As the demand for computing power and data processing rise exponentially, companies are scrambling to save costs and find ways to efficiently allocate their resources. 

Virtualization is the single most important technique that companies use to manage resources and save billions in costs.  

Research shows that virtualization could save over $106 billion for the Asia Pacific region alone. 

Being the market leader in virtualization, VMware has technologies, frameworks, and platforms that help companies run software applications as virtual resources on their hardware.  

Thousands of companies use VMware technologies worldwide and actively seek VMware experts. 

VMware’s top in-demand technologies include vSphere, ESXi, and vCentre. 

Here are the top 7 reasons you should learn these technologies. 

  

#1 – Learning VMware Virtualization Technologies Will Make You Extremely Valuable 

As companies move away from traditional server architecture and towards virtualization, the demand for VMware professionals is sure to grow. 

Virtualization allows companies to deploy applications on limited hardware via partitioning. 

Increasing virtualization results in fewer servers, reduced complexity, and increased availability.   

Virtualization makes it easier for companies to implement disaster recovery, which is more challenging in non-virtual environments.  

In the VMware virtualization architecture, a simple restore operation resolves data loss and recovery problems. 

VMware uses a technology called “thin provisioning” that allows companies to save a lot of money in data storage.

 

 #2 – VMware Technologies are Dominant in the Virtualization Market 

VMware is the leader in the virtualization market, with over 75% market share.  

The virtualization market around the world is expected to grow by 11% through 2022 and reach over $13 billion in size. 

VMware is a giant in this strong market and its competitors like Citrix, Microsoft, and Nutanix are way behind the curve.  

Therefore, learning VMware technologies like VSphere, ESXi, and vCenter would give you a huge opportunity to advance your career for many years to come. 

 

#3 – VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCentre are Efficient 

vSphere is a free version of VMware architecture. It allows companies to save money through easy configuration, thin architecture (it requires only 144MB to install), scalability, and fewer patches. 

VMware ESXi is a hypervisor that has its own operating system.  

A hypervisor is software that runs on top of hardware and adds a layer to allow virtualization to happen.  

Compared to other hypervisors in the market like Citrix XenServer, Hyper-V, and Windows Server, ESXi consumes very little memory.   

vCenter is a server management platform that is used to monitor, scale, update, and optimize VMware infrastructure.  

vCenter is very useful for companies using vMotion, VMware High Availability, VMware Update Manager, and VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS). 

Learning these three technologies will make you an expert in the VMware stack.  

You will get a chance to know the complete lifecycle and dynamics of the virtualization world, and solve real-world problems using these technologies. 

 

#4 – Many Available Jobs 

The VMware job market remains strong worldwide. A search on jobs boards like Indeed shows you thousands of open jobs that need to be filled by experts with vCenter, vSphere, and ESXi, expertise. 

With strong VMware skills, you can also get lucrative system admin jobs, which can eventually lead you to more senior roles like Infrastructure Solutions Architect. 

One thing to keep mind, as companies adapt Cloud platforms globally, virtualization could see a decline.  

Migrating to the Cloud removes the need for a company to implement local, on-premise virtualization infrastructure. 

The perception in the virtualization world is that technologies like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Docker, that are based on “container” technology, could possibly kill VMware. 

But the reality is that the Cloud is not the solution for every company.  

Many companies are skeptical of the Cloud due to security and infrastructure concerns. VMware provides cheap and efficient infrastructure for small, and medium–size companies that want on-premise virtualization solutions. 

More importantly, learning vSphere, ESXi, and vCentre, will help you pursue a career in Cloud technologies.  If you are interested in learning AWS or Azure in the future, your knowledge and experience with VMware technologies will be valuable. 

VMware is also making an active transition towards the Cloud with its new Cloud offerings. 

Many companies search for experts who have a VMware background with AWS skills. 

 

#5 – High Salaries 

Learning vSphere, vCenter, and VMware ESXi will make you eligible for various jobs, including VMware Administrator, VMware Specialist, VMware Engineer, VMware Consultant, and VMware Solutions Architect. 

There are currently over 1800 VMware job postings on Indeed.com that are offering annual salaries of over $65,000 US dollars. 

According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for a VMware Administrator is over $47,000. 

At a broader level, the average annual salary in the virtualization sector is $76,000, according to salary data website PayScale. 

You can also get the VMware Certified Professional (VCP) certification to boost your salary and career prospects.  

According to PayScale, the average annual salary for candidates with VCP is $91,000. 

Learning VMware provides you with enormous career growth opportunities in the virtualization domain.  And, as you can see, the salaries that you can earn are lucrative.

 

#6 – VMware Technologies are a Gateway to Amazon Web Services 

Learning VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter will make it easier for you to transition into AWS.  

Virtualization and Cloud Computing have a lot in common, such as: on-demand load balancing, storage optimization, REST interfaces, networking, disaster recovery, and security. 

VMware and AWS now allow you to extend and integrate applications on both platforms. Using VMware technology, you can easily learn how to extend virtualized applications to Amazon EC2. 

Employers also prefer candidates who have experience in both VMware technology and AWS. 

AWS is considered the public Cloud, while VMware helps you virtualize on-premise infrastructure.  

The combination of AWS and VMware skills will equip you with the knowledge required for hybrid Cloud jobs.  

Hybrid Cloud is being swiftly embraced worldwide due to its security, performance, and cost efficiency. 

 

#7 – VMware Technologies are a Gateway to DevOps 

Learning vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter will enhance your opportunities to become a DevOps engineer in the future.  

DevOps is an extremely in-demand skill, with an average annual salary ranging over $117,000 US dollars.  

With your VMware skills, try to learn key DevOps tools like Jenkins and Terraform to make your portfolio of skills stronger. 

 

And there you have it! 7 reasons to learn VMware vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter.