Tuesday 21 July 2009

Effect of vSphere 4 Release on VCDX

I swapped emails with Jon Hall this evening, Jon is a Technical Certification Developer at VMware - in other words, he's the guys that writes the VCP and VCDX exams!

I asked Jon what the implications are on VCDX on the release of vSphere 4, and this was his reply:

"Just as we have announced a new exam and an upgrade path for existing VCP on VI3s who want to upgrade to VCP on vSphere 4, we intend to announce new exams and an upgrade path for the VCDX certification. As the VCP on vSphere 4 exam has just completed beta, it will be later this year before you could expect an Enterprise Administration on vSphere 4 Exam or a Design on vSphere 4 Exam. Only after those exams are available would we announce the upgrade path for existing VCDXs."

It's exactly what I was expecting to hear, but it's great to actually hear it.

I think the big questions is going to be "Is it worth doing the VCDX on VI3?" - well I think it is. To me, the VCDX is such a high-level certification for anyone to hold, that the version you hold it in is a lot less important than it is for the VCP.

It remains to be seen exactly what the upgrade process will be for VCDX, but if you compare it to other higher-level vendor certifications like MCSE (or MCITP as it is now) then some sort of single-exam upgrade process would be good to see.

Watch this space....
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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous28 July 2009 at 09:35

    You probably are right in saying that the vcdx is a high-level cerfication but it's not a free EXAM, is it ? and I don't see the point of passing an Exam I already know will be obsolete in few months time. I would rather keep the money for the new Exam.


    Alfio

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  2. Scott Vessey28 July 2009 at 09:44

    Hi Alfio,

    The VCDX is the highest-level certification that VMware will ever offer, they only expect 300-500 people to obtain it worldwide. Anyone who does achieve VCDX status will have followed a long path, and be in a very elite group, so I believe that the version of VCDX (VI3 or VS4) will be significantly less important than it is for VCP - there are over 30000 VCPs out there already.

    In this period of transition from VI3 to VS4, everyone can make their own decision and have their own opinion as to what is best for them. I personally can't see VCDX on VI3 as being obsolete in a few months time, for the reasons that I mention above. VCDX on VI3 will still demonstrate significantly more to a partner, customer, or employer, than VCP on VS4, for example.

    Scott.

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  3. Anonymous9 August 2009 at 22:35

    I do not see the VI3 exams becoming obsolete in a few months time. The same thing happened years ago when MS introduced MCSE 2000. Everyone who had jumped on the certification bandwagon put their studying on hold until the exams were finalized. It has now been 4 or 5 years since the release of Windows 2003 and there are a lot of companies out there still running Windows NT 4.0.

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  4. Anonymous29 September 2009 at 04:21

    Hi Scott,

    I just passed my VCP4 exam a couple days ago. That is after being VCP2, VCP3 and now VCP4. I am also looking forward to the VCDX certification and am waiting on the vSphere exams. I am not saying that VCDX on 3.x is a bad idea, but how would you be able to even study for the older exams when you already know about all the features released with vSphere? I really hope they release the vSphere Enterprise and Design exams by the end of 2009. Thanks for your post.

    Richie

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  5. Scott Vessey1 October 2009 at 09:05

    Hi Richie,

    Well done on getting your VCP4! I still see VCDX3 as a valid thing to do - as there are still less than 30 VCDX's worldwide at the minute I doubt many folk who might care about it would mind that it was based on VI3. A VCDX has still shown an incredible level of skill and knowledge of virtualization technology, as well as showing to VMware that they can create an entire virtualization design, and defend it too. There are an ever-increasing number of study notes/guides/tips for the components of VCDX3 out there. I would be pleasantly amazed if we see vSphere versions of the Enterprise and Design exams that soon - I would speculate on Q1 2010 and Q2 2010 respectively. Best of luck!

    Scott.

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  6. Unknown27 October 2009 at 13:09

    Hi,

    I've told I'm going to be able to book my VCDX Admin exam in a few weeks time. I'm happy doing VI3 then upgrade next year however for my defence I want to use a vSphere server consolidation project...is this possible??

    Thanks
    Peter

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  7. Scott Vessey27 October 2009 at 22:39

    Hi Peter,

    Yes this is absolutely possible. Be prepared to defend your design as a vSphere design though....

    Scott.

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