Is the VCP-DTM Worth It?

Earning any VMware certification is great if you are responsible for maintaining and managing VMware technologies in your current role. VMware Desktop and Mobility certifications cater to professionals who must design, install, and manage VMware Horizon with View Environment deployed on a VMware vSphere installation.

To this end, the VCP-DTM 2020 certification seeks to verify a candidate's skills in managing VMware Horizon environments. Cert holders can also deliver secure, customized virtual desktops, applications, and online services to end users. Let’s look more in-depth at this cert and see if it fits with your career goals.

What is the VCP-DTM?

The VCP certifications are VMware's Certified Professional range of exams — and the DTM is the Desktop and Mobility segment of this certification line. The VCP DTM 2020 certification is achieved by completing the Professional VMware Horizon 7.7 exam (2V0-51.19). There are no prerequisites to write this exam, however there are some recommended courses, exams and training that VMware makes for prospective candidates. A full list of those can be found here.

Below are some of the exam objectives taken directly from the Exam Preparation Guide, a full version of which can be found here.

• Install and Configure Horizon Server Components

• Create and Configure Pools

• Configure and Manage the Identity Manager

• Configure and Manage User Environment Manager

• Configure and Manage App Volumes

• Configure vRealize Operations for Horizon

This exam is focused on virtualization technologies, especially in the virtualized desktop and mobility space. This means you will learn a lot about virtualizing desktops for users and creating enhanced experiences for users to stay productive.

How Much Does the VCP-DTM Cost?

The VCP DTM 2020 exam costs USD 250, and it has a time limit of 105 minutes. As far as the number of exam questions goes, the VCP-DTM has 65 questions in total, and the passing score is 300. The Professional VMware Horizon 7.7 exam follows the 'Format Single and Multiple Choice, Drag and Drop, Proctored' format of VMware exams.

What Experience Do You Need for the VCP-DTM?

We have briefly touched on the exam prerequisites, so now we will look at what experience you should have when considering it. VMware refers to minimally qualified candidates (MQC) who have a basic fundamental knowledge of vSphere installation and management.

You should know how to perform common vSphere operations, such as provisioning and administering VMs and setting up host networking and storage. Other basics include experience working on DRS, HA, and additional cluster-related vSphere controls.

VMware recommends that you have about 6-12 months of experience creating, setting up, and managing VMware Horizon environments and between 2 and 5 years of general IT experience.

This is to ensure that you already know about networking basics and concepts such as virtual machines and network-attached storage solutions. If you feel that you meet all of the basic criteria listed, you can go ahead and review the exam objectives to see what is expected of you to pass this exam successfully.

Who Should Take the VCP-DTM?

The VCP-DTM 2020 training is part of the professional series of VMware training. This is because it has been designed for IT professionals such as sysadmins and other IT roles where virtualization is used.

The focus of this exam is primarily aimed at professionals who rely on VMware Horizon products to get the job done. This VCP-DTM 2020 course has virtualization specialists in mind, and the basic requirement to successfully train for this exam should be a minimum of 3 – 5 years of working with technologies related to virtualization and virtual desktops.

This exam has been formulated so newcomers to VMware virtualization can learn the basic skills needed to enter the market as certified VMware professionals. For those with lots of hands-on experience, this is an excellent opportunity to validate the skills that you have learned on the job. We look at each scenario below and see how each scenario plays out.

Newcomers to VMware and virtualization. The VCP exam has some prerequisites, as stated above, but they are not so steep that they will exclude you from writing the exam if you lack some of the experience required.

The VCP-DTM 2020 has been designed to be highly beneficial to newcomers to system administration. For candidates who might be unfamiliar with VMware Horizon 7, the exam requires VCP knowledge. On the salary front, VCP holders on the low end of the pay scale earn $54,500 a year, according to ZipRecruiter.

Seasoned VMware pros. If you have worked in any administrative capacity in the past decade or more, the chances are high that you have used VMware products in one form or another.

VMware experience is always in demand, and certified professionals are in an excellent position to take advantage of this opportunity. Virtualization is the backbone of modern enterprise infrastructure, and having professionals on hand to maintain and administer this technology is more important now than ever before. Verify your skills by getting certified to make sure that you can show potential employers and colleagues that you have what it takes to keep systems running effectively. ZipRecruiter shows that in 2020, the national average for most VCP holders in the US was $141,195.

Is the VCP-DTM Worth It?

Many millions of people have discovered that they can work from home without needing to sacrifice the quality of experience that they are accustomed to in the office. The VCP-DTM exam is centered around VMware's virtual desktop solutions, which makes it a good cert to have in your profile in the current remote working climate.

Most certifications require dedication, hard work, and plenty of study time. The VCP-DTM is no different. There is a lot of material to cover in this certification. The foundational nature of the information that you need to study for the exam is not overly difficult, but there is a lot to cover if you are new to the VMware ecosystem of products. If you have already been working with VMware systems for some time, then this certification will help you to expand your knowledge while validating your skills and increasing your earning potential.