Linux Foundation Offers Sale Prices on Open Source Training, Certifications

Getting training and certifications for a wide range of open source technologies just got less expensive for channel partners and other businesses through the Cyber Monday sale, held through Dec. 10, by the Linux Foundation.

The sale, which provides savings up to 65% on courses and certifications including Linux networking and administration, Kubernetes fundamentals, essentials of Linux system administration and Hyperledger fabric administration, was announced on Cyber Monday as part of the group’s biggest training sale of the year.

Under the sale pricing, select individual e-learning courses combined with specific IT certifications are 60% off when ordered online using the coupon code BUNDLE60 during course registration. Those courses, which are normally priced at $499 each, but are on sale for $189 each, include:

The e-learning and certification bundles include 12-month exam eligibility, free retakes for exams and a PDF printable certificate. IT training courses include hands-on labs and assignments, video content, one year of access to the online course, discussion forums, a PDF printable certificate and a digital certification badge for satisfactory completion of the coursework.

Students can get discounts of 65% when they choose of the Linux Foundation’s super bundles, which combine courses and certifications. For these bundles, which normally sell for $998 but are sale priced at $349, students must use the coupon code SUPERBUNDLE65 when registering. The super bundles include:

Also available is a JSNAD – OpenJS Node.js Application Developer and JSNSD – OpenJS Node.js Services Developer course super bundle, which normally sells for $600 but is on sale for $210.

All other e-learning and instructor-led courses from the Linux Foundation are on sale for 40% off using the coupon code CYBER40 under the Cyber Monday pricing.

As the use of open-source software continues to grow for businesses of all sizes, a shortage of qualified IT administrators and other staff members who are trained, experienced and certified in open-source technologies remains a serious challenge for IT departments and the channel.

Darrell Flewell, the channel operations manager for the Linux Foundation, told Channel Futures that this year’s training sale has been booming since the event began on Cyber Monday, and is bringing in many new enrollees.

For partners who want to compete in the market with open-source products and services for their customers, the training can provide new skills and knowledge for their employees wherever they are in the open-source skills and services marketplace today, said Flewell.

Linux Foundation’s Darrell Flewell

“In a traditional VAR model, you had to train and certify your employees before you could represent a product,” he said. “Absolutely, the logic still applies with open source.”

The Cyber Monday event is helping the Linux Foundation as it continues to work to attract developers and businesses that lack deep open source skills, he said.

“We have to be reaching those people. There could be some wanting to expand their skills. At the same time, I have to believe that some of these smaller IT shops are jumping on a sale like this” to get training, Flewell added. “There could be pent-up demand.”

Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT, said the training and certification offering from the group could …

… help channel partners bolster their skills in these growing areas of IT.

“Linux has become a core part of business computing for companies of every type and size so many organizations are likely to find the Linux Foundation’s offers compelling,” he said. “Channel players that focus on areas like data center management and administration, and supporting DevOps programs would do well to investigate these programs and consider how they might complement their own solutions and services.”

Another analyst, Rob Enderle, principal of Enderle Group, told Channel Futures that lowering the cost of the training and certification programs through the sale could help some developers and partners to better afford the training, but it’s often as much about time as it is about cost.

“Much of the problem is getting people to make the tradeoff for the work they need to do and the training they need to have, and to get management to sign off on the expense,” said Enderle. “This cost reduction will certainly help the minority that are cost-constrained but the majority that are time-constrained, given their employer will likely reimburse the cost regardless, won’t be significantly affected.”