More to @Taylor Huston's point I took the 300 exam while working in a Jira Cloud instance. I found the exam was more about your knowledge of Agile and Jira Software Projects agnostic from the platform that you are on Server, DC or Cloud.
I think one of the reasons why the ACP-400 ServiceDesk won't be offered is because Atlassian seems to plan a different roadmap for ServiceDesk. The new Service Desk has Insight included. So my guess is that the next certification will include many topics regarding asset management.
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When Atlassian stops selling Server licenses, some of our six Server credentials will become Data Center Certifications, with no action needed from you.
Tell me, could it be any less clear? What's that sentence supposed to mean? As before, we are only talking about two certifications, ACP-100 and ACP-600. Why just those by the way? The rest will be retired in 2024, won't it? Completely incomprehensibly, since DC would require exactly the same from the content of the tests.
If not, please enlighten us about the differences of being a JSD Administrator on a Server or DC instance.
We've updated this article with a table to explain it. Thank you for your patience while we prepared this information for you!
A piece we didn't include here is exactly how the Atlassian Certified Master requirements are being expanded to include new Cloud Certifications and the Project Administration in Jira Server (Data Center) Certification. Stay tuned for an update on our 2020 changes to this designation. In 2021, the Atlassian Certified Master credential will be changed again: we’ll have a new name, and new requirements to ensure you’ll have opportunities to keep or earn this elite status after the Server exams retire.
In 2021 and beyond, we'll be focused on bringing you new Data Center and Cloud credentials.
@Julia I have my ACP-CA exam scheduled for next Friday. How will these changes impact those who have an exam scheduled but not taken yet? Would you suggest cancelling that exam and taking another?
I was excited as the ACP-CA would have been my final exam for my Atlassian Certified Master status, but given these changes I am concerned.
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October 22, 2020 edited
Hi @Rodney Nissen - ReleaseTEAM , I’ll encourage you to take the exam! You’ll earn a Confluence credential that will be recognized for Data Center until 2 February 2024, as well as getting your ACM designation. The ACM path we have in place now will not change any time soon. We’ll just be adding a new path beside it, that includes the Cloud certs as additional choices. :)
This is much better news. The system admin one makes sense, and given all the negative feedback on the difficulty of Confluence, and the low pass-rates, this makes sense from a business standpoint.
I do have to say though, considering the low pass-rates, general perceived difficulty of the exam, and the fact that it's pretty much just a feature/UI based cert that still applies to DC completely, this one sucks to see go. I was sooooo proud of passing this on my first try. Glad I won't have to maintain it, but sad it's going away.
Thank you for the good news on the others. That at least gives us hope that Atlassian won't be killing DC come Feb 2024 like they are doing with server now.
@Julia, thank you for letting us know. That is much better. I am a bit confused about the Confluence cert, though.
It says that my Confluence server cert will be converted to Confluence Data Center cert, but that it will be retired in 2024 either way. Do I understand this correctly? It sounds to me like Confluence won't have a certification after that point (unless Atlassian wants to make a new one) anyway.
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October 23, 2020 edited
@Kamil Beer , at this time we just don't know what the credential plan will look like for Confluence going forward. You should plan for seeing that Certification retired in 2024, but anyone already Certified in Confluence would have an accelerated path for any new Confluence credentials that we build.
@Patricia Francezi Would you mind directing me to the community page where I can read about the latest requirements of certifications to achieve Atlassian Certified Master designation?
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November 2, 2020 edited
Hello @[deleted] , @Taranjeet Singh , @Patricia Francezi , you are correct, there is discrepant information on the web and we are not going to be able to correct it immediately.
Well I guess they will retire and a new one will come up. I'm guessing through a badge system or a bridge exam that only covers the basics + differences.
Imho, you can see that as just keeping an old certificate relevant/up to date.
AFAIK, ACP-SA is among toughest exam in Atlassian Certification.
Any ways to consider not retiring ACP-SA but provide badge to bridge with Data Center cert (like ACP-JSD & ACP-JSW)? Data Center is multi-nodes servers anyway, which System Admin will most likely work with.
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November 19, 2020 edited
Hi Zaiba, agreed, ACP-SA, Atlassian certified system administrator for Jira Server and Confluence Server, can be really difficult depending on one’s level of experience. One of the toughest prerequisites of this exam is several years of experience as a back end enterprise sys admin. We’ve had this exam out there for a few years and have found that it hasn’t really been all that beneficial for customers. We found that the credentials that help our customers most with their teams, their company ROI from Atlassian solutions, and the individuals’ career advancement are related to Jira administration, Jira project lead/project administration, and ITSM with Jira Service Management. That’s where we’ll be focusing in the near future.
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At risk of sounding like I'm jumping on the negativity bandwagon, retiring ACP-500 without a replacement is an absolutely terrible idea, ESPECIALLY with server retiring. This is the kind of knowledge that is ABSOLUTELY going to be needed in the future, not only to move people from Server to Cloud or DC, but also to maintain DC. It doesn't hurt to re-evaluate these retirement deadlines...
I don't have a certification yet. I wanted to do ACP-200 for Confluence early next year. What would you suggest I do instead? I don't see any Confluence Cloud option so far.
When you get any certification they are always good for about two years. While server versions are at end of life and you won't be able to take the exams for the server products after Feb. 2021, the certification would still be a viable option that would be valid before server hits end of life.
The Atlassian University team has also indicated that there will be more things coming in 20201 so the other option is to wait as see if a Cloud version shows up in the near future.
@[deleted], I have to concur with Jimmy. I just got my ACP-200, in spite of knowing what I do. The benefits of certification are real, and over the time-frame we are talking about, still perfectly valid. If you feel ready for the exam, go ahead and take it.
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I don't think the value of the ACP-200 cert, or any other server-based cert is in doubt. The issue is the accelerated deadline - the cut off for the exam should be 2022, at minimum. The need for these skills is not going away. Certifications should not be tied to sales of new licenses.
I don't disagree with you Rob. At the same time, we don't know what the Atlassian University team has planned for next year which might make more sense once they have announced the new changes.
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