Canonical Begins Ubuntu Server Edition Training

Canonical, as expected, has introduced training for Ubuntu Server Edition. I asked Billy Cina, Canonical’s Training Programmes Manager, for an update on the effort. Here are her thoughts.

First, a little background. WorksWithU in April 2009 reported that Canonical was launching online and face-to-face training for Ubuntu Server Edition. Training centers such as Fast Lane and Bridge Education vowed to offer the courses.

Now, the update from Cina. “We had the first beta run of the server course and it went very well,” Cina says. “A commercial services customer purchased most of the seats as part of their deployment package. We are now tweaking it before release for classroom instruction at the end of June.”

I asked Cina if Canonical plans to also introduce training for Landscape 1.3, the remote management tool for Ubuntu. “Landscape is part of the Ubuntu Certified Professional and Server courses; no plans at the moment to create an independent course for that,” she says.

Cina also noted that Canonical and the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) are offering a special promotion on Ubuntu exams.

As we’ve reported, Canonical is seeking to build an ecosystem around Ubuntu Server Edition. The ecosystem will included trained IT professionals, independent software vendors (ISVs), and hardware providers.

For instance, Ubuntu 9.04 has been tested to run on 45 different server configurations from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, Sun Microsystems and other server makers, notes Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth. Also, Canonical is expected to announce a closer working relationship with the HP ProLiant server team within weeks — though the relationship doesn’t include Ubuntu Server Edition preloads.

Follow WorksWithU via Indenti.ca, Twitter and RSS (available now) and our newsletter (coming soon).