New DPM courseware and exam – NOW AVAILABLE
I have long believed that training’s primary purpose is as a deployment enabler. In fact, prior to these last four years at Microsoft, I originally established and drove the education offering for Double-Take for the same reason – to pragmatically equip customers and partners to understand the product(s) better, thereby accelerating adoption and reducing support challenges. That was a great adventure, but doing it within Microsoft was even more fun.
From October of last year, through this summer, I have had the opportunity to work on Microsoft training materials for System Center Data Protection Manager 2007. It has been an exciting experience and I hope that you find the materials relevant and useful.
In June, we released Course 50213A – Implementing Data Protection Manager 2007.
This two-day classroom-based course replaces a five day course (50023) that was developed prior to DPM’s initial release to manufacturing in 2007. I am much more excited about this two-day offering, as it really was defined by customers and external DPM experts as to what you need to know to be successful with DPM 2007. And since it is being delivered through Microsoft Learning’s CourseWare Library (CWL), it is easy for Microsoft partners to download and deliver without some of the formality of Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC), though still to a similar quality bar.
To follow on with this, (in my opinion) no course is complete without an exam. So, this month, I am happy to announce Microsoft technical specialist Exam 70-658 – Configuring System Center Data Protection Manager 2007
I confess that I have not yet taken the exam myself yet, but as I was privileged to watch how the DPM customers and experts determined what was needed to be effective with DPM, I have a high confidence factor that the exam covers a good bit of reality that should confirm your knowledge without confounding you in niche scenarios.
Also, as the exam was developed after the course and using the same “learning objectives” – I hope that taking the course, plus a relevant hands-on experience, should adequately prepare you for the test.
On a personal note – my own Microsoft certification goes back to 1995, with Windows 3.1 (desktop) and Windows NT 3.5 (server). And I was later an MCT. So, contributing to a Microsoft course and exam really was surreal. But I digress …
If you are one of the first to take the course or the exam – please let me know! Comment back to this blog post or email me to tell us how we did and how we can continue to equip you to be successful with DPM.
As always, thanks for reading…