This is why I love doing Microsoft certifications!

Dear Azure and Microsoft 365 Friends,

Why do you actually take so many exams? What do you actually want to prove with them? These are two questions I am often asked. Let me answer these two questions (indirectly) in this article.

First, however, I ask a counter question. For example, when it comes to the topic of Microsoft Cloud, how do you keep up to date?! Aha!

That's where my passion for exams/certification comes from. Let's take the MS-500 (Microsoft 365 Certified Security Administrator Associate) certification as an example, let's take a look at the main topics for that:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/ms-500

1. Implement and manage identity and access
2. Implement and manage threat protection
3. Implementing and managing information protection
4. Managing governance and compliance functions in Microsoft 365.

Included in all of these main topics are quite a few services/features from the Microsoft Cloud. Sometimes brand new features, but mostly existing products (always renewed). This is exactly a way for me to always be up to date about Microsoft's products. Small example for each main topic point:

1. Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM).
2. Microsoft Defender for Office 365
3. Microsoft Cloud App Security
4. Microsoft 365 Security Center

I can take a closer look at all of these great features during exam prep and stay up to date. SO COOL!

Another example, last time in a customer project. It was about implementing more security in the Microsoft 365 environment. New policies against spam, malware, etc. Also, the organization wanted to make the administrator roles available only for a certain time. Exactly, that sounds like Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Privileged Identity Management (PIM). So I invested the time to get to know all these tools (ok, I am already familiar with these tools) in detail.

NOW BUT, if time has already been invested in these tools, why not expand the scope, with the rest of the topics from the MS-500 and top off what I've learned with a certification!!! This is exactly what I love to do!

So you see I don't want to prove anything to anyone.

I hope I could motivate you to take a certification soon! I wish you in any case, MUCH SUCCESS!!!

Kind regards, Tom Wechsler