First Industry Cloud Certification: EMC Cloud Architect class and E20-018 EXPOSED!!!

If you’ve ever read any of my exposed series, well… Look for a fairly unbiased approach to things.   Oh and hopefully the Education team doesn’t come back screaming at me. ;)   And as always, in the best of my ability I bring you the… Disclaimer!

Disclaimer:  The following information is not under NDA, is not one persons opinion but rather that collected from others through interviews, emails, discussions under which none of us are sharing any proprietary data about the Class or the Exam.    I tread the line closely so read on!

Okay, I normally only Post-Mortem or expose an Exam, or a Class, but not too often do I get the liberty to expose the two together! With that being the case I want to start by educating you a little bit about this designation, certification and beyond so you don’t feel the need to go to multiple sources to learn it!

Cloud Architect (EMCCA) Certification E20-001 and E20-018

Okay this little chart stripped from the Brochure basically tells you:

  • To prepare for the E20-001 exam you should take the Information Storage and Management 5 day course # MR-1CP-STF
  • To prepare for the E20-018 exam you should take the Virtualized Data Center and Cloud Infrastructure 5 day course: MR-1CP-NPVICE

At this point I’d like to give you a little color on these particular courses and the respective requirements around them, etc.     First of all, unlike the VCP or other similar type exams, these courses are NOT required in order to sit the exam.   I wanted to make sure you understand that you CAN sit the exam cold.

(Yes I did sit the E20-001 Exam cold and passed – Industry experience has its advantages)

There is an AMAZING book which covers the content of the E20-001 course and exam – the ISM Book I’m not sure if I have a copy at all but I’ve heard from those who have used it is an excellent learning and educational aid!  So if you’re a self-studier this is definitely an EXCELLENT tool for you to use.

Because the E20-001 is a pre-requisite to sit/pass the E20-018 exam I wanted to ensure it got a little coverage, which I think is sufficient at this point :)   For what it is worth, if you have been in the industry a fair amount of time working with SANs, NASs, and other Information Storage Management stuff you should do fine, but ensure you are prepared, E20-001 is the cost of ENTRY beyond that comes the BIG GUNS!!!

Tell us about the Virtualized Data Center and Cloud Infrastructure course

Okay, okay guys I will.   Here it goes, the full in depth analysis of the VDC and Cloud course.    (Education folks, watch out this isn’t all from me either;))

I want to start by telling you very clearly and concisely that there is some GREAT content in the books, material, and other information provided both in the written as well as the lecturer (Your results may vary depending upon instructor)  Though irrespective of who your instructor is, the content in the book will stay the same and will be relevant to the Class, Cloud, VDCs and the Exam.   With that said, I need to differentiate a few things with the course pre-reqs

  • According to the course materials we strongly recommend you have the following Certifications or knowledge/experience:
    • Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA) – I bet CCNA would apply as well but I think that’s focused in the other exam/course
    • VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
    • Certified Information Systems Security Practitioner (CISSP)
    • The EMCISM is required for the EMCCA Certification – I mentioned that above, so that’s not a surprise.
    • Oh, and ITIL/PMP is NOT mentioned but those of you who are will find yourself wondering why not ;) (Not for content, but for presentation)

With THIS particular data points expressed I’d like to break you down into two groups:

Generalist/Novice/Acolyte:

If you fall into this area, maybe you have one or more of the certifications above or work in various cross-disciplines.  The courseware will VERY much apply to you.  You will want to pay attention, take rigorous notes; really get the best out of the networking, the instructors, the homework, read, read again, even do some labs to ensure you not only UNDERSTAND it, but you are fully committed to the material you are learning.   For what that is worth, the information is VERY general to the industry, Best Practices with a ‘little’ emphasis on some specific EMC technologies, but otherwise 70%+ of the material on the exam is of a VERY general nature.  The book should be your best friend and will be the answer to your success when it comes time to sit the exam and in life! :)

Guru/Expert/Ninja/Buddha/#IWroteTheExam:

Hey guys, how are you doing.   You know who you are.   You hold all of the certifications above or really have the information down solid.  Heck, you might have taken those exams 10 or more years ago; or even written some of the exam material in those times.   You also happen to be the same kind of folks who have helped write and spec the standards for where we are today; Chances are I know each of you personally. (grin).    Yea…  You won’t last in the class.  I’m sorry.   I’m totally supportive of you, completely in fact (You probably wrote your own internal cloud strategy for your business which is inline with the exam, or for your consultancy)  Definitely not going to survive in the class room.  You’ll say “Err, this is just lecture, I can read the book myself… err, I can write this book while I’m at it!)   I’m not being negative, I see your kind every day…. leave the class because you’re bored, not learning anything and at this point just want to ensure that you have what is REQUIRED to sit and pass the exam.    Good luck guys, you will DEFINITELY want to read the Exam section because that’ll make the difference of success and WTF?!?   

Whoa! Wait a minute! Isn’t that a massive generalization? Either you’re a student or a teacher? … No not really.   Seriously.    If you find yourself arguing with the teacher that they’re wrong and you cite evidence often referring to a presentation you’ve given at a conference? Yea… You’ll do fine :)

Now, I’d like to segue way a moment to some of the directly shared thoughts from an attendee of the course.  We’ll call him B (Not like B from Gossip Girl!)

B’s take on the Virtualized Data Center and Cloud Infrastructure Course

“B” is a Technical Manager in mid-size enterprise.   Experienced in implementing VMware over the years with EMC Storage, HP Servers, Cisco Networking.   Longtime expired member of the CCNA/CCDA club and recent VCP and EMCISM credential holder.   With the stated pre-reqs B felt it might be a stretch from his qualification but not too much of a concern  (If this sounds like you, you’re in good company!)

  • Class started with going over pre-reqs, with CISSP added to the list; was surprised ITIL wasn’t there as discussed earlier
  • Two classes were merged so each section was alternated between two instructors.   As the course is 95% lecture didn’t feel that mattered.
  • The volume of content for the class is 2” thick of slides which unfortunately restricts discussion time available over 5 days.
  • Module 1 leads you into an Introduction to Cloud Computing  – If you instructor reads this module to you verbatim – STOP THEM!!!
  • Module 2 covers the VCP, ISM ad CCDA related material – Very much a review of the Pre-reqs – should be consolidated to focus on goals
  • Module 3 kicked off VDC Design – This is where the meat of the course is, requires proper time to digest and discuss properly
  • Module 4 focused on Governance, Risk and Compliance (Interesting Chapter) but due to time was rushed as was Managing Virtual Environments
  • Module 5 focused on Cloud Services and Summary modules (Had to leave early so missed it)
  • There is nothing earth-shattered in the course but there is a lot of GOOD Material!
  • The labs are too vague leaving you spending more time trying to figure out what you’re supposed to do instead of discussing solutions

B’s Summary of the course

In summary, it’s a good course to show EMC’s "journey to the cloud".  I’d prefer less focus on the pieces (modules 1-2) and more focus on how to put the pieces together (modules 3-6).  The labs need refined to give more guidance so we can spend more time applying the knowledge rather than wondering what the designers of the course had in mind.  Given that this was the first class (I believe), I’d love to see how it changes over the next few sessions.

Well guys, what do you think of B’s take on the course?   I think his assessment was fairly accurately representation of what was going on, and equally what you might expect out of the class in its early stages.   To tell you the truth it can ONLY get better from this point.   I only briefly paraphrased what B had to say to preserve the original message but also not to call him directly unless he wants to be named :)  

Curious what the course looks like on the other side of the fence?   Here is the summary and breakdown from “Jerome” who’s been doing this for awhile!

Jerome’s take on the Virtualized Data Center and Cloud Infrastructure Course

I had the chance to attend the "Virtualized Data Center and Cloud Infrastructure" course put on by EMC this week.  Below are my thoughts.

Certification Track

This course is part of the EMC Cloud Architect track – EMCCA.  This course specifically is designed to prepare for the E20-018 certification test, which is a Specialist level certification.  The Expert level material and test have not yet been released, and are expected later this year.

Focus

The EMC Cloud Architect Track is designed to help enable customers adopt a cloud maturity model.  This consists of a move from physical data centers to Virtual Data Centers (VDCs), from VDCs to full Operationalization of virtualization, and from there to IT as a Service.  This course was specifically focused on the physical to VDC phase of the transition. 

Material and Presentation

This course is a lecture only course.  There was no hands on material or lab time.  What labs were included in the course were small group discussions only.  EMC has tried to make this a "generic" cloud course that is "open" to all technologies, but it is heavily slanted towards their view of the world.  The course uses the following outline, I have added the EMC translation in parenthesis:

  • Virtualized Data Center and Cloud Introduction (Private Clouds and ITaaS model)
  • VDC Architecture (V+C+E products, convergence)
  • Designing for Virtualized and Cloud Environments (Best Practices for Virtualization – VCP stuff)
  • Governance Risk and Compliance (RSA and Archer)
  • Managing Virtualized Environments (IONIX)
  • Cloud Services (Service Provider models)

Exam

The exam is a 60 question test, with 63% required for passing (38 correct answers).  The practice exam on the EMC Education website is decent, and a good barometer of your chance to pass the exam, though the practice was about 20% easier than the real exam.  I would say that the real exam questions were written fairly poorly, and were often difficult to understand.  They would describe a scenario, but then it seemed they would give up half way through and ask only a tangentially related question.  I think that it was a result of attempting to keep the exam mostly generic, rather than focused on EMC technologies.

Recommendation

In general, I found the course to be very much in alignment with our message and focus, and as a result I felt it was a very easy set of material.  The only new sections to me were a few of the VDC maturity definitions and the GRC models.  Because of that, I felt the instructors moved much too slow.  I also found that the instructors were professional trainers, not SMEs on cloud computing, so they offered little value other than moderating the course.  I ended up leaving mid-way through the second day, and just reviewing the course material on my own, and was able to pass the test on Thursday, even though the course runs through Friday.  If you feel you need a little more preparation, I would recommend the VILT, rather than the full course. 

Okay, no his real name is not Jerome I decided I would use that name as a tribute to Jerome from Flight of the Conchords, especially how Jerome was being so constructive with his feedback So what this is providing you is two assessments of the course; FWIW.. I agree with both, grin :)

CXIs take WTF?!?

Yea, I think I made it fairly clear in the earlier points.    But if I had a few things I want you to do and know; KNOW the material, if you’re confused read it again, understand it, deep.    Focus on your weaknesses in the areas which are defined in the class and be true and honest to yourself, because albeit Rihanna and Eminem may love the way you lie… well the Exam will NOT be so nice.  . . . Speaking of which!

Tell us about E20-018 Virtualized Infrastructure Specialist Exam for Cloud Architects!

Okay, Okay, you begged enough!   Firstly, let me tell you I cannot tell you what is ON the Exam, what is IN the exam or anything ABOUT the exam. We cool? ;)    Yea, but just because I cannot provide you those specifics and by now I think you know a few things about me…. here is what I can tell you.

Remember what I said above about PREPARING.  KNOWING the content from the Class, Books or material LISTED as being on the exam?  Yea, I wasn’t messing around.  Seriously! DO THAT. KNOW THAT. DO IT ALL!   But what would this matter or mean if you didn’t take a few sliding comments from those of us who have taken the exam.    I talked to Jerome after he took the exam to see how he felt about it; his take?

Jerome: The test was very hard, but that was only due to the language of the questions and the structure.

Me: Hated that test.

Whoa Whoa Whoa! Christopher! That isn’t very constructive! What about being constructive with your feedback?!?! Yea, hi, I’m still here.. I’m still WRITING THIS! ;)     I don’t remember if I’m supposed to say this or not but since the exam is already out, published and I’ve taken it… I’ll go out on a limb thinking I can talk about it.   Yea, I’ve seen SOME of the content before the exam came out.  I reviewed the questions for validity, truth, honesty, integrity… The kind of standard I started to see so wonderfully come out of Microsoft (I know the entire Microsoft Learning Team, so I know the commitment they have to Exam Integrity THESE days instead of days gone past where questions were insane)   I’d like to say that this exam took the PAGES upon PAGES of comments I’d have on a few word question to heart when it came time to publish the exam to stand behind as backing for the questions.   Yea, I thought that for OTHER exams I would EXTENSIVELY provide EXTREMELY constructive feedback on. [I’m not shy about telling you what is wrong, why it is wrong, how others will perceive it, and what steps you can take in order to correct….]   Also sometimes there are release schedules… or my voice isn’t LOUD enough, or I didn’t cover enough of a user base of questioning to make an impact outside of my SME area I was initially focused on reviewing.    None the less, to Jerome’s point of the language of the questions and the structure; how things were poorly worded, or to quote me “I hated that test”  

I’m VERY good at taking tests (I teach classes on how to take exams ;)).  I’ve passed more exams than most will in their lives, and respectively I’ve probably failed more exams than most people will take including their entire academic career ;)     I can wholeheartedly say that you better STUDY for this exam.   KNOW your material and know how to cut through the treacle which is going to be offered up as questions.   The answers are right, the questions are a little confusing and the ones which are not can be VERY specific.    I prepared for the exam by using the Practice Test – I was getting 100% consecutively and I felt confident.   Yea, once that exam started up that melted away!    Definitely study, study, study! Prepare! 

Summary on Class and Exam!

For the first Industry Certification focused on Cloud with an Exam AND a course; that is a major undertaking to start with, and honestly to tell you the truth I think EMC did a great job of it.   Obviously you may take some of my comments above as extremely critical (Hey, I’m extremely critical!) but it’s because I care.     They’re definitely taking things to new levels, I’m not even sure what other organization in the industry could assault such an undertaking other than Microsoft (And that would be HEAVILY MS biased, Hey I love you but it’s true) and most “independent” third parties, well we all know that their Exam would come out looking like absolute trash and they wouldn’t really have the vehicle or mechanism to go about delivering and driving it successfully.   No definitely considering all of that and what we expect so heavily from ourselves, and our industry, EMC has done an absolute bang up amazing job!   

Hopefully I haven’t scared you away from taking this course and the exam.   If you know your stuff, you better prep, if you are new to the whole game you’re going to learn A LOT OF MATERIAL.   In a way the course will take you through a compressed CCNA/CCDA/VCP/CISSP/EMCISM courseware all compressed into a few days of time and then you need to assimilate that into your head and go take a test!    If anything you should have an honest reflection of what to expect (I highly encourage your feedback if you agree, disagree or WTF on anything I’ve said)   Together we move mountains, so let’s not make mountains out of molehills, that’s how the Cloud works.   Together. :)   Oh and Good Luck, I don’t say this often on exams, but you will NEED it. *love* :)

API HACK DAY COMES TO CHICAGO! OMG!!! May 28 2011

API Hack Day - In Chicago! Brought to you by Apigee, SimpleGeo, Twilio, SendGrid and Mashery!

Sponsored by!

Apigee - For people who love APIs, API products for developers, providers, and enterprises. Twilio Cloud Communications - Build Powerful Voice and SMS Apps! Sendgrid - We make email delivery easy! SimpleGeo - We make it easy for developers to create location-aware applications! Mashery

OMG THATS RIGHT! Yea, wow, I’m a tad overzealous! But hey, the SECOND EVER API HACK DAY IS COMING TO CHICAGO! That’s right! Stick it to the man! 

What is API Hack Day though you wonder?!?

API Hack Day brings developers together for an all-day coding fest focused on building apps and mashups with APIs. Developers of all experience levels can share ideas, collaborate on existing projects, start new ventures and find out about great tools and new APIs to play with.

Free admission, food and drink provided!

Hackers will also hear from some of the country’s top API-focused companies on tips, tricks and tools for building the next big app. At the end of the day, teams and/or individuals get a chance to present their work to a panel of judges and win great prizes.

API Hack Day Chicago will be held at the offices of event sponsor Morningstar, home of the Morningstar Tech Talks.

Brought to you by SimpleGeo, Twilio, SendGrid, Apigee & Mashery.

When

Saturday, May 28, 2011 from 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM (CT)

 

Where

Morningstar – Chicago, IL

22 West Washington Street

Chicago, IL 60602

 

Tentative Schedule as it stands!

  • 8:00 – 9:00 Registration / Breakfast
  • 9:00 – 9:15 Intro / Welcome / Kick-off
  • 9:30 – 10:00 API Workshops
  • 12:30 – 1:30 Lunch
  • 6:00 Submission Deadline
  • 6:30 – 7:15 Presentations
  • 7:15-7:30  Judging
  • 7:30 – 7:45  Awards

Sign up here!

http://apihackdaychicago.eventbrite.com/

 

That’s not all!

But wait… this sounds like a Press Release for an event, not at all the sort of thing I’d expect to find here! That’s damn straight! – You’ve seen what is COMING! Now through the power of the WAYBACK MACHINE… Oh and Context.. I’ll show you what you can begin to expect and what has happened!

They came.  They saw. They hacked!

 

API Hacking with Apigee!

They hacked!They Hacked!

 

Oh yea baby, and they hacked!Oh, did I mention.. a tad little more hacking?!?

They ate, they voted and they won?!?!

Pizza! Pizza! Everywhere! and not a drop of water! okay.. maybe wrong analogy!Vote!Vote!Vote! I wonder if that was one of the hacks.. a voting engine! ;)OMG THE WINNERS! Congrats to Zain Memon and Sha Hwang [if that is them.. it's some people who looked like they won, so I'm taking a stab in the dark! ;)]

San Francisco – October 2010

  • FIRST PLACE: Mootup by Zain Memon and Sha Hwang. An interface to explore upcoming meetups happening around the city, so users can discover various events without having to sign up for a group first.
  • SECOND PLACE: Push’d by Sherman Lee, John Milinovich, Jayant Sai and Parth Shah. Push’d empowers developers and consumers to push important online information to mobile phones in a format that can be accessed from anywhere.
  • THIRD PLACE: VeePark by Brennan Novak and Daniel Erickson. Air BnB for driveways. Rent out your driveway to people that need to park. Renters can use sms to find the nearest available driveway.

Yea, that’s right! Their hacking not only was rewarded with food and drink, but there were prizes! Props to the winners, and you too could be that winner!

Now, I know you guys know me from attending other events at one point or another in the past – So if the interest is there – I will not only LiveTweet the event on my beloved @cxi twitter ID, but I’ll also do the best of my ability to live-stream it (uStream?) , live-handle questions, and at request, handle one-off video interviews (in HD goodness) which we can throw on up to YouTube – It really is up to you the community to decide just how FAR I’ll go!

So, get your registration on! Get your hack on! And keep on keeping on!

Hack and they shall come! (Seattle Mobile App Hackathon Apr 16 2011)

Mobile App Hackathon

 

Are you a Hacker? Interested in HTML5/Javascript Mobile based apps, or even looking to transcend beyond that?  Located in the Seattle area (or want to travel to this OMG event?!) Then look no further!  This event is nearly SOLD OUT! So it is best to act now!

So what is this exactly?! I’ll steal little snippets from the official site and registration site!

  • a one-day workshop for coders building mobile applications

    Mobile App Hackathon (@mobilehackathon) is a hacker event for new and experienced developers working on mobile apps. Experienced coders can show off their mobile apps while new app developers will learn from the best.
    The hackathon is the first in a series of mobile development events brought to you by the
    AT&T Developer Program and will include talks from members of the PhoneGap and AppMobi platform teams, Sencha and Apigee. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to show off your app or learn how to create great ones.
    To keep up-to-date on AT&T Developer Events, please sign-up with the program
    here.

  • Wow, that sounds pretty cool right? At a high level it can be summed up as:

    Hacking. Mobile. Good food. Awesome prizes.

    Yea, but let’s not over-simplify things, I know you verbose types want to know some of the HARD details! Like…

    Presenters!

    Jesse MacFayden Joe Monastiero Sam Ramji Jeff Barr James Pearce
    PhoneGap AppMobi Apigee Amazon Sencha
    Jesse MacFadyen Joe Monastiero sam ramji jeff barr james pearch
    Jesse MacFadyen is a senior software engineer at Nitobi, specializing in presentation layer programming for Rich Internet applications. Jesse has developed large scale applications in PhoneGap, JavaScript, Flash/Flex/Air, .net, and Silverlight. As a major contributor to the PhoneGap open-source project, he is passionate about bringing device level functionality to multiple mobile devices through simple web-tech APIs. Jesse has also created the open source project GloveBox to enable the use of fixed positioning and touch scrolling on iOS + Android devices
    Click here for Jesse’s Blog
    Joe Monastiero is co-founder and vice president of business development for AppMobi, bringing with him 20 years of management experience. Prior to AppMobi, he co-founded Intervideo, where he was responsible for sales, marketing and business development activities and helped drive over $30M in software revenue in three years. Sam’s spent over 15 years working across enterprise software, product development and open source strategy. Currently VP of strategy at Apigee & board member at the CodePlex Foundation, Sam works deeply within the developer, open source and social app communities to create a healthier, more productive ecosystem. Prior to Apigee, Sam led open source strategy across Microsoft and was a founding member of the AquaLogic product team at BEA. In his spare time, Sam enjoys the great outdoors, spending time with the kids, and bacon. Jeff Barr is a senior web services evangelist for Amazon Web Services. Jeff is focused on furthering awareness among software developers of the opportunity to innovate and build businesses using Amazon Web Services. In this role, Jeff travels, speaks, blogs, and conducts virtual events. James is a technologist, writer, developer & entrepreneur who has been working with the mobile web for over a decade. He is Senior Director of Developer Relations at Sencha. Previously he was the CTO at dotMobi and has a background in mobile startups, telecoms infrastructure and management consultancy. He speaks extensively on the topic of mobile web development, and has written books for both Wiley and Wrox.

    As you can tell, that’s very possibly a major Formatting Fail.. but that’s okay – It definitely gives you the gist of things :)  But by now I’m sure you know, few things are more important than.. the Agenda!

    Agenda!!!

    9:00AM Registration and Breakfast + Networking
    9:30AM Dev Environment Setup Help
    10:00AM Kick-Off – Platform Lightning Talks
    11:00AM Lunch is Served!!!
    12:00PM Coding Starts
    6:00PM App Submission Deadline
    6:30PM App Demos
    7:15PM Content Winners Announced
    7:30PM Drinks!

    And let’s not forget, after the Hack-A-Thon is over, everyone will demo what was worked on, gather feedback and hand out prizes for audience favorites!

    Whoa! This sounds cool! So where do I sign up?!?!

    Click here to Sign Up for the Seattle Mobile App Hack-a-thon 

    I don’t think it can be any clearer than that, right! Hooray! But I guess it may be important to have the rest of the details in one place:

    • When: 
      • Saturday, April 16, 2011 from 9:00 AM – 7:30 PM (PT)
    • Where: 
      • F5 Offices
        401 Elliott Avenue West
        Seattle, WA 98119
    • Who:
      • Hackers, Mobile App, Developers, Ninjas, Gurus
    • Why:
      • Because it rocks! And you’ll enjoy it! (Oh, and did someone say NETWORKING?!??! :))
    • Where do I sign up?

    Well, there it is, the whole scoop and ready for you to rock this out! I hope you get in a slot before it fills up! Enjoy it, it’ll be a blast!

    The Virtual Gold Rush – Get your head out of the ground and your career into the clouds

    What do Virtualization and the California Gold Rush of the 1850’s have in common?  

    Panning for Virtualization

    Yea, that’s right.  In those days there were gold-seekers, the “49’ers” who were all seeking out a few pretty little gems, heck! Even some ugly gems would be worth it, right? Dirty gold is STILL gold!    Now, let’s fast forward 160 years to today’s Present.   (Okay, enough of the analogies that GOLD IS WORTH A LOT! You’re right! IT is! ;))  Today, the Gold-seekers.. Those 49’ers (A lot of which happen to reside WITHIN California) are the businesses! The Cloud Providers, the mega-corporations, the EMC’s, Cisco’s and VMware’s of the world, all vying for the GOLD of Virtualization! Human capital!  -  You guys are the gold, and virtualization is the rocket which will enable you to soar!

    Where is the proof in this though you might ask?! (Yea, I know I’m gonna give you some proof alright!)

    Disclaimer:   The following list is from a ‘point in time’ and is not reflective of ALL of the opportunities which exist.  I contacted numerous companies heavily invested in Virtualization, Cloud and other, and some of those companies requested I do not share their data (So don’t get critical if you think I’m intentionally not mentioning a company) This is for YOUR benefit, which I hope every one of you Virtualization kings take advantage of this! (Even the serfs, paupers, princesses and queens of Virtualization too! – /end disclaimer! :))

    EMC

    Yes, I do work here, but hey, we have some of the best guys in the world! And with that note, we’re still looking to find, recruit and hire the best!  No one leads this champion cause any better than Chad Sakac! Who has gone to the extents to actually publish this More than 200 open positions at EMC, EMC partners and VCE  and the recent UPDATE for this! But let me quote the following from that blog post at its time: (Wow, over 100 positions mentioned!)

  • The EMC vSpecialist team is hiring 97 people.  The right people for this role love technology.   It is ideal if you are technical customer-facing type or a freakishly technical sales type, and want to work at a great Fortune 500 company that is at the center of the virtualization and cloud wave (that being EMC).  The team has a crazy work ethic – you’ll work your buns off, but will be part of something fun.  You will play with EMC, VMware and Cisco technologies, and be exposed right on the bleeding edge wave of a lot of stuff.  
  • The EMC Consulting org is hiring 14 people.  The right people for this role have a world view where you think that it’s less about technology and products, and more about services, people, and transformative projects (oh, and you love technology too).   There are Cloud roles, Virtual Datacenter roles, and Risk and Security roles.
  • The EMC SI/Al team is hiring 9 people.  These are people who are blends of the vSpecialist Sales/Technical type (roll them into one :-), and are focused on EMC partners like Deloitte, Accenture, Wipro, TCS, HCL.
  • Obviously, there is a LOT of opportunity over here at EMC (In fact, feel free to get in touch with me if you’re interested in more insight as well – If you wonder what it’s like working here at EMC, refer to my previous posts on the very subject; Joining EMC and transitioning from “Job” to “Career” tips for new hires and expats! – So good luck and let me know how I can help!

    #Update to include other opportunities which Chad had just posted!  More VMware, Cisco, EMC, and VCE and Partner gigs…

    Search for Careers at EMC here! (click apply now :))

    Cisco

    Whoa! This is Cisco, the networking company! What does this have to do with Virtualization and Cloud?!?!  Yea.. baby, that’s right.  We are ALL fighting for the same resources, the same gold! Everyone everywhere! :)   Cisco has opportunities across the stack with Servers (UCS) Storage networking (MDS and Nexus) Virtualization (Rocking it out with what we said above) and more and beyond!   I did not vet EVERY single entry on the Cisco site (Hey, I’m not the one LOOKING for the job! but these options do quite exist ;)) For what it’s worth, a search of “vmware” and a search of “Cloud” as separate search terms returned results in the 150-200 range.   Wow! That is a lot of jobs with a single keyword.  Maybe there are only 50 or 100 quality jobs let’s say.   – Or put another way.. Wow, there are 50-100 quality jobs at the champion of industry Cisco! 

    Search for Careers at Cisco here!

    VMware

    You don’t get much closer to Virtualization than this!   I did a general search of all open-req’s returning 683 open positions! When I cut it down to “Support, Technical, Technical Marketing” etc kind of limiting the scope to remove the “HR and Legal” type postings, I still ended up with 105 open positions!   VMware is a rockstar environment to work at and they have a great culture!

    Search for Careers at VMware here!

    Acadia

    If you missed all of the announcements from last year (and continually growing since) Acadia is a joint venture, founded by Cisco and EMC to further capitalize on the investments of VMware and Intel! The venture was established to help partners and customers accelerate the transition to pervasive virtualization and private cloud. – Okay, enough of stealing that stuff from their site..  Nonetheless, this lets you work with a converged-ness of all of these companies and really get to do some COOL stuff, across numerous roles!  (FYI: I know a whole bunch of the recruiters who are now over there… Just saying.. ;))   On a full-purpose search of Acadia I came across 315 open positions (Wow! That’s a damn lot! Lots are home based mobile too?! WTF!? cool! :))

    Oh and hijacked from Chad’s blog;

    VCE is hiring 100 field people and 17 solutions people.   These people are part of Acadia (the EMC/Cisco Joint Venture).   The Acadia mandate is both expanding, but also becoming more focused under Michael Capellas.   VCE has done much well, but people are recognizing certain things (single SKU, single order, ship as a unit) need to happen faster. 

    1. The field folks would support the vSpecialists and the Cisco Datacenter field folks, as well as VCE partners.    The profile of these field folks (both Sales and Technical) are the same core profile as vSpecialists.   In fact, they are planning to call the Technical roles “vArchitects” a nice homage to some of the success we’ve had :-)
    2. The solutions folks would be more happy in the lab than out in the field, but still customer focused.   They will be churning out more solutions on Vblocks, but then a subset of them would be taking the results out into the market via the vArchitects and vSpecialists.

    Search for Careers at Acadia here! (click browse open positions)

    Dell

    So, when I first started working on this (over a month ago) I reached out to various other champions of industry – My good friends at Dell said the following (at the time) – One guy said there were over 80 positions across the country, but then said check with this other guy! He reported back with “There are 342 Virtualization related positions (sales, marketing, eng and services) worldwide.   Whoa! That’s pretty damn cool!  Obviously your mileage and time may vary.. those numbers may have increased or decreased, but the fact of the matter is.. that’s a damn lot of VIRT specific jobs available in the business (translates into WIN)   So, lest you think your options are limited, they may appear limitless across the stack and businesses!

    Search for Careers at Dell Here! (They are great for locality of reference!)

    HP

    Hey now! You’re taking this competitive appreciation a little too far! Err.. Wait, no I’m not! But I am trying to give you an accurate picture… and hey, we’re all friends (except during the close giggle ;))   But yea, I got the hookup from my friends over at HP as well!   And what did they say (at the time, again.. could have gone up or down!) “238 Virtualization positions came up”

    Whoa, whoa, whoa! Another massive stack of Virt roles?! Yea that’s right baby, all across the stack!  Looks like every vendor has a need which needs filling, oh my!

     Search for Careers at HP Here! (Interesting search site.. good luck :))

    CDW

    I’m not mentioning these guys just because I drive by their corporate headquarters all the time.  No.. They’ve built themselves up from a ‘warehouse’ store of sorts to a fully packaged interactive delivery machine (with open jobs ;)) They only have a handful [relative to the other companies] with req’s around Virtualization, but the opportunities are there!

    Search for Careers at CDW here!

    Veeam

    I want you to know that these guys do not get a mention because they throw amazing parties at events and I practically know (and have known) nearly the entire company since they started.  No…  These guys NEED Virtualization guys, and they are some of the bread and the butter which helps drive this whole Virtualization world! (Cmon, Get your gold here!)

    I cannot say just how many open req’s there are – but talk about opportunities across the entire stack! Sales! Support! Marketing! Technical! There’s no going wrong, and win win win!

    Search for Careers at Veeam here! (And I can always introduce you to the right folks there as well!)

    Citrix

    Hey now! I thought this post was all about VMware! Next thing you know you’re gonna talk about Hyper-V?!? (No.. I’m not… Microsoft’s site is VERY challenging to search through, so they won’t be included, that and they have a trillion jobs so it’s hard to break it down to SPECIFIC to Virtualization ;)) But might I add on a separate note, weekly I get mails from recruiters asking me if I have any candidates (for vendor or for customer side) with Citrix knowledge/expertise/etc.   I imagine a lot of those guys have been…. moving around, causing some rifts of sorts!   So the opportunities are ripe if you love the Citrix stack! (Hey, I’m Metaframe and Winframe certified… and current today too.. so I’m no stranger to Citrix ;))

    Search for Careers at Citrix here!

    Thin Clients (Wyse, 10zig, Pano Logic, nComputing)

    Okay, I’m not going to lie to you.   There aren’t really any Virtualization positions at these top Thin Client type companies (But when you think of Virtualization and VDI… you think of thin clients right? …. You better?;)) But they do have a handful of careers among the group of them (numerous high level jobs too!)  So, don’t disregard the opportunity they provide, just note; they’re not looking for virtualization as much as others, FYI :)   – For ease.. the hot-links in the Thin Clients heading will take you to their respective career pages!

    HyTrust

    Okay… I talked to and interviewed these folks at VMworld 2010 (Well, Roger Lund did I think I recorded it, either way!) these guys are a virtualization startup, they are hiring light [as any startup should] but definitely should be someone to watch! And if you’re looking to join a start-up to take the world by storm… Yea, check it out :)

    Search for Careers at HyTrust here!

    Rackspace

    Whoa, why are these guys on this list?!?  Hey, I wanted to high-light them…  they definitely fall more into the Cloud Stack which has a strong effect on Virtualization and (blah blah blah, won’t he shut up about Cloud?) Seriously though! You bettah recognize! I hear about Rackspace all of the time from all over, so may as well invest in your career there if you see it fit :)  [It doesn’t hurt that someone I care about tells me how cool they are too, so why not make sure you know too ;)]

    Search for Careers at Rackspace here!

    Apigee

    In the spirit of gold rushes, Apigee the API’s of the Internets is also dealing with it’s own API Gold Rush, so I thought it relevant to include :)  This is something I’ll likely be talking about more in the future and the importance of open API’s as we transcend and interoperate within Clouds and Virtualization – so may as well get the insight first and foremost!

    Search for Careers at Apigee here!

     

    So my peers, colleagues, friends and beyond, where does this leave us? (Other than at 5am still up from medicine to correct my lung infection I have grin)

    I’m sure you’ll easily go on record saying “Whoa, this is only a few thousand jobs around a very specific [or even broad] technology!”  Yea, that’s exactly what I’m saying.   I chose a HANDFUL of companies who allowed me access to their insight of their own business needs to reflect on the industry respectively.    I am saying those of you who invested in virtualization years ago? It is RIPE to move up and beyond!  And for those of you who only recently started dabbling in virtualization or even still to adopt it and check it out?  The SAME opportunities exist!  

    I figure, there are around 15,000 REALLY good virtualization jobs out there for skill sets at the lowest (and ALWAYS at the highest levels).  However, the sad part is, there aren’t that many skilled candidates out there to pursue these opportunities that do exist, [with or without the drive and passion we all want].  

    We are at an EPIC point here in the industry.  Never before have there been so many necessary roles to fill by these gold-seekers.  Seeking you.   My good friends, Virtualization, Cloud, API’s, even SERVERS are Gold!   Don’t wait until it is too late and “Everyone is doing it”.  Do it now.  Invest in YOU today.   Believe me, you’ll be the winner.     Do not hesitate to contact me directly for additional anecdotal evidence around jobs like these across all companies, expectations, thoughts, perspective and why you should pursue something like this.   I’ve been doing x86 virtualization since the beta-dawn of VMware, and so many other things in those days and since.   Please don’t wait until 10 years from today to invest in your future.

    If you feel a specific company was not represented adequately or you would like to be represented in this list – Do not hesitate to get in touch, and I’ll do whatever I have in my power to introduce the community to your virtual careers :)  Good luck, and Good future my friends.