The Cloud Native Computing Foundation Announces First Kubernetes Certified Service Providers

As Kubernetes Ecosystem Matures, Founding Class of KCSPs Offers Skills and Expertise Needed to Achieve Success with Kubernetes 

LOS ANGELES – September 11, 2017 – Open Source Summit – The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which is sustaining and integrating open source technologies like Kubernetes and Prometheus, today announced the founding class of more than 22 Kubernetes Certified Service Providers (KCSPs), pre-qualified organizations that have deep experience helping enterprises successfully adopt Kubernetes. Additionally, individual professionals can now register for the new Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) program and exam.

The KCSP program is a pre-qualified tier of vetted service providers that offer Kubernetes support, consulting, professional services and training for organizations embarking on their Kubernetes journey. The KCSP program ensures that enterprises get the support they’re looking for to roll out new applications more quickly and more efficiently than before, while feeling secure that there’s a trusted and vetted partner that’s available to support their production and operational needs.

The founding class of KCSPs includes the following CNCF and LF members: Accenture, Booze Allen Hamilton, Bitnami, Canonical, Container Solutions, CoreOS, Ghostcloud, Giant Swarm, Heptio, Huawei, IBM, inwinSTACK, Inc., LiveWyer, Mirantis, RX-M LLC, Samsung SDS, Stackpointcloud, Supergiant, and Treasure Data.

As one of the five highest velocity open source projects, Kubernetes use is exploding. Businesses around the world need more skilled experts to help them fully capitalize on the benefits cloud native computing promises. According to a recent Capgemini, 70 percent of those surveyed cited skills shortage as a challenge. For companies unable to capitalize on new training options, availability of KCSPs will help alleviate the problem.

“The founding class of KCSPs represents the maturation of the Kubernetes ecosystem and demonstrates that Kubernetes is ready for widespread use with enterprises of all sizes,”  said Dan Kohn, Executive Director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. “As Kubernetes has grown, so has the demand from enterprises needing expert services and support. Enterprises working with KCSPs can be confident the partner they’ve chosen to work with has the training and skills needed to help them succeed with Kubernetes.”

Qualifying as a KCSP, requires three or more engineers passing the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam, demonstrable activity in the Kubernetes community including active contribution, and a business model that supports enterprise end users, including putting engineers at a customer site.

 Supporting Quotes from KCSP Partners

 “CoreOS is pioneering the cloud native world as the founders of fundamental Kubernetes ecosystem software such as etcd and CNI, along with our work bringing Kubernetes to every cloud and every enterprise with Tectonic,” said Paul Lundin, director of field engineering, CoreOS. “Our leadership alongside the CNCF Governing Board and dedicated active Kubernetes contributors from CoreOS make us more than qualified to participate as a founding member of Kubernetes Certified Service Providers (KCSPs). KCSP certification gives Kubernetes users confidence that they can look to CoreOS as the experts in enterprise Kubernetes when it comes to implementation, adoption and production usage within their environments.”

“Huawei is happy to be among the first wave of Kubernetes Certified Service Providers thanks to our consistent contributions in the Kubernetes Community for years as an important player, and this demonstrates the brand integrity and strength to serve our customers in the digital transformation era,” said Yongli Jia, Vice President at PaaS Product Department of Cloud BU, Huawei. “This capability is deeply integrated within both the Huawei Cloud Services, ServiceStage and CCE, and our private on-premise solution, Fusionstage. Huawei will continue our investment in the cloud native open source world and work closely with all partners.”

“With more than 100 member companies joining since our founding back in December of 2015, our collective vision for Cloud Native computing is affirmed,” said Todd Moore, VP Open Technology at IBM and CNCF’s governing board chairperson. “Kubernetes was selected as the launch project, and now with the establishment of the KCSP program, we have reached yet another key milestone in the maturity of the ecosystem.”

“The pace of Kubernetes adoption is creating high demand for specialists providing migration support and cluster operation services. Samsung SDS is committed to the long-term value of CNCF-administered Kubernetes certification to ensure consistent implementation of best practices throughout the community,” said Bob Wise, Cloud Native CTO and CNCF Board representative. “Our team of engagement specialists stay in lock-step with the technical direction of the community; assuring our customers stay aligned with and receive the best value and experience from Kubernetes.”

More About Certified Kubernetes Administrator Program

The CKA program requires the passing of an online, proctored, performance-based exam that tests one’s ability to solve multiple issues in a hands-on, command-line environment. A professional can become a CKA without needing to be involved with a KCSP, but for a company to become a KCSP it must employ at least three CKAs. The CKA exam is publically available for anyone to take and costs $300.

Kubernetes Training

CNCF also offers online training that teaches the skills needed to create and configure a real-world Kubernetes cluster. The Kubernetes Fundamentals course maps directly to the requirements for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam.

Additional Resources

• About the KCSP Program
• About Kubernetes Fundamentals
• About Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam
• CNCF blog
• Join the CNCF conversation on Slack

About Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Cloud native computing uses an open source software stack to deploy applications as microservices, packaging each part into its own container, and dynamically orchestrating those containers to optimize resource utilization. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of those software stacks including Kubernetes, Fluentd, linkerd, Prometheus, OpenTracing, gRPC, CoreDNS, containerd, rkt and CNI. CNCF serves as the neutral home for collaboration and brings together the industry’s top developers, end users and vendors – including the six largest public cloud providers and many of the leading private cloud companies. CNCF is part of The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization. For more information about CNCF, please visit: https://cncf.io/.