Microsoft Windows NT Network Administration If you're buying garden gloves or an apron, one size can fit all. But your best business suit has to fit you like it fits no one else. That's because, while simple solutions are adequate for simple needs, your sophisticated needs generally require equally sophisticated solutions.
When Microsoft first introduced the Microsoft@ Windows NT@ operating system four years ago, it was managed in relatively simple network installations and a single, simple training course sufficed to educate IT professionals-who almost always had other, primary responsibilities-in its use. What a difference a few years can make. Today, Windows NT is the market-leading network operating system and the fastest-growing, as well. It has scaled up to support the enterprise needs of the largest corporations and, now, the new needs of intranets and the Internet.
With all this growth in the market for Windows NT, a single training course is no longer enough. At Microsoft, we build courses around specific job titles, to ensure that they're relevant for the professionals who will take them. Over the past few years, Windows NT has become important enough to most corporate users to warrant a specific, new job title: the Windows NT administrator. But those Windows NT administrators didn't have a Windows NT course just for them.
The self-study course you're holding in your hands responds to this need of Windows NT administrators. And Windows NT administrators have responded to it, in return. When the instructor-led version of this course was introduced in July, 1996, Windows NT administrators made it one of Microsoft's ten most popularcourses in just two months.
And no wonder. The only thing that's growing as fast as the market for Windows NT products is the market for trained professionals to manage them. Microsoft has boosted the population of IT professionals trained on Windows NT to more than 400,000 last year and the demand continues unabated. At the end of 1996, ComputerWorld rated Windows NT administration as the fifth-hottest skill for IT professionals.
Windows NT administrators have also flocked to this course because it teaches them exactly what they need to know to make the best decisions with Windows NT. Microsoft believes in customizing each of its courses with hands-on, relevant training geared to the specific, daily needs of a single job title. This course in Windows NT administration is no exception. Forget time-consuming histories of the computer industry or the development of Windows NT. The course starts with the information you need to be more effective-and to be seen as more effective by current or prospective managers, employers, customers, or clients. After just the first chapter, you'll understand the key differences between the two Windows NT products, the tools available to administer them, and the key components of the Windows NT network.
Our emphasis on providing practical, hands-on information to help you make the best decisions about implementing Windows NT has also led to another innovation: This course is our first to be integrated with best practices. Windows NT administrators want to know the options available to them, but they also want to know the best option for their specific circumstances. Best practices information meets this need, based on advice from the world's leading Windows NT administrators, developers, and solutions providers, as well as from Microsoft's own Windows NT team. What's the best way to ensure the security of user accounts and disk resources? To implement a plan for backing up files? To make file and print resources available to network users? Whatever your needs, you'll find best practices tips and checklists to meet them.
As a professional in technology education management, I'm delighted to have played a key role in spurring the creation of this path-breaking course. But my enthusiasm runs even deeper, because I began my career as an IT administrator. So, I know that this is the type of information that today's IT professionals need, presented in the way that they need it. Hundreds of thousands of IT professionals already agree. I hope that very soon, you will too.
Nancy Lewis
General Manager, Training and Certification Worldwide
February 7, 1997
Format: Paperback, 1st ed., 560 pages
