Microsoft Technology Associate

Microsoft Corporation Technician Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO), and subsequent rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires among Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions—their largest being the acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in December 2016,[7] followed by Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in May 2011.[8]

As of 2015, Microsoft is market-dominant in the IBM PC-compatible operating system market and the office software suite market, although it has lost the majority of the overall operating system market to Android.[9] The company also produces a wide range of other consumer and enterprise software for desktops and servers, including Internet search (with Bing), the digital services market (through MSN), mixed reality (HoloLens), cloud computing (Azure) and software development (Visual Studio).

Steve Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO in 2000, and later envisioned a "devices and services" strategy.[10] This began with the acquisition of Danger Inc. in 2008,[11] entering the personal computer production market for the first time in June 2012 with the launch of the Microsoft Surface line of tablet computers; and later forming Microsoft Mobile through the acquisition of Nokia's devices and services division. Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, the company has scaled back on hardware and has instead focused on cloud computing, a move that helped the company's shares reach its highest value since December 1999.[12][13] or MTA exams are exams that provide professional based certifications on Microsoft products and they provide the fundamentals for Databases (MSSQL Server), Development (Visual Studio) and IT Infrastructure (Windows, Windows Server).

Microsoft Customer Care :- 1-800-604-9149/1-877-817-1935.

Childhood friends Paul Allen and Bill Gates sought to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills in computer programming.[15] In 1972 they founded their first company, named Traf-O-Data, which sold a rudimentary computer to track and analyze automobile traffic data. While Gates enrolled at Harvard, Allen pursued a degree in computer science at Washington State University, though he later dropped out of school to work at Honeywell.[16] The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer,[17] which inspired Allen to suggest that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device. After a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didn't yet have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, it worked flawlessly when they (in March 1975) demonstrated the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico. MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC.[14]:108, 112–114 Gates and Allen officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO.[18] The original name of "Micro-Soft" was suggested by Allen.[19][20] In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, "ASCII Microsoft".[21] Microsoft moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979.[18]

Microsoft entered the operating system (OS) business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix.[22] However, it was MS-DOS that solidified the company's dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC).[23] For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, which it branded as MS-DOS, though IBM rebranded it to PC DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM had copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS's available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating systems vendor.[24][25]:210 The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as with a publishing division named Microsoft Press.[14]:232 Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkin's disease.

Active exam list

As of 2 August 2015, the active Microsoft Technology Associate exams are:

Exam Track	Exam Product	Exam Number	Exam Name	Status
IT	Windows Server 2008	98-365	Windows Server Administration Fundamentals	Live|No plans for retirement
IT	None	98-367	Security Fundamentals	Live|No plans for retirement
IT	None	98-366	Networking Fundamentals	Live|No plans for retirement
IT	None	98-368	Mobility and Device Fundamentals	Live|No plans for retirement
IT	None	98-369	Cloud Fundamentals	Live|No plans for retirement
Database	Microsoft SQL Server	98-364	Database Fundamentals	Live|No plans for retirement
Development	Visual Studio	98-361	Software Development Fundamentals	Live|No plans for retirement
Development	Visual Studio	98-375	HTML5 App Development Fundamentals	Live|No plans for retirement
Development	Visual Studio	98-379	Software Testing Fundamentals	Retired on July 31, 2016

Retired exam list

As of 2 August 2015, the retired Microsoft Technology Associate exams are:

Exam Track	Exam Product	Exam Number	Exam Name	Retirement Day
Development	Visual Studio	98-373	Mobile Development Fundamentals	31 July 2014
Development	Visual Studio	98-362	Windows Development Fundamentals	31 July 2014
Development	Visual Studio	98-363	Web Development Fundamentals	31 July 2015
Development	Visual Studio	98-372	.NET Fundamentals	31 July 2015
Development	Visual Studio	98-374	Gaming Development Fundamentals	31 July 2015
IT	Windows	98-349	Windows Operating System Fundamentals	31 July 2015

Exam availability

The Microsoft Technology Associate exams can be scheduled with two exam providers:

• Certiport for students, educators and schools
• Pearson VUE for people who are still interested in technology and want to give this exam

There are multiple differences about scheduling an exam with Certiport or Pearson VUE such as:

• In Pearson VUE, you need to have two identification documents while in Certiport, you need to have only one
• In Pearson VUE, they take a photo of you and they want a digital signature while in Certiport you don't have to do it
• Outside the United States, there is a restriction with voucher availability in some countries. For example, the Greek Authorized Partner of Certiport can give vouchers only to testing centers and not to candidates while in Pearson VUE you can purchase the voucher online via VUE's site.
• In Pearson VUE testing centers, there are testing days and hours very often while in Certiport, there is one exam datetime per 15 days.

Pricing

The exam pricing as of 10 July 2015 via Pearson VUE is:

Country/Currency	Commercial Price	Academic Price
Greece/Euro	€84.89	€65.19
Italy/Euro	€150	€150
United States/United States Dollar

Payment options

Pearson VUE

Candidates can schedule their exam through Microsoft Learning site when they are redirected to Pearson VUE site to complete their transaction.

Pearson VUE acceptable cards are MasterCard, Visa, American Express and JCB.

Certiport

The Certiport exam payment options vary by country.

The only exception is US, where candidates can purchase the voucher through Certiport's store.