Certification Watch Volume 15 #6

Published July 17, 2012

By Anne Martinez

Computer certification news about Red Hat certification testing, updates to CCIE Security exams, MCSE: Private Cloud and Windows 2012 certifications, and the first new Microsoft MCSD track.

Red Hat Hands-On Exams Get Personal

Thanks to some rather funky-looking new exam stations from Innovative Exams, LLC, Red Hat certification candidates can now schedule individual lab exam sessions. The exams are administered via a portable testing kiosk. A remote proctor monitors the session using three cameras built into the kiosk and communicates with the exam-taker through a live chat window. Pretty cool, huh?

Cisco CCIE Security Gets Freshened Up

New (v4.0) CCIE Security exams will go live starting November 19th. Both the written and lab exams will be updated. Objectives for the v4.0 written exam and lab exam are available on Cisco's website. If you're planning to take the v3.0 lab exam and haven't already registered, you may be out of luck. Per discussion on Cisco's CCIE Security forum, there appears to be a shortage of lab exam seats available as people rush to get take the v3.0 version before the switchover.

Here Come the New MCSEs

The MCSE: Reinvented certifications are beginning to arrive in force. The MCSE: Private Cloud exams are already available through Prometric test centers, and two new Windows Server 2012 certifications were recently announced. The newbies are MCSE: Desktop Infrastructure and MCSE: Server Infrastructure.

MCSE: Desktop Infrastructure certifies skills related to desktop virtualization, remote desktop services, and application virtualization. MCSE: Server Infrastructure focuses on how to design, build, manage, and run a cloud-optimized data center.

Ultimately candidates will need to earn MCSA: Windows Server 2012 before going MCSE, but in the meantime, there are upgrade paths available to current MCSAs and MCITPs.

First MCSD: Reinvented Certification Announced

Application developers can start preparing for the new MCSD: Windows Metro Style Apps credential. To earn it, you'll need to pass 3 exams: A programming exam, Essentials of developing Windows Metro Style Apps, and Advanced Metro Style App Development. Two language tracks are available: HTML5 and C#. They will start rolling into Prometric test centers in late September.