2011 was more of a maintenance year for my training. The exams become more difficult and less frequent. With RHEL6, Red Hat switched over to “currency window” expiration for their certifications. My RHCE expires 3 years after the last exam that I passed. To keep my currency window up this year I took the EX318 and passed (scored 254 / 210 is passing). This adds “Red Hat Certified Virtualization Administrator” to my list of certifications, but also puts me one step closer to my Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist and Red Hat Certified Architect goals.

Next year I’m thinking of going for the EX401 (Deployment & Systems Management) exam which would put me within one exam of the RHCDS. I’m also going to refresh my Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) for OS X 10.7 and also take the exams for the Apple Certified Macintosh Technician (ACMT).