The beginning of wisdom...

Qualifications are extremely valuable (not just for the extra money that they might earn you). Undertaking a recognised course with an examination should show that you have been tested to prove your skills and that you can demonstrate the ability to look at a situation and offer a sensible solution to a given problem. It should also show that you have the ability to think critically about your own work; and confirm if what you think you know is correct.

Experience is what you gain as you work in a given area; and it can be highly valuable. However, experience does not always mean that someone is working to the most practical or efficient method. All too often, people find a way that works and then they use that same method whatever the situation. It can be very effective; I've seen experts look at an issue and quickly identify the problem. But equally, I've seen people leap into fixing a problem and just make it worse because they thought that they knew what the issue was without actually bothering to check all of the facts (because they "knew better than anyone else").

Personally, I would be happy to listen to anyone based upon both experience and qualification. But I would still reserve judgement until I was happy that what they said was proven to be accurate. I'm probably biased; I have some qualifications and many years experience; but that doesn't mean that I think I'm always right.

There is an old saying; "The beginning of wisdom is the statement 'I do not know'"

not again thankyou

Vendors always claim "this time it's real" for their certification programs but honestly they are a treadmill delivering value only to the vendor itself. Any decent syllabus will by definition be time-consuming to complete and by the time you finally do get there you will find that the industry has moved on to the next thing.

I did absolutely tons of Novell and Microsoft exams but always no sooner had I got the latest shiny badge than it would be obsolete and back to square one. Comes a time you have to draw a line and ask yourself is this a good investment of your time.

KISS... Or else.

I think I've spotted the problem with this qualification:

"All has to be enterprise class and sufficiently complex for large enterprises".

Surely a good architect makes it as uncomplicated as possible... Unless he wants to earn enough money to afford a Porsche I suppo... Oh.

Chief Technology Officer Steve Herrod has likened it to attaining doctorate in VMware.

Any bets on how long before it becomes a mandatory requirement for a job stacking shelves at Grotco?

Err...

"Chief Technology Officer Steve Herrod has likened it to attaining doctorate in VMware."

In which case, he doesn't know much about the process of obtaining a phd. You have to study a subject to a level deeper than anyone else has ever done before. It typically takes at least three or four years, having seen what people who have done chemistry, philosophy and sizemology phd courses have gone through, I can't say that this would fit with their experience.

I would also make a note that the couple of computer science phd/masters people that I know or have worked with suggest that they wouldn't be the people you go to for real world problems. They're very intelligent, highly skilled, but just don't really get how you would really do something in a large company.

certs are a racket.

unfortunately, most big companies buy into the racket wholeheartedly.

VCDX.. just image what it’d be like for a whole OS.

Sorry, but “I wonder if you could scale up to 1000 ESXi hosts” is a ‘codpiece in a gay bar’ scale-up is more about heat/power/cabling/security/management than any slither of software slipped in between a real OS (with real applications) and the hardware.

Bad car choices

A Carrera? Really? Could he not get a better 911, like the Turbo? Or a totally different car all together?

Failed it already

So it is tough, but the key issue that nobodies heard of it is huge. I'm stunned that they've only reached 105 guys certified and already split it into 3 tracks, they needed to get > 500 before that.

I did CCIE >10 years ago, and have never regretted it, but that does have some name recognition, I'm not in any hurry to find the time and money (from my own pocket as my employer hasn't heard of it either) to try again.

As for Porsches...

There is only ONE real Porsche, the 356, preferably a Cabriolet!

Get a Carrera version of that an you have something (no I never saw one, but they were available). Of course it will attract tickets from the local gendarmes but driving on the 280 freeway at 90MPH with the top down on a clear summer night is a wonder to behold.

As for certifications, most of them prove that you can get certified, and not much else. I suspect that there exceptions (and VCDX might be one) but you get the picture.

If you want REAL certifications, try flight training or medicine where you don't really have time to look up things (blood pressure over 200 is really bad for instance). To get these, you need to train, and go through a "real life" test of your knowledge.

Who Cares

Is it also a mandatory requirement that those applying for this certification have their humility removed? It sure seems that way as VCDX seems to be synonymous with arrogance beyond this world.

Some clarifications......

Some of the wording within the article as well as the comments here seem to indicate that there are some misunderstandings regarding the VCDX certification so I thought I would provide some clarifications based on my experience as someone who has gone through the certification process, and who is now on the VCDX certification panel.

1. The defense process is not an 'interrogation' or 'inquisition', nor is it a ‘brutal process’. My experience was that it was about the same of level questioning as you would expect when presenting a design to a team of customer architects.

2. I suspect the hours of prep time mentioned in the article is a reference to the time taken to put together the design and certification application that you intent to defend. It is not the total hours experience and learning that the candidate has undertaken. (I'm not aware of any VCDX holders with less than 5 years experience with VMware products in an enterprise environment) 350 hours does seem high for this step. My personal experience was around 30 hours (in addition to ~10 years experience with the technology) but it will depend on whether or not you have an existing design you can present.

3. Once you have your VCP certification there are no compulsory training requirements to attain the higher levels of certification (VCAP or VCDX) so this is definitely not an exercise in pushing VMware's education offerings. There are 'suggested' courses available, but these will only get you so far and are not mandatory. Without extensive real-world experience you won't succeed. This certification is designed to weed out those who only hold theoretical knowledge.

4. ‘Complexity’ is not one of the criteria for this certification and unnecessary complexity will definitely hurt your chances of passing.

5. The correct name for the certification targeting desktop virtualization architects is "VCDX-Desktop", not "VCDX-EUC"

5. I'm VCDX certified and I don't own a Porsche

6. The manager running the VCDX program drives a (rusty) '91 Jeep.