Communified.net Blog : MCM

MCM Office Communications Server The Final Part

Marco van Olst — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:35:00 GMT

So I am back home after three intensive weeks of training and study, and again a Jetlag due to the 9 hours time difference.
But this Wednesday we received the final results of the third written exam and the qualifying lab, and…. I passed them both.
Which means I can call myself, and eight others, a MCM Office Communications Server right now.
And was it worth the expense in time and money? Yes It does, its intensive that’s for sure, but the amount of knowledge you obtain during this weeks is huge, not only by consuming the training material but also to listen to and learn from all the experience of all the other attendants with all kind of backgrounds. And of course, not to forget, all the info we received from the OCS product managers, MSIT, the OCS Documentation team. And last but not least, the effort Adrian MacLean put in as Program Manager of the MCM OCS. Especially his weekly trips to the Safeways, to provide us with enough “energy” food by means of chips, cookies, chocolate, tootsie rolls etc.
The picture below was taken between the third exam and the qual lab at the last Saturday, quite relaxed people?!?! And also, as it is a miracle, taken at one of the rare sunny days at Redmond:-)

MCM Office Communications Server Part 4

Marco van Olst — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:13:00 GMT

It's finished!! Today we completed the third and final week of the MCM Program.
And the score untill today? I passed exam one and two. Today, saturday, we had to complete the two final exams. At eight we started with the third written examen, followed by the Qual Lab Exam. I completed all the goals we had to achieve at the lab in time, so this part looks good. The final results will follow next week

What else did we do this week? We had a visit of some guys from Polycom and Tandberg who showed us their fancy equipment, and how they think it will be usefull in an OCS environment. Again we had the opportunity to meet some of the OCS product managers. And besides that of course all the regular lessons

Tomorrow I will be flying home to The Netherlands, pretty tired and exhausted, but also with a feeling of satisfaction.

The pictures I included are from my appartment building at the Trails of Redmond, just beside the Microsft Campus. So this was my home for the past three weeks.

MCM Office Communications Server Part 3

Marco van Olst — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:49:00 GMT

And we fullfilled week two of the MCM program. I now know for sure that life is
much more fun without a Jetlag. So this week felt less harder.
So what did we do this week? Of course we had our first exam on Monday. And today we received the results, and.......................................................
I passed the first exam, so only three to go.

On Wednesday we had a lunchmeeting with the OCS documentation team.
We all agreed that they 've done a pretty good job in regards to the OCS documentation.
But the most of us had the same number one on our wishlist, why isn't there a huge colorfull, A0/A1 format, diagram of the OCS Components, just like the beautifull Exchange Server en Server 2008 diagrams.

During lunchtime on friday we went to "The Commons" a relatively new part of the Microsoft campus on the other side of the 520 highway, in The Commons is the Visitor centre located and....................... The Company Store, so shopping time.
With a few dollars left, we took our lunch in "The Mixer", a kind of in-company shoppingmall with al kind of restaurants and shops.

Friday evening was Karting time, MCM OCS against the MCM Exchange and MCM Directory groups. Of course there was no doubt about who whould win this race, after all OCS does everything in Real Time, so a OCS paticipant on the 1st and the 3th place, not bad at all Although it didn't depend on me, I am a lousykarter, I prefer a real car like my Alfa

One week to go, with the second exam this monday and two on next saturday.

MCM Office Communications Server Part 2

Marco van Olst — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:22:00 GMT

So week one of the MCM OCS is finished, On monday we started with 16 people from all over the world..
One from Austria, France, New Zealand two from Canada, and the rest from the US of A and of course me from The Netherlands.
I will not mention the content of the first week, but for sure we had to consume a huge ammount of information, most days started at 8AM and finished at 8PM, and of course this saturday we had a labtime day.
Last wednesday evening we had a "wine and dine" with the OCS Product Managers, wich was of course quite interesting. Finally we had the opportunity to give our comments and recommendations about how the ideal OCS environment sould look like in lets say "Wave 14"
Sunday we have a day off, get some extra sleep, not to much, because the first exam is scheduled this Monday at 8AM.

Up to week 2!!

MCM Office Communications Server

Marco van Olst — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:08:00 GMT

On Monday the 27th of April I am going to start attending the MCM program of Office Communications Server.
So my main working area in the upcomming three weeks will be building 11 at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond.
In the mean time I stay at the Redmond Trail appartments, just beside the MSFT area.
And of course, and if I can find the time, I try to share some of my personal experiences at this blog.

Exchange MCM and ROI

Sander van den Burg — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:13:00 GMT

Devin Ganger, an MCM in Exchange 2007 just wrote a great post on the ROI of MCM. It includes calculations and all. If you have yet to convince your boss: Go check it out!

Microsoft Certified Architect - OCS

Sander van den Burg — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:31:00 GMT

The official MCM blog reports:

Quick update on OCS MCA. This certification is still in development and right now we are finalising the competencies, review board process and something other core components before putting the first candidate through. So we are on track for the program to be live before June and broad availability after July 09. Don't forget that you need to have a current OCS Masters cert before you can attempt MCA.

Full story at source