Bless me readers for I have sinned. It has been nearly five weeks since my last blog entry. Since then I’ve acquired numerous electronic distractions in the house and took a little vacation from work and virtualization. I also randomly and unprovoked received a Microsoft Hyper-V sticker in the mail from Stephen Foskett and I have been thinking about revenge almost daily. (no, not really)
Yes it has been a while and I did take a break from work and all things virtual for some family time and “me time” over the holidays. So let me get the needfully ubiquitous out of the way by saying Happy New Year to all! I hope 2011 brings continued health to your family, joy into your life, success into your career, agility into your VMware virtualized datacenter/private cloud, and uncontested Secure Multi-Tenancy into your public cloud.
For me personally, success starts early in 2011. As you probably guessed by the title, I got some great news from VMware tonight in that.. well you can read it verbatim:
Congratulations on passing the VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vSphere4 – Datacenter Design exam!
I’m now a VCAP4-DCD. I a few weeks later I was notified by VMware that I was assigned VCAP4-DCD #35.
Passing this exam is great on a few levels. I now have the VCAP4-DCD certification to go along with the VCAP4-DCA credentials I picked up a few months ago. In addition to that, the VCAP4-DCD pass also upgrades my VCDX3 certification to VCDX4. I haven’t received the official word on that from VMware yet but I’ve met the requirements and notification which I expect within the next few months is more or less a formality. I’m pretty happy to have these achievements, and particularly early on. With no other certifications currently in sight, I can conitnue forward working on various projects and initiatives. If you thought I ran out of things to write about, that’s not the case. I’ve got plenty in the queue. 
One benefit I value working with products in an enterprise environment as opposed to strictly working on the education/instructor side of the fence is that there is no shortage of experience gained and lessons learned while working in the trenches. I work in a blend of VMware vSphere design and operations which I think is an exceptional example of Yin and Yang because they perpetually stregthen each other through experience.
By the way.. on the electronic distractions.. my family (this was a collaborative decision) picked up our first gaming console. We got the PS3. My PlayStation Network ID is VCDX034. Hit me up if you’re interested in a game of NHL 11 or Madden 11. I’m not very good but I’ll take a beating and I’m a good sport about it. VCAP4-DCD achievement unlocked. VCDX4 achievement unlocked. See what I did there? 😎
Update 8/18/11: No VCDX4 certificate or welcome kit received yet.
Congratulations on the VCAP-DCD. hehe, VMware emailed and thought my name was James 🙂 Thankfully they resent the correct results, I passed too. Now to work on my VCDX.
Andy
Congratulations from me, too. I also recevied an other guys result first, and got the correct “pass” result later :-). Cheers, Joerg
Congrats! Well done on the pass, and a Happy New Year to you as well.
Congratulations, Jason! It’s a well-deserved achievement for you.
Congratulations Jas! I got my notification last night as well – the second copy even had my name on it! So I am also a VCDX 4. Hopefully, we keep our original numbers.
Dave
Congratulations.
I got my beta exam results yesterday. I too now have both DCA & DCD.
I’m now in the same boat as Andy, working towards obtaining VCDX on vSphere
I’m not sure if I feel envy or not. Yeah, I do. :> Congrats.
What’s up fellow VCDX4 buddy!
I got some other guy’s score report and he passed so congratulations to him! I was pretty happy with what I thought was my score.
Then my real report came in and I scored even higher so I was jazzed about that.
Congratulation, it is really good start of new year
Congrats Jason.
I was in your VMware Design class. Do you feel that class covered the objectives of the VCAP4-DCD test?
Thanks Mike. My feeling is the 3 day VMware Design class covered most of the content but supplmental study/lab time in addition to hands on experience would be highly beneficial. The exam questions stem from the blueprint. The design class covers most of the blueprint albeit at an accelerated pace. I think there are some finer details that may be glossed over in the classroom training which the exam might cover. Various individuals authored the VCAP4-DCD exam questions and my hunch is that not all of them attended the design class. The key component is the blueprint. If a candidate follows and understands the content in the blueprint, there should be no big surprises in the exam. Oh, and know how to create Visio-like diagrams. That skill is assumed.
Jason,
Way to go! I marvel at your VMware achievments and hope to follow in your footsteps in my certification path. Keep up the good work, don’t feel too bad about the 5 weeks off from the blog, I did the same, picked up XBOX Kinect and we have been swamped ever since playing Kinectimals! Great job again, best of luck to you for 2011.
Congrats Jason!!!, can you guide me on how to proceed with certification. I am VCP4 certified and have a desire to be VCDX4
Congrats! I aspire for the same do you have any study tips or guides for the DCD exam. I’ve been a student of VMware products since 2005. I’m VCP 3/5,VSP 4/5 VTSP 4. I’m currently studying for the VCP5 now. I wanted to get the VCAP DCD 4 first but time is running short from me to upgrade VCP5. Any guidance is appreciated.