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By Brad Tompkins, Executive Director, VMUG Every IT pro remembers the first time they built something that just worked. A perfectly tuned lab, clean deployment, the moment everything clicked. VMware certification gives you that feeling again and again. It’s a framework for mastering complex systems, proving your expertise, and building the confidence to design and defend infrastructure that lasts. And, when you combine that power with VMUG Advantage, you get a direct line to hands-on practice, expert mentorship, and real savings on your VMware journey. As VMUG President Brenda Emerson put it, “VMware certifications aren’t about memorizing trivia—they’re about proving capability, clarity, and consistency.” Certified teams don’t guess their way through workloads or network plans; they execute with confidence. Tamecka McKay, a VMUG Board Director, said it even more directly: “When your team is trained and confident in VMware’s platforms, you’re prepared to build secure, trusted infrastructure. Certification creates that confidence and competence.” Across our community, from Brenda to Tamecka, one message keeps coming through: Certification doesn’t just change your skills. It changes your career. The Proof Is in the Progress And survey data backs it up. According to Pearson VUE's 2025 Value of IT Certification Candidate Report, 63% of surveyed professionals received a job promotion or were anticipating one after becoming certified. And 82% reported more confidence in pursuing new job opportunities! Why? Because certified professionals build more secure, scalable, and consistent environments. And when entire teams are certified together, as Brenda shared, “Innovation doesn’t get stalled at the handoff. It builds empowered teams.” That empowerment creates a culture where certified teams move faster, communicate better, and retain talent longer. From Lab to Leadership VMUG Vice President Matt Heldstab described the moment he passed his first certification exam as the moment everything clicked. "[Certification] didn’t just validate what I already knew, it gave me a framework to understand what I didn’t yet know — and the confidence to bridge that gap.” When you feel in the dark in your work, certification is like a mirror to help you peek around the corner. It prepares you to design better, troubleshoot smarter, and lead stronger. As Matt put it, “Certification isn’t just about checking a box. It shapes your mindset. It moves you from short-term fixes to long-term architecture and transforms you from a reactive operator into a proactive strategist.” VMUG Advantage gives you everything you need to earn your VMware certification faster. Join thousands of IT pros who are already learning smarter, building stronger, and saving more with VMUG Advantage. Save 10% with code ADVNOW The Shortcut to “Certified and Confident” So, here’s where I come in. If certification is the key to staying relevant and resilient in this industry, VMUG Advantage is how you get there faster. Think of Advantage as your certification accelerator. It’s a membership built for VMware professionals who want to learn, experiment, and grow without hitting roadblocks and with dedicated certification study tools at your disposal. Here’s what you get: Discounts on official VMware training and exams and VMUG events Personal-use licenses to boost your home lab once you’re certified On-demand labs and learning tools to practice hands-on Access to the global VMUG community for mentorship and collaboration Brenda talked about the importance of “building certification into workforce strategy.” VMUG Advantage gives you the infrastructure to accelerate your career as an individual and the resources to empower your team as a whole. For Individuals: Invest in Yourself If you’re an IT professional looking to build momentum in your career, VMUG Advantage is the easiest way to start. You’ll save on training, practice in real labs, and join a network of peers who’ve been where you are. “VMUG took me from a general attendee to a public speaker traveling around the world.” - Matt Heldstab With VMUG Advantage, as you prepare for a certification exam, you’re also preparing for your next career milestone. For Teams: Build a Culture of Capability For IT leaders, certification isn’t just a personal win; it’s a strategic play. Tamecka McKay reminded us that “security and trust start with capability.” That capability comes from teams that train together, speak the same technical language, and solve problems faster. VMUG Advantage makes that knowledge scalable with group licensing options and volume discounts so you can elevate your whole team without breaking your training budget. Why Now? Our industry is in motion. Hybrid clouds, AI-driven security, and VCF adoption are redefining what “expertise” looks like. VMware certification is your anchor amid change, and VMUG Advantage is the launchpad to get you started. Because at the end of the day, certification gives you credibility, community gives you connection, and VMUG Advantage gives you both. Sponsored and written by VMUG.

Hackers have released stolen data belonging to US insurance giant Allianz Life, exposing 2.8 million records with sensitive information on business partners and customers in ongoing Salesforce data theft attacks. Last month, Allianz Life disclosed that it suffered a data breach when the personal information for the "majority" of its 1.4 million customers was stolen from a third-party, cloud-based CRM system on July 16th. While the company did not name the provider, BleepingComputer first reported the incident was part of a wave of Salesforce-targeted thefts carried out by the ShinyHunters extortion group. Over the weekend, ShinyHunters and other threat actors claiming overlap with "Scattered Spider" and "Lapsus$" created a Telegram channel called "ScatteredLapsuSp1d3rHunters" to taunt cybersecurity researchers, law enforcement, and journalists while taking credit for a string of high-profile breaches. Many of these attacks had not previously been attributed to any threat actor, including the attacks on Internet Archive, Pearson, and Coinbase. One of the attacks claimed by the threat actors is Allianz Life, for which they proceeded to leak the complete databases that were stolen from the company's Salesforce instances. These files consist of the Salesforce "Accounts" and "Contacts" database tables, containing approximately 2.8 million data records for individual customers and business partners, such as wealth management companies, brokers, and financial advisors. The leaked Salesforce data includes sensitive personal information, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and Tax Identification Numbers, as well as professional details like licenses, firm affiliations, product approvals, and marketing classifications. BleepingComputer has been able to confirm with multiple people that their data in the leaked files is accurate, including their phone numbers, email addresses, tax IDs, and other information contained in the database. BleepingComputer contacted Allianz Life about the leaked database but was told that they could not comment as the investigation is ongoing. The Salesforce data-theft attacks The Salesforce data theft attacks are believed to have started at the beginning of the year, with the threat actors conducting social engineering attacks to trick employees into linking a malicious OAuth app with their company's Salesforce instances. Once linked, the threat actors used the connection to download and steal the databases, which were then used to extort the company through email. Extortion demands were sent to the companies via email and were signed as coming from ShinyHunters. This notorious extortion group has been linked to many high-profile attacks over the years, including those against AT&T, PowerSchool, and the SnowFlake attacks. While ShinyHunters is known to target cloud SaaS applications and website databases, they are not known for these types of social engineering attacks, causing many researchers and the media to attribute some of the Salesforce attacks to Scattered Spider. However, ShinyHunters told BleepingComputer the "ShinyHunters" group and "Scattered Spider" are now one and the same. "Like we have said repeatedly already, ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider are one and the same," ShinyHunters told BleepingComputer. "They provide us with initial access and we conduct the dump and exfiltration of the Salesforce CRM instances. Just like we did with Snowflake." It is also believed that many of the group's members share their roots in another hacking group known as Lapsus$, which was responsible for numerous attacks in 2022-2023, before some of their members were arrested. Lapsus$ was behind breaches at Rockstar Games, Uber, 2K, Okta, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and NVIDIA. Like Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ was also adept at social engineering attacks and SIM swap attacks, allowing them to run over billion and trillion-dollar companies' IT defenses. Over the past couple of years, there have been many arrests linked to all three collectives, so it's not clear if the current threat actors are old threat actors, new ones who have picked up the mantle, or are simply utilizing these names to plant false flags. Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply. The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments. Get the report