I am now a VMware Certified Professional!

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On February 13, 2012, I wrote a post titled “Virtualization Certification(s) – Is it really worth it?”. In that post, I mentioned that I have quite a few Microsoft based certifications and was pursuing my VMware VCP5 certification. 

vcp5-vcp510I did take the time (and money) to attend the official VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage Course for ESXi 5.0 and vCenter Server 5.0 at the end of January and took the time to get some hands-on with the product and to study. As of this morning, I am now a VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5!

You may be asking me why I chose to pursue this certification given I work for Microsoft and will likely never manage a VMware infrastructure during my employment here. 

In my role at Microsoft, I spend a lot of time talking to IT Professionals about technology and how to solve problems with those technologies. The majority of my expertise is on the Microsoft infrastructure products (makes sense since I work for Microsoft). However, I find that most of the folks I talk to don’t always run 100% Microsoft technologies in their organization. This is especially true when the topic of virtualization comes up. In this case, I see lots of customers using VMware as the hypervisor of choice (with more moving to or adding Hyper-V to the mix). For this reason, I thought it would be in my best interest (and those I talk to) to get up to speed on VMware so I knew how the product worked. The best way was to get training and get some real hands-on with the product. Since the exam was “only” $225 compared to the $3500 price tag of the training course, it only made sense to also obtain my certification.

I learned a lot in my class and in the subsequent reading while studying for my exam. I know that I know a lot more about vSphere 5.0 and I now also have my VCP5 to “prove” it. I am definitely confident that I can have a useful conversation about the Hypervisor platform and be able to competently discuss VMware and Microsoft in that same conversation. 

Harold Wong