Friday 9 August 2019

New Digital Badges on vRealize, vSAN, and VMware Cloud on AWS

VMware have released 4 new "digital badges" - their specialist accreditations for those technologies that don't have dedicated certification tracks - each of which has it's own specific requirements:

VMware Specialist - vRealize Operations 2019
You'll need a current VCP, and to pass a dedicated exam on vRealize Operations 7.5

VMware vRealize Operations – Cloud Management Automation 2019
This is the baby sibling of the specialist badge above - the exam to pass is the same, but there's no VCP requirement

VMware Specialist – vSAN 2019
You'll need to hold a VCP in Data Center Virtualisation (DCV) based on vSphere 6.0 or later, and to pass a dedicated exam on vSAN 6.7

Master Specialist – VMware Cloud on AWS 2019
This one is for VMware partners - most likely those that offer services around VMware Cloud on AWS, and the bar is set high!

As well as holding VCP-NV 2019, you will also need to complete some on-demand training and a workshop, and pass a dedicated exam - phew!

Best of luck if you decide to follow any of the above paths...

Friday 2 August 2019

Summer 2019 Update - New courses, Exam prep, Brain dumps, and more!

Summer is here (in the UK) and there's plenty of activity from the VMware Education and Certification teams to update you on - so here goes...

VCP-NV 2019 and NSX-T
VCP-NV 2019 now offers distinct options for those working on NSX-V or NSX-T - with the launch of a VCP exam for NSX-T 2.4.

You can find the relevant training and exam requirements on this NSX-V page and on this NSX-T page.

8 new courses, with 3 more coming soon!
The new courses cover these technologies:

Workspace ONE
NSX-T
vSAN with Horizon
vSphere
vRealize Automation
vRealize Operations with vSAN integration -

The courses offer a mix of instructor-led and on-demand delivery/consumption options.

Coming soon is a new course on VMware Cloud on AWS, plus on-demand versions of popular Site Recovery Manager and vRealize Automation courses.

Learn more about each new course on this blog page.

Exams and certifications will now have names AND versions
Historically, VMware exams and certifications were tied to product versions, then from around the middle of 2018 we had certifications based on the calendar year

Now it seems we will have both - so you can demonstrate WHEN and on WHAT you validated your expertise. More on this blog page.

Brain dumps are BAD!
OK, so this isn't exactly news - but is often something I've been asked about.

My stance has always been: Created by cheats, used by cheats

Here is VMware's view on brain dumps and how they work to combat them.

VMware Learning Zone exam prep
In case you've not heard of it, VMware Learning Zone is the home of official video-based learning content - offered to customers on a subscription basis - VMware Education's very own Netflix!

In addition to the hundreds of technical product videos, there are some specialist exam prep videos to help people with VCP and VCAP exams.

Head to VMware Learning Zone to check them out.

That's all for now folks - have a great summer!

Friday 26 April 2019

Spring 2019 Update - Exam retirements and non-exam upgrade paths

A couple of updates from VMware for Spring 2019...

Exam Retirements
On April 10th, VMware announced the retirement of 13 exams - all of which will no longer be available to take after August 30th, so if you are working towards them already you should have time to complete your preparations and get them done in time.

The exams themselves relate to a variety VCP and VCAP certifications, based on these older products:

vSphere 6.0
vSphere 6.5
vRealize Automation 6.x
Horizon 6.0
Horizon 7.5

All of the retiring exams already have an equivalent exam/certification based on current software versions.

Check this blog post for the full list of retiring exams.

Upgrades Without Exams
Another recent change was the ability to upgrade an older version certification to a newer version by taking training only - no exams required!

As an example, let's say you took the vSphere 6.5 Install Configure Manage class and passed the 2 exams to achieve the VCP6.5-DCV certification - now if you complete an advanced training class on vSphere 6.7 (such as the Troubleshooting Workshop) you would be awarded the VCP-DCV 2019 certification.

I think this is a nice simple benefit if you were taking the training anyway - it's cheaper to upgrade by passing an exam, but now there might not be a need for you to do that at all.

For further information, have a read of this blog post.

Tuesday 5 February 2019

Recertification is GONE!

VMware have removed their recertification policy for VCP, with immediate effect.

The policy had meant that you had to recertify every 2 years (by achieving another VCP or VCAP), or your certifications would expire.

Given the switch at the start of this year to annual certification updates, meaning that VCPs are associated with a calendar year, I think it makes perfect sense to drop recertification.

You demonstrate the relevance of your certification by it's title - which defines which solution area you are skilled in, and in which year you completed the requirements.

Using VCP-DCV 2019 as an example, you know this is someone who has the latest professional certification in the vSphere platform.

If you have had VCPs expire while the recertification policy has been in place, you might have them "un-expired" too.

Check the announcement here, there's also a video and FAQ on this policy change.

Friday 4 January 2019

VCP 2019 Updates

It's January - time for the new 2019 versions of each of the VCPs to be defined - so here goes!

From January 16th, each of the existing version VCP exams will be available with a new code - passing one (and meeting all other requirements) will achieve the 2019 VCP.

Exams will also be released for the latest versions of each of the main products for each of the VCPs:

January 24th
vSphere 6.7 exam for VCP-DCV 2019

February 28th
Horizon 7.6 exam for VCP-DTM 2019
Workspace ONE exam for VCP-DW 2019

Q1
NSX-V 6.4 exam for VCP-NV 2019

H1
NSX-T exam for VCP-NV 2019
vRA 7.5 exam for VCP-CMA 2019

Like any period where major changes are made, the initial release and transition can be a little confusing - check this blog post for the official announcement.