Solaris is not going anywhere. Particularly, in shops like mine where 90% of the services are provided by 10% of the hardware (running Solaris), its even more important to really know it. IMHO, the opening of Solaris and Sun's code in general have made it possible to integrate in ways that didn't happen in the past, meaning services can be built and integrated with Solaris and will find themselves in a good position for a long time. People have sort of questioned that model for Sun, but it made perfect sense for me, since I've always seen them as more of a long term player rather than some of my other vendors that I have to plan a hardware cycle of 2-3 years.
I wouldn't leverage anything on the merger. I don't think it'll change the importance of Solaris really, if anything, it will be a passing fad. By the time it DOES matter, it'll be a completely different set of tests, and then they'll probably have SCSA as a pre-req. Further down the thread here, Mike Gerdts mentions you can probably get through the test without formal training (but with lots of informal work). Most _systems_ certs can work this way, I'd even venture to say you could probably get an RHCE with little extra effort using the same methods. I've always seen certification (not Sun specific) as a leverage tool depending on your situation and goals. In my current position, SCNA would make a lot of sense for getting into more of an architecture position. If I was unemployed, I'd probably try and score three or four base certs and concentrate on one that I wanted to take further. In my experience, certs mean very little for where you are (long term positions like the one I will never escape), and are much rather a description of character for where you want to go. I believe Sun is offering a retake offer now if you don't pass the first time, which IMHO is pretty brilliant. If you go the Gerdts route and it's not enough, perhaps you could try and schedule a workshop after the first test and before the second. That way you have a better idea if the training is right for you, and don't possibly spend a bunch of money better spent elsewhere -- like on a SCNA or having a roof over your head. On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 10:56 PM, Dave Koelmeyer<[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > Not really a relevant question for this particular forum but I figure it's > worth a crack, I've asked something similar in the past (pre Oracle > acquisition announcement) and got really useful replies from the likes of > ux-admin et al. > > For various reasons now is about the best chance I will get (time wise) to > study for and eventually sit SCSA certification. I figure if the Oracle deal > goes through Solaris 10 (and eventually OpenSolaris I imagine) certification > would be a invaluable qualification to have. However the training materials > obviously cost quite a bit (esp. in my neck of the woods), and I am pretty > much beholden to purchase the course material amongst other things. > > What is the POV from the long-time sysadmins here about investing in > certification at this particular point in time? I figure if I wait until this > deal closes or whatever for some degree of certainty I end up potentially > wasting time I could spend training etc, but I also figure however things > turn out there would be enough Solaris shops around to keep smart people busy > for years to come (vis a vis this possible/probable FUD I hear about Sun > shops mass migrating to IBM etc etc). > > Cheers, > Dave > -- > This message posted from opensolaris.org > _______________________________________________ > sysadmin-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/sysadmin-discuss > _______________________________________________ sysadmin-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/sysadmin-discuss
