Cloud Native Computing Foundation Launches Certification, Training and Managed Service Provider Program for Kubernetes

CNCF Partnering with The Linux Foundation to Offer New Support Options to Enterprises Deploying Kubernetes

SEATTLE – CloudNativeCon/KubeCon – November 8, 2016 – The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which is sustaining and integrating open source technologies to orchestrate containers as part of a microservices architecture, launched a program today to train, certify and promote Kubernetes Managed Service Providers (KMSP), which will provide enterprises with Service Level Agreement (SLA)-backed support options, consulting and professional services by highly trained and certified service partners.

“Many enterprises have successfully deployed Kubernetes based on the publicly available documentation and free support available from our large and growing community,” said Dan Kohn, Executive Director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. “CNCF’s new offerings will enable enterprises that want additional support to be confident that they are working with Kubernetes experts, which is increasingly in demand.”

The KMSP program will ensure 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. 

It launches today with nine partners on board including: Apprenda, Canonical, Cisco, Container Solutions, CoreOS, Deis, Huawei, LiveWyer and Samsung SDS. Google has also committed to assist in the curriculum and certification development.

The program includes the following components:

• A CNCF working group of Kubernetes experts who will collaboratively develop an open source curriculum and make it available under the Creative Commons By Attribution license for anyone to use.
• CNCF is developing an online, proctored certification program to test that curriculum. The program will be run by The Linux Foundation for CNCF.
• A free edX massively open online course (MOOC) covering the introductory sections of the curriculum will be released by leveraging The Linux Foundation’s existing edX partnership; 650,000 people have registered for The Linux Foundation’s Intro to Linux course on edX.
• Kubernetes training will be offered by The Linux Foundation and will also be available from other service providers who can leverage the open source curriculum.
• Requirements to become a Kubernetes Managed Service Provider will include: three or more certified engineers, demonstrable activity in the Kubernetes community including active contribution and a business model to support enterprise end users.
• Prometheus, OpenTracing and other CNCF project support will be added in as additional content modules over time with the possibility of a Prometheus (etc.) Managed Service Provider program in the future.

The self-paced, online course will teach the skills needed to create and configure a real-world working Kubernetes cluster. The training course will be available soon, and the certification program is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2017. The course is open now at the discounted price of $99 (regularly $199) for a limited time. Sign up here to pre-register for the course.

The KMSP program is a pre-qualified tier of highly vetted service providers who have deep experience helping enterprises successfully adopt Kubernetes. The KMSP partners offer SLA-backed Kubernetes support, consulting, professional services and training for organizations embarking on their Kubernetes journey.

The Linux Foundation offers a neutral home for running such programs, thanks to its close involvement in the open source community. It is already helping develop technology for DevOps professionals through its open source projects and offers several related free massive open online courses (MOOCs), including: Intro to Linux, Intro to Cloud Infrastructure Technologies, Introduction to OpenStack and Introduction to DevOps: Transforming and Improving Operations.

In the coming weeks, any CNCF or Kubernetes community member who wants to provide input on the criteria and baseline requirements for certification is encouraged to join the Certification Working Group. Google has committed to assist, and many others, including Apprenda, Container Solutions, CoreOS, Deis and Samsung, have expressed interest in participating in the Working Group. To join the working group, go to this link.

Supporting Quotes from KMSP Partners

Apprenda: “We have been supporting some of the earliest adopters of Kubernetes well before 1.0,” said Sinclair Schuller, CEO of Apprenda. “Given the rise in adoption of enterprise microservices patterns over the past two years as Kubernetes has matured, end users are increasingly looking for a set of proven partners to work with and we are excited to be part of KMSP along with the launch of Kismatic Enterprise Toolkit. Combining Google’s experience in managing billions of containers per week and our decade of partnering with Fortune 500 organizations to deliver distributed systems capabilities in the enterprises SDLC makes this open collaboration a great win for customers.” https://www.apprenda.com/kismatic

Canonical: “We are thrilled to be part of KMSP, as it complements our commercially supported distribution of Kubernetes and our fully managed Kubernetes services, which work across all major public clouds and private infrastructure, enabling developer teams to operate Kubernetes clusters on demand, or outsource their Kubernetes operations to experts,” said Dustin Kirkland who leads Canonical’s Platform Products. https://www.ubuntu.com/cloud/kubernetes

Cisco: “We see an enterprise container stack emerging around Kubernetes as the foundation for modern applications,” said Kenneth Owens, CTO Cloud Native Platforms at Cisco. “Companies are getting behind containers and microservices architectures because of their potential to fundamentally change how applications are developed.”

Container Solutions: “We use our expertise in software development, as well as leadership, strategy and operations to help our customers innovate at speed and scale,” said Jamie Dobson, CEO at Container Solutions. http://container-solutions.com/resources/kubernetes/

CoreOS: “CoreOS is committed to bringing cloud native infrastructure to companies everywhere,” said Brandon Philips, CTO of CoreOS. “We do this through products like Tectonic, the enterprise Kubernetes platform, our training and services, and through our open source leadership and contributions in the Kubernetes community. CoreOS shares the knowledge and expertise that enterprise users need to support their application-focused infrastructure. When deploying Kubernetes, Prometheus, etcd, CoreOS Linux and more, customers are guided from the teams bringing these cloud native technologies in the open source community.” https://coreos.com/products/

Deis: “Deis Professional Services works with enterprises at all stages of Kubernetes adoption,” said Gabriel Monroy, CTO at Deis. “We excel at structuring proof of concepts, production cluster standups, application migration, cluster certification, production readiness checks and training for developers and operators. In addition, Deis provides 24×7 operational support for any Kubernetes cluster managed by our global cluster operations team.” https://deis.com/services/

Google: “We are enthusiastic about how the KMSP program will support enterprises adopting Kubernetes,” said Allan Naim, Product Manager for Kubernetes and Google Container Engine. “Google will be actively contributing to the curriculum and certification development.”

Huawei: “Huawei is excited to be recognized for our ability to support Kubernetes deployments in the worldwide. Kubernetes is a critical technology for us. A key goal for Huawei is to help the open source technology create value for our customers and partners,” said Dr. Ying Xiong, Chief Architect of Cloud Platform at Huawei Technologies.

LiveWyer: “Our team believes Kubernetes is a powerful tool in the next era of infrastructure development and containerized applications. The efficient container orchestration of Kubernetes provides IT teams with the ability to react quickly and robustly to any demand – which is something that the LiveWyer experts are passionate about helping businesses achieve,” said David O’Dwyer, Founder at LiveWyer. https://livewyer.io/services/kubernetes-experts/

Samsung SDS: “We offer Cloud Native Computing expert consulting across the range of technical aspects involved in building services targeted at a Kubernetes cluster,” said Bob Wise, Chief Cloud Technologist at Samsung SDS Research America. 

Additional Resources

• Kubernetes Fundamentals
• CNCF newsroom and blog

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, Prometheus and OpenTracing; brings together the industry’s top developers, end users, and vendors; and serves as a neutral home for collaboration. CNCF is part of The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization. For more information about CNCF, please visit: https://cncf.io/.