Cloudy Journey: Certs and learning update along with how I am really digging being a consultant

Since moving back to a VAR in the middle of May, I have been making steady progress on certs. but the next 3 months I plan on a Citrix exam every month. October is XenServer 5. November will be CCEE A15. And finally in December CCIA A16. I forgot about all the requirements that are needed. In the corporate world all that mattered was that you could do the job, period. I have been getting all the Sales certs along with technical. These are easy but time consuming. I sat a beta exam for XA 6.5 during all this too.

Even with all the requirements, I made the right choice for me. I love playing with new technologies and being on the bleeding edge, so it is a great fit for me. I am loving it.

Even though I have a very deep passion for anything Citrix, started working with Citrix in 1999, I am gaining a perspective that there are alternatives that needed to be looked at especially if the customer already owns a product. I think part of this change comes from reading this book. I highly recommend it for everyone!

The stuff i really want to be working on is CloudStack and OpenStack. The problem is that I have ignored open source and linux since I started working on my dad's Windows 3.11 Packard Bell pc back in 93-94. So I have been adding some books to my collection to start after my Citrix Certs are complete. I have been trying to get CloudStack installed, but its taking forever since i don't know linux.

To learn CloudStack, I have been watching every webinar Mark Hinkle, Kim Truong and David Nalley have been giving and reading all the forums.

Build a open source cloud

Build a cloud with CloudStack

And the upcoming one on DevOps

So I bought this for linux. I plan on taking the 2 tests also since it will net me three different Linux certifications.