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Oracle to DBAs: your certification is about to become worthless paper

So hurry up and get a new one, will all of you who took exams for 10g and lower?

Oracle has decided that holders of its database certifications must re-certify.

Big Red's explanation for the new policy says “Our new policy requires you as an Oracle Database certification holder to demonstrate your knowledge with the most recent trends, techniques and best practices in Oracle Database technology”. The thrust of the argument is that Oracle has moved on and the company doesn't think DBAs certified on databases older than Oracle 10g are up to scratch.

“Requiring recertification for database administrators,” the company explains, “strengthens the program and increases the value of your certification(s).” In other words, the usual yadda yadda.

The new policy starts on November 1st, 2014, and means that older certifications will expire on the same date in 2015. If you don't re-certify before then, you lose the right to call yourself a certified DBA. The sting in the tail this time is that 10g certs retire as of March 1st, 2015. So even if you hold a 10g cert, there's a decent reason to think about re-certifying sooner rather than later.

The certifications Oracle says will die as of November 1, 2015, are:

  • Oracle7.3 Database Administrator Certified Professional
  • Oracle8 Database Administrator Certified Professional
  • Oracle8 Database Operator Certified Professional
  • Oracle8i Database Administrator Certified Professional
  • Oracle8i Database Operator Certified Professional
  • Oracle9i Database Administrator Certified Associate
  • Oracle9i Database Administrator Certified Professional
  • Oracle9i Database Administrator Certified Professional - Special Accreditation: Managing Oracle9i on Linux
  • Oracle E-Business Suite 11i Applications Database Administrator Certified Professional
  • Oracle9i Database Administrator Certified Master

If you hold those certs, think they're important or need them in order to comply with support contracts, it's time to ask your boss for some probably-not-budgeted-for cash for a new exam. And probably some training too. Which we're sure will be welcome news.

Oracle's not alone with a re-certification policy. VMware recently decided to enforce biennial updates for those who take its courses. ®

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