Tuesday 23 July 2013

The Circle is Complete

The line-up of VMware certifications is now complete, and standardised across 3 distinct disciplines:

- Data Center Virtualisation (DCV) - focused on vSphere
- Desktop (DT) - focused on View with vSphere
- Cloud - focused on vCloud Director with vSphere

Certification levels
Each discipline has 3 levels of certification:

- VCP - Professional
- VCAP - Advanced Professional
- VCDX - Design Expert

VCAP tracks
The VCAP level for each discipline has 2 standard tracks:

- Administration
- Design

There is a third VCAP certification for the Cloud discipline - Cloud Governance.

Requirements
Now the line-up is complete, VMware have also adopted a new principle for each level in terms of requirements:

- VCP - training requirement in that discipline, or VCP in other disciplines
- VCAP - VCP requirement in any discipline
- VCDX - VCP requirement in any discipline plus the VCAPs in that discipline

Bridging exams for VCP5-DCV holders
Something else that's now standardised for VCP5-DCV holders is the ability to take a "bridging" exam to achieve the VCP in other disciplines:

VCP-Cloud certification 
- VCP5-DCV holders can do the IaaS exam which only tests on vCD 
- Those that don't hold VCP5-DCV must do the VCP-Cloud exam which tests on vSphere and vCD 

VCP-DT certification 
- VCP5-DCV holders can do the View exam which only test on View 
Those that don't hold VCP5-DCV must do the VCP-Desktop exam which tests on vSphere and View

More information
The full set of requirements for each individual certification and the latest information can be found at http://www.vmware.com/certification

VMware Certifications - Registration process and candidate IDs

Wow, it's been a long time since I blogged! Has the world survived without me? Sure it has! :-)

VMware have changed the registration process for all their certification exams to require validation of the relevant pre-requisites before a candidate is authorised to register for an exam.

This was done previously for VCAP-level exams to ensure the candidate was a VCP, and for VCDX too, but now it also applies to VCP-level exams.

So, to book any VMware certification exam, start at http://www.vmware.com/certification - head to the page for the exam you want to book and click the large "Register for the exam" box towards the top of the page.

This does change one fundamental thing - you now have to have completed any pre-requisite training before you can register for the exam. Previously, you'd be awarded the certification if you did the training and exam the "wrong way round", but going forward you won't be able to register for the exam until the training requirement has been met.

The other effect of changing this process is that the certification system at VMware and the exam registration system at PearsonVUE now need tighter integration, the result of this is that every candidate needs a new ID that both systems recognise.

Existing VMware candidates have been emailed this week with their new ID, recognised at http://www.vmware.com/certification and http://wwwpearsonvue.com/vmware

For more information about these changes have a look at this FAQ page