cbt planet recently announced their MCITP bootcamps for 2010. MCITP stands for Microsoft Certified IT Professional, and in good Microsoft tradition, it doesn’t stand for one certification, but rather a group of certifications. So we have (list taken from the Microsoft site):

• MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Administrator 7
• MCITP: Consumer Support Technician
• MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician
• MCITP: Enterprise Administrator
• MCITP: Server Administrator
• MCITP: Database Administrator 2008
• MCITP: Database Developer 2008
• MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2008
• MCITP: Database Administrator
• MCITP: Database Developer
• MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer
• MCITP: Enterprise Project Management with Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
• MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator

Again, as with other Microsoft exams, each certification is composed out of two to three exams. There is absolutely no overlap between the exams necessary for the different types of certifications, which is somewhat surprising to me (I’ve briefly looked at the MS certs for developers and I seem to remember that there is more overlap there – but it is possible that this is representative for certification structure for the IT part of MS).

From what I’ve seen on their site, CBT Planet focuses mainly on providing online, self-paced study possibilities, but it seems that they are trying to enter into the bootcamp market. As a general rule, I don’t see the value in bootcamps. The two exceptions would be: if you know that it is absolutely necessary for the job you are applying for or if your employer is paying for it (in which case it can be considered an almost – but – not – quite – vacation). From my experience (based on participations in a couple of certification programs – no bootcamps though), anyone somewhat familiar with the subject can pass the final exams. If you go to the bootcamp: good luck with the exam!

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).