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How to verify a VMware certification

8 March 2012
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Some days ago there was a case of one guy that was using VCDX certification (and several other certifications) without having it (or at least without demonstrate it). One of the biggest problem in certification credibility is avoid fraud.

Of course some could gain the certification with cheats and other form of frauds, but for some kind of certification (like the VCDX one) this is not possible: who gain it usually deserve it.

Actually there is a transcript tool for VMware certifications (and also for some accreditation) but it’s not public. You have your transcript in your own account. Also for each VMware certification there is also a printed version of the certification (but is not so difficult create a false scanned copy) and there isn’t a digital signed version that could be easy used to verify the certification validity. For all the certification a common way (but may require several time) could contact the the certification team ([email protected]) and ask them to verify the creadential and the certification ID.

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vCertification, VMware , , ,

How VCDX has changed my life

6 March 2012
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Pubblicato su IT Certification Master.

I’ve already describe my journey (see last link on vinfrastructure.it) but maybe I’ve not yet describe how this certification has change my life.

Basically because my professional life is not change at all, but this was a my choice. After the certification I’ve received several interesting proposal, but I like my jobs and I’ve choose (for this period) to remain in the “same boat”.

Anyway the VCDX experience was a really great challenge and an important grow (not for my career, as described before, but for my professional skill and knowledge). It’s a way to demonstrate (also to myself) that I’m on a “right way”.

Finally, in my opinion, a certification, also the VCDX one, is not a goal, is remain a travel where you have only reach a new level, but you cannot pull up!

vCertification

How to use certifications to become a virtualization expert

5 March 2012
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See the complete interview on: How To Use Certifications To Become a Virtualization Expert – with Andrea Mauro

In this interview you will find:

  • What steps you must do to become VMware Certified Design Expert?
  • Why you should not concentrate only on a virtualization technology, but also on other technologies like networking, storage and even SQL?
  • Do you need to work with the biggest systems in the world to become a VCDX?
  • What other certifications are good for vEngineers?

IT Certification Master: Tell us something about the beginning of your career and about your first IT certification.

Andrea Mauro: I’ve started (a lot of years ago) with a Commodore 64, but only with my first experience on a PC (with MS-DOS) I understand that this passion would also be my possible work area. During University, I also played with Linux distributions and this gave me a better understanding of Operating Systems and networking.

Things are really change. Now start in IT is simpler and cheaper (I remember how expensive my first PC was and how difficult it was to find good books or good documentation).

My first officially certification was the VCP3 obtained on 26-Apr-2007, so not really early (I’ve started my career on 1996). Why so much time before a certification? First reason was the cost of a certification (my previous employers have no interest in paying for certifications). But there was a second reason, where initially I was not convinced about the real value of a certification.
To be honest when I’ve started, certifications were not so common as know and was simple to verify the capacity and the knowledge of a person. Now the knowledge level has raised a lot and there are several interconnections between different areas and technologies.

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vCertification

My experience with VCAP5-DCD beta exam

1 March 2012
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Today I’ve taken the VCAP5-DCD beta exam (I’ve already written about the invitation at this beta). This time I was lucky enough to find a testing center near home and avoid the issues of the VCAP4-DCD beta exam (see the entire story).

For general considerations, like the cost of this kind of exams, the (long) wait period, the selection criteria, … se my though about VMware beta exams.

About the exam itself it is really challenging: time seems really a lot (225 minutes + 30 minutes of extra-time for  non english native) and question seems not so much (131 in this beta)… but questions are really vary and sometime also longer, and not simple multi-choice answer but also “visio” or associations between different elements (both this kind of questions, IMHO, are a good way to make exams where you have to use your brain and you cannot cheat or guess the answer). It’s really easy finish the time without have complete the questions review. To use a “design” terminology time is a big constrain and a bad time management could be risk.

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vCertification, vDesign, VMware ,

Dell annouce new EqualLogic storages and new servers

27 February 2012
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Some days after the recent acquisition of AppAssure, Dell has announced new models of EqualLogic storage and the new generation of PowerEdge servers.

For the EqualLogic the announce was “obvious”: after the new models with 1 Gbps connectivity (PS6100 and PS4100 storages), announced on August 2011, the 10 Gbps models (PS6110 and PS4110) were just the next step. For more information see the post on the The Register and on the Dell Community.

More interesting the announce of the new PowerEdge generarion (a logical move after the HP announce of his new generation): the G12 series has several interesting improvements. One of them is the Fresh Air Initiative, that could change how datacenters are designed for cooling or simple reduce this kind of operational costs.

Another interesting aspects of new PowerEdge is the blade series that seems to be still compatible with the common enclosure (M1000e) build with the G10 series! Also, the new M420 with quarter-size seems really curios and can give really high density.

For more information on the new PowerEdge servers see:

DellTechnologies, vStorage ,

Top virtualization blog 2012 results

26 February 2012
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Finally the results of the previous content are out on vSphere-land web site.

With a big surprise I’ve received some votes and vInfrastructure site is 54 in the entire rank and 3rd in the Favorite New Blog list (and some mentions, included one from the Number 1)!

Congratulations for the top 25 and thanks to everybody has give me a vote. I appreciate it and hope to make better for the future.

General none

Dell acquires AppAssure – New player in backup solutions?

25 February 2012
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Dell announced the acquisition of AppAssure, a global technology leader in back-up and recovery software that protects a company’s entire application infrastructure (for more info see the company web site). The acquisition of AppAssure’s product portfolio, R&D, patent portfolio, and sales and servicing functions add data protection and recovery IP to Dell’s storage solutions offerings. Data protection and recovery is a $3.6 billion business segment projected to grow 7% per year.

Some interesting aspects of AppAssure backup solutions is that they are multi-hypervisor (actually only VMware and Hyper-V), can handle also physical systems as well as VDI deployment and have some applications modules (similar of the one included in the EqualLogic ASM/WE). Could be interesting see if there will be big integration in the storage’s snapshots technologies and the software for data protection (some was stated with CommVault to offload the EqualLogic volumes backup).

Dell has moved from a hardware vendor to a service vendor already some years ago. With the last years has consolidate his portfolio with several acquisition in order to have own products and solutions, instead of sell and deploy 3rd part solutions.

With the storage area already filled (only some PowerVault “technically” are not based on Dell own technologies) and with several changes in the networking area (with the Force10 acquisition) now seems that is moving in the backup and data protection area (and the DR4000 was a first big move).

What does (or could mean)? In the comparison page the focus is on Symantec Backup 2010 and Acronis TrueImage features, but the product seems more similar to Veeam Backup. Actually Dell main partnership on backup are CommVault and Symantec (and something with EMC Legato and still with Yosemite), but in several regions there are strong partnership also with Veeam and Quest. And I think that the first that may loose the partnership are just the last one.

But is from Veeam that there could expect some big issue: if you read the product data-sheet of the VMware backup solution you will see thee main features (Live Recovery™, Recovery Assure™, Universal Recovery™) that seems too much similar (also with the name) with the features of Veeam Backup. Who has registered this features first? We have to expect some legal battle? Let’s see…

Symantec is moving also the backup appliances solutions, will also Dell produce a similar solution? Probably not now or not in this year. They have several PowerVault NX systems that can simple be equipped with new software part, so a dedicated appliance probably is not the roadmap (or not for this year).

For other consideration see also this post.

DellTechnologies, vBackup
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