News: VMware Introduces a Re-certification Process

This should have been posted on Friday when it appeared. Regardless, it seems that VMware has just introduced a re-certification policy that will expire legacy VMware Certified Professional (VCP) certifications and force current-level VCPs to re-certify every two years. For full information on this process, read the below link:

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=46667&ui=www_cert

There are a lot of posts out there that are bemoaning this change and complaining about the revocation of legacy VCPs. But people need to understand the real reasons for this change. Take a closer look at this section from the VMware notice:

The new policy gives you three options to re-certify:

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 re-certify by earning VCP5-Desktop (VCP5-DT) certification.
3. Advance to the next level by earning a VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) certification.

Now, take a look at the first line item in this list. What it is really saying is that any VCP—yes, any VCP, be that a version 2, 3, or 4—who has not managed to update their certification to VCP5 can re-certify without the requirement to sit a new course.

Also, if you are a legacy VCP, or even a current VCP whom this affects, you can just sit and pass a VCAP exam, and you will be re-certified VCP as well.

There now appears to be no requirement to take a new course during the grace period. True, once that grace period has passed, if you have not rec-ertified you will no longer be a VCP and will have to complete all the requirements of certification, including sitting a new qualifying course, but let’s put this into perspective here:  legacy VCPs can now update and re-certify their VCP credentials, and they have until the tenth of March 2015 to do so, without the requirement of paying for a new qualifying course.

The fact that you have to re-certify is actually a good thing; it keeps you current with the latest technology. Even better is the fact that it now appears that any VCAP pass effectively updates your VCP to the latest level, too.

From where this author is standing, there is only one downside, and that is the fact that the statement has finally called time on applications for VCDX4, which affects me directly, as I do not have the time to submit for the July defense deadline. So, it is just VCDX5 for me.