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VMware has introduced a new certification policy (is effective as of March 10, 2014) that require a re-certification every two years. Actually this does not differ too much from other vendor’s technical certifications.

Note that, at least in this phase, this only apply to VCP certifications (and not like other have written also to VCAP or VCDX):

VMware is implementing a recertification policy for VCP certification. To recertify, VMware Certified Professional (VCP) holders must pass any VCP or higher-level exam within two years of earning their most recent VCP certification.

Some people have several concerns about this announce, but just read more carefully the VMware recertification policy to understand its real impact and meaning.

You can already check your expiration date by looking at your transcript. If you click on View on one VCP certification you will see in the PDF version of the certificate something similar:

VMware-Certification-Expiration

All VCP of a same path (in this example it was the VCP3 of the DCV path) will have the same expiration.

I don’t want to comment the reason behind this choice. They are printed in the official page:

Currently, VCP certification holders are not required to recertify their skills, which is uncommon in the IT industry, Maintaining currency in the expertise gained and proven by VMware certifications is just as important as earning the certification initially. If your skills are not current, your certification loses value. The technical and business communities expect that VMware certified professionals are current on the latest technologies and capable of implementing VMware products with the highest level of skill. To ensure that all certification holders meet these expectations, VMware is instituting a recertification policy.

I want just comment the real impact of this new policy: does it really bring more effort in certifications management?

If the impact is ONLY related to VCP certs, probably not: actually on each new product release you usually take the new exams in the first months to avoid the need of a new mandatory course. Major release are usually scheduled each 2 years… So does it really change something for people that actually are keeping their certs up to date with new releases?

And become more interesting with VCAP exam, that can automatically re-certificate also the related VCP.

Change a lot for people that are not updating their exam and in this case this become little more complicated and frustrating (and I agree that two years maybe is too less, three could be a reasonable value). There are other interesting comments and suggestions in this post or this one with other thoughts.

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Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.