This book is, unfortunately, the only text published for this exam so far. ElementK hardly has a reputation among instructors for great teaching material. They are expensive, poorly written, lacking inspiration, and often full of errors. Cloud Essentials lives up to the ElementK standard. Typos and examples of poor grammar abound. Granted, all of us struggle grammatically with “the cloud” (or is it “the Cloud”) but, as a textbook publisher ElementK really needs to set, or adopt, some standards. In no estimation is a sentence like “…for all services and applications that will use cloud” correct (p. 129). There are cloud services, cloud infrastructure, cloud providers, and the cloud but not simply …cloud…”

Lesson 5 discusses successful steps to cloud adoption which aligns with domain 4.0 of the objectives. What I would love to see here is a checklist. Some type of guide that participants can take back to their organizations and start the process. The objectives discuss roles and capabilities of vendors, skills required in an organization, success factors, approaches for migrating applications, selection criteria for a pilot, etc. Lesson 5 presents anything but a checklist. After several readings I’m left wondering what the author was getting at and where they got their information. On page 121, discussing migrating applications to the cloud (domain 4.4), the author talks about “Patterns of Cloud Migration” including application re-hosting, service facade, re-host and optimize, and re-architect. Now I’ve been teaching IT a long time and I find the section unintelligible and struggled to place the concepts in context. In fact, it is the right terminology and it does cover domain 4.4 but the book just doesn’t explain how. For a little better explanation see Wilkes’ 2011 paper on “Application Migration Patterns for the Service Oriented Cloud“. Wilkes abstract places this domain in the context we need “As well as deploying new applications to the cloud, many organizations will also be considering the opportunities to migrate current applications to the cloud… The patterns can also be seen as a sequence of activities, through which the current application is gradually modernized” Not, as ElementK tries to explain “The cloud infrastructure can be hosted in four different patterns”

Like many ElementK texts this one is anonymous so we have no idea the credentials or skill-level of the author. Unlike textbooks on topics such as Word or Photoshop, this book talks about standards and practices. Not even ITIL in Lesson 6 is referenced further than a link to www.itil-officialsite.com. The objectives state that the audience is “consultants, business and IT management, analysts.” Now, are these folks supposed to return to their decision makers and defend their assertions with “well ElementK said so”? Of all the ElementK books this is the one that needs a bibliography. How about some footnotes as well. Unless, of course, this author invented the patterns of application migration as well as everything else in this book?

This book may, indeed, provide the bare minimum of terminology and rote memorization needed to pass the exam. Beyond that I can’t imagine it has any usefulness to a working professional. Students will not have any usable process to follow when they return to work, nor will they have any idea where to look for more information. As an instructor I absolutely hate having to apologize and compensate for a textbook. This one requires both in every chapter for a 2-day course. Perhaps the book’s exceptional ancillary materials will compensate. Oh, wait, I didn’t mention it comes with crossword puzzles?

Disclaimer: I am reading an electronic promo copy provided by ElementK.

• Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) which sits just below the coveted Adobe Certified Expert (ACE)
• the new Accredited Technical Associate (ATA) from HP
• Strata exam from CompTIA sitting just below the A+
• QuickBooks Certified User (QBCU) which is below the QuickBook Pro-Advisor credentials

The MTA was designed in several flavors including Software Development, IT Pro (Server Administration), and Database. More on the individual exams in each path are available on the Certiport website.

Since we are one of only two MTA testing centers in the state I’ve gotten many calls from college students recently who want to take the exams. While Certiport is marketing this exam heavily at the higher-education market I question that move. The MTA seems much more appropriate at the high school level and serves a vital role at the entry level. The value of such a beginning-level certification for a graduating systems administrator seems questionable. At a price tag of $47/exam plus proctoring fees the money would most likely be better spent on CISSP or ITIL. I do whole-heartedly endorse the MTA at the high-school level and even as a screening tool before acceptance to a college-level program.

That said, there is a balancing game when it comes to certifications for the job hunt. Certifications, like school, take time and money. There is sometimes a pay-off and sometimes not. In a tight job market with hundreds of applicants per position a candidate needs something to set them apart and bring them to the top of the HR stack. Certifications can get you through the first HR cut which is most often done through a simple key-word scan of your resume. However, if the certification you hold isn’t recognized by the scan it really doesn’t do you any good.

Bottom line is plan your certifications carefully to make the best use of your time and money. Sit for the highest certification level you think you can pass. Work up from there and collect certifications that augment your skills and show you have both a deep and a broad knowledge base. Take advantage of informational interviews with professionals in your field as well as HR hiring managers to learn what certifications are in demand. Remember, certifications and degrees are never a substitute for documented hands-on experience.

Disclaimer: I hold the MTA in Database Administration Fundamentals and STI is a Certiport Authorized Testing Center delivering the MTA exam.

Security seems to be as we would expect. There is an instant meeting option that has a simple URL allowing anyone to join. The scheduled meetings allow the host to create a password and a unique URL is generated. The registration page is simple and clean. Participants don’t need to download anything special (but Flash is required).

MeetingBurner is certainly a challenger and from the way it looks fresh out of beta it is a product to keep an eye on. I’m looking forward to battle-testing this one and seeing where it is in a year. In particular, I’ll be looking for polls and white boards soon. At a starting price of free (15 participants) and a Pro version (50 participants) at $39.95/mo. it’s priced right for the small shop and the solopreneur.

Disclaimer: I received a free lifetime Pro account as part of the beta.

For simplicity most of our discussion will use Google as our search engine and Google’s Chrome browser. Most of the techniques I’ll be mentioning will work in most browsers and in most search engines. If fact, most of the techniques here can be used in tools like SharePoint and Outlook.

Let’s start by setting you up to do search. Here are the steps to set up your favorite browser. The first things to remember are that Google is not your browser and that your browser does not determine which search engine you use. These are completely separate things.

Internet Explorer

In IE the default search engine is, of course, Bing. Bing is Microsoft’s search engine which competes directly with Google’s search engine. To use the Bing search engine go to the word “Bing” in the search field in the upper right and type your search.

In order to use a different search engine you can go to that engine’s web site. In the screen shot at the left you can see that I’ve gone to google.com and I can use Google search from there. To use Google rather than Big as your default follow these steps.

1) Click on the triangle at the right side of the Bing search field.

2) Select “Find More Providers…”

3) Select your favorite search engine. Hover over the right side of the boxes to see more options.

4) Click on the search engine you want and select “Add to Internet Explorer”.

5) In the dialog select “Make this my default search provider” and leave the option for search suggestions checked.

6) You will now have both Google and Bing as options for search with Google as the default.

Google Chrome

One thing you will notice in Chrome is that there is no search field like there is in IE. That’s because you can type your search right in the Address field. Where is the address field? It is where you see www.google.com in the screenshot. Typing your question there and hitting enter will send you to the Google search results. Simple. There is no option for setting a different default search engine. If you want to use Bing or something else navigate to that engines web site.

Common Browsers include:

• Internet Explorer
• Chrome
• Safari
• Firefox
• Opera

Common search engines include:

• Bing
• Google
• Yahoo
• Baidu

Watch for additional posts in this series on Internet Search tips and tricks.