Best Route to achieve Mircosoft Certification

To pass all the exams listed below, you will able to receive MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator), MCSE (Microsoft Certified System Engineer) and MCDBA (Microsoft Certified Database Administrator):

70-270 Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional.
70-290 Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment
70-291 Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure.
70-293 Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure
70-294 Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure
70-297 Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure
70-228 Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
70-229 Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition

University of Plymouth

The University of Plymouth, a place I pursued my first degree and master degree, is the largest university in the southwest of UK. The high student population makes it become one of the largest UK university.

The Guardian's national university league table ranked University of Plymouth 40th in 2006 and 35th in 2007 and it describle the university as "forward think university"

Proudly to say, that School of Computing, Communication & Electronics was rated 5 in the recent Research Assessment Exercise - denoting international execllence. My studying life in Plymouth is amazing part in my life. I spent great time with my friends and my lectures there. Plymouth people are friendly and helpful and there is a peaceful heaven in my view. Last, since southwest is low economic zone the living expenses is consider cheap compare with other majar english cities and if you are lucky enough you can get employed by MDEC center, Royal Mail just like me, they will pay you a great wages.

If you interested in studying at University of Plymouth, you can contact me to discuss in further. E-mail: ryan.inti@gmail.com.

A Guideline on IT Industry qualification

Certificates are not only something that you can hang on the wall or add a pretty nice prefix to your name card but it demonstrate that you are professor in a particular field. This article is generally provide you some basic views about well known IT certifications.

There are plenty of certificates from different vendors, so probably your first question is what should I get first? Which one is more valuable? In 2006, CertCities.com did a survey for the top 10 hottest IT certificate [Nagel, 2006]:

10 Linux Professional Institute Certification, Level 2(LPIC 2)
9 System Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP)
8 MCSE: Security
7 Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
6 Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)
4 Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP)
4 Project Management Professional (PMP)
3 Microsoft Certified Architect
2 Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist: SQL & .NET

The top prize goes to
1 Red Hat Certified Engineer

Another ranking is provided by About.com, the researcher did a survey to get feedback from certification readers about what they are looking towards the next stage [Reuscher, 2007]. The result shows on below:

10 Cisco CCDA
9 PMP
9 Microsoft MCDBA
8 Microsoft MCP
7 CISSP
6 Microsoft MCSD
5 Microsoft MCSE
5 CompTIA A+
4 CompTIA Network+
4 Microsoft MCSA
3 Cisco CCIE
2 Cisco CCNA
1 Cisco CCNP


Although, there are slightly differences in between, but it is not difficult to found that Microsoft and Cisco certs are still monopolise the market. As a beginner, you only need to think about what will be your direction (Programmer, Network Administrator, Security Engineer, etc.)? The start point could be:

Operating System: MCP or LPI (Subject Code: 70-270/70-290 or 117-101 + 117-102)

Networking (Telecommunication): CCNA or CompTIA Network+ (Subject Code: 640-801 or NE0-003)

Information Security: CompTIA Security+ (Subject Code: SY0-101)

Database Management: MCTS-SQL or MySQL Core (Subject Code: 70-431 or 001-003)

Programming: SCJP (Subject Code: 310-055)

Information Management: ITIL Foundation (Subject Code: EX0-100)

Project Management: PMI CAPM, Project+ (PK0-002)

Hardware: CompTIA A+ (220-301)

I wish you all can aim an IT cert now...~~~~~

Nagel, B., (2006) "CertCities.com's Hottest Certifications for 2006." available on: http://certcities.com/editorial/features/story.asp?EditorialsID=95

Reuscher, D., (2007) "Top Ten Certifications to get in 2006." available on: http://certification.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/topfor2006.htm