A Cool Twist on Linux Certification from Cumulus Networks

It's widely known that Linux rules the server world in three important and sometimes overlapping market spaces: web servers, data centers, and supercomputers. Thus, W3Techs reports that Linux-based Apache and Nginx together account for 85.3 percent of all Web servers, as of March 2019.

In 2014, noted Linux market watcher Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reported at ZDNet that enterprise server deployments stood at 75 percent for their primary cloud platforms. I can't imagine this number having gone anywhere but up in the intervening four-plus years.

And finally, the global list of the Top 500 supercomputers consists solely and completely of machines running Linux. All in all that's a pretty commanding hat trick, and goes a long way toward explaining why Linux certification makes sense for IT professionals interested in the admin side of the business, particularly in data centers and/or cloud computing.

There are plenty of great Linux certifications from among which interested IT pros can choose, as my annually updated Business New Daily story "Best Linux Certifications" will attest. I'm pitching a different angle in this blog post, though.

I believe that the Cumulus Certified Open Networking Professional (CCONP) makes a great addition to any cloud- and/or datacenter-oriented IT pro's training and certification portfolio. Why do I say this? Because an increasing number of cloud providers and datacenter operators are getting onboard with Linux-based solutions for networking as well as for more traditional server roles.

Simply put, an open Linux-based networking solution like those available from Cumulus Networks lets these big-time Linux players leverage their IT staffs' already considerable knowledge of Linux-based automation, command line expertise, and tools for everything from monitoring to management into the network space.

The Cumulus Networks version of Linux also runs on white box hardware, which makes it considerably cheaper (and easier to learn and use) than proprietary platforms from more traditional, big-name networking companies. This lets IT pros jump into the worlds of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) more directly and easily, and also lets them leverage the networking side of open computing initiatives such as OpenStack.

The Cumulus Networks CCONP exam costs a mere $190, and online exam prep materials are mostly free. Or, for $1,300, cert candidates can take an instructor-led version of those materials through the company's live training "boot camps".

The boot camps also provide access to trainers and experts for Q&A thrown in with that higher-cost approach, as well as a 50 percent discount off the exam fee. For a relatively low cost, Linux-oriented IT pros will also enjoy free access to a virtualized Cumulus appliance they can run on their own hardware, and/or a free, virtual, pre-built Cumulus-based data center. This makes obtaining hands-on experience and understanding of the environment and its commands and controls easy and straightforward.

There's a lot to like here for IT pros interested in taking their Linux game to the next level. Check it out!