Microsoft makes massive changes to MCSE and MCSD

I'm surprised they don't just call it

MCSE - Shill

I'm guessing that only public service IT guys will have these. Only ones that have the time (and other peoples money) to sit round doing arbitrary tests on sales brochures.

Absolute dog-toffee

To get over the line for our Gold Partner qualies, we sent our 65yo canteen assistant to sit an exam after cribbing all the answers from a dodgy website we found for $20.

He got 98% correct and is now a certified expert.

(anon for bloody obvs.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: everything Microsoft does and has done over the last few years is geared towards selling subscription licenses.

I appreciate that 'cloud' is very much a part of modern IT and business generally. I embrace that - I really do. I work with cloud-based services and servers every day and I help people migrated from and between them all the time. I design and manage cloud-based solutions and help my customers - as best I can - choose the right mix of cloud and on-prem and to make that work for them.

I think I am young enough to not be wedded to on-prem but old and experienced enough not to simply accept 'cloud' and 'mobility' and 'BYOD' and 'apps' as some default that is the right way to do things just because it's new(ish) and common.

I actually even think that, essentially, forcing an infrastructure specialist to learn about Azure is really in the tech's best interest as it means that at least they have enough of an understanding to see the options and not just assume that they need a dozen on-prem boxes to accomplish their goal.

After all, the simple truth is that, just as some people default to "let's put everything on the cloud", others are just as likely to default to "let's put everything in the datacentre" and, just as the former crowd may lack the knowledge to understand when on-prem is suitable, so can the latter group lack the knowledge to see where offloading some workloads to the cloud may be better for the business.

Giving those people the people the expose at least open them up to those options.

BUT, that doesn't change the fact that this blending of cloud into all of the MCSE paths is designed to reduce any barriers to companies moving more services to MS's subscription-based cloud.