Last week VMware announced changes to the longevity of their certifications by placing expiration dates on them. Anyone who obtained a VCP prior to March 10, 2014 will now notice on their transcript that their VCP expires on March 10, 2015.
Before anyone panics (I know, too late) they also updated the options to recertify, which make the impact of expiration a bit less painful. From the announcement:
The new policy gives you three options to recertify:
1. Take the current exam for your existing VCP certification solution track. For example, if you are a VCP3, you could take the current VCP5-Data Center Virtualization (VCP5-DCV) exam.
2. Earn a new VCP certification in a different solution track. For example, if you are a VCP-Cloud, you could recertify by earning VCP5-Desktop (VCP5-DT) certification.
3. Advance to the next level by earning a VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) certification.
Here are a few thoughts on this:
1. Taking the current exam looks to mean that if you received what was formally known as VCP5 by passing the VCP510 exam, you’ll need to take the VCP550 exam before March 10, 2015 to stay current. I personally fall into this situation. Thankfully there are also alternatives.
2. The new policy appears to be a strong move to help encourage people to also become certified on a different track. This allows choice at the VCP level maintaining no additional course requirements.
3. The advanced level certifications from VMware, VCAPs, are not usually simple matter for the average VMware administrator. They require considerable experience and knowledge of the product(s). That being said, where would you prefer to put your certification energy? Branching out or moving up?
One thing that these three choices mean is that you’ll need to continually prepare for keeping your certifications up to date. Since this new policy isn’t terribly different than other certification policies it shouldn’t be a surprising conversation internally. You may want to go ahead and plan to update your annual objectives for next year’s review.
Regardless of which track you are more likely to choose the clock is officially ticking. No worries. The vBrownBag crew and community are here to help you on your certification journey. We’re always looking to expand our various certification preparation series with people like yourself. Let us know if you’d like to share content related to one of the certification blueprint sections.
Look for a survey in the coming week(s) to provide us some feedback on which recertification option you’re likely to follow so we can ensure we are delivering accordingly! Thanks for being a part of the vBrownBag community!
You can read the full VMware announcement at:
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=46667&ui=www_cert
the new Oracle is in Town!!
I expected as much coming from a chasing of Microsoft certs. I believe my wife must have called VMware because after I passed the VCA-Cloud, she asked “When will you start the next one?”. I understand their point but I don’t have to love it.
It may come down to $$$ for some people. As a VCP5, I can take the VCP-DT exam for free, but cannot take the VCP-Cloud for free. I could sit the VCP555 by March 10th 2015, but I know I can’t personally afford to go to the class for VCP-Cloud. So, for my money, taking the VCP-DT would be a horizontal cert that would keep me current and only cost the amount of the exam.
You bring up a good point Josh about VCAP, which of course would be vertical for me. Lucky for us, we have #vBrownbag for whatever path we take! Thanks for a great post!
Thanks for your comments Jay. I was going to provide a relatively lengthy response here but decided to turn it into a consumable post.
http://vbrownbag.comm/2014/03/vmware-re-certification-talking/
Thanks again for taking the time to comment and of course for following the #vBrownBag.
Yikes! It can’t be that bad can it?
“The advanced level certifications from VMware, VCAPs, are not usually simple matter for the average VMware administrator”
Sorry, not quite sure what you’re trying to point out here.
Are you saying that there should be an intermediate level cert first, or are you complaining that the advanced level is too advanced for someone working their way up through the certification track?
I am stating that the average VMware administrator may have difficulties pursuing those certifications without more preparation then they would have targeting a VCP update. Perhaps I could have been a little clearer and I apologize for any confusion.
The fact of the matter is that those exams are advanced and require a deeper understanding of the technology in order to pass them. Having taken both the DCA and DCD I feel that they are each certainly passable with preparation and appropriately challenging. The question is whether more people will start looking up the certification stack versus horizontally as a result of this policy. Going to be interesting to see for sure. Might write up a new post along these lines. Thanks for the comment.