Microsoft has done its second U-turn in less than a week by
announcing that it will continue to recognise the MCSE
certification for NT4 engineers.
The move comes hard on the heels of this week's decision to delay
the imposition of new enterprise licence arrangements.
Microsoft had angered MCSE certified engineers with the news that,
to maintain their accreditation, they would have to retrain and
take Windows 2000 MCSE exams before 31 December 2001. This
effectively scrapped the MCSE at NT4 level certification.
The company's change of heart is likely to come as relief to the
12,000 UK engineers who have yet to take the Windows 2000 training
and examinations. However, it has upset some of the 50,000 people
worldwide who have already upgraded their training.
"This is going to upset a lot of people," said Brian Weller, the
director of US-based training school TMC Technology. "A lot of
people didn't finish their 4.0 because they heard it was going to
be decertified."
Ayesha Okhai, Microsoft's skills business manager, said Microsoft
has plans to differentiate the two levels of MCSE by issuing
separate certificates. "We will provide an early achiever card for
people who have spent time and money on Windows 2000
certification."
Okhai said she thought engineers with the higher Windows 2000
certification would be more attractive to potential IT
recruiters.
One reason for Microsoft's change of heart has been the longevity
of the NT4 platform. While the company would like users to run the
latest Windows 2000/XP operating system and have engineers
certified for these platforms, it has had to concede that users
still want NT4.
Microsoft had carried out a number of surveys among its customers.
"We found there is still demand for NT4 deployments," Okhai
said.
The policy change makes the MCSE certification similar to
certification programmes from some other vendors such as the Novell
Certified Novell Administrator (CNA) certification. CNAs do not
lose their certification if they are not trained on the latest
Novell OS.