We're kicking off an initiative to conduct regularly-scheduled LiveMeetings on Advanced Certification offerings. These will be hosted by the program managers and include detailed program overviews as well as time for live Q&A. You can find them here on MS Events - if you want to learn more about...

After two years of running the Exchange MCM and MCA Programs I am moving on to something new. The last two years have been exciting, challenging, and funny as can be at times, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. I'm sure the role I'm moving on to do would never have been open to me had I not run...

Between March 1st and March 20th 2010 we delivered (very successfuly I might add) the first ever Exchange 2010 MCM rotation. From a class of 13 we ended up with 5 fully qualified and shiny new MCM's. Only 5 you might say? Well, it's not many, I agree, but there are several more who just need to pass...

So I gave the Exchange community until the end of February to upgrade their MCM's to 2007. So as usual they all left it to the last minute... :-) Here however is a list of those that passed an exam or two to first join the community, well done to them! Tyler Jin - Tyler works for Microsoft in...

The last month has seen a lot of MCM and MCA activity for Exchange, and so I'm delighted to be able to publically acknowledge the following folks; First the MCM's Saykham Saykao - Saykham of OBS in Australia passed his 2007 Qual to add 2007 MCM to his 2003 MCM Ashraf Ismail - Ashraf from...

Aside from those I just blogged about who passed during the last rotation, over the last couple of months a few people completed their exams to also become new MCM's, and some upgrades were completed too. So here they are, and apologies for being behind on these. Firstly those that are the new to...

I was going to blog about how everyone else promises at New Year to blog more than they did last year blah blah blah, but I'd only be lying and so I won't. :-) Still, I admit I was lax in not following up from the last rotation we ran in October, and announcing the new MCM's we have in Exchange. I...

I'm clearing off the to-do list today whilst the Qual Lab goes on, and wanted to make sure the world knew that we added two new MCA Exchange 2007's over the last month or so. These two guys upgraded their existing MCA Exchange 2003, so now hold all 4 - MCM 2003/7 and MCA 2003/7. That's a very exclusive...

Please congratulate and welcome Dirk Buntinx , A PFE for Microsoft based in Belgium, who passed the Qual lab and joins the MCM 2007 community. Dirk attended Exchange Rotation 3 in May, and has the most bizarre taste in clothing, fortunately for him, we don't test on fashion sense. I'm joking of course...

I've been a bit behind recently on these, something to do with running a 3 week class, but better late than never... Some existing MCM 2003's passed the 2007 Qual and therefore add MCM 2007 to their transripts. Well done to the following people; CK Quek - CK is an Architect working for Microsoft...

Today is the last day of the Exchange 2007 MCM rotation, and in fact, the last ever day of MCM 2007. The next delivery we do will be in March 2010, and will be... Exchange 2010. As I type this, the Qual Lab is underway. 17 people in here taking it, in various states of comfort. Some look ok, progressing...

For Exchange and SharePoint that is. Directory is now only two weeks long, so they are at the halfway point, and OCS is entering their final week. Busy busy right now. It's been a great week in my room, or at least, I think it has. CAS and Transport done, survey scores are in, and they are great,...

Just getting the labs checked over for the Exchange session which starts Monday and I recently got some new toys... I think 48 GB of ram, 16 cores and 2TB of disk per candidate server should be enough for a lab or two... don't you? I've got 16 vm's running, and still have 10Gb free. Of course,...

Over the last few weeks we've added a few more people to our growing community, so I delighted to be able to publically congratulate: Dwight Jesseman - Dwight is a Senior Systems Engineer for Unified Communications at the University of Florida and attended MCM Rotation 1, in October 2008. Welcome...

Ade Famoti , an Architect for Microsoft in Africa recently added MCA 2007 to his MCA in Exchange 2003! One of only 7 people worldwide to hold both those certs. There are some more MCA upgrades in the pipeline, but for now, Ade is lucky number 7! Trivia note: Ade taught transport to the class I was...

The last few weeks have been a bit hectic, but amongst all the things going on (including me going to Berlin to present at Tec2009 and follow the Twitterers here ) I had some people go through the MCA upgrade process, to upgrade their MCA's in Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007. The upgrade process basically...

So I had an email from one of the self-employed Exchange MCM's this morning, and I won't directly name him, quote him, or his email, but the gist of it was this: (email from recruiter and I'm paraphrasing...) Our client has had difficulty finding the high level help they need and so have decided to...

As Per said, summer has been upon us and the pace slowed briefly (it has also been Microsoft's end of year, so the reality is, the pace didn't change, we were just focussed on other things), but a few more people either completed their MCM, or upgraded their MCM. So please join me in welcoming/congratulating;...

It's been a quiet week or two for the labs, as many of the Microsoft people I work with have been in Seattle for an internal training event. Still, one old friend of mine managed to pass his Qual Lab, to add MCM 2007 to his existing MCM and MCA in 2003. Well done to Baki Küçüktuna , a Principal Consultant...

Today, Alessandro Goncalves , a Senior Support Engineer for Microsoft based in Las Colinas become this program's 100th MCM to be certified in Exchange Server 2007! It's a great achievement, and we're all very proud of him. He attended the R3 rotation, in March/April just gone and passed his Qual Lab...

A busy week or two for people taking the Qual to upgrade their existing MCM Exchange 2003 to 2007. Please congratulate; · Dave Chomas - Dave is a Senior Consultant for MCS in the US East Region · Thomas Strasser - Thomas is a consultant working with our friends at HP in Germany · Colin...

Seeing as how I just gathered the data for someone, I thought I'd put the latest numbers out there for all to see. Microsoft Certified Masters Exchange Server 2003 - 146 (112 work for Microsoft, 34 work for partners or are independant contractors, hereinafter referred to as 'non-msft' or similar...

Hi All, It's time for another post from 'A Certified Master'. This one is a bit different than the other entries as Nikolai van Luijtelaar of C2iCT in the Netherlands gives an account of troubleshooting and BBQ's :-). Nik attended the last 'Ranger' rotation in May last year, just passed his lab exam...

Three upgrades from MCM Exchange 2003 to 2007 this week, and two new, fresh-out-of-the-box 2007 MCM's too! First the new boys, Mateusz Kantecki from MCS in Poland passed his Qual Lab at the second attempt this week. He attended the recent R3 delivery. So well done to him! Joining him, and having attended...

That's an Elmer Fudd reference, not a typo by the way... So last week three 2003 Exchange MCM's upgraded their cert to the 2007 version (for the 2003 to 2007 upgrade they 'just' need to pass the Qual Lab). Congratulations to; William Yang - William works for EMC in Singapore as a Senior Solutions...