Introduction
For those who haven’t read my previous blog posts, here’s a short summary. About 1,5 – 2 years ago I decided that I wanted to know more about cloud computing and get certified as well. I used freely available resources to attain these certifications:
In short, my conclusion was that the quality of the freely available resources were not sufficient. ITpreneurs were kind enough to provide me with access to their e-learning course and Train Signal (now Pluralsight) provided me with their video training. Reviews for both can be found here:
Even though both resources are good, I personally prefer a book over eLearning and video training. As such I picked up a copy of “Cloud Essentials : CompTIA Authorized Courseware for Exam CLO-001”
Review
Number of pages: 268
ISBN: 978-1-118-40873-5
Released: June 2013
My opinion:
The book is well written and knows to provide a very good basis of cloud computing both technical and non-technical. Even though the number of pages is limited, the most important aspects are covered in my opinion, which should be enough to provide insight and to pass the Exin and Comptia cloud exams.
What I disliked are some of the questions at the end of the book, because they are sometimes a bit strange. But as far as I can remember, this was also the case in the official exams … so better get used to it if you are going to get certified.
All in all, this is a very good book to get started with cloud computing.
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Tags: Book, certification, certify, CLO-001, Cloud, cloud computing, Cloud Computing foundation, Cloud Essentials, CLOUDF, CompTIA, CompTIA Cloud Essentials, Exin, Exin Cloud Computing Foundation, foundation, ICT, Learning, PluralSight, review, study, sybex, train signal, trainsignal
Exam dumps
Unfortunately I’ve received numerous requests for an exam dump of 74-409 which really upsets me.
For those that are not aware of it, you are not allowed to share or use exam dumps. “If Microsoft learns that a candidate used a “brain dump” site to prepare for an exam, this candidate will be permanently banned or prohibited from taking any future Microsoft Certification exams and may be decertified from the Microsoft Certification Program. In addition, test scores and certifications, if applicable, may be revoked. These actions may be taken even if the candidate did not intend to defraud the Microsoft Certification Program.”
For more information, see:
http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2013/01/02/why-brain-dumps-are-bad.aspx
Preparing to take the exam
This is generally what I do for preparing to take the exam:
- Determine the skills that are measured in the exam 74-409
- View the online course Server Virtualization with Windows Hyper-V and System Center at Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA)
- Reflect how confident you are that the online course has provided you with sufficient skills to take the exam.
- Optionally enhance your knowledge using:
- If you (know someone who) attended the course for this exam (20409A-ENU), then be sure to take a look at the book. It contains a lot of details that are missing from the jump start videos.
- Windows Server 2012 R2 Private Cloud Virtualization and Storage Poster and Mini-Posters
- Community/user created content for taking the exam
–Study resources 74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center
–Born To Learn wiki
–Veeam Study guide
–Free MCP Training study guide (in progress)
- Blogs by people that already took the exam, to see how they prepared.
- Recordings and slides of the Virtualization IT Camp
- Additional Hyper-V and Server 2012 R2 related courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA)
- Real life or virtual meetings, presentations and user groups. Microsoft has started a Microsoft User Group Portal wiki, but unfortunately it’s not widely being used yet. Therefore I suggest searching the internet or taking a look at the Microsoft Events website.
- Your own lab to work with the products. You can use the existing Microsoft Test Lab Guides (TLG) or if you don’t have the hardware for your lab, just browse the document.
- Technet library documentation about Hyper-V. This can also be downloaded here for offline use.
- Technet TechCenter
- Training videos. By example on YouTube, or from commercial companies like CBT Nuggets and PluralSight. Nowadays you can get monthly subscriptions or just get trials for a couple of days to help you get a good start.
- Great TechNet Blogs.
- Guided labs / guided experiences like by example the Microsoft Private Cloud Guided Labs. Note: these might not be updated to 2012 R2 yet, but they should provide you with a better understanding.
- Virtual labs (search for hyper or virtual machine manager)
- Twitter by following people with interesting information on Hyper-V, by searching for tweets containing hyperv or hyper-v or by connecting with the community.
- Forums to discuss and share information. Since I’m from the Netherlands I use Tweakers.net a lot and can be found discussing Microsoft Certification related stuff in the topic “[Microsoft Certified] Ervaringen en discussies”.
- Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Best Practices (In Easy Checklist Form)
- Free e-books:
–Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2
–Microsoft System Center Microsoft System Center
–Windows Server 2012 R2 Overview White Paper
–Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Virtualization White Paper
- Printed books, but as far as I know there are no specific books yet for 74-409 and most books covering Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V or System Center 2012 have not yet been updated to the R2 release.
- Channel 9 to search for relevant content.
- Technet Video to search for relevant content.
- Server Posterpedia Windows store app or component architecture posters.
- Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides
- Survival guides
Specific topics and resources I used while studying:
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As I already wrote in yesterday’s post Apple – Notes / summary for the “Mac Integration Basics 10.8 Exam”, I’ve mainly been working with Microsoft products all my life. Since recently however, I’m also trying to get more familiar with Apple, Mac products and OS X and am trying to become certified.
One of the reasons, I’d never used Apple products before was because I never really deemed it necessary. Nowadays the number of Mac users seem to be growing and there is more demand for people with Mac / OS X knowledge.
As such my quest for knowledge and certification began. For me personally this meant:
- Using Apple online resources
- Reading books (mainly the great book Apple Pro Training Series: OS X Support Essentials. Before purchasing, you might also want to look for coupon codes as it might save you 30% off or more.)
- Watching computer based training (CBT) videos
- Working with OS X (thanks go out to my employer Open Line for providing me with a MacBook Pro, books and most importantly … TIME)
- Personally I didn’t think it was necessary to take a course at a training center, but some people might prefer this.
- Asking colleagues for help (thanks guys !!!)
- Making sure that I understood everything and if it wasn’t the case, look it up.
- Taking notes / creating this summary blog post that can be used as a reference if needed
- Testing my knowledge using test questions from Revise IT
I’ve taken the exam last friday and passed with 92.5%. Even though I think it was a pretty good score, I still had to make some educated guesses. This made me realize that there’s still a lot to learn and that getting more experience is important as well.
I also want to mention that I took the exam at LAI the training institute for IT professionals in Schiedam (The Netherlands). They were really kind, helpful and service oriented. The waiting area and test room were great and they even provided a pastry and all kind of drinks at no charge. This has been my best test taking experience to date, so keep up the good work guys.
I’m looking forward to attending the OS X Server 10.8 course at LAI the training institute for IT professionals at the end of March. I’ll try to create another blog post about this as well.
But now back to the important stuff, here are my notes/summary. I hope it is useful. If you find any errors or have any suggestions, please leave a comment.
Notes / summary for the “OS X Support Essentials 10.8 Exam”
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workflow, WPA, WPA Enterprise, WPA2, WPA2 Enterprise, Write, Write Only, XML, XMPP, XProtect.plist, Xserve, Yahoo, Zero Configuration Networking, Zeroconf, zip, zoom
People that know me, know that I’ve mainly been working with Microsoft my whole life. Lately however, I’ve been working with an Apple MacBook Pro with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion however and I intend to enough knowledge and experience to get the following certifications:
- Apple Certified Associate – Mac Integration 10.8
- Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) 10.8
- Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) 10.8
So keep an eye on my blog if you want to learn more about Apple’s Mac OS X and its certifications. Read more about other Apple certifications on their Training and Certification page.
The “Mac Integration Basics 10.8 Exam”
For people new to Mac and OS X, Apple offers the Associate certification for Mac Integration. This covers OS X basics and describes options to integrate OS X into an existing (Windows) environment. The exam costs $65 and can be taken online.
Even though the guide that Apple provides isn’t that big to begin with, I decided to summarize it anyways. I hope it is useful to someone else as well.
Also if you want to get more in-depth knowledge about OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, check out this great book: Apple Pro Training Series: OS X Support Essentials. Before purchasing, you might also want to look for coupon codes as it might save you 30% off or more.
Notes / summary for the “Mac Integration Basics 10.8 Exam”
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Introduction
For those who haven’t read my previous blog posts, here’s a short summary. A couple of weeks ago I decided that I wanted to know more about cloud computing and get certified as well. I used freely available resources to attain these certifications:
In short, my conclusion was that the quality of the freely available resources were not sufficient. ITpreneurs responded to this by giving me access to their own paid ITpreneurs Cloud Essentials eLearning Course which I reviewed here.
I also contacted TrainSignal to get access to their training videos for CompTIA Cloud Essentials because their previous training videos on different subjects have always been great. They were kind enough to grant me access to the training videos which made this review possible.
Review
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Tags: certification, certify, CLO-001, Cloud, cloud computing, Cloud Computing foundation, Cloud Essentials, CLOUDF, CompTIA, CompTIA Cloud Essentials, Exin, Exin Cloud Computing Foundation, foundation, Free, ICT, Learning, study, train signal, trainsignal, video
Introduction
For those who haven’t read my previous blog posts, here’s a short summary. A couple of weeks ago I decided that I wanted to know more about cloud computing and get certified as well. I used freely available resources to attain these certifications:
In short, my conclusion was that the quality of the freely available resources were not sufficient. ITpreneurs responded to this by giving me access to their own paid ITpreneurs Cloud Essentials eLearning Course.
First of all, thanks to ITpreneurs for this opportunity. Also even though they provided me with access to this course, nothing was expected in return. They just wanted to share their knowledge with me. Because of my personality, I felt however that that the very least I could do was to:
- Provide constructive feedback on the course
- Write about how I experienced the eLearning course
And this blog post is the result.
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Tags: certification, certify, CLO-001, Cloud, cloud computing, Cloud Computing foundation, Cloud Essentials, CLOUDF, CompTIA, CompTIA Cloud Essentials, Curiosity was framed, Exin, Exin Cloud Computing Foundation, foundation, Free, ICT, Learning, study
People who know me personally, know that I’m very passionate about ICT. Some of you might also have read about my previous blog post regarding cloud certifications. In this post I described how I prepared for the cloud certifications CompTIA Cloud Essentials (CLO-001) and Exin Cloud Computing Foundation (CLOUDF). In this post I also said that I felt that the quality of the freely available materials was lacking and suggested people would check out other (paid) learning resources like by example the TrainSignal CompTIA Cloud Essentials training videos because they have a good reputation regarding training videos.
Because I was still curious about the quality of the paid training materials, I decided to contact TrainSignal to see if they were willing to provide me with a review copy. I hoped they would agree, but didn’t have high expectations. To my surprise however, they provided me with a review copy.
In the meanwhile, ITpreneurs contacted me to check out their IT Preneurs Cloud Essentials Course. I really liked that they contacted me, because to me this feels like they’re very passionate too and are continuously trying to improve.
I’ve already completed the IT Preneurs Cloud Essentials Course and will be posting my opinion on this blog very soon. I still have to start reviewing the TrainSignal CompTIA Cloud Essentials training videos, but I’ll try to do this as soon as possible as well.
If you have specific questions regarding one of both learning materials, please leave a comment so I can include it in my reviews.
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Tags: certification, certify, CLO-001, Cloud, cloud computing, Cloud Computing foundation, Cloud Essentials, CLOUDF, CompTIA, CompTIA Cloud Essentials, Exin, Exin Cloud Computing Foundation, foundation, ICT, Learning, study
Cloud computing is getting increasingly important nowadays and I expect it to keep on growing substantially. As most ICT professionals I’ve read a lot about cloud computing and I know some parts of it. To increase (and test) my knowledge about cloud computing, I decided to try and get these certifications:
These exams don’t just focus on the technical aspects of the cloud, but also on the business aspects and what cloud computing could mean for your ITIL processes.
I passed both exams todat with scores of respectively 86% and 80%. But I have to say that I did not like the exams very much. I feel this way because cloud computing is such a broad concept and the “best” solution often depends on many factors, which of course are not provided in the exam. I think these exams would both benefit greatly from using cases/scenarios. It’s a pity I did not see any option to comment on the exam questions either.
If I’d have to choose which certification I found most valueable, I’d go with the Comptia Cloud Essentials certification.
Free study materials I used:
I thought the quality of these study materials were mediocre at best and I have my doubts about the correctness of some of the statements. Especially because cloud computing is defined in many different ways and because the “best” answer often depends on the situation which is not described. But as with everything, you can learn a lot from it by being critical and looking up everything you don’t know YET and/or have doubts about. You will learn more this way, which is far more important than just getting certified. I personally learned a lot especially about specific cloud services. Unfortunately I did not have access to paid materials, otherwise I would have loved to check out the Train Signal CompTIA Cloud Essentials training videos seeing as they have a reputation to provide high quality material.
I will now close with some wise words I read on Seth Godin’s blog post called “Curiosity was framed“:
Curiosity was framed
- Avoid it at your peril. The cat’s not even sick. (HT to C. J. Cherryh)
- If you don’t know how it works, find out.
- If you’re not sure if it will work, try it.
- If it doesn’t make sense, play with it until it does.
- If it’s not broken, break it.
- If it might not be true, find out.
- And most of all, if someone says it is none of your business, prove them wrong.
There are many more great posts on Seth Godin’s blog so be sure to check it out.
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Tags: certification, certify, CLO-001, Cloud, cloud computing, Cloud Computing foundation, Cloud Essentials, CLOUDF, CompTIA, CompTIA Cloud Essentials, Curiosity was framed, Exin, Exin Cloud Computing Foundation, foundation, Free, ICT, Learning, Seth Godin, study
When Microsoft creates new (versions of their) software, they also create new exams to become certified. Part of this process includes testing the exams, determining the passing score, getting feedback and improving the exams based on the feedback (deciding which questions to use, removing questions, re-phrasing, etc.). More information can be found here.
To get feedback, Microsoft offers access to these beta exams for free. They do this publicly using by example the born to learn blog or privately using mail to select subject matter experts (SME) based on their profiles on Microsoft Connect. So if you’re interested in taking beta exams, update the information on the Microsoft Connect site to get private invites to the latest beta exams that are relevant to you. More information about the invite procedure can be found on the Born To Learn blog. Also keep in mind that public invites might be limited using a first-come, first served principle so check on a regular basis.
Advantages and disadvantages of taking beta exams:
+ It is free if you received an invite. Nowadays you can also take beta exams if you haven’t had an invite, but then you need to pay for the exam.
+ You have a chance to become one of the first people to become certified for the new software.
+ If you pass a beta exam, you passed it legitimately because there are no answers to download online.
+ Even if you fail the beta exam, you’ve still learned a lot about the new (version of the) software.
– In general there are no books available yet and you have to get all your information from hands-on experience, blogs, technet, websites, etc.
– The time frame you have to prepare for the exams can be (very) limited. For example with the last invites for the Server 2012 beta exams I had only 2 weeks to prepare for multiple exams.
– After you’ve taken a beta exam, it might take 2-3 months before you get the result.
Beta exams I’ve taken recently include those for Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012 and Office 365. I expect the next beta exams to cover mainly Office 15/Office 2013 related products like by example Sharepoint, Exchange, Lync. So if you’re interested in these beta exams be sure to keep a close eye on the beta exams and start working with and learning about the products already.
I hope this was informative and that it well help you and/or your company gain a competitive advantage.
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Tags: Beta, certification, certified, certify, Exam, Exchange, Learning, Lync, Microsoft, microsoft learning, Office, Office 365, Sharepoint, sme, subject matter expert, System Center, Windows, Windows 2012, Windows 2012 Server, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012
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