Rackspace has launched its OpenStack training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cloud hosting provider Rackspace announced on Tuesday that it has launched its OpenStack training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
According to a Rackspace blog post, more than 20 students will receive a 12-hour introduction to OpenStack from its OpenStack training team.
The training is part of MIT’s 2013 Independent Activities Period which is a special four week term at MIT that runs during Janaury. The period offers an opportunity for MIT community members to participate in a wide range of activities, including how-to sessions.
Investment in enterprise OpenStack products and staffing have heated up as of late, including a $10 million investment from Dell Ventures, Intel Capital and WestSummit Capital in OpenStack systems integrator and training provider Mirantis.
Rackspace was one of the first to offer OpenStack training, meeting the demand for IT workers looking to acquire skills in OpenStack – an area of expertise in high-demand from employers within the last year, according to research by online job search group Indeed.com. Since Rackspace has based its cloud services around OpenStack, its investment in the future of OpenStack makes sense. Its success relies very much on the proliferation of OpenStack, and while this may pose a challenge in terms of differentiation, these training sessions are part of its efforts in setting its OpenStack services apart by identifying its employees as experts in the field.
Rackspace said its OpenStack training session usually runs four days but to fit into the MIT IAP schedule it has been condensed in 12 hours with some pre-work for students.
The classroom features a “Cloud in a box” – which Byron McCollum, Rackspace technical training manager said in a video on the blog consists of 24 Dell laptops, ethernet switches, cables, and power adapters.
“It’s completely self-contained,” McCollum said. “We can come in anywhere and set it up and teach OpenStack.”
Rackspace will be following the class each day this week on its blog.
Talk back: Are you looking to hire employees with OpenStack expertise? Do you provide OpenStack training? Let us know in a comment.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson is the Editor in Chief of the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
