It's pretty well known that the fact you need to attend that week long training course in order to even qualify to become a VMware Certified Professional was a big pain point among the virtualization community. In fact, the VCP, which what used to be VMware's entry level certification could end up costing IT pros looking to get certified well over $1500 by the time it was all said and done. Although I always though that the training was a great way to help hold the certification in high regard I understand how it could also discourage a lot of smart people from taking the exam, people who's companies don't have the training budget or don't have the will to send them on the course.
That said, VMware has listened and once again responded (Remember vRAM – sorry). During VMworld, amongst all of the software defined storage, network virtualization, rainbows, clouds, and Hyper-V custard announcements VMware's Education and Certification team slipped in their own little announcement centered around the new VCA (Virtual Certified Associate) certification track.
What is VCA?
VCA is essentially the little brother of the VCP. The VCA requires no required training, simply recommending that you take the free foundation classes online that correspond with the respective VCA track. Also, just like the VCP has branched out into Data Center Virtualization, End User Computing (Workforce mobility) and Cloud; so has the VCA. Now I wrote my VCA-DCV yesterday and passed. It was certainly not as up to par technical wise as the VCP is, but it's not really supposed to be. As far as I can see it's really there to satisfy those who want to get some sort of certification with VMware but want to do it affordably and without the training requirement. The exam comes in with a price tag of $120.00 and is currently 50% off.
So what about October and why is the price right?
Oh yah, before you go and spend the what is now $60.00 on your VCA, stop, look at that voucher/promo code box and type 'VCA13ICS' into the text box. Why? Well that will take the initial 50% off and then give you another 100% off of the balance! Yes, that makes your exam FREE! Yes, Free as in beer! So no reason not to try it. As far as I know this will last all through the month of October so I guess the year of VDI will have to wait! Anyways get over to mylearn.vmware.com and sign up! Good Luck! And who can really say or think about the price is right without thinking of the epic Happy Gilmour fight! Bob must be habs fan!
Once again – register and write you VCA for free during October by using the promo code VCA13ICS
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