Welcome!

AJAX & REA Authors: Stephen Pierzchala, Sebastian Kruk, Elizabeth White, Pat Romanski, RealWire News Distribution

Related Topics: .NET, Silverlight, Cloud Expo

.NET: Blog Post

Get Certified on MCSE Private Cloud with this Step-by-Step Study Guide

Free resources for achieving the latest Microsoft Private Cloud certification

This month, I spent a fair amount of time preparing for the new Microsoft Private Cloud Certification Exam 70-246, Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 and I saved links to all the study resources that I used to study and pass this exam as a step-by-step Exam Study Guide for anyone else who may be interested in targeting this exam.

Exam 70-246 is the final exam needed to complete the MCSE Private Cloud certification track.  The complete requirements for the MCSE Private Cloud track include:

  • Achieve MCSA:Windows Server 2008
    • If you were previously certified as an MCITP on Windows Server 2008, you may be closer than you realize to achieving this certification requirement!  MCITP’s were grandfathered into the MCSA program automatically when the new MCSA program was introduced earlier this year.  Check your MCP Transcript at http://www.microsoft.com/mcp to confirm.
  • Successfully pass one of the following exams:
    • Exam 70-659 – TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization (valid until Jan 2013)
    • Exam 70-247 – Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud with System Center 2012
  • Successfully pass Exam 70-246 (That’s the exam targeted by this study guide!)

TIP: An exam study guide for preparing for Exam 70-659 is also available here. If you have already achieved MCSA on Windows Server 2008, then Exam 70-659 and Exam 70-246 are the only two additional exams needed to complete the MCSE: Private Cloud certification requirements and you can leverage my free study guides for each exam to help you get ready for these tests!

About This Exam Study Guide

This exam guide presents the target exam objectives within each of the above objective domains in a checklist format to provide an easy method for exam candidates to quickly self-assess their general exam preparedness and also provide specific study resources to help candidates address knowledge gap areas prior to attempting this exam. Note that this study guide is not intended as a replacement for formal training, but rather intended as a post-training resource to help you identify how you can best prepare for certification.

Download this Exam Study Guide for FREE ... For just a Tweet!

I'm making this Exam Study Guide available as a free downloadable resource, but I need your help promoting this resource broadly within the Microsoft ecosystem.  Click the button below to post a short Tweet or Facebook share about this useful resource, and you'll automatically receive a direct link to download the study guide immediately afterwards.

TIP: Don't have a Twitter or Facebook account? The IT Pro technical community has embraced Twitter and other social media networks as THE way to quickly share technical resources.  If you don't currently have a Twitter account, I'd recommend getting your FREE account setup here and then Follow Me for future IT Pro news and technical resources.  Still not convinced to get a Twitter account? Just email me with a request for Exam Study Guide 70-246 and I'll be happy to send you the direct link!

Is this Exam Study Guide Useful to You?

These are the same study resources that I personally used when preparing for Exam 70-246 myself, so I’ve already taken time to proof and review each and every resource.  Of course, you may have your own suggestions for improvements – feel free to post your comments below.  I’d love to hear your feedback!

TIP: If you've found this Exam Study Guide useful, you may also want to check out my other Study Guides located here.

HTH,

Keith

More Stories By Keith Mayer

Keith Mayer is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft focused on Windows Infrastructure, Data Center Virtualization, Systems Management and Private Cloud. Keith has over 17 years of experience as a technical leader of complex IT projects, in diverse roles, such as Network Engineer, IT Manager, Technical Instructor and Consultant. He has consulted and trained thousands of IT professionals worldwide on the design and implementation of enterprise technology solutions.

Keith is currently certified on several Microsoft technologies, including System Center, Hyper-V, Windows, Windows Server, SharePoint and Exchange. He also holds other industry certifications from IBM, Cisco, Citrix, HP, CheckPoint, CompTIA and Interwoven.

Keith is the author of the IT Pros ROCK! Blog on Microsoft TechNet, voted as one of the Top 50 "Must Read" IT Blogs.

Keith also manages the Windows Server 2012 "Early Experts" Challenge - a FREE online study group for IT Pros interested in studying and preparing for certification on Windows Server 2012. Join us and become the next "Early Expert"!

Cloud Expo Breaking News
SYS-CON Events announced today that nfina Technologies, a provider of highly reliable cloud server products, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. nfina Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets highly reliable cloud server products, designed to solve the most demanding data center requirements in mission-critical cloud applications. Nfina’s staff has decades of experience in co...
SYS-CON Events announced today that OpenStack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. OpenStack software controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed by a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface. OpenStack powers some of the most widely-used SaaS app...
“Cloud has everything to do with what has happened with Big Data,” explained Jason Deck, Director of Strategic Alliances at Logicworks, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “Big Data doesn’t exist in its easily accessible way without cloud. From reduced startup costs, to cheap storage, to fast processing, to adequate security, to the easy incorporation of third-party analytics tools, cloud made Big Data accessible to customers of all sizes, with all different bud...
“Social, mobile, analytics and cloud can’t be looked at as distinct technology trends; they are facets of the same movement and an everyday reality for consumers and businesses alike,” said Craig Sowell, IBM VP of SmartCloud Marketing, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This means that businesses need to start looking at trends as one: cloud is the delivery, analytics is the unique insight, social is a shareable service, and mobile is the ubiquitous access.” ...
With Cloud Expo New York | 12th Cloud Expo [June 10-13, 2013] hurtling towards us, let's take a look at the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference coming up June 10-13 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. We have technical and strategy sessions for you all four days dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, wha...
The new open source cloud orchestration platform called OpenStack is the promise of flexible network virtualization, and network overlays are looking closer than ever. The vision of this platform is to enable the on-demand creation of many distinct networks on top of one underlying physical infrastructure in the cloud environment. The platform will support automated provisioning and management of large groups of virtual machines or compute resources, including extensive monitoring in the cloud.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Dave Eichorn, Global Data Center Practice Head at Zensar, will share a case study describing how a utility services company handled the migration of its Microsoft platform to the cloud. Challenged with the time-consuming task of opening operations out of temporary offices, this company struggled with the need to simultaneously access data that was accumulated from a vast amount of data-intensive jobs. Zensar migrated the company’s application ...
The rise of cloud computing has exposed hard drive-based storage as the new data center bottleneck. Combating this, data center managers have deployed SSDs to gain the performance needed to provide real-time access to data. However, due to budget constraints, many have turned to consumer-grade SSDs without understanding that they wear out quickly when processing enterprise workloads. In this session, Esther Spanjer will discuss recent endurance advancements in SSD technology that enable usage of...
SYS-CON Events announced today that Wowrack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. Wowrack’s core expertise lies in high-availability Private and Public Cloud IaaS Hosting Solutions. Wowrack provides a true Hybrid service – where business release all IT management and hardware provisioning – taking the data center and server system administrative headaches off our customer’s shoulders. ...
At pennies per virtual machine-hour, the economics of cloud computing are both compelling and daunting to replicate. Whether you are building your own cloud infrastructure, building a public cloud or choosing a cloud service, there are key strategy and technology decisions that make the difference between success and failure. In his General Session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Jason Waxman, VP in the Intel Architecture Group and general manager of the Cloud Platforms Group within Inte...