with XP, and stuck with the certifications that XP required. And so it has remained.

Until now.

There is just two years of XP left. Microsoft pulls the plug in April 2014. If you have a Windows XP machine after that time, you are on your own. Everyone is talking about Windows 8 now. Anyone in the Business world who are still running XP and don't want to migrate to another technology altogether, need to choose now. Windows 8 is to be released soon. This year? Later? Managers of large systems do not usually want to move to a new operating system until it is de-bugged. That means SP1. A business will take around two years to implement a new system. Even parking the newly acquired hardware is a logistical problem in itself. Any shorter timescale is practically unthinkable. April 2012 is almost up. That means the decision is either made, or will be made very soon.

For organizations running Windows XP the choices are now few. Michael Silver of Gartner wrote a long report and concludes that you should move to Windows 7. He recommends that organizations running Windows XP and currently working on implementing Windows 7 should not get distracted from this course. You can check out the report on their site. The point he makes quite clearly is that the hardware used for a migration to Windows 7 will run Windows 8 as well. Indeed, it will probably run even better. It will be expensive, but would it be as expensive as keeping Windows XP?

Conclusions, your future and your need for Microsoft Certification:

My conclusions are that with Microsoft's excellence in certifications, you should look to fulfilling all the requirements of Windows 7 in your field. Windows 8 won't be around for a while now, deal with that when the dust settles. Whatever Microsoft decides to do about names, their certifications will remain the same sensible things they always were. In the next five to ten years you will need both Windows 7 and Windows 8 certifications, plus whatever comes next. In any case, neither Windows 7 nor Windows 8 will be the new XP with ten years supremacy. They both may last that long in practice, you will need to be qualified in both.

If you already have the Windows XP certifications, you will need to upgrade these for Windows 7 and Server 2008. Corporations will be migrating to Windows 7 very soon. 60% of businesses are still running XP! Windows 8 won't be ready soon enough for them to jump straight there. As for the new certifications that are coming out for Windows 8 and Server 2012, keep an eye out on my blog for more. For better or worse, the MCSE is back!