Yesterday I completed the last exam in order to earn the Microsoft 365 Certified Enterprise Administrator Expert certification. Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrators have the skills necessary to evaluate, plan, migrate, deploy, and manage Microsoft 365 services.
With this certification the following skills have been measured in the exams I have taken:
- Design and implement Microsoft 365 services
- Manage user identity and roles
- Manage access and authentication
- Plan Office 365 workloads and applications
- Implement modern device services
- Implement Microsoft 365 security and threat management
- Manage Microsoft 365 governance and compliance
My road to certification
While following the “Microsoft Professional Capstone on Cybersecurity” online courses via edX last year I was introduced to the concept of online exams as well. Unfortunately, just a while after completing this certification Microsoft announced to retire this certification as per December 31 2019. Microsoft introduced Microsoft Learn as a replacement. Microsoft Learn is really awesome because it contains lots of free training material on a diverse set of subjects.
This year I started with online proctored exams from Microsoft after reading this article from Thomas Maurer: “How to take a Microsoft Certification Exam Online” . In the article Thomas showed how easy it was to take an online proctored exam if prepared properly.
Microsoft 365 Certified: Fundamentals
To test out whether this online proctored exams was workable for me, I decided to start with the Microsoft 365 Certified: Fundamentals exam. To prepare for the exam I completed an online training learning path from Microsoft Learn. Took the exam, which to my surprise contained some nasty questions but fortunately passed on the first attempt. Experiment successfully completed, and all lights on green to continue on this path.
Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate
After passing the Microsoft 365 Certified: Fundamentals exam, I decided to take the Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate exam. In order to certify for an expert certification, you must meet the requirements for becoming an associate first. The reason for taken this specific exam was that in my line of work I do more and more security related tasks. Another option in my case would have been to take the MD-100: Windows 10 and MD-101: Managing Modern Desktops exams for which I would have earned the Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator Associate certificate.
For the Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate the following skills were measured:
Candidates for this exam implement, manage, and monitor security and compliance solutions for Microsoft 365 and hybrid environments. The Microsoft 365 Security Administrator proactively secures Microsoft 365 enterprise environments, responds to threats, performs investigations, and enforces data governance. The Microsoft 365 Security Administrator collaborates with the Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrator, business stakeholders, and other workload administrators to plan and implement security strategies and ensures that the solutions comply with the policies and regulations of the organization
After completing the Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate I had to complete two exams in order to certify for the Expert status, these exams are MS-100: Microsoft 365 Identity and Services and MS-101: Microsoft 365 Mobility and Security
MS-100: Microsoft 365 Identity and Services
For the MS-100: Microsoft 365 Identity and Services exam the following skills were measured:
Candidates for this exam are Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrators who take part in evaluating, planning, migrating, deploying, and managing Microsoft 365 services. They perform Microsoft 365 tenant management tasks for an enterprise, including its identities, security, compliance, and supporting technologies.
Candidates have a working knowledge of Microsoft 365 workloads and should have been an administrator for at least one Microsoft 365 workload (Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, or Windows as a Service). Candidates also have a working knowledge of networking, server administration, and IT fundamentals such as DNS, Active Directory, and PowerShell.
MS-101: Microsoft 365 Mobility and Security
For the MS-101: Microsoft 365 Mobility and Security exam the following skills were measured:
Candidates for this exam are Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrators who take part in evaluating, planning, migrating, deploying, and managing Microsoft 365 services. They perform Microsoft 365 tenant management tasks for an enterprise, including its identities, security, compliance, and supporting technologies.
Candidates have a working knowledge of Microsoft 365 workloads and should have been an administrator for at least one Microsoft 365 workload (Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, or Windows as a Service). Candidates also have a working knowledge of networking, server administration, and IT fundamentals such as DNS, Active Directory, and PowerShell.
Conclusion
Getting certified is not easy (at least not for me), it requires a lot of time and effort even if you have experience from the field. Personally I find the way the questions on the exam are asked very hard. The questions are either related to something I would normally find out when needed, or are written in such a way that more than one answer could apply. Not being a native English speaker doesn’t help their either. In order to prepare for this, I advise to use some of the available (paid) practice exam solutions out there, I personally prefer MeasureUp.
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