I want to earn the solarwind certified is free

tansolarwind

Dear Sir .

I have a Question , Solarwind certified free ?

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nan

The fee for each SolarWinds Certified Professional exam is $200 and is valid for 3 years.

Please see my recent thwack post,SolarWinds Certified Professional Program Changes for 2019, for more information.

Thanks!

Nanette

P.S., rschroeder you have expired information from the 2009-2017 SCP program. See the post mentioned above for the updated information.

All comments

dgsmith80

No, it cost $200 - FAQ - How much does the exam cost? - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

bourlis

Nope, go to SolarWinds Certified Professional Exams are Live for details.

but here's the nuts & bolts....

OPTION A

YEAR	BENEFITS	FEE	Expires
Single exam option	Product exam One exam retake One year of benefits	$200 USD	3 years

OPTION B

YEAR	BENEFITS	FEE	Expires
First Year	Product exam One exam retake One year of benefits	$200 USD	Your certification is active as long as you are a subscription** member and attend required events/training
Subsequent Year(s)	Same benefits as year one, plus: New product exam One exam retake Loyalty recognition Maintain active certification on passed exams*	$200 USD

*Only includes exams that are part of the new SCP program.

**Your subscription does not auto-renew

javan

It used to be free certificate valid for 5 Years, currently it cost 200 USD and certificate valid for 3 Years.

mesverrum

Pretty sure they posted an update that they dropped the "subscription" model

Also I think they added an option to take one exam for 60,000 thwack points if you really want to do it free. Doing all the missions and special events will usually bring in 2-3000 points a month so it is pretty realistic that the effort to get a free exam might take almost two years. For reference, I have earned 68,000 thwack points in ~5 years but I stopped doing missions after I got my backpack the first year.

HerrDoktor

If you are a reseller, you can attend the Solarwinds Partner Summit to get your Training and Certification there.

janobi

What benefits are there of being SCP? Like if you're cisco certified your company gets a discount on products.

We have and use SW products in present company, and whilst i am proficient upon them, im not sure i could pass the exam.

We're not a reseller so there is no real benefit to my company that way, although we are looking at getting people certified.

grantallenby

Exams They have loads now. Design, NPM, SAM and NTA.

I think they were looking into call fast tracking for SCP holders. Not sure if that was confirmed. But regardless you get a cool Expert Badge next to your name

Its more of a competency proof exam. I don't think you really get anything special from Solarwinds for it, apart from maybe the above.

I do think they should do a bit more to grow the holder base. I think they quote over 5000 SCP's but that's not that much seeing as some work places have 1 instance but 4/5 people that use the product.

Some customers of ours do actually ask for SCP now, so traction is growing although slowly.

alexpf

Never stop doing missions!

rschroeder

Under the previous program, some of the benefits of becoming a Solarwinds Certified Professional included:

Access to NFR (Not For Resale) licenses for most (all?) Solarwinds products. These licenses are the smallest licenses, not an unlimited license, and getting free fully-supported access to them is (apparently) designed to let an SCP become familiar with them in a scaled-down environment. It's a great way for Solarwinds to get a foot in your company's door and show your internal staff how a particular product can solve their needs. Especially when your company doesn't own that product already. It's a great way to have more than just 30-days of free access to test a product and to actually use it in production at no cost to your company, as long as you can accept the license limitations. For example, the DPA NFR install, with SAM, is free for SCP's to install in the smallest license size--let's say it's three instances of SQL on one SQL server. That would be perfect for me to test on one server and three SQL databases for free. But my company has so many SQL and Oracles instances and databases that the list price exceeds $1M US. So we'll never buy it. But I could become proficient at its use and management in this scaled down SCP offering.
SCP's receive cool swag and a framed certificate
Once you know the product well enough to pass the SCP exam you have skills and a certification to bring to your current employer and justify an increase in pay and responsibility.
If you're job shopping, there are companies that list Solarwinds Certification as a desirable qualification.

The newer SCP program doesn't mention NFR licensing or swag, or even a framed certificate. Times change.

On the way to certification you can discover how to find answers to questions that have been covered in depth previously. For example, this virtually identical question from three years ago:

Re: What are the benefits or advantage to being an SCP?

And this full list of similar questions:

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/search.jspa?q=SCP%20benefits

The current certification path is of increased value since it requires being tested at certified testing centers, without access to online resources. If you pass the current SCP exam for any particular Solarwinds product, you really have to know it better than before, when it was an "on your honor" test, and a person could use any resource on the Internet, where others may have posted the questions and answers.

Getting employers to understand this means less chance of running into a "Paper MCE" who has the certificate but not the practical skill set.

Perhaps the most useful benefit about the current SCP path is you WON'T be the useless "expert" in the Dilbert cartoon who can't setup or fix anything.

Dilbert Comic Strip on 2000-08-31 | Dilbert by Scott Adams

chayden18

I have my current job because I have current SCP certification, with a CCNP. My salary doubled (plus a bit) once I got both those certs. I got it back when it was free, but I plan to re-up in a few years.

nan

The fee for each SolarWinds Certified Professional exam is $200 and is valid for 3 years.

Please see my recent thwack post,SolarWinds Certified Professional Program Changes for 2019, for more information.

Thanks!

Nanette

P.S., rschroeder you have expired information from the 2009-2017 SCP program. See the post mentioned above for the updated information.

rschroeder

Thank you for the update. I've modified my post accordingly.

jokerfest

lol on that Dilbert - I hadn't seen that one before

rschroeder

Also, one may "purchase" a certification test through the Thwack store if one is willing to accrue and spend the 60,000 points required.

You can also test for SCP for free if you happen to earn the MVP award.