The Citrix Certified Architect (CCIA) and Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA) certifications made it to the Q209 Foote Partners Hot List, which ranks IT skills and certifications with strong growth and high pay. The CCIA ranked as the certification earning the highest pay premium for the systems administration and engineering/networking category. Additionally, the pay trend for the CCIA has increased by 9% in the past six months - not bad during a recession.

The CCIA validates the highest level of Citrix expertise and certifies a candidate's ability to analyze, design and build IT environments that solve key business and technical challenges.

Learn more about advanced Citrix certifications and new upcoming versions in Q409.

The new Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer™ (CCEE) for Virtualization and Citrix Certified Integration Architect™ (CCIA) for Virtualization requirements are now available on www.citrixtraining.ccom. The CCEE and CCIA expand on the administrator-level certifications and provide IT professionals with a clear path for advanced certification in virtualization technologies.

Update paths are available for candidates holding a legacy Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator™ (CCEA) or CCIA certification. With just one or two exams, candidates holding the CCEA or CCIA can easily update to the new CCEE and CCIA for Virtualization.
 
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Citrix Education is looking for a team of Citrix Engineers to assist in developing questions for the upcoming exam required for Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer™ (CCEE) certification. This is a great opportunity for Citrix Engineers who implement XenApp, XenServer, XenDesktop or Provisioning Server as a virtual solution or for Subject Matter Expert s(SMEs) in Citrix virtualization technologies.

Seven (7) Citrix Engineers will be selected to attend a five-day onsite Item Development Workshop (IDW) at Citrix headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from Monday, April 20th through Friday, April 24th. During the IDW, participants will help develop questions and simulations to be included in the upcoming exam. Due to the nature of the workshop, participants must attend in person.

Participants will receive credit as a SME for the developed exam, free copies of related courseware and a voucher for this exam.

Participants in the workshop will:

• Receive training on how to write questions for certification exams

• Work alongside our Exam Developers to develop questions

• Work alongside other field experts to review, modify and finalize questions written by other participants of the workshop

No preparation is necessary; simply bring your expertise! If travel is an issue, Citrix Education is offering a limited number of travel scholarships available on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Criteria for IDW participation
In order to be considered for participation, participants must:

• Have Windows Server 2008 and/or Linux operating system experience

• Have Active Directory knowledge

• Have advanced Citrix XenApp, XenServer, XenDesktop and Provisioning Server knowledge

• Have implemented a POC, pilot, lab or production environment that included XenApp, XenServer, Provisioning Server and/or XenDesktop

• Have advanced virtualization knowledge including in depth understanding of networking concepts such as VLANs and storage concepts surrounding SAN, NFS and LUNs

• Provide a reference to confirm your experience with the Citrix products in the virtualization line of sight (XenApp, XenServer, Provisioning Server and XenDesktop)

• Pass the exam development pre-screening by responding to a short survey
  • To participate in the survey, please follow this link: https://citrix.websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/s/92g629 You must complete the survey by Friday March 27th in order to be considered for the workshop. (The survey is 15 minutes long, but you do not have to complete the survey in one sitting).

• Participate and pass a phone interview conducted by a member of the Citrix Education team

• Be willing to commit to attending for the duration of the workshop

Once you complete the survey, please contact Kpayah Tamba at Kpayah.Tamba@citrix.com to notify him that you have completed the survey. Please include your phone number, along with the dates and times when it would be convenient for you to be contacted for a phone interview. The phone interview is the final stage of the enrollment process. All interviews must be completed by Wednesday April 1, 2009.

Citrix Education just announced the rollout of its redesigned certification program. The new certification structure, developed in collaboration with Citrix customers, offers candidates more choices such as certification tracks by role and specialization, as well as streamlined update paths that make it easier for IT professionals to stay current. The certification changes support IT professionals' need to demonstrate specialized knowledge in key server, desktop and application virtualization technologies.

The next generation of Citrix certifications deliver:

1. Certification by job level
Three levels of IT professional certification are offered, which allow candidates to match their certification path to their job role:

• Administrator Series - Consists of the Citrix Certified Administrator™ (CCA), which has been expanded to include tracks supporting Platinum product editions. Also offered is the new Citrix Certified Advanced Administrator™ (CCAA) certification, which takes the CCA one step further with in-depth product specialization.
• Engineer Series - Consists of the new Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer™ (CCEE), which offers seasoned IT professionals the opportunity to validate their ability to combine the coordination of operational planning efforts with 'tactical design' expertise and integration know-how.
• Architect Series - Consists of a re-vamped Citrix Certified Integration Architect™ (CCIA) certification, which allows IT professionals to hone real world skills with a range of technologies to design strategic approaches to application and workload delivery.

2. Certification by solution
Various paths, including Application Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Server Virtualization and Application Networking, are available, so that IT professionals can align their certifications to the technology solutions most relevant to their job role.

3. Certification by product specialization
IT professionals can achieve specific designations for the latest Citrix products, such as Citrix XenApp™, Citrix® NetScaler®, Citrix XenDesktop™, Citrix XenServer™, and others, to prove their competency and skills on the latest enterprise products.

4. Simplified certification update paths
With the release of the next generation certification programs, update paths to the newest CCEE and CCIA certifications will be available for current advanced certification holders. These update paths will significantly reduce requirements by focusing on the domains, features and technologies that are most required to advance to the next generation CCEE and CCIA certifications.

For more information on the next generation certification structure, visit www.citrixeducation.com > Certifications.