I hear a lot of people complaining about ever changing names of VMware products. All the vCenter-centric products got renamed to vCloud and then to vRealize and the same might continue to happen in the upcoming versions.
vSphere 6.0 was not the only new highlight of yesterday’s announcements. VMware has set the stage to revamp their certifications into a more matured and organised certification tracks(Not that the previous one wasn’t matured and organised before, but this one’s better). Keeping their SDDC in mind, the new certification roadmap aims to map the skills of IT professionals to their exact area of expertise and helps them decide what path they need to take to reach their goal.
Before we get into the details of the changes that have been made and the new certifications that have been introduced, lets take a look at the new certification roadmap for 2015.
Source : VMware Certification Portal
As one can easily notice the VCAPs are now merged into a single exam called VMware Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX). This VCIX level will still comprise of two separate exams focused on implementation and design. The exam duration has been reduced from 4 to 2 hours. This is because the exam topics focus more on newer topics and will not include the topics from prior exams.
The Cloud track is renamed as Cloud Management and Automation (CMA) which is more apt as it specifically involves the integration and automation of components in the cloud suite. VCDX now has the version with it’s name now ;).
Apart from the changes to tracks itself, the certification categories are split into a SDDC and Desktop and mobility which makes more sense as horizon view is growing as a better and bigger technology in the EUC space.
There are no changes in the Associate level and professional level certifications. One thing to notice is that, it is a requirement to finish VCA before sitting for VCP. It is great so many changes, positives ones, in the certification roadmap. Can’t wait to start off with the advanced level ones now that the blueprint will be updated to include the latest product functionality and features.