Comments on: Open letter to VMware: Suggestions for 2009

By: Stb

Stb — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:13:00 +0000

Great article. I’d like to add that VMware offer a subscription similar to the Microsoft Action Pack. That is an invaluable tool for developers and home geeks to become more familiar with all the different VMware products.
I know VMware used to offer this years ago, don’t know why they stopped it.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/184…

Thanks,

Steve

By: Esiebert7625

Esiebert7625 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:51:08 +0000

Hi Ted,

I agree that experience is what counts, it’s more important to me about what you’ve done instead of what you know. I would argue though that 1 week in a classroom is not a whole lot of experience. I would prefer working with someone who has had years of experience working with VMware and was not a VCP rather then someone who has very limited experience and took a 1 week class and passed a test. Knowledge comes with experience and not vice versa, working hands on is much more valuable to me then reading a book or taking a class. Classes are good ways to kickstart the learning process for someone who is new to VMware but experienced vets should not need to take one to become certified. I’m all for only having qualified people with the VCP certification and thats why I feel they should make the test so only knowledgable AND experienced people can pass it. And for those people who are more then qualified to take the test while $3K may not be a lot of money for some it certainly is a waste of money if they are not really going to gain anything from the class. Also in these times many companies are forced to cut back their training budgets and can’t afford to send someone to a class forcing them to learn by alternative methods such as hands on, books, websites, etc. Therefore someone who has worked hard and learned by other methods and may be qualifed is excluded from becoming a VCP.

Best regards,

Eric

By: Flicka7

Flicka7 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:23:50 +0000

Thanks for taking the time to post these thoughts. The majority of our business in the SMB space is managed backups and DR, so VMware is an important vendor for us. Although I agree with most of your points, I don’t want to see the VCP given without a class. This is because experience is absolutely crucial in a production environment. Most businesses will eventually be run on virtualized machines– it is important that inexperience hotshots don’t poison the waters. This wasn’t a problem in 2005-26 when it took a major effort to set up a lab to practice for the test. Now that is easy, however, and people who memorize instead of doing the work are a danger. Is $3K+ a lot of money? Yes… but not if you are serious about being effective in a production environment.

Sincerely,
Ted T.

By: JSTAR

JSTAR — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:11:23 +0000

Great comments! Producing high-quality code takes guts to stand in front of management and say “No, this is not ready for prime time.” As someone who has managed enterprise-level software products, your customers must be the focus and not the bottom line at this point. Our solution was to hire more QA, SLOW DOWN and get management to realize that you get less black eyes when you produce quality products!

By: Kcmjr

Kcmjr — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:22:18 +0000

The name changes VMware has been going through is giving me flashbacks to the time I worked with Citrix products. Consistency is a GOOD thing although these companies don’t seem to get that.

I’m torn on the cert subject. Although I agree there needs to be a way to filter out the paper certs, I don’t see a reason why I should be forced to attend a class if I don’t need to. If I can pass the test, then let me.

By: Eric Siebert

Eric Siebert — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:43:57 +0000

Make the test more difficult and dynamic then so only knowledgeable and experienced people can pass it. I know there are many VCPs out there that already degrade the value of the VCP as they simply took a class and then a test and have very little knowledge and more importantly experience.

By: COPRob

COPRob — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:32:45 +0000

Couldn’t disagree more on the VCP. At least this way we don’t have the typical braindump paper certs floating around degrading the certification to the value of an mcse since anyone can go download the “knowledge and experience” to memorize for the test. It is unfortunate for those that somehow have the knowledge of an enterprise environment infrastructure without the 3k for the class, but I’d rather my cert mean something.

By: Tlyczko

Tlyczko — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:39:07 +0000

Thank you Eric…these are all awesome, wonderful, sensible suggestions.

I would add #7: Reduce the price on SRM. Or have 2 tiers: 1) 10 hosts, get good $$$ from big companies.

Thank you, Tom