Tag Free

VMware Hands On Labs – The best kept FREE secret you don’t know about

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Education, Free, Virtualization, vmware

VMware Hands-on Labs invite a friend

Are you familiar with VMware’s Hands On Labs? You know, that thing they make available at VMworld and filled with so much training, dedication, effort, awesomeness? If not, then you should be! One of the best kept secrets about it… Is if you go to the links that you THINK work for it, sometimes they don’t even work, they’ll TELL you about the Hands On Labs, but not provide an actual LINK to the hands on labs! Kind of distressing! :)

VMware Hands On Labs - Project Nee

For example if you go to this awesome link you’ll find all about Project Nee, all the benefits, all of the details about the labs. But no where in there is an actual LINK which will take you to the labs!  But don’t worry, you’ll be able to find it here, and various places throughout this blog post!

You can also check out and keep updated at the VMware Hands-On Lab (HOL) Blog which shares details about what’s new, and what else is going on!

What’s new?

  • HOL-SDC-1401 – Cloud Management with vRealize Operations
  • HOL-SDC-1420 – OpenStack with VMware vSphere and NSX
  • HOL-SDC-1421 – Brokering IT Services and Applications with vCloud Automation Center
  • HOL-MBL-1451 – Horizon 6 with View from A to Z
  • HOL-MBL-1452 – Horizon View – Use Cases
  • HOL-MBL-1453 – VMware Workspace Portal – Explore and Deploy
  • HOL-MBL-1454 – Applied ThinApp with the Horizon Suite
  • HOL-MBL-1455 – Managing Desktops with VMware Mirage
  • HOL-MBL-1456 – Horizon DaaS – Explore and Deploy
  • HOL-MBL-1457 – AirWatch – Explore and Deploy

And so much more. Seriously, there’s so many labs, so much useful content that it’s worth checking out.  Oh and did I mention Free? Let me try again FREE!

This is seriously the best kept VMware Secret that you may never know about and likely didn’t realize how much you appreciate it.  So check it out!

Free, discounted, and reduced Certifications and Training!

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Certification, Community, Education, Free

So I came across this gem not too long ago (I’ll be duplicating their content here in the event that it ever ‘disappears’ from the source)  Also I’ll be introducing some additional training resources and such which they did not cover or reflect, to make sure you have access to as much Free as possible!

That covers one bulk of entries which I’ve been meaning to share for awhile, and here are the rest from that other site! by j23evan <3

Free/Reduced Certifications – Free/Reduced Training 2014 Edition

Free Certifications 2014 For Everyone:

For IT Professionals:

  • VMware VSP & VTSP – Secure Customer Login – VMware offers fantastic training and certifications for partners with their VMware Sales Professional and VMware Technical Sales Professional Certifications.
  • F5 University for Partners – https://university.f5.com/ – F5 offers several sales and technical accreditations for partner company employees.
  • Citrix Partner Central – https://www.citrix.com/partnercentral/home.html – Citrix offers free training on their products as well as the CCSP 2013 for partner company employees.

Inexpensive Certifications

  • Brocade Accreditations – $20 – Accreditation Exam Information – Brocade has 11 web based Accreditation’s that are only $20. They also offer Free training PDF’s for each course.
  • HP Specialty Certifications – $10-45 – https://www.myexpertone.com – HP has a series of web based Certifications (HP2-HP5 Prefix) of inexpensive exams.
  • Apple Associate Exams – $65 – Training and Certification – Thankfully Apple is moving away from their Authorized Training Centers (aka Robber Barons) to Pearson, and are offering their Associate level Exams online from the comfort of your home for $65 and free training PDF’s/iBookstore books.
  • Google Apps Education Qualification / YouTube Digital Citizen Certification – $15 – Google Apps Education Training Center – Google has 5 Exams that are $15 a piece that once all are completed earn you the Google Apps Education Qualification. The exams are web based and all training material is provided for free.
  • M.I.T. XSeries Certification in Computer Science – https://www.edx.org/xseries – Massachusetts Institute of Technology is offering an inexpensive certificate to those who attend and pass their courses. Absolutely brilliant, they follow a traditional semester mold and would look fantastic on a resume. They have a supply chain certificate as well. (thanks Stryder144)
  • OSHA 10-Hour General Industry Certification – $25 –http://campus.careersafeonline.com/p…chString&#x3d; – Yes I know it’s not an IT Certification. Proving that you have attended and passed the 10 Hour OSHA training course will give you a leg up over other applicants in certain industries. They also have a Cyber Safety Awareness program.

Reduced Certifications

  • Microsoft Exams through Prometric (070, 071, MTA) – Retake Microsoft Certification Exam for Free | Microsoft – Microsoft’s Second Shot is back! Now through May 31st, 2014 you can obtain a voucher to have a free retake on almost all of their technical exams. Dynamics is sadly excluded.
  • Microsoft Exam Pack Discount – http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en…xam-packs.aspx – Microsoft is offering a 15% off discount for purchasing all 3 exams towards an MCSA, MCSD, and MCSE. Now through May 31st, 2014 you will also receive a free second shot with the discount.
  • Microsoft Virtualization Certification – Microsoft Virtual Academy – Microsoft is offering a 50% discount for anyone who signs up and attends their free online jump start training. The exam is 74-409: Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center. They are also introducing a free MVA course for it as well and you can watch it on demand on Expires June 30th, 2014.(Thanks SweenMachine)
  • Check Point – Training and Certifications – Check Point is offering 50% off all examination retakes and provides free training.
  • Juniper Fast Track – https://learningportal.juniper.net/j…rack_home.aspx – Juniper is offering a 50% discount on 4 of their exams by taking and passing a free pre-assessment. Best of all they offer free elearning as well! (Thanks Zartanasaurus)
  • Stanley Community College – VCP-DCV VMware Course – VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage – Definately the best education deal for VMware, though unfortunately you need to go on a waiting list. For $200 you get the full online VMware Academy course as well as a 70% off Exam voucher. The labs are great and the instructors are great.
  • Oracle Beta Exams – Beta Info – Oracle offers beta exams for $50 instead of $150-$245. You can see what the release date is for each and when to expect a score report. As far as training goes… Oracle isnt the most benevolent of companies to starving IT professionals.
  • Get Certified 4 Less – http://www.getcertified4less.com/Sea…ts.asp?Cat=129 – Get Certified 4 Less runs short sale specials discounting specific exam vouchers that must be taken rather soon. In addition to that they tend to sell exam vouchers $10-20 less than directly from the vendor. (Thanks Kriscamaro68 and shyguyIT)

For IT Professionals:

  • Brocade CNE – Education – Promo Code: CNE250BCNEPromo – Brocade is offering a Free BCNE exam voucher for current CCNA holders with purchase of the $100 CNE 250 training.
  • Microsoft Partner Network/Prometric 40% Discount – https://www.prometric.com/en-us/clie…age/index.html – Prometric is running a special where Microsoft Partners can purchase 5 Exam vouchers for 35% off, or 20 vouchers for 40% off. With a free second shot. Offer Valid through May 31st, 2014 and exams must be taken by December 31st, 2014.

For Students:

  • CA Technology 60% off – http://www.ca.com/us/education/accre…ation-faq.aspx – If you are a full-time college student in good academic standing, please contact certification@ca.com and attach a JPEG image of your current student id card. They will email you a voucher which will enable you to receive a 60% discount. Limited to one voucher per 12-month period.

Free Training

  • CNWP –CWNP | My Account Home – CWNP is giving away a voucher for a free lifelong practice exam engine for the certification of your choice by signing up.
  • LPI – Practice Questions and Self-Study Materials | Linux Professional Institute (LPI) – LPI Provides free training material for all of their Exams.
  • VMware Hands On Labs– VMware – NEE – VMware has a large collection of hands on labs that have tasks associated with them running the gamut of all of their offerings. A great resource to test new technologies, or brush up on material. Oh and it’s free.
  • Google Digital Analytics Fundamentals – https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/preview – Google is offering free training with hands on labs for their analytics platform.
  • Scrum Training – Scrum Training Series: Free Scrum Master Training – To Quote: "Free Online Scrum Master Training: The fun way to learn about Agile/Scrum, prepare for Scrum Master certification / Agile certification, and debunk popular misconceptions. (Thanks N2IT)
  • Microsoft Virtual Academy – http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/ – Microsoft has a very in-depth training website covering almost all of their products and offerings.
  • IT Masters CISSP Short Course – Free Short Course: CISSP Security Certification | IT Masters – IT Masters in conjunction with Charles Sturt University is offering a free short course training in CISSP. (thanks Stryder144)
  • Degreed – Degreed – The Digital Lifelong Diploma – Degreed is an interesting site that is all about free online classes, aggregating them, and tracking credit for what you have done in them, tradition school, and other training sources to provide a new millennium "degree" program highlighting your knowledge and skills. Microsoft Virtual Academy classes transfer over.

For IT Professionals

  • Microsoft Partner Network – https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/Pages/index.asp – A fantastic training site that explores in most Microsoft products and has assessments. Most assessments can be linked to specific partner competencies, and the best part is the completed courses are tied to you. If you change companies and associate your Microsoft Professional account with them they will get all the benefits of what you have accomplished.
  • EMC Powerlink – http://powerlink.emc.com/ – EMC Powerlink is for employees of Partner Organizations to learn and take assessments validating Sales and Engineering for both EMC Solutions and RSA Security.
  • Meraki – Cisco Meraki Webinars – Free Meraki 802.11n cloud managed AP for attending a webinar. IT professionals only, you must register with your company email.

Reduced Training

  • Western Governors University – Online University | Online Degree Programs | The University of You – As many of you are aware, WGU is one of the best deals in post-secondary education. Think of it as the public version of Phoenix University. It’s Online, Accredited, Accelerated, and Inexpensive. For my broke IT professionals you can get student loans via fafsa (Yes its debt, but think of it as a down payment for a better future). The majority of their IT classes revolve around obtaining a certification, and they give you all the training you need. You can actually structure and accelerate your classes to where your term is cheaper than it would be to get the certs separately, and you earn college credit.
  • University of the people – http://www.uopeople.org/ – Is a non-profit, US accredited, tuition free online university that targets itself to everyone in the world. It offers both 2 and 4 year degrees in Business Administration and Computer Science. The caveat is while they do not charge tuition, you must pay $100 for each final exam. Wikipedia has some interesting info on them http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UoPeople(thanks cknapp78)

Associations & Membership Perks For Everyone

  • Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) – FREE – CSTA – Individual Membership – The CSTA is focused on IT Education, and unlike the title says is not just for educators, but anyone interested. From time to time Microsoft offers free MTA exam vouchers to member, and other vendors provide perks, as well as being given a full ACM Membership.
  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) – $19/$99 – Membership &mdash; Association for Computing Machinery – ACM is an incredible value for students at $19 a year, or IT professionals at $99 a year. (That is if you aren’t interested in education and opt for the CSTA membership). Member perks include Free access to Safari, books24x7, and skillsoft. Email forwarding and filtering through postini with an @acm.org email, access to their digital library and tri-weekly news emails keeping you up to date. Additional perks as a Student member include Microsoft Dreamspark/Dreamspark Premium (Yay free software! And typically a free MS Voucher yearly) , and CA Academic Initiative.
  • Microsoft DreamSpark/DreamSpark Premium – Free, Students only –https://www.dreamspark.com/Student/Default.aspx – Microsoft has a decent program for students that give them access to free software in the Programming/Server fields. If your school is awesome they will have access to DreamSpark Premium which gives you a plethora of keycodes and software that rivals the midrange MSDN account. WGU and Stanly CC are both Premium members. Both offer VMware software and keycodes, as well as VMware voucher and training discounts.
  • Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) – $25+/$165+ – Join ISACA – IT Professional – IT Student – IT Educator – Memberships | ISACA – ISACA is for the big boys and cool kids. Those that are certified are typically more tenured higher level IT professionals. You are required to pay your local chapter dues in additional to the association dues, but $25 is fantastic for students. You get access to networking events, continuing education, COBiT access and data, and discounts on their certifications. Even the professional level at $165 pays for itself after 1 exam.
  • Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) – $30/$95 – https://www.issa.org/?page=MembershipTypes – ISSA is a great resource for people looking to network or break into the InfoSec world. While not as many tangible benefits as ISACA, at $30 for students and $95 for professionals it is a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of chief information security officer challenges.
  • Project Management Institute (PMI) – $32/$129 – Types of PMI Memberships | Project Management Institute – PMI is still the gold standard in project management, and the benefits of membership enable you to discounts on their certifications, a free digital edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), discounts on training and resources, and great networking opportunities. If you are pursuing the PMP or Associate of PMP $32 for students and $129 for professionals is a great deal.
  • The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) – $250 – Become a CompTIA Member – CompTIA membership is different from being CompTIA certified. Membership is primarily aimed at companies, but what IT professional isn’t a consultant on the side? This year they had a $100 discount on membership for people who signed up to go to their free conference. Not if you actually went, just signed up. At $250 for an individual I am not sure it is as good of a deal, but the perks are Free CompTIA Executive Certifications and training, 80% discount on your first voucher purchase, 15% off every following voucher purchase. (80% off casp+ for $150 and 15% off every other voucher sold me)
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – $32/$187 – IEEE – Join IEEE – The IEEE is probably the most important association in the IT industry. Student members get another DreamSpark Premium Account. All members get access to publications, standards, networking, googleapps@IEEE (An IEEE.org email, advertisement free gmail, 30GB of shared storage Google Drive/Gmail), and a tremendous amount of other benefits.
  • VMware User Group (VMUG) – Free/$200 – http://www.vmug.com/l/pw/rs – VMUG is a great resource for VMware enthusiasts. Membership is free, and includes free access to local conferences, meetups with local chapters, and discounts on elearning books. For $200 you can become an Advantage member which will give you 35% off VMware Lab Connect, 20% off VMware-Delivered Classes, 20% off VMware Certifications, $100 Discount to VMworld, and 50% off VMware Fusion and Workstation Licenses. In the spring and summer to generate memberships they like to include a free VMware voucher (Which makes it a no brainer).
  • Help Desk Institute (HDI) – $35/$165 – http://www.thinkhdi.com/membership.aspx – HDI membership offers discounts on their certifications and training, as well as access to white papers and networking events. At $35 for students you will immediately recoup the membership on the first exam you take.
  • ASIS International – $25/$215 – https://www.asisonline.org/Membershi…s/default.aspx – ASIS International is another specialized higher end security education and certification firm. Membership benefits include discounts on exams and education materials.
  • Microsoft Partner Network – https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/Pages/index.aspx – For seasoned IT professionals, or those who do side consulting/run a SOHO, one great perk is joining the Microsoft Partner Network. It is free to sign up for, even if you are already associated as a Microsoft Professional to your Primary Employer you can create one for your side business. After taking a short assessment you can purchase an Action Pack subscription for $475 which entitles you to internal use licenses to run your business. Office, Windows, Windows Server, Exchange, RDS CALS, SharePoint and System Center are all included.

Third Party Transferable Certifications

  • CIW Security Specialist & Professional – http://www.ciwcertified.com/_resourc…ity_series.pdf – CIW gives credit to MCTS, CCNA, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, Security+ certification holders who have passed the entry level CIW Security exam the second and third level designation.
  • Linux+ Certification 5-in-1 Piñata – CompTIA Partnership | Linux Professional Institute (LPI) – Originally called 3in1, then 4in1, now 5in1: If you pass Linux+ 101 and 102 from CompTIA to earn the Linux+ designation, you are eligible to receive LPIC-1, Novell CLA, Novell Suse 11 Technical Specialist, and Novell Data Center Technical Specialist.
  • Cloud Certification Council – Grandfather Program for Cloud Experts – The CCC is a newly created vendor agnostic certification council made up by a conglomerate of several vendors to offer a higher level credential. Now until June 2014 you can submit your resume and certifications (along with a fee) to be grandfathered in to the program.
  • Alcatel-Lucent – http://www3.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/p…h2VAQAKBjLlw!! – Alcatel-Lucent accepts current Cisco & Juniper certification holders to satisfy their entry level Network Routing Specialist I and II exams.
  • HP Fast Track Program – Fast track program | HP ExpertOne – HP Officers fast track certifications and recognition of Cisco, NetApp, and EMC credentials in lieu of their courses/exams. (Also includes ATA with Certiport)

As you can see this is a metric training ton of information and training! Use it. Be better for it. Share it. Visit the source and thank j23evan for producing this awesomeness! Enjoy!

Interested in becoming a SolarWinds Certified Professional FOR FREE?!?!

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Careers, Certification, Free, Technology, WTF

Whoa, whoa, whoa wait a minute WTF? FREE EXAMS? WHERE DO i SIGN UP?! Hold a minute. This isn’t just an arbitrary free exam.

SolarWinds Certified Professional Program!

This is an arbitrary exam which comes with a Prep Guide and a wealth of training and education to SUPPORT your taking and passing the exam! <3

Steps to SCP Success!

Steps Steps Steps! Wow, it can’t get easier than this (Okay, it can!)

The SolarWinds Learning Center!

It all starts at the Learning Center which breaks down each portion of the exam into Exam Objectives with respective training, education, videos and webinars, books and reference material and a load of other resources like SolarWinds Labs to help prepare and educate you for success!

Registering for the Exam consists of sending an email to the SolarWinds folks providing some details and then M-F within a decent period of time (It took me less than a days time) I received the link and credential information to take the SolarWinds Certified Professional Exam!

OMG i'M A SOLARWINDS CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL!

And Poof, that’s it! Prepare, Register and then take the exam from the comfort of your own respective computer, no magical testing center to go to or lines to stand in!  If you think it can’t be this easy, I have to say, wow it is. So if you find yourself as someone who has or does work with SolarWinds or someone who WANTS to add that line item to their resume and career profile then look no further than this as a good way to progress!

One cool thing I learned recently is that SolarWinds model is “Try before you buy” and all of their products are available for a free 30 day trial to get your feet wet and see if it does what you want it to. Fast, Ready, and easy to work with spells awesome!

Free VMware Associate Certification and Training for a Limited Time! Register Today! #VCA #VMware

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Certification, Education, Free, Technology, Virtualization, vmware

    Maybe you’ve heard all the rage about the new Certification Exams from VMware at the Associate Level called the VCA! (VMware Certified Associate) and maybe you haven’t! Well, guess what, You’s gonna hear about it now! :)  So a few things regarding these new Associate level certifications…

    THEY’RE FREE TO TAKE AND INCLUDE FREE TRAINING!!!

    And the test is delivered via the Web – Online from where you are!

    ###UPDATE!### – Inline in the comments Phil Wiffen points out what I had forgotten… The code is valid until at LEAST Nov 15th, so act SOON! Also you must take the exam within 48 hours of booking it (hence it expiring in 2 days).

    Yea you heard me right.  Now this won’t be free forever, but right now if you use the right formulae of success criteria (detailed inline here) you can get this for free. I’ve heard rumor this expires at the end of this year so get it done STAT! I also heard rumor it expires at the end of November, again knock it out!

    You can start out by visiting the VMware Pearson Vue site located at http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware/ which gives you a handy dandy screen like this..

    VMware Certification Testing

    Below this little list here includes a whole bunch of links you can use to go and register for Authorization and Register for Exams.  If you read a previous blog post A Must-Read before taking your next #VMware VCP or VCAP Exam!!! it included the steps of how to go about requesting authorization to take an exam.   But I’ll mention it here, you’ll need to request authorization to take the exam before you can even register for the exam, and thus schedule the exam respectively!

This little list here not only includes a link to take you directly to the FREE training videos, but the grouping below also takes you to the individual sites for each track to Request Authorization and Register for the exams!

    Simply click "Request Authorization" for an exam – and then choose the "Register for the Exam" option!

    Then click "Schedule an Exam" after which you select the “Associate and Professional Level Exams” and you’ll need to login then!

    Associate and Professional Level Exams - VMware

    If you’ve never done an Online Pearson Vue exam you should create a web account. The process whereby you requested authorization will supply you with the Candidate ID which is required to make this setup complete! I ran into the problem whereby my account was sort of messed up and tied to another account which did not let me login. As I know that VMware Education is so good at cleaning up and merging accounts…. I opt’d to create a new account on a different email alias of mine which also created ANOTHER Candidate ID, but at least it let me register then! :)

    After logging in you should have the option to Register for a Pre-Approved exam!

    image

    WARNING! Unless you’re rocking your Chinese … Change it from the DEFAULT!

    Exam Details for the VCAD510 - VCA-DCV

    OMG ITS $120 YOU LIED TO ME! YOU SAID IT WAS FREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! whoa, hold on there!

    My Order for the VCA Launch Campaign!

    MORE LIES! YOU SAID ITS FREE NOW ITS ONLY HALF PRICE!@#!@#$@#!@#  Don’t fret yet… wait until you get to the Payment Screen..

    Voucher / Promotion Code VCA13ICS for Free VCA Exam

    Enter this handy dandy code “VCA13ICS” which I’ve borrowed from my dear friend Rasmus Hedlund from his blog post VMware VCA exam experience plus FREE exam voucher

    Additional discount / voucher codes available at Free VMware VCA Certification Voucher! thanks to @FrankBrix ! Look below as well.

    Coupon Codes:

  • VCA13ICS (Expires November 15th)
  • VCA13BCN (Expires end of November)
  • VCA13GKN (Supposed to be good until Jan 31 2014)
  • VMRT6B404C7B (Expires January 31st)

    • Order Total of $0 FREE

    OMG OMG OMG ITS FREE FREE FREE! Yea. Get it while you can! For some reason mine said mine is only able to taken over the next 2 days which scares me into thinking OMG this won’t last… So get out there and register!

Want to attend #VMworld for Free?!!? vDestination’s contest ends 14 Jun 2013!!!

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Free, virt, Virtualization, vmware, VMworld

So, I knew about this contest that Greg Stuart @vDestination was running and I wanted to make sure that YOU knew about it too!

vDestination is sending you to VMworld 2013… for free!!!

Every year since Greg has been doing this, I’ve been telling you about it, and hoping that one of you will win! I mean, ONE of you will win, certainly.. and I want to make sure that as many people get their opportunity for their free pass and all the rest to get there and experience VMworld for themselves!

I’m in the process of writing the 2013 Guide to VMworld as I write this, but you have –10- days to enter and win this contest, so I wasn’t going to let it wait any longer! Get over to vDestination.com and ENTER and hopefully WIN!

Some of you might be asking, “Is anyone else running a contest like this?” Well… a FEW companies were, but they aren’t running it anymore. As in, it’s over.  This may be your last chance.   But also, let it be known… if you’re buying passes for VMworld, Early-Bird discounts are still available and good until June 10th.  So you have 6 days to get $500 off… so if you work for a not-so-cheap-ass company who can send you, get them a discount! :)

GO ENTER! WIN!