Designers vs Administrators

Designers have a different set of skills as the administrators. VMware reflects this in the type of certifications it is offering. VCAP-Design is a certification track that focusses on the design architecture. VCAP-Deploy is a certification track that focusses on the implementation and administration.

This article is part of my VCDX blog article series that can be found here.

This is applicable for all VMware certification technology tracks (the below 4 on the time of writing):1) Data Center Virtualisation (DCV) 2) Cloud Management and Automation (CMA) 3) Desktop and Mobility (DTM) 4) Network Virtualisation (NV)The VCDX is a design related exam as well but on a more advanced level.

The Venn diagram illustrates this.

Administrators will learn more about the day-to-day operational tasks like:

1) Creating VM's 2) Creating (Distributed) vSwitch (Port Groups) 3) Deployment of ESX hosts 4) Task automation of common tasks

Architects will need have a broader vision and need to have knowledge about multiple technology areas like operating systems, networking, storage and security. They need to have a holistic view and understand the relation between the components (in the technology areas) mentioned above. An architect needs to understand what the design impact will be between the components and needs to explain what the impact is when something (components / technology) changes.

The term "holistic" means:

When you have a holistic view of an (vSphere) architecture you cannot talk only about compute in an isolated form and not take storage into account, or talk about networking in an isolated form and not take security into account. All of these components are "intimately interconnected".

The architect and administrator are not always two different people. In smaller companies this is usually the same person and in larger companies these roles are usually divided between multiple people. Usually the growth path is that administrators will move to an architecting role in the future ... This does not mean that an administrator is below and architect, but this is just to point out the growth path.

The people who are typically take care of the architectural design bit (when not employed by the company) are usually a vendor or a partner both using Professional Services.

This article is part of my VCDX blog article series that can be found here.