The OpenStack platform is evolving pretty rapidly, but there’s plenty left to do – like training. Companies looking to deploy OpenStack may have a hard time finding in-house talent or hiring folks with experience. To help pave the way for OpenStack growth, and to make a few bucks in the process, Rackspace has announced a global training program to get admins and developers up to speed.
The OpenStack software training is five days and runs $3,000 per student. (For comparison, Red Hat’s one-day Cloud Architecture class runs about $1,600 per student.) The classes will be offered in Austin, Boston, London, and San Antonio in 2011. On-site classes for companies are also available, though pricing was not announced for the custom classes.
The fundamentals training for OpenStack will focus two days on Object Storage, and three days on OpenStack Compute. According to the materials, students will learn how to set up OpenStack in a multi-server environment for compute and storage, perform routine admin tasks and handle basic OpenStack troubleshooting. Prospective students are recommended to have at least six months Linux system administration experience and be proficient at the command line and with Bash scripting. Students will get hands-on experience in a multi-system training lab during the course.
This is a smart move on the part of RackSpace. Part of the hesitation in adopting new technologies is a lack of talent and certification. While there’s quite a bit of documentation online, it doesn’t take the place of hands-on training. The OpenStack Training gives companies the opportunity to get their staff training directly from the source to help drive adoption of OpenStack. Note that Rackspace refers to this as the “initial” course, so if it takes off we can probably expect to see more in the way of advanced courses. This course also leaves off training for OpenStack Image Service, which companies will no doubt be interested in seeing taught as well.
It would be nice to see OpenStack training and certification from third-party providers as well, given that OpenStack is meant to be a community effort and not just Rackspace. However, this is a good first step towards filling the training gap. Think this will bring more companies to the OpenStack camp?
