Microsoft is ramping up a new line of virtualization certifications to go hand-in-hand with its release of the Hyper-V server virtualization technology.

The Windows Server Virtualization exam is now available, while in mid-December an exam for System Center Virtual Machine Manager will be released.

Both of these exams are for the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist designation, validating technical skills related to installing and optimizing virtualization technology. A third, professional-level, exam will be announced in January and will validate bigger-picture skills, testing a candidate’s ability to think about virtualization and its broad impact across the enterprise. Essentially, the technology specialist exams cover how to do something while professional-level tests focus on why.

“The professional exam at a high level is going to focus on why to do something in the virtualization space and when to do it,” says Jim Clark, Microsoft’s senior product planner for certifications.

The already-available Windows Server Virtualization exam primarily tests knowledge of Hyper-V, specifically installing Hyper-V, configuration and optimization, deployment of virtual machines, and managing and monitoring virtual machines.

The upcoming Virtual Machine Manager exam will be wide-ranging, like the product itself. Virtual Machine Manager is capable of managing Hyper-V, VMware’s hypervisor and other virtualization tools, and the exam will cover the management of VMware along with basic VMM tasks like installation, administration, configuration, and patches, Clark says.

The professional-level exam to be announced in January will focus heavily on design as well as interoperability between different hypervisors and different operating systems.

IT pros with virtualization skills are in high demand, as we noted in a recent newsletter. Driven largely by VMware’s popular x86 server virtualization products, virtualization is reaching further into the data center, creating opportunities for technology workers who are expert in the technology.

Microsoft’s entry into the market with Hyper-V, a free hypervisor, is likely to accelerate this trend. The economy’s downward spiral may also contribute to the importance of virtualization skills, because the technology potentially cuts cost by making better use of computing resources, Clark notes. “Virtualization is all about cost of ownership,” he says.