VCP/VCAP infographics, updates on courses and exams

Where are all the VCPs and VCAPs?

VMware have created 2020 infographics showing the spread of VCP and VCAP holders around the world.

Read this blog post to access the data.

New courses and exams in May 2020

VMware released 8 new courses and 1 new exam last month, check this blog post for details.

Latest VMware Learning Zone content

As mentioned in a previous blog post, the Premium subscription for VMware Learning Zone is now free for 6 months thanks to a special promition.

This blog post from VMware highlights the latest content in VLZ.

Spring 2020 Update

Wow, the world has changed a LOT over the last few months! I hope you're all keeping safe and well during these incredible times...

VMware have been excellent in their response - lots of additional support for employees, contributions to charities, and unlike some in the market we are still hiring!

While it may be harder in some ways to work when offices are closed, the Education Services team at VMware seem to be creating just as much training and exam content, and are being creative in delivery and accessibility - the posts below give more detail...

VMware Learning Zone - Premium Subscription now FREE for 6 months
The Premium Subscription is usually a paid-for service, and includes a LOT of additional content which is not available with the Basic Subscription (which already offers 1300+ videos for free)

Find out more about this offer here.

Remote Exam Testing
Proctored exams that you usually HAVE to take at a Pearson VUE testing centre, such as those required for VCP and VCAP certifications, can now be taken from home or another private location.

Learn more here.

vSphere 7 Training
vSphere 7 was announced in early March, and made available for download a few weeks later - the full set of training courses was released at the same time as the software.

Read more here.

March and April Course Announcements
VMware released 16 new courses in March and another 8 in April!

March announcements

April announcements

Promotions and Special Offers
In addition to the VLZ Premium offer mentioned above, there are other global and region-specific promotions - discounts, free exam vouchers, and more...

All official promotions are kept together onto a dedicated page:

Bookmark this page.

Remote Exam Testing for Proctored Exams

VMware have announced that remote testing will be available for "proctored" exams such as the VCP exams from April 20th.

Proctored exams previously HAD to be physically taken at a PearsonVUE testing centre, but with many countries in some state of lockdown due to COVID-19 this change has been made such that you can now take your VCP exam from any location.

This uses the OnVUE functionality, and will be a permanent arrangement - a great benefit to those of you who have always had to travel to a testing centre.

Learn more about this new option here: https://blogs.vmware.com/education/2020/04/16/remote-exam-testing-is-here/

vSphere 7 Training

With the release of vSphere 7, VMware Education have already announced and the full set of official training for their flagship virtual infrastructure platform.

I remember the times when new courses would only be made available 6-8 weeks after the software was made available for download, this time around it looks like the training will release almost simultaneously!

Here's the full range of vSphere 7 courses:

• Install Configure Manage
• What's New (from 6.7)
• Optimize and Scale
• Troubleshooting
• Design
• Fast Track

Plus there's a new course on vSphere with Kubernetes - Deploy and Manage

To review the content and delivery options for all of the above, and to watch overview recordings, read this blog announcement.

I would expect to see VCP exams based on vSphere 7 soon, moving then up the certification stack to VCAP and eventually VCDX submissions and defences.

VCP-NV 2020 - vSphere Foundations or not?

As the VCP-NV requirements were updated for 2020, one thing I noticed was that they were slightly different between the NSX-V path and the NSX-T path - one of them requires a pass on the vSphere Foundations exam but the other does not.

NSX-V works with vSphere, therefore the VCP-NV 2020 that includes the NSX-V exam also requires that you pass the vSphere Foundations exam:

https://www.vmware.com/it/education-services/certification/vcp-nv.html 

As NSX-T does not require vSphere in order to be deployed, the VCP-NV 2020 that includes the NSX-T exam does NOT require that you pass the vSphere Foundations exam:

https://www.vmware.com/education-services/certification/vcp-nv-nsxt.html

Completing either set of requirements will give you the same certification.

This is regardless of whether you are Cisco certified or not - the only difference with being Cisco certified is whether you have to attend NSX training.

A useful thing to know...

Winter 2019/20 Update

Well it's been a while since I posted an article, there's a lot been going on in the world of VMware certification in that time!

Let's give you a brief overview of the main news:

2020 Certifications and Badges
As you know, VMware certifications are titled as per the calendar year in which you completed the requirements - so as we moved into 2020 the titles and requirements were refreshed.

Upgrade Paths
Clarification on the processes for upgrading VCPs to the latest version.

Exam Prep courses and DCV help in VMware Learning Zone (VLZ)
VLZ is a subscription-based video training library that gives official content on many VMware technologies, and now includes exam prep content for certain VCP, VCAP, and Specialist exams

Take a look at the VLZ Exam Prep.

There's also a dedicated community forum in VLZ for the VCP-DCV exams.

Benefits and Rewards
A reminder in this blog post of the rewards and benefits of gaining a VMware certification.

Workspace ONE Digital Badges
Three new digital badges were launched for Workspace ONE - here's the blog post with all the info and links.

And some administrative tips too:

How to Purchase Training and Exams
Guidance in this blog post on the various training options available, and how to register for an exam.

Certifications and Digital Badges
Learn about the difference between certifications and digital badges, and how they complement one another, in this blog post.

How to Claim and Display Digital Badges
A blog post on showing off any digital badges that you've earned.

Multiple myLearn Profiles
myLearn is the back-end system used by the VMware Certification team to track training and certification status - but they're associated with an email address. Learn here about how you can have multiple accounts merged.

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...