VMware are about to release the first full hands-on training course for vCloud Director, and the first instructor-led course for vCloud Director 1.5 - VMware vCloud: Deploy and Manage the VMware Cloud [v1.5]
It's a 4-day training course aimed at those who hold VCP4 or VCP5 or have the equivalent level of skills/knowledge. This is very much a hands-on course, there are 21 hands-on labs that take up an estimated 60% of the course time!
The course labs cover the installation and configuration of vCloud Director components, networking and network pools, provider vDCs, organisations, and vApps. There are also labs on monitoring, vShield, VPNs and routing, security roles, LDAP, and vCloud resources.
Delivery of this new course begins in April 2012, initially at least the course will only be delivered by VCIs who hold VCP and VCAP-DCA certifications and have good experience of working with vCloud Director.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Pastures new...
It's all change for me during the next week - after 3+ years I'm leaving Global Knowledge to take up a position at VMware.
I've worked in technical training/education for 15 years now, most of the roles I've had in that time have been as a full-time trainer, although over the last 4 years I've deliberately spent less time in the classroom. In 2008 I ran the virtualisation training team at Magirus where I managed the day-to-day operational side of training delivery, and in my time with Global Knowledge I've been involved in activities and projects covering all elements of being a growing and successful training partner for VMware products.
So what am I going to be doing?
My new role at VMware is Field Enablement Specialist - I will be designing and managing the technical education and enablement programs for the 400+ customer-facing technical staff within VMware across the EMEA region. The role gives me get an opportunity to take myself in a new direction whilst bringing my technical and personal skills/experience with me.
And what about the blog?
Well it's "business as usual" as far as my online/networking activities are concerned - I have every intention in continuing the work I do in those areas - I need to have a good understanding of what matters to technical people within VMware as well as those working in virtualisation outside the company.
I do feel a little sad to be moving away from a trainer/instructor role, but this is a great opportunity for me - I'm going to be working with a great team of people, and I'm really looking forward to getting started!
I've worked in technical training/education for 15 years now, most of the roles I've had in that time have been as a full-time trainer, although over the last 4 years I've deliberately spent less time in the classroom. In 2008 I ran the virtualisation training team at Magirus where I managed the day-to-day operational side of training delivery, and in my time with Global Knowledge I've been involved in activities and projects covering all elements of being a growing and successful training partner for VMware products.
So what am I going to be doing?
My new role at VMware is Field Enablement Specialist - I will be designing and managing the technical education and enablement programs for the 400+ customer-facing technical staff within VMware across the EMEA region. The role gives me get an opportunity to take myself in a new direction whilst bringing my technical and personal skills/experience with me.
And what about the blog?
Well it's "business as usual" as far as my online/networking activities are concerned - I have every intention in continuing the work I do in those areas - I need to have a good understanding of what matters to technical people within VMware as well as those working in virtualisation outside the company.
I do feel a little sad to be moving away from a trainer/instructor role, but this is a great opportunity for me - I'm going to be working with a great team of people, and I'm really looking forward to getting started!
Friday, 9 March 2012
About Me
Scott Vessey
VMware Certified Professional 2/3/4/5 (VCP)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional 4 - Datacenter Administration (VCAP-DCA)VMware Certified Instructor (VCI)
VMware vExpert 2010/2011
I joined VMware in March 2012 as a Field Enablement Specialist - my role is to design and manage the technical education and enablement programs for the 400+ customer-facing VMware technical staff across the EMEA region.
I have worked intimately with VMware virtualisation products and technologies since 2006, when I also gained my initial VCP and VCI certifications. Prior to joining VMware I worked as the Lead Virtualisation Instructor for Global Knowledge, and before that I was the Training Operations Manager for the virtualisation training team at Magirus.
I am the major contributor to the official VMware Training & Certifcation community forums and I also contribute to other certification-related forums. As well as this blog I can also be found on Twitter and LinkedIn where I also run a group related to VMware training and certification.
Feel free to send me an email if there's anything related to VMware training and certification that you think I might be able to help you with - vmtraining.blog@gmail.com
Please note that any opinion expressed on this blog is mine personally, and not that of VMware.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Current paths to VCP5 - March 2012
VMware launched the VCP5 certification exam on August 29th 2011, and they had given VCP3 and VCP4 holders a 6-month window in which they could update to VCP5 with little or no training requirement.
As of March 1st 2012, that window closed, meaning that from this point forward these are the paths to achieve VCP5:
Note that if you are a VCP2 or VCP3 holder that certification now doesn't qualify you for any form of VCP "upgrade" and you must take a full 5-day vSphere 5 training course.
VCP4 holders have the option of attending just the 2-day What's New training course, they can also take the 5-day courses if they wish but shouldn't need to do that unless they want a refresher of some of the fundamental vSphere features. The same applies to those who have attended training that would qualify them for VCP4 certification but have yet to take the VCP4 exam.
As of March 1st 2012, that window closed, meaning that from this point forward these are the paths to achieve VCP5:
Note that if you are a VCP2 or VCP3 holder that certification now doesn't qualify you for any form of VCP "upgrade" and you must take a full 5-day vSphere 5 training course.
VCP4 holders have the option of attending just the 2-day What's New training course, they can also take the 5-day courses if they wish but shouldn't need to do that unless they want a refresher of some of the fundamental vSphere features. The same applies to those who have attended training that would qualify them for VCP4 certification but have yet to take the VCP4 exam.
Monday, 27 February 2012
vSphere-land top bloggers - thanks!
Eric Siebert over at vSphere-land runs a poll on a regular basis for the top virtualization blogs, so you are reading what is unofficially the 64th best virtualization blog in the world!
It's always an honour to get praise such as that for the work that gets put in writing and maintaining the work done for the VMware community, I've been a vExpert for the last 2 years, and it's things like these that make it all worthwhile!
For the first time Eric also had specialist votes in certain categories, so here's the full placings for my blog:
64th in the Top Virtualization Blogs overall
4th in the Favourite News/Information Website category
17th in the Favourite Independent Blogger category
Here's the full results: http://vsphere-land.com/news/top-blog-2012-results.html
I'd like to say a huge THANKS to all those who took the time to vote for my blog!
It's always an honour to get praise such as that for the work that gets put in writing and maintaining the work done for the VMware community, I've been a vExpert for the last 2 years, and it's things like these that make it all worthwhile!
For the first time Eric also had specialist votes in certain categories, so here's the full placings for my blog:
64th in the Top Virtualization Blogs overall
4th in the Favourite News/Information Website category
17th in the Favourite Independent Blogger category
Here's the full results: http://vsphere-land.com/news/top-blog-2012-results.html
I'd like to say a huge THANKS to all those who took the time to vote for my blog!
Monday, 20 February 2012
VCAP5-DCD - now in beta!
A week or so ago VMware emailed all the current VCAP4-DCD holders inviting them to book their beta version of the VCAP5-DCD exam - this is the first sign of any of the advanced-level certifications for vSphere 5.
The invitation email also included the beta version of the exam blueprint, unless VMware change things drastically between the beta and final versions of the exam it looks as though the format, scoring and objectives remain the same as they were for VCAP4-DCD - although the exam content will have been updated for vSphere 5 of course!
The beta period runs for the next couple of weeks, it's normally then a 4-6 week period til the final version of the exam becomes available. There's no news as yet to report about VCAP5-DCA before anyone asks!
As and when I find them, I'll add links below with the experiences of those who take the exam:
Mike Brown
Jason Boche
Dave Convery
Tom Fojta
The invitation email also included the beta version of the exam blueprint, unless VMware change things drastically between the beta and final versions of the exam it looks as though the format, scoring and objectives remain the same as they were for VCAP4-DCD - although the exam content will have been updated for vSphere 5 of course!
The beta period runs for the next couple of weeks, it's normally then a 4-6 week period til the final version of the exam becomes available. There's no news as yet to report about VCAP5-DCA before anyone asks!
As and when I find them, I'll add links below with the experiences of those who take the exam:
Mike Brown
Jason Boche
Dave Convery
Tom Fojta
New email address
I've finally got round to doing something I should have done when I first created this blog - I have a new email account dedicated to my activities around VMware training and certification:
vmtraining.blog@gmail.com
I'm using this email address from this point forward as my primary address for this blog, and for my Twitter account, I've also updated the link in the "Contact Me" section to the top-right of all my blog pages.
vmtraining.blog@gmail.com
I'm using this email address from this point forward as my primary address for this blog, and for my Twitter account, I've also updated the link in the "Contact Me" section to the top-right of all my blog pages.
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