OpenStack Deployment and Management Resources
The OpenStack cloud computing scene, like the scene surrounding Hadoop, is flooded with talk of shortages of skilled workers. There just are not enough skilled OpenStack folks to go around. The OpenStack Foundation, Mirantis and a number of other organizations are taking some steps to address the situation.
There are new professional certification programs and free online education is available. Here is our newly updated roundup of certification and training options.
The Certified OpenStack Administrator is professionally trained and certified by the OpenStack Foundaton. This kind of professional typically has at least six months of OpenStack experience and has the skills required to provide day-to-day operation and management of an OpenStack cloud, according to the Foundation. There is more at the website: http://openstack.org/coa
Certification testing for the Foundation's program has been administered with the help of the Linux Foundation, which has created a virtual testing platform, making it possible to access the COA test anywhere in the world at an affordable cost.This is a program that could help you land a solid job working with OpenStack.
Speaking of The Linux Foundation, it has announced its newest massive open online course (MOOC), available for registration. The course, LFS152x - Introduction to OpenStack, is offered through edX, the nonprofit online learning destination founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The course is free and goes live this month.
Red Hat has also announced cloud management certification for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform as part of the Red Hat OpenStack Cloud Infrastructure Partner Network. It offers a number of OpenStack training options.
You may also want to take a look at what the Data Center Knowledge site offers. It has surprisingly easy to follow and rich video demos and explanations of the OpenStack platform. If you're totally new to the OpenStack cloud platform, look into Data Center Knowledge's OpenStack 101 video, which comes originally from Rackspace and NASA. As the site notes: "Rackspace, one of the original founders of the OpenStack project along with NASA, published this video that gives quick primer on OpenStack, what it is and who uses it. This 6-minute video, which is part of an ongoing series on OpenStack, introduces the cloud OS and dives into it from a high level to give you the basic understanding of this disruptive technology."
For even more, look into the video archive, and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.
We have also covered The OpenStack Foundation's Training Marketplace designed to make it easier to discover training courses offered by providers in the OpenStack community. And, the foundation has made available a series of free, online training guides for OpenStack. There are training guides for OpenStack Associates, Developers and Architects.
Finally, it is worth remembering that the official documentation for OpenStack is a valuable resource, too.
OStatic will continue to update coverage of free online training resources for OpenStack, and also look into our extended coverage of OpenStack training and certification coursework and classes.