BEA or IBM WebSphere certification ???

[Ravi Naidu]

Contemplating between BEA and IBM WebSphere certification for vendor specific J2EE certification. Given today's market, where can I get the most bang for the it worth it... or is it worth the effort.
Joe: I have been through your BEA WL Cert site, It will be interesting to read abt. your take on this Q...

[Rishi Singh]

hi ravi,
which BEA WL Cert site u r talking about.can u give the url

[Nate Johnson]

Originally posted by Ravi Naidu:
Contemplating between BEA and IBM WebSphere certification for vendor specific J2EE certification. Given today's market, where can I get the most bang for the it worth it... or is it worth the effort.
Joe: I have been through your BEA WL Cert site, It will be interesting to read abt. your take on this Q...

We use WS and I have found that it is very hard to work with. I have never tried BEA, but can't see how it could be much worse. But I have heard that IBM is starting to even out with BEA in the market and if you have the WS skills, they would probably be very valuable to many companies. Sorry for the rambling...

[Ravi Naidu]

Pradeep: It would be interesting to get your comment as which way the industry is headed in your opinion ... BEA Weblogic or Webshere???
Rishi: To answer your Q "which BEA WL Cert site u r talking about" check out - http://www.getgamma.com/wlscert/wlscert.html
Also look for more posting in Javaranch under
Products >>> BEA/Weblogic

[P@wan Kumar]

I have experience with Weblogic, so I thought I should get certified with IBM products to even out my skills. The IBM certification preparation gave be a better understanding of the IBM offering. The good part is that under jCert, the UML/OO and J2EE exams are reusable (if and) when I try to obtain a certification from Weblogic. Just my 2 cents.

[Joe McGuire]

Well, being in the BEA camp, my first instinct is to just say BEA! But that's really not objective, is it?
I would say to get whichever your current employer is using. If you're unemployed or thinking about moving, then it's a toss-up. I say this because whichever one you study for will help you with the other. Both are equally as marketable, and both will give you an equal understanding of JSP, EJB, Servlets, Web Services, etc. - it's only the administration (and the container-specific deployment descriptors) which differ.
I was an IBM Notes/Domino developer before moving to Java. Each product has its market base. You may also check out the demand for WebLogic vs. WebSphere developers at Monster.com.
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Joe McGuire
Sun Certified Java™ 2 Programmer, BEA WLS Certified Developer

[Chana Campos]

Well, I teach Weblogic, Borland, iPlanet and Websphere - so I feel uniquely qualified here.<g>
I would go with BEA. I don't like a lot of things about the company, but the product is a solid workhorse. I've seen students do utterly brutal things to it and it survived. I see a lot of developers who are moving off of iPlanet (a nightmare to teach because of its instability), and Websphere seems to get sold to the managers of the big IBM shops without talking to the people who work on it. I worked on the Websphere product at IBM in Austin in 1997 - and even then they weren't too sure about it..<g>
BEA is pricey but solid, dependable, and my cocker spaniel could set it up in 15 minutes if he had an opposable thumb...<g>
Just a thought..
Cheers,
Chana