We recently completed the first round of exams for our first "hybrid rotation" - our alternate delivery model where we do one week onsite in Redmond followed by ten weeks of Lync-based remote training delivery - and we've had outstanding results with...

I’m happy to announce a new SQL Server 2008 MCM  today: Steve Tetrault , Technical Architect . Steve is a professional with IT in his blood. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Education. He is the fourth SQL MCM from Canada (third outside of...

While the rest of us were out celebrating Groundhog Day and Valentine's Day, a few hardy folks have been toiling away at SharePoint MCM exams and Qual Labs. One polished off the Qual Lab and completed his cert: Brian Culver (R4) is a SharePoint...

I’ve been looking forward to making this SQL MCM profile update for some time now as I consider Denzil to be in the top tier of SQL Server support engineers at Microsoft. I’ve been pestering him for permission to post his bio and it finally...

Individuals who currently hold or achieve the Microsoft Certified Master credential by December 31, 2013 for Exchange Server 2010, Lync Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, SQL Server 2008, or Windows Active Directory 2008R2 will automatically receive...

I was recently asked by a potential SQL MCM candidate if we could share testimonials about the SQL Microsoft Certified Master program from non-Microsoft employees Out of the 57 MCMs in the world, only 12 are not Microsoft employees (by the way – the numbers...

With rotation 5 out of the door we have only one rotation left on OCS 2007 R2 (May). The latest group to enjoy the thrills and spills of OCS Masters is pictured below just before taking the qual lab. By previous standards this group was relatively quiet...

Bojan, one of our MCM Exchange Server 2010 candidates from rotation 8, tallied some interesting statistics for us: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/careerfactor/b/bojan/archive/2011/01/21/microsoft-certified-master-in-figures.aspx

Uwe Ricken shared his story of his path to SQL Masters certification on the SQL Server Central forums . I am reposting his story here with his permission. Thanks for sharing your experience, Uwe! Hi all, I've just got the information that i have...

Well, it was semi-announced when we posted up our new schedule, but here are a couple of very important details that I failed to mention before. The R2 program will be the next version of our MCM: Directory training and certification. We've taken everything we learned from our prior deliveries, looked at the new product, and have made the following key changes......

The eighth rotation of the SQL Microsoft Certified Masters program is about to wrap up and tomorrow is the big day of exams. David Ikeda is covering this rotation, but last week I got a chance to sit with the existing candidates for a day of instruction...

The ninth SQL Microsoft Certified Master rotation just finished up last Saturday and I have three new Microsoft Certified Masters to announce (and more coming soon so stay tuned): Lei He , Senior Premier Field Engineer, Microsoft . Lei has...

Here is another testimonial from a SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master who doesn’t work for Microsoft – and wasn’t paid to say all this good stuff J . His name is Peter Fictum and he is a SQL Server Engineer at GoDaddy.com: “ I would be happy...

We're in the third and final week of SQL now, OCS starts on Monday (Adrian flying in this weekend so fingers crossed no delays...) and a week from Monday, Exchange, SharePoint and Directory all start. It's a busy month ahead. If you are coming to one...

News travels pretty fast, so I thought I would get the official word out tonight before this news became too stale. As many already know, three months ago we announced some pretty significant changes to the SQL MCM program . I won’t recap those changes...

New week brings a new SQL 2008 MCM to announce... Margarita Naumova , Senior Consultant, Microsoft Consulting Services . Margarita Naumova has more than 15 years of experience in SQL Server, including project management of big scale projects and SQL...

I'm happy to announce our newest Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server 2008, Jonathan Kehayias ! If you've been reading up on Extended Events - chances are you've already read his work or heard his talks. A little about Jonathan: Jonathan Kehayias...

Another post from someone who really knows what the training is all about, someone who took it.... Rai Umair is a Principal Consultant within the SharePoint\OBA practice at Stargate Global Consulting Take it away Rai... I recently had the opportunity...

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...

Friday brings in a new SQL MCM 2008 colleague to announce – one who already achieved both SQL Server 2005 Microsoft Certified Master and SQL Server 2005 Microsoft Certified Architect certification (and I anticipate it’s just a matter of time before he...

Please welcome our newest SQL Server Certified Master Li Xiaozhao. I was fortunate enough to get to greet one final Master on my next to last day at Microsoft. Welcome to the community. Li Xiaozhao is a SQL Server/BI consultant with Microsoft Consulting...

We’re midway through the second week of “Rotation 7” for the SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master program. We tried something new for this rotation, providing a copy of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Internals for each participant. So far we’ve been able...

I have another SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master to announce (a peer from my own organization too, I’m proud to say): · Norm Eberly , Microsoft Premier Field Engineer in Premier Field Engineering . Norm started working with database management...

Hi All, Please join me in welcoming Ryan Conrad to our Master / MCA team! Ryan will be driving the Directory programs for us, effective immediately, as it is time for Walter to focus on his day job J For those that don’t know, Walter has been pulling...

Here is Part 5 of the SQL MCM Profile series. Meet Danny Tambs: Danny Tambs , Architect for the Parallel Data Warehouse Center of Excellence (CoE) team, Microsoft . Mr. Danny Tambs is a Microsoft Architect specializing in database technologies. With over...