AEO: What You Need to Know to Win | Field Notes

(upbeat music) - Hey, welcome to the Virtually Speaking podcast, coverage of VMware Explorer 2026, John. Are you getting certified today? You doing any training? What are you doing? - I think I'm gonna learn today something, so. - You gonna learn today? - I'm gonna learn today. - I like that, I like that, yeah. So most people come to VMware Explorer for a lot of reasons, right? Networking, they come to learn, obviously, they come to have free food and beer, but they also come to get certified, right? This is a place to come, right? Yeah, I hear it's pretty easy to take a cert test here, so. - Absolutely, yeah. So we're gonna be talking about the whole journey of certification, there's a lot to cover, there's a lot new going on, so we got a whole crew to join us here, starting with our good friend of the podcast, Mr. Drew Nielsen, Drew, welcome back. - Thank you to beer. - Awesome, next to you is Brett Gaurino, Brett, welcome back, and last but not least is VCDX number one, Mr. John, our shit, right? - Yes. - Absolutely, John. - Thank you. - So, yeah, we're gonna talk a couple of different things, let's just start with the Vcap, though. I know there's been a lot of changes in the Vcap, and so for some folks that are not familiar, maybe you can just go real high level, what is the Vcap and what's changed? - Yeah, so the Vcap, sort of the VMware certified advanced professional exams, so if you were here last year, we only have the VCPs out, which is the certified professionals, so this year we've increased our exam portfolio, 61%, with five domain-based Vcaps, which are very technology focused around storage, ops, auto, networking, et cetera, and we also have the rule-based Vcaps, which are much more platform-wide, admin, architect, and support. - Oh, okay. - So I like that admin-operate support, so explain what those personas look like. - Well, historically, we've looked at it, we've been very architecture-focused, and really we needed a pathway for our admins and our support professionals to demonstrate advanced expertise and knowledge within the VCF class. - Okay, so when Pete breaks it, these people will demonstrate they know how to fix it, so. - Yeah, he would need a lot of them. (laughs) - Yeah, I agree. Well, we've always thought about these advanced certifications as more of like specific technologies, is that still the case? - We have both, so if you wanna go deep on the tech, we have the domain-based Vcaps, if you really wanna be more of a platform expert, we have the role-based Vcaps. - Yeah. - So depending on which path you wanna take, we've got something for you. - I like that platform approach, because going too deep in one area is great, but like, oh great, you're amazing at networking, or you're really back in the EUC days when they were out, it's like you're really good at managing iPhones, but you know nothing about networking or vice versa, and people who are well-rounded can solve a lot of problems, and it's from a design basis, it's really helpful, for instance, to know multiple sub-areas, I feel like. - So yeah, obviously in the past, we had different individual certifications for different technologies, but now VMware Cloud Foundation is just one big product, so how does that affect the actual certifications? - You know, it gave us a lot of focus, and if you look where we were pre-acquisition, we had hundreds of exams, and thousands of pieces of content, and it just really allowed us to say, okay, what do we need to fly the airplane, right? - Yeah. - What do we need to run this platform? So it basically took us down to about 18 exams, and that's just been super helpful for us to really get our practitioners a path to wherever they're at, and also to do some other things that we're gonna talk about today. - Yeah, for sure, for sure, but I guess the one more question about VKAP I have is like, for folks that are just trying to get started and learn, like, is there a easy path to start? Like, is there a specific recommendation you have to get started, or does it just take whatever you want? - You know, we see a lot of different routes, but, you know, with a lot of the learning entitlements that our customers have, you have access to a library of either instructor-led training, on-demand training, and it's really just kind of how you want to jump into it. If you rather interface with people, we have something. If you want to learn on your own time, we got that too. - Yeah, I actually took one of your classes recently. - And you passed. - I did, I passed. - It was delicious. (laughs) - Yeah, it was really good. It was one of those on-demand classes, and I was listening to the whole thing, and I was thinking, "This is really good." This guy's good, whoever's teaching the class, and then I look at it was the guy next to you, Brett, and it was the actual teacher. So, Brett, good on you, man. If you could teach me, you could teach anybody. - Yeah, generally, I've got a little bit of experience in that department. So, at least I'm good at teaching one thing. So, architecture and VCF is right up there. - Absolutely. - So, the other thing I want to talk about is the VCDX. I mean, this is a program that's been around for a while. A lot of people know it, heck, John. I think you're a little familiar with it, right? - Yeah, a little bit. - I've definitely got some questions, but maybe you can just start by telling me like, what are some of the key changes between what it was and what it is? - Well, we've really evolved VCDX from where it was to where it is now, and really, we're gonna do our first actual defense in four years this week at Explore. But really, as we looked at the program and we developed these roles, we said look, it's time to really democratize the VCDX program and give the admins and the support professionals a path to get to that top tier cert to be able to really measure and show their employers, show other people. This is my level of expertise in the platform. So, we've really flushed it out. We've also given pathways through it. One of the things that you'll see in there now, you will take a BKS B cap to get a VCDX. Yeah, you will not be VCDX unless you understand modern apps, Kubernetes. That's just the way the world is now. That's where our customers are going. And if we're gonna put this out there, we need to show expertise across both VMs and modern workloads. - Yeah, so Brett or John, whoever are here, like what I've always heard of the VCDX is like this scary thing like where it's like, oh, I don't even know if I wanna go take it because there's like monsters in the room and they're gonna like, you're gonna have to fix this thing, they're gonna judge you, you're gonna fail. It's always been this intimidating thing. Is it still that way? - It has in the past, and there was a reason for it. We were looking for the VMware certified design expert at this level to get people that were working in professional services or in customer sites to be able to do the architecture and also the implementation. But the key thing is it's no longer VMware certified design expert, it's distinguished expert to cover those three tracks that we've been focused on. And we can go into details as we go along on some more of that. - But that's different because when I remember the first thing about VCDX, it was really focused on, it felt like it was almost focused more on a partner role. I mean, maybe some customers could approach it, but if you're gonna come in an expert design, you need to be rolling through designs. And if you're in an environment where like, you do a major design refresh once every five years, you're just not gonna get the reps in, you know? It's gonna be hard to do that. And so having those other tracks for the operator or the other looks like it gives people who-- - Flexibility, yeah. - Flexibility. - That's a great point. When I did mine, I was working with customers a lot, but not doing new designs for them. I had my own business that I was working with. We did, I was a managed service provider. I had three racks, I did my design based on that and I submitted it and defended it. So, but yeah, to the point, if you are not working with customers, you do not have designs. It's exponentially more difficult and challenging to produce a design. - To perfectly build a design that wasn't based off of, 'cause part of the joy that design is like the random questions. And well, there's one business here, there's one app necessitated this quirk of the design, like-- - Yeah, and the way you're speaking right now is exactly what we need to hear. So, that's a fantastic example. It's, I did this because the business needed that or it served the following business need, right? - It normally would be an anti-pattern, but yeah. So, it's very technical getting all the way there and then it becomes much more about the business. So, the whole process of going through and securing all the B-caps and then getting into the actual architectural scenario, that's where it becomes much more about the business and the logical and the conceptual. - And there has been an evolution in how we did things in the past, we would have a review in person of the design and then we would do a design scenario. And back in the day, we had a troubleshooting scenario. The change is that we do review of the design. If they meet the minimally qualified candidate requirements, they can move to the design scenario, which is a one hour session, we give you a scenario, we try to draw out information to make sure that you really can do the design, but it's not necessarily an evaluation of the design you submitted. There may be questions in the scenario that are related, but it actually helps us to prove it out without repeating what's done in the B-caps exams that are taking place. - Is that short in that traditional defense period? Wasn't it like long-term? - It was an hour and a half and it included the design scenario and the actual design defense. - It was a 75 minute design defense, and it followed by a 45 minute design scenario is what we had traditionally. - Okay, it was almost two hours before. - Yeah, and you would have a break in between 15 minutes so it ran a good two and a half hours. So when we talked earlier about the democratization of the VCDX, that's one example of how we're trying to make it more accessible, more scalable, and try to get through and have more candidates come through the program. - Yeah, we've also reduced the cost on it now. - Significant. - How they're having to travel burdens and everything else that says, it's what a standard exam costs at 250. - Oh wow. - Yeah, so you apply 250 years to make your design. - And can you do it remotely or? - We are gonna have a remote option. - Oh wow. - And yes, it will not all be in person. - Because yeah, that was a non-trivial and having to get everybody in the same city in the logistics, yeah. - It's the scaling factor. So we had gotten to 303 total VCDX as of 2023, I think. - Well, the last successful defense was 303. - Yeah, so we used AI to help him with the test news. - No slop design speed, no slop. - Hey, if you do a fictional design and use AI, I gotta say that's not a recommended approach because I've seen designs that people use AI on. The key is you have to demonstrate your skills in that design and it has to be customer facing because that's what we're trying to prove out here, whether it's support, admin, or the design area. - Yeah, if it's not something that you could put in front of a customer and sell, and when we say customer, we mean Fortune 500. If it's not that level, then we take exception to the design and that's gonna be a knock on it. You might still get through, but we're very critical of that. - Yeah, absolutely. - Use it as a co-pilot. - Yeah, co-pilot, co-pilot. - No pun intended, right? Test, evaluate, you know, and so on. - Fantastic for brainstorming ideas as you go through the process or even validating some ideas, but not as an engine to generate it. Can I give you an example of where there might be a problem? - Yeah. - Let's say that you're doing a design on a specific version of VCF, but then one of the components of your design doesn't match up or doesn't align. That's a huge flaw. And I've seen that happen with AI where it doesn't always have the full context, so it might take the changes. - The printing gun off was there and it's like, - Yeah, there you go. - Because of this limit from 9.0, that's not a 9.1 or 8-U3, and yeah, exactly. - Yeah, exactly. - I see that where people come to me with like, "Can't do this because of this." I'm like, "Well, where did you get that from?" And they're like, "Well, the AI guns." - Yeah, I love it when it's VCF and it starts going into 5.2 concepts. I'm like, "Well, 5.1, 5.0, 5.2." And like, I've seen somewhere it's back to 4 and I'm like, "Boy, that model was trained." - Yeah, no, you know, you're cut off. - And it does happen, so just-- - That's hilarious. Well, Drew, you alluded to this earlier, but yeah, Kubernetes is a big part of this certification. Now, how big is that in terms of the journey to VCDX? - Yeah, it's still a part of it, right? So we, just like any exam, we go through a job task analysis, we develop an outline, and the outline absolutely encompasses that, which means you, as a candidate, are accountable for it. So even if you do not include it in your design, let's say, you are going to be held to account for being able to speak to it. If your design is good enough to get you in, and you did not cover that in your design, you can expect that in the live portion, you will be challenged on that. - Well, we should focus on the areas of the gaps of the design. - Precisely, yeah. That way we've got a well-rounded-- - Can't do it. - You know, we're sure that we've tested the technical on the physical, but the design, and then the scenario to finally prove out, how do they think? You've got a, maybe a one out, think of it as a, you've got a one-hour discovery session. How do you get the info you need to proceed? - No, just self, I'm going to overcompplicate, I'm going to overcompensate my design on Kubernetes, and purposely be weak on storage. (laughing) - There's a lot of successful VCDXs who went on that similar route, where they loaded the design, where they were weak, hoping to not see it in the room. - Well, but of course, you learn that on the design, so like that's actually educational. - John, you put in all your cards on the table, man. - Yeah, when I did it a long time ago, networking was my blind spot, so I way over did networking, and still got smashed on it in the room. (laughing) They saw through all my smoking mirrors. - I love it, I love it. - Well, I know that we're at VMware Explorer, and a lot of folks are here training, learning, and getting certified. So what advice do you have for folks that are on this journey today? And I'll, each of you. - Yeah, I think understand the product. You know, definitely, you know, touch it, use it, 'cause more reps in and hands on the last slide. - Yeah, get the reps in, hands on the labs, all of it. Yeah, the training is there. Yeah, it's, and, yes, the more most important thing, just start. Yeah. - Yeah. - That's 80% of it. - Get through the hands-on labs, get the hands-on experience, but if you can build your own environment, that's gonna give you even more power to you. - I like it. - Brett, I'll give you the last word. - I would say, get started, don't quit. It's a journey. It's not a sprint, it is an absolute marathon. You will not succeed trying to sprint your way to a VCDX. It needs to be a comprehensive design, and one of the biggest things is prepare your family, prepare your friends. This is a significant investment in time and effort, and just know that the only guaranteed path to success in life and anything is sometimes failing until you succeed. And so, if you do fail, we aim to give you excellent feedback and tremendous enablement so that we can help drive more candidacy. I came here for education, I'm leaving with inspiration. I love this, gentlemen. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm virtually speaking. If you're listening to this, jump onto the VMware Cloud Foundation YouTube channel. We're gonna be live streaming all week, and we're also gonna be putting all of our videos available on demand. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much. - Thank you so much. Appreciate it. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)