VMware certification in India: A guide
Growing virtualization deployments are fueling the need for manpower with virtualization skill sets. Get insights on VMware certification in India.
Virtualization has seen an increased demand in India over the last two years. This increase in virtualization deployments has created a need for skilled manpower to set up and manage virtual environments.
VMware being the early mover in the virtualization space, has seen a steady growth. Its core focus on virtualization with a bouquet of comprehensive offerings when compared some of its other competitors are making it increasingly popular among Indian organizations deploying virtualization. A 2009 Frost and Sullivan India report puts its customer count at 600. This is fuelling a growing need for IT personnel with the domain expertise to setup and manage virtualized environments.
“While VMware introduced its virtualization certifications in India two years ago, it is only in the last six months that demand for these certifications has gone up. Increase in virtualization on VMware platform has in turn spurred interest in getting a VMware certification,” informs Shailendra Badoni, COO, Datacraft. Datacraft provides VMware certifications through Training Partners which is its training services subsidiary and an authorized VMware certification training provider.
Who can take up VMware certification?
VMware provides three levels of VMware certification in India, namely the VMware Certified Professional (VCP), the VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP), and the VMware Certified Datacenter Expert (VCDX). These courses can be taken up by system administrators, system engineers or IT professional handling environments with ESX, ESXi and vCenter. These professionals should be experienced system administrators on Windows or Linux platforms.
VCP is the first level of VMware certification in India that IT professionals need to clear to be eligible for the next levels of certification, VCAP and VCDX.
Particulars of VMware Certified Professional
The VCP certification is aimed at providing the skill sets required to install, configure and manage VMware’s vSphere solution. vSphere consists of ESX/ESXi and VMware vCenter Server. The current VMware certification in India is based on version 4.1 of both ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server.
The certification consists of two parts: Install, Configure and Manage; as well as Troubleshooting. The certification course covers the following topics whose knowledge is a pre-requisite for the VCP exam.
• Configure and manage ESX/ESXi networking and storage using vCenter Server
• Deploy, manage, and migrate virtual machines
• Manage user access to VMware infrastructure
• Use vCenter Server to monitor resource usage, increase scalability, ensure high availability and data protection
• Use VMware vCenter Update Manager to apply ESX/ESXi patches
The certification course is available through classroom, online and onsite formats.
VCP: The road ahead
On becoming a VCP, the student can further enhance his skills by taking up the VCP: Troubleshooting certification course which empowers him with additional skill sets to troubleshoot VMware environments.
VMware also has two additional courses vSphere: What’s New, for IT professionals who are VCP having completed VMware Infrastructure 3: Install and Configure, or equivalent experience with VMware ESX and vCenter Server. The certification course is designed to help these professionals upgrade these VMware skills to the latest versions: vSphere 4.1 and vCenter 4.1.
Additionally, VMware also offers the vSphere: Bootcamp which combines the content of the VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage with advanced tasks and skills for troubleshooting a highly-available and scalable virtual infrastructure. While VMware has all these courses available in India, most training institutes or partners provide only the VCP module of the VMware certification in India.
Explains Badoni, “VMware skill sets in the country are still in an evolving stage with IT professionals getting VCP certifications only recently.” As a result there is little demand for VMware certifications beyond VCP in India as of now. He adds, “While Datacraft has introduced the Troubleshooting course, it does not have a pricing mechanism since there is no demand beyond the basic VCP module. The next level of courses are designed for IT professionals who are expected to handle VMware environments which go beyond a single virtualized infrastructure wherein workloads move between two or more virtual environments over multiple networks. The VCAP and VCDX empower a professional with the ability to handle such VMware environments.”
Below is a table of two providers of VMware certification in India:
| Certification Provider | Course Format | Course Duration | Location | Pricing |
| Datacraft | 50 % theory and 50 % hands-on-training. Datacraft also provides an optional Network Infrastructure training course along with the VCP certification covering topics such as networks and cloud computing |
5 days for a single student with an additional one day for Network Infrastructure Training. 5 days for a corporate batch with an additional 2 days for the Networking module. 6 hours of class per day. Batch details: Individuals/Corporate; a maximum of 12 students. |
Datacraft has training centers spread across 17 key cities in India. | * Rs 35,000 per participant with the optional Network Infrastructure course free. * Rs 3.5 lakh for a batch of 10 corporate students with the optional network infrastructure course at a cost of Rs 50,000 per batch. The price includes training venue, course material, trainer fees. |
| EMC | 50 % theory and 50 % hands-on lab training. | 5 day course for an individual or a corporate batch. 8 hours of class everyday. Batch details: Primarily focused on corporate training with 12 IT professionals per batch. Individuals can avail the course through its training partners and resellers. |
Virtualized data centers established at EMC’s Delhi and Bangalore facilities. For other cities in India the company has training partners. |
* USD 835 (Rs 38,410) per individual. * USD 10020 (Rs 4.6 lakh) for a corporate batch of 12 IT professionals. The price includes training venue, course material, trainer fees. |
