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Microsoft announcements about exams and certificates

Over the past 3 months, Microsoft has made 3 major announcements:

  1. MCSA, MCSD, MCSE since 2021, together with all previous exams, except for the new Role-based, cease to exist .
  2. Almost all previous Azure Role-based exams are out of date. This can be read in a separate article with analysis
  3. There will be several new exams and, accordingly, certificates for them:

First things first.

MCSA / MCSA / MCSE - everything. That's all.


I am sure that the obsolescence of MCSA / MCSA / MCSE caused a much greater reaction than all the other announcements. If there weren’t just any new exams in SQL 2019 or Windows Server 2019, it’s not so scary. But in fact, Microsoft all certificates and exams not in Azure / Dynamics365 / Office365 are multiplied by zero. Of course, we sweetened the pill, assuring that in the transcript of your exams the fact of passing will not disappear, but this does not change the essence.



The list of exams to be marked obsolete is too long.


I have a personal opinion that can be read by opening this hidden text.
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Azure SAP


Everything is complicated here, because not Microsoft technology is combined with Azure i.e. exam simultaneously on Azure infrastructure / SAP components and services (for monitoring, for optimization) and architecture.

Azure IoT


The exam combines the skills of an IoT developer in C #, Administrator / Integrator of an IoT solution (Device Provisioning is very much asked), an Azure SaaS user for IoT and an architect. It is clear that IoT is getting deeper and deeper into our lives, and the exam is needed for those who want to verify their skills. Personally, I'm not sure that the number of IoT developers will be large, but an exam was clearly required to close the corresponding niche.

Power BI


It's simple: how to work with Power BI. Personally, I don’t like the name of the certificate given for this exam, “Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate.” There are many other great tools for data analysis, PowerBI is too narrow for such a name.

Azure SQL Administrator


Here all the words are important - not a single one can be thrown out. This is not development, but deployment, optimization, performance, fault tolerance, etc. Local SQL Server is considered only as part of Hybrid (there is not a single word about private in skill measurements about private).

Because DA-300 exam code, then following the naming convention, I won’t be surprised to see another DP-301 about development. But this is all speculation.

Summing up, I can say that Microsoft is taking leaps and bounds, and if you are on the way, the world is becoming more interesting. If this route does not suit you, do not worry, there are many other ways with other vendors and manufacturers of software and equipment.

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