During the past few years, Microsoft’s battle cry has been to take on the cloud, and with the advent of Azure and Office 365, that’s pretty much what they did. Core Microsoft technologies from the operating systems to higher-level services such as messaging, collaboration and telephony are now available as Software as a Service (SaaS). Taking things one step further, Microsoft recently announced their new MCSA: Office 365 certification, which fully validates their commitment to the cloud and the training to support it.
The MCSA: Office 365 is a core Microsoft certification for organizations focused on Microsoft cloud technologies and provides a shortened path to the MCSA with only two exams: Exam 70–346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Services and Exam 70–347: Enabling Office 365 Services.
What is really unusual is that rather than being a stand-alone certification, they’ve plugged it right into their core IT infrastructure certification stack, giving you a cloud-focused MCSA that can lead to three higher-level certifications: MCSE: Communication, MCSE: Messaging and MCSE: SharePoint. So now IT professionals have a quicker path to these high-value Microsoft certifications and it’s through the cloud.
While some companies continue to struggle with the balance between developing traditional on-premise enterprise software and its equivalent cloud service, it’s obvious that Microsoft is committed to a path that supports both options. And, with the recent appointment of new CEO Satya Nadella, who rose through the Microsoft ranks as the head of the Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise group, I’d expect them to accelerate toward their goal even more quickly. That should be no surprise since IT services delivered through the cloud are usually easier to deploy and manage. The same goes for training and certification on Microsoft’s cloud technologies, which is an interesting consideration for IT professionals supporting Microsoft environments.
MCSA: Office 365 Exams
Exam 70–346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Services
Exam 70–347: Enabling Office 365 Services
MCSA: Office 365 is a Prerequisite for:
MCSE: Communication
MCSE: Messaging
MCSE: SharePoint
Related Courses
Managing Office 365 Identities and Services
Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 (M20341)
Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 (M20331)