Has VMware just killed some certification kudos?

So I woke up this morning to what would seem to be an innocuous email from VMware Education confirming some changes to the candidate IDs. Nothing much interesting here:

“To streamline the certification exam registration process, and provide you a single consolidated view of your training and certification histories, we have updated our candidate tracking systems. Part of this update was the creation of a new Candidate ID for all users. Your former Candidate ID VCP###### has been replaced by VMW-########X-########. This new ID will be recognized at both vmware.com/certification and pearsonvue.com/vmware.

From now on, when you are ready to register for a VMware certification exam, you will begin at vmware.com/certification. Once you have registered with VMware and received authorization, you can proceed to pearsonvue.com/vmware to schedule your exam date, time and location.

Please keep your new Candidate ID handy. Should you misplace this email, you can find your Candidate ID by logging in at vmware.com/certification to access myPreferences.”

Until we get to this bit:

“Note: We will no longer be using “Certification Numbers” such as 00001 or VCAPDCA-123456 going forward. If you are a veteran certified individual, you’ll find your original VCP Certification number reflected in the last digits of the new Candidate ID.”

I may be reading this wrong, but it would appear that you will no longer have a VCAP or VCP number… Perhaps worse still, maybe not even a VCDX number?!

Not massively important in the grand scheme of things (especially since VMware jumped from ~550 to >2000 when the VCAP5 came out so it’s hard to keep track of how many there are now as it is!). Still, a bit of a downer for people who want to show that not only have they been certified, but were perhaps some of the pioneers in doing so.

Just my 2p… I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this? Does anyone actually care?

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