For exam candidates, the 70-450: PRO: Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 certification exam counts as a credit towards the Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Database Administrator 2008 certification. In order to take the exam, candidates should have professional level knowledge of the SQL Server 2008. The most successful candidates will have at least three years of experience working as a database administrator. The 70-450 certification exam will test concepts related to designing, deploying, optimizing, maintaining, and supporting databases. For this reason, the successful candidate should be knowledgeable about design and technology considerations for the SQL Server 2008.

The ability to design a database is the primary skill that will be tested during the 70-450 exam. Successful candidates will be able to design a backup and recovery solution, as this counts for 20% of their exam. Exam participants will also be responsible for designing a SQL Server instance and database solution, a database server security solution, a database solution for high availability.