'Certified OpenStack Administrator' Exam Arrives, Via the OpenStack Foundation
For some time now, the OpenStack Foundation has been focused on training, especially as organizations have called for more qualified OpenStack-savvy workers. Today, the foundation announced the availability of its new Certified OpenStack Administrator (COA) exam, which will validate skills for cloud administrators and help employers identify qualified candidates. First announced in October 2015 at OpenStack Summit Tokyo, the COA program is part of the OpenStack Foundation’s strategic efforts to grow the cloud computing talent pool. The performance-based exam will also apparently be delivered virtually--anywhere in the world--through the OpenStack Foundation and its training marketplace.
We first covered the training marketplace back in 2013, and it's been growing ever since, as organizations such as Gartner call out the need for more OpenStack education.
According to the foundation, a certified OpenStack Administrator typically has at least six months of OpenStack experience and has the skills required for day-to-day operations and management of an OpenStack cloud. Representatives from dozens of training companies around the world were involved in a community working group to help define the required skills and capabilities of a Certified OpenStack Administrator.
The OpenStack Training Marketplace is actually the on-ramp for obtaining certification, and the training organizations that will offer the COA exam range from Canonical to The Linux Foundation, with a complete list available here.
According to the OpenStack Foundation:
A limited number of community members will be the first to take the Certified OpenStack Administrator exam this week during the OpenStack Summit Austin, as part of the new OpenStack Academy, a dedicated space for learning that will house dozens of hands-on workshops, intensive training courses and the COA exam. Intensive training courses will be run and offered free of charge to registered participants by sponsors in the OpenStack ecosystem, including Cloud Foundry, Mirantis, Rackspace, Red Hat, Solinea and SUSE.
“Like any major technology shift, cloud computing has challenged companies to re-skill engineers and redefine culture and processes. The Certified OpenStack Administrator exam will help provide a target for cloud administrators who are in high demand as the number of organizations adopting OpenStack continues to grow,” said Jonathan Bryce, executive director, OpenStack Foundation. “We’re excited about offering the first COA testing here at the Austin Summit as part of the new OpenStack Academy, through which we’re significantly increasing our investment in education and training, with more hands-on workshops for operators and application developers than ever before.”
There is more OpenStack news on the way this week, as the OpenStack Summit has just opened in Austin. Stay tuned.