The lines between open source and proprietary software are blurring. Increasingly organizations are building even in-house technologies with open source methods. This includes Microsoft.
From participating in Node.js, the Core Infrastructure Initiative and other Collaborative Projects at Linux Foundation to its recent partnerships with Red Hat and SUSE, Microsoft is demonstrating a sincere, smart and practical approach to how it builds new technologies and supports its vast customer base. Microsoft open sourced .NET; it open sourced key parts of its web browser; and it uses Linux for its Azure Cloud Switch. The Linux Foundation and Microsoft share a common, strategic approach to technology development: balance internal R&D with external R&D to create the most important technologies of our time.
The Linux Foundation and Microsoft also share a commitment to SysAdmins who are running the world’s most critical, complex IT systems. Today’s SysAdmin requires knowledge of both Windows and Linux. Professionals and their employers who invest in training and certification that demonstrate this hybrid knowledge will benefit.
Professionals who can run both Linux and Windows systems, as well as understand hybrid environments and the development behind them will rise to the top of their field with better pay and career prospects. And employers who invest in these skills among their team members will be assured of their skillsets and will be able to support future workloads as we move toward a world dominated by cloud computing.
Today’s news that Microsoft’s Azure certification will require candidates to pass a Linux Foundation Certified SysAdmin exam underscores these trends and commitments from Linux Foundation and Microsoft. The winners, above all, are SysAdmins.
Microsoft, many times over, is demonstrating a strategic approach to open source in order to serve its customers and work well with the global community. This is just the beginning of what we expect to be a long and successful partnership.