Hortonworks University Launches, and Can Teach You Valuable Hadoop Skills

In enterprises as well as small businesses, the Big Data trend--sorting and sifting large data sets with new tools in pursuit of surfacing meaningful angles on stored information--is on the rise. As we've noted, the open source Hadoop project has been one of the big drivers of this trend, and has given rise to commercial companies that offer custom Hadoop distributions, support, training and more (with Cloudera being a prime example).

Hadoop's unique ability to sift large data sets and glean useful information has given rise to some juicy job opportunities for people with Hadoop skills, but there are too few of them. Now, Hortonworks, a spin-off of Yahoo, is addressing that problem with its newly announced Hortonworks University, which focuses on teaching Hadoop skills.

Hortonworks has recently switched up its top management and the company has sharpened its focus on accelerating the development and usage of Hadoop. Powered by Apache Hadoop, the Hortonworks Data Platform is a value-added Hadoop distribution that is getting noticed.

According to the announcement of Hortonworks University:

"Hortonworks University consists of public, private on-site and live online courses for both developers and administrators. Our courses are role-based and consist of both expert content that leverages Hortonworks deep domain expertise, and hands-on labs that prepares students for the real-world Hadoop scenarios they will face. The labs in particular set Hortonworks apart from other training offerings in the market place. As the creators of much of the Apache Hadoop code, we have an exceptional understanding of the essential Hadoop components. We have spent countless hours applying this expertise to create highly valuable hands-on exercises that enable students to immediately implement what they have learned. We don’t simply 'inform' students. We truly 'enable' them to be successful."

Hortonworks officials have predicted that half of the world’s data will be processed by Apache Hadoop within five years. If you've been in the market for a job emphasizing your open source skills, training through Hortonworks University, could become very valuable. 

You can find a class near you and register here. Promotional discounts and groiup discounts are also currently available. This is worth looking into.