Just got an email from Denny Lee in SQLCAT saying that i have just been certified as an Analysis Services Maestro.
Super happy as it was a great opportunity to learn from some of the best minds in Analysis Services in Redmond. In terms of benefits, apart from some kudos – I now get to harass the other Maestros globally with obscure questions. This is tremendously valuable, having a peer group to bounce ideas of, or just verify that you are doing the right thing is great. Especially when you are working in a small country without a large pool of peers. I chatted about this with Peter Harris recently with regard to the MCA and MCM programs, but until now had no one to chat with about Analysis Services.
You can read about the Maestro program here:
- http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/ssas-maestros.aspx
- http://sqlcat.com/sqlcat/b/msdnmirror/archive/2011/01/30/what-is-the-ssas-maestros.aspx
- http://www.powerpivotblog.nl/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-become-ssas-maestro
I can really recommend this level 500 program to anyone who is heavily into Analysis Services. Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari are now running some of the Maestro training courses outside of Redmond.
When I first heard about the Maestro programme from my friend Dirk Gubbels (who passed one of the early rotations), I was like a kid waiting for Christmas to come. Getting to spend a week to focus on going deeper into a product that you work with is so worthwhile. I could have worked on projects for 10 years and not acquired as much knowledge on Internals and VLDB best practices as spending a day on the Maestro program.
So what’s next on certifications ? well just in time for the 2012 stack to be released. Arghhhhh
