One of the necessities of working in IT is the need to continually learn and upgrade your skills.  Change is constant and can happen quickly.   Time is also limited – so I try to make the most of the time I spend learning.  I have found VMUG Advantage to be essential to helping me upgrade my skills and make the most of my time in the lab.

The Home Lab

I have worked at many companies in my career spanning multiple verticals, starting as a customer and then moving to a partner.  This path lead me to where I currently work – VMware.  Unfortunately, too few organizations are willing to invest the money or time to provide safe places for their people to learn.

A long time ago I decided to invest in myself.  I would not have been able to progress as I have without taking the time to learn and grow.  That is where VMUG Advantage comes in!

My home lab started small; but has grown as my needs have changed (and funds allowed).  The one thing that has always been a constant for me is time. We all have the same amount of time.  I have rarely had too much time my hands; but do try to use it wisely  ?

Most products usually come with short term evaluation licenses that let the curious explore product features and functionality.  The challenge is that when that license runs out in 30 or 60 days, I had to spend time tearing it all down just to re-install it again to get another free license.

Benefits of VMUG Advantage

VMUG Advantage provides 365 day evaluation licenses for over 15 different VMware solutions.  This helps me stop wasting time. If I still need to work with a product after the evaluation license expires, I simply download a new key from the subscription and immediately resume  what I was doing.  No rebuild needed!

VMUG Advantage also includes VMware TestDrive.  This is a cloud based service that allows you to try out features by spinning up a lab that is already set up and ready to go.  This can be very useful in a number of situations:

• Quick Evaluations – perhaps even test out specific features without manually setting up an entire environment
• Try out SaaS Products that you cannot setup in a home lab
• Work with products which have significant hardware requirements – If your home lab is small or doesn’t have all of the right hardware needed for vSAN, NSX, or Tanzu you can work with it in TestDrive

Additional Discounts

Official VMware Training – You can get an additional 20-35% off from a number of official VMware courses

VMware Explore – VMUG Advantage members also get an exclusive discount for VMware Explore passes.

Invest in yourself

I absolutely believe that the investments I have made in my own career have had tremendous impact on my life.    Tools like VMUG Advantage allow you to get the most out of the time you spend learning and growing.  If you work with VMware products and are looking to grow your skillset, I highly recommend you check out the VMUG Advantage Difference today!