Johan Grové, an solutions expert at Johannesburg-based Aptronics, has become the first Veeam Certified Architect in South Africa.
Veeam Software recently introduced the advanced course for system engineers, Veeam Certified Engineer (Advanced: Design and Optimisation V1), a two-day technical course on how to design and optimise the Veeam Availability Suite solution, following Veeam Solutions Architects’ best practice guidelines.
Aimed at IT specialists who are looking to become industry-recognised architects on the Veeam Availability Suite solution, typically, the course would be of interest to system engineers and administrators, backup and virtualisation administrators, as well as solution architects and consultants.
“As we move into the enterprise space, we find increasingly complex, integrated environments that require detailed planning and customisation of service and design before we even begin an installation of Veeam Availability Suite,” says Claude Schuck, regional manager for Africa at Veeam.
According to Schuck, this commitment to skills development bodes well not only for Veeam and the partner ecosystem, but also for end-user customers − especially larger enterprises with thousands of virtual machines to backup − who will be able to use Veeam Availability Suite to its fullest potential.
“At Veeam we’re always looking to evolve and identify new training programmes when needed. We’re not only trying to encourage a greater level of deployment of our software, but also help people move to the next level and in doing so, we’ve had to understand what skills and competencies are needed now and in the next few years. The beauty of the Veeam Certified Engineer (Advanced: Design and Optimisation V1) course, is that it provides the attendee with the required level of expertise and skills necessary to ensure that these complex implementations are carried out successfully using established best practice from across the Veeam network of architects,” adds Schuck.
Course participants are required to have a solid virtualisation, backup and recovery knowledge base, and must have already completed the standard three-day Veeam Certified Engineer certification. Both courses can also be completed together over a five-day period.
“The certification process includes a written examination, as well as workshops during which we are required to develop and present our own system designs. While the exam is quite challenging, it has helped advance my skills level when it comes to designing and optimising the Veeam Availability Suite solution,” says Grové.
The VMCE-A: D&O examination is made up of 40 randomised questions from each of the course modules. The exam must be taken at a Pearson VUE local testing facility, with certification being awarded to participants with scores of 70% or higher.
“There is a lot of study work, but being able to familiarise myself with the Veeam Availability Suite solution in our company lab by experimenting and testing various scenarios beforehand, was very useful,” adds Grové.
The VMCE-A: D&O certification will be available in South Africa in the near future, with local resellers required to have at least one Veeam Certified Architect in order to obtain or maintain their Veeam Platinum Partner status.
