OpenStack Certified Professionals: New Cloud Pros Coming

Something big is about to happen in the OpenStack market. The open source platform is positioned for public and private clouds. Already, Rackspace, Dell, HP, IBM and others are building their public clouds on OpenStack. But there aren’t enough OpenStack professionals (consultants, integrators, developers, etc.) in the market for potential private cloud projects. The shortage won’t be solved overnight. But if you check in with a range of OpenStack industry sources, experts suggest a flood of training and certifications are nearing launch. Why should channel partners care? Glad you asked. Here’s the update.

At OpenStack Summit 2013 (April 15-18, Portland, Oregon), numerous companies will announce training and certification initiatives. Also, you’ll hear from a range of start-ups and recently funded companies that are hiring those newly trained OpenStack professionals.

Sorry, The VAR Guy can’t disclose specific names just yet. But think of it this way: More than a decade ago, Linux gained critical mass when vendors and third-party training institutes helped IT professionals to master the open source operating system — particularly in the server market.

A similar scenario is set to unfold in the OpenStack market, experts are whispering to The VAR Guy. A few announcements have already slipped out — including OpenStack training from Piston Cloud Computing. Also of note: Rackspace has been offering Cloud in a Box training. And Mirantis, one of the largest systems integrators focused on OpenStack, recently raised $10 million in financing to help recruit and train more staff members.

Do traditional channel partners require OpenStack training? That depends. Do you want to move workloads between on-premises clouds and public clouds run by Rackspace, Dell, HP and IBM? If so, then OpenStack training could help you to understand how the lines between private clouds and public clouds will blur.

Still, plenty of channel partners will likely skip the training — preferring instead to move up the stack towards SaaS applications.

Either way, the OpenStack market seems poised to march forward with more training options. Keep an eye on the OpenStack Summit. The milestones should surface there…