As you may have heard, Microsoft has designed a new "Master"-level certification for IT pros who really need to specialize in a particular product, like Exchange, SQL Server or Windows Server. Microsoft's Per Farny, director of advanced training and certification, gave a rundown of the new certifications in a recent Webcast, a recording of which is available at this Microsoft blog. 

Farny promised that becoming a master will be “mentally and physically exhausting,” and it won’t be cheap, either. Candidates will have to pay $18,500 for three weeks of mandatory training, and will take three written tests and one qualification lab. Retakes of written tests will cost $250 each, and lab exam retakes will be $1,500.

It’s not the most expensive Microsoft exam. Candidates must shell out $25,000 for the Microsoft Certified Architect Technology program (MCA), for example. But with $18,500 on the line, you’ll want to think long and hard about whether you’re qualified for the master program and whether the career benefits make the expenditure of time and money worthwhile.

A Certified Master designation will be an attractive credential to many consulting companies, Farny said. These certifications identify IT pros with the deepest technical skills available on specific Microsoft products. “For those individuals who are the right audience for this, it is very valuable and they can recoup that cost very quickly,” he said.

Registration will open on or near Sept. 1 at this page. Early birds will get a special deal. The program fee will be cut in half for those who take advantage of the very first sessions, which take place in October and November.

Before we get to more details on the Certified Master program, there’s one more note on pricing that you may be interested in. Microsoft just announced a Second Shot offer, which gives you a chance to take an exam again for free if you fail the first time. More information can be found here. 

Back to the Master program, all candidates must have at least five years hands-on experience with the respective technology for each certification, specifically Exchange Server 2007, SQL Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 – Directory.

In addition to hands-on experience, each Master candidate must have a few specific certifications to qualify, the full list of which can be found here. 

Master candidates can expect long days of instruction, usually from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., followed by individual and group study each night.

“It really is mentally and physically exhausting. That’s no lie,” Farny said. Candidates in beta trials have consistently told Microsoft “I had no idea what I didn’t know.”

“It can be a humbling experience,” Farny said.

Exchange candidates will be met with a lab assignment in their first week requiring them to build a front-end and back-end architecture, including 10 virtual machines, two mailbox servers, two client access servers, two ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) servers, two domain controllers, one external SMTP host and one client machine.

Master training this year will only be available in Redmond, Wash. By July of next year it will be available in seven locations worldwide, three in the United States (possibly Dallas, Redmond and New York), two in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, and two more in the Asia-Pacific region.

The training and exams are in English only for now, because of limitations in the instruction pool. Microsoft hopes to train 500 masters by next year, and ultimately raise that number to 20,000, about 1% of the 2 million Microsoft-certified professionals.

In addition to the three certifications available this year, Microsoft is planning master tracks in Office Communications Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007.

More than 230 people attended Farny’s Webcast the morning of July 30, one of two sessions he hosted. Farny reassured listeners that the Microsoft Certified Architect series is not going away, and in fact will be re-tooled and perhaps “re-launched.”

But the four or five weeks required for the MCA program is a long time, and the MCA is not the appropriate certification for all candidates, Farny noted. While the Master certs validate purely technical skills, the architect certifications validate technical skills as well as leadership, business acumen and other so-called “soft” skills. The Master series was launched partly in response to feedback received about the Architect series, he said.

“The Master series is really positioned to be more of a niche certification for those individuals whose jobs allow them to specialize on a particular product,” Farny said.

I’d like to hear from you – anyone planning to get a Master certification? What types of IT pros should think about these new credentials? Feel free to post a comment below or send me an e-mail.

Jon Brodkin is senior writer at Network World.