Vmware Certified Design Expert… how to become one.

My employer wants me to obtain many certifications. Knowledge is beneficial for as well the customer, the employer as the employee. I try to focus on a limited number of expert area’s; mainly Virtualisation, Storage and networking and within these area’s on a limited number of products.

In regards to VMware it is quite hard to stand out and let potential customers see that you have a minimal certain level of expertise. There is the VCP certification (everybody has that) and of course you resume but that’s all… Most vendors like Microsoft, Citrix and Cisco offer multiple certification levels that state your lever of expertise. From basic administrator up to (design) expert / university grade knowledge. Yes I know, not all certified people have the knowledge they should have… but either they know the product or they know how to cheat ;-). To conquer the cheating the top level certifications include hands-on exams, mostly in front of an expert panel.

VMware announced a VMware Certified Design Expert exam somewhere June of 2008. A great opportunity to get certified on a higher level and let those customers see what we really can do. But the certification was not available yet. Not even the exams required to take where made really clear.

First you must fill-out a form on the VMware website asking whether you are e VCP, work at a partner, configured VMware in the wild, etc. When this was done you where allowed to enter the VCDX program… whatever that means… until this VMWorld Europe.

In a partner day session VMware showed the certification path that you need to take to become a Certified Design Expert. Here we go:

·        First you have to be a VCP and fulfill all the things that are known for quite a while now

·        Secondly you need to take the VMware Enterprise Administrator exam. This is available for a couple of months now but availability and exam locations are both limited.

·        The third step is the VMware Design Exam (not yet available, no course to follow)

·        And the last step; Submit, present and defend a successful design and deployment.

When you have completed all those exams you may call yourself a VCDX certified person… Quite a hassle to go through, but maybe.. just maybe VMware will fill-up the gap between the quite basic VCP and the (most likely) high level Design Expert certification when the new vSphere product range arrives. VMware also clearly stated that the VCDX certification is for architect level knowledge in enterprise environments, so not your every day thing

Last VMware stated that there is no “fit educational plan”. For the Enterprise Administrator it is recommended to follow the Deploy, Secure and Analyse course. For the design exam there is no educational preparation. You need real life hands-on experience to pass the exam. This of course also counts for the last step of the certification…

Good luck to all of you who are planning for the exam and let us hope it arrives in front of the next generation virtualization product from VMware, planned this year.

I hope to take them all the first half of the year.. and keep you up speed…

DUTCH: ooh in het Engels omdat misschien ook niet NL mensen dit wel een keer willen lezen.. je weet maar nooit…