One of the benefits of being a faculty member at an accredited college, is the opportunities provided to faculty by industry for faculty development. A few months ago, after completing my VMware VCP 5 certification, I learned that the Mid-Pacific Information and Communications Technologies Center was hosting a “Faculty Development Week” from June 25th-29th at Ohlone College in Fremont, California. The workshop that caught my eye was the one titled Citrix Desktop Virtualization, and appeared to mirror the five (5) day XenDesktop Administration (CXD-202-1) instructor led class. Even though I was planning this summer to focus on VMware View certification by completing their VCP5-DT certification exam, a detour made sense given the fact that XenDesktop and VMware View are competing products and having the knowledge of both virtual desktop solutions makes sense.
Because of a scheduling conflict, I was unable to attend the first day of instruction. Fortunately my knowledge of VMware’s vSphere line of products, coupled with some preliminary studying I’d done in reading the VMware View courseware proved an acceptable substitute for what was covered in the first day. Class went about as well as those five (5) day course can go for students who walk into class with a background in virtualization products.
The course was given in conjunction with the rolling out of an “Academic Program” by Citrix. As a promotional effort, Citrix is providing accredited academic institutions that sign up for the program with a host of free resources, that includes training and certification. Yesterday I received my voucher for the Citrix XenDesktop 5 Basic Administration exam (1Y0-A19). Plan is to spend this next week studying for the exam (thankfully I have this summer off), and take the exam on “Friday the 13th.” I’ll keep you informed as to how it goes.