SolarWinds Certified Professional Exams are Live

Some good news there for all!!

By including MVP's and allowing purchase of the SCP exam for one year with 60k thwack points this is a step in the right direction.  Also I think I understand a little better now why the cost is there... the tests are now going to be proctored by a 3rd party network.  I can understand the $200 to take the test.  I still think $200 for the each subsequent year is high though... maybe 85-100 would make more sense and would get more support to pay the maintenance fee.  My guess is many will take the test then not pay $200 maintenance fee for two more years.

In other words... I'm betting there will a LOT more option A then B.

This works by going over the materials you have on the SCP site then taking the test?  Just want to make sure I am not missing anything for the training.

Thanks!

This is fantastic! I'm very glad that our responses were listened to. The new options outlined here make a lot more sense pretty much on all counts. Option A will probably see more volume, but option B is going to be great for people who are settled down with one company and more or less locked in on their role or career path and don't want to be bothered with retaking an exam every three years.

Could you elaborate a bit more on the "and attend required events/training" bit for option B expiration? I'm guessing this will work out similar to CEUs or something like that.

If we are on the option B path and our subscription expires, would our certs also expire 2 years after that? Similarly, if I'm somewhere after month 12 and before month 36 while in option A, if I pay $200 to begin active subscription status, does that immediately put me in the option B 1st year box?

In any case, love the overall look and feel of this program compared to what was proposed earlier this year.

I'm sorry, but I still feel like pricing is completely ridiculous for both options.

Having a SCP doesn't translate to a real word value and at the end of the day it's just not marketable. Having it on my resume doesn't give me the edge over the competition for a job and it sure as heck doesn't increase my salery.

I understand having it makes Solarwinds a better project, it improves Solarwinds the company and that it makes me a better System Admin, I just don't know if that's worth the price of admission.

I concur with this response, If it added substantial value similar to something of the likes of a Cisco certification I would be a lot more inclined to go this route and continue to stay up to date.

I would argue that depending on your job role and your company field then it would have some very specific market value. Yes, it isn't as generic as something like Cisco CCNA, but then what do you get back from Cisco once you have passed the exams? The SCP will give you access to continued learning as well as support from SolarWinds in tuning both your own knowledge as well as your current system.

And at the end of the day, if you don't feel it adds any current market value for your job role - don't take it. If you don't need it then why worry!

Don't get me wrong.  I want the cert and everything that comes along with it. As the administrator of Solarwinds I want to know the product better and I want the best support that we're already paying for.  In the big picture the price for having the SCP is too much.

Look at it this way.  We have 5 people in our team who are Solarwinds admins.  We have 8 APE's and 3 AWS with the likelihood of add more in the future. We have a full suite of Solarwinds products and we're researching adding more products.  Needless to say we pay a lot for support, which to me, now comes off  as "not as good" or "lesser" because no one in my team has a SCP. Despite the fact that we already pay a lot for support and are loyal customers.

Not take into account that I work in the public sector so I have to pay for training out of my own pocket. Plus, if I want to keep the certification, I now to make an annual payment. In theory, in a very short period of time, I can pay $600 out of pocket for certification that doesn't have that much resume value or that isn't in high demand.  All for increased support or training of something that should have already been covered with the purchase of product support.

What I get back for any other certification is, resume value, something that's industry wide valued and recognized. It's something that follows me wherever I go and it pay for something that is already being paid for.  There's a clear line between what a company pays for in terms of support of a product versus what I pay for to recognized as knowing the product.  With this new SCP model it's completely blurred.

Not good enough for me.  I may be one voice, but Solarwinds as an organisation appears to be heading in completely the wrong direction.  If what I've learned this week about the change to how partners can offer discounts is true, everything about this new direction is just a cash grab.  Quite happy to let my SCP expire, it doesn't earn me anything so that's fine.  But I won't defend Solarwinds when the prices on support go up.  Not a chance.

It's Saturday, cold & snowing so what else is there to do on a day off so I sat the SCP for SAM exam this morning.   Whooo Hooo - I passed. They said that I'll get a confirmation mail in 48 hours, but I'm already on cloud 9. Whoo Hoo again