Nutanix spent most of 2026 quietly rebuilding its certification program while the industry’s attention stayed fixed on Broadcom’s VMware price hikes. The changes are not small. Certifications now last three years instead of two, two flagship exams jumped to a new 7.5 version, and two brand new specialist credentials joined the lineup. Most guides still floating around online describe the old two-year cycle and the pre-7.5 exam catalog, which means they are already out of date.<\/p>\n
This matters beyond Nutanix’s own training pages. The company has spent 2026 absorbing a steady wave of customers moving off VMware, and hiring managers filling hyperconverged infrastructure roles are increasingly treating a current Nutanix credential as a real signal, not a nice-to-have. Here is what actually changed, what DirectCertify’s own catalog reflects today, and where the gaps still are.<\/p>\n
Nutanix has been on the receiving end of a genuine market shift. Broadcom’s licensing changes since acquiring VMware pushed a meaningful share of VMware’s customer base to start shopping for alternatives, and Nutanix has been the most visible beneficiary. A few numbers from the company’s own fiscal 2026 reporting show how much that is actually moving the business:<\/p>\n
Growth like that puts pressure on a certification program in a specific way. New customers need administrators who actually know the platform, existing partners need proof their teams are current, and a two-year-old exam blueprint stops matching what a production environment looks like. Nutanix’s response was not a single announcement but a string of smaller moves across 2026 that add up to a real overhaul once you put them side by side.<\/p>\n
Effective August 1, 2025, Nutanix’s own certification policy update<\/a> moved every technical certification, meaning the full NCA, NCP, and NCM lineup, from a two-year validity period to three years. Any credential earned on or after that date carries the longer window automatically, and certifications already active at version 6.5 or higher were extended without candidates having to do anything. Nutanix framed the change as matching recertification cadence to how fast the platform itself actually changes, rather than resetting the clock on an arbitrary calendar.<\/p>\n Two of Nutanix’s highest-volume exams moved to version 7.5 this year. The Nutanix Certified Associate exam, code NCA75, opened for scheduling on July 28, 2026. The Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure exam, code NCPMCI75, opened for appointments around the same window. Both replace older 6.x-series versions and reflect current Prism Central workflows and multicloud deployment patterns rather than the environment Nutanix shipped two platform versions ago.<\/p>\n Nutanix also expanded past its core infrastructure and automation specializations. The Nutanix Certified Professional – Business Continuity credential ran as a limited beta that closed to new registrations on April 30, 2026, then shipped as a full version 7.5 exam covering disaster recovery planning, Nutanix Leap, and Prism-based recovery workflows. A second beta, Nutanix Certified Professional – Network and Security, closed its own beta window on March 1, 2026, testing Flow Virtual Networking and Flow Network Security configuration. It has not yet moved from beta into a generally available exam.<\/p>\n Vendor announcements and a site’s actual product catalog do not always move in lockstep, and Nutanix’s Nutanix certification catalog<\/a> on DirectCertify is a useful example of exactly that gap, confirmed by checking the live product listings directly rather than assuming:<\/p>\nA Version 7.5 Refresh Cycle Is Underway<\/h3>\n
Two New Specialty Certifications Joined the Lineup<\/h3>\n
What’s Actually Live in DirectCertify’s Catalog Right Now<\/h2>\n
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