As a veteran SharePoint professional consultant, trainer and SharePoint Certified Master, a large percentage of my professional time is spent mentoring developers and administrators in classrooms, boardrooms and cubicles.

If you were to ask me for the core set of knowledge needed to get started with managing a SharePoint deployment, it would be close to matching the outline for 10174 - Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010. While this course will only introduce you to some of the more complex areas of SharePoint Administration, it is an excellent starting point for someone involved with planning and preparing an upgrade from SharePoint 2007, or tasked with new administration responsabilities on SharePoint 2010.

As a new Administrator on SharePoint 2010, what would I want to learn?

  • How does it work? What does it do?
  • How do I get it setup?
  • How do I secure it?
  • How do I keep it running?

The course provides a broad set of modules that introduces the student to answers to all of these questions including a basic understanding of the SharePoint 2010 platform architecture, security fundamentals, hands-on configuration of the essential service applications such as Search, User Profiles, Managed Metadata, and the Office Web Applications, and the operational essentials of health and performance monitoring, and disaster recovery.

There are a lot of choices in training these days, and a lot of excellent books and videos - why this course? There are a number of advantages to this course that make it ideal for someone just getting started with SharePoint 2010:

  • Good Teachers Matter: When getting started with a platform as full-featured as Microsoft SharePoint 2010, live instruction from an expert will help enhance comprehension, provide an opportunity to personalize the learning experience, and supplement the course materials with an understanding of how to apply the knowledge to your organizations specific requirements. While self-service materials can and should play an important part in your individual learning program, ILT is the best way to get started and hit the ground running.
  • Certification: The module topics and hands-on labs have been selected to prepare you for Exam 70-667 on your path to certification as an MCTS and MCITP. Certification is an important process for proving your value to organizations, and IT salary surveys continue to show that certified professionals command higher salaries.

For more technical guidance on my experience with SharePoint, you can find my blog at http://blog.sharepointbits.com.