Red Hat strives to arm those working closely with our products and technologies with the highest skillset possible. Our certifications are earned when a user demonstrates the ability to solve and perform real world tasks in a rigorous performance-based exam. As a result, Red Hat certifications are among the most respected credentials in IT. We’ve also emphasized training as an integral component to our solutions-based approach, helping to ease migration efforts, optimize infrastructures and decrease long-term overhead.

IDC took notice of Red Hat’s strength in training and certification and ranked us as the leader in a recent competitive analysis, IDC MarketScape: Worldwide IT Education and Training 2009 Vendor Analysis (document #216830), February 2009 by Cushing Anderson. The study assessed 10 technology vendors participating in the IT education market as a line of business (LOB) to support the sale of their technologies. In addition to Red Hat, other vendors included Cisco, HP, IBM, Lawson, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun and Symantec.

Red Hat ranked as the overall leader in the competitive analysis which measured vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short term in addition to alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a three- to five- year time frame.

Strengths noted in the competitive analysis include:

  • Certifications are primarily role based, often crossing the functional use of one or more products.
  • Initiatives to increase virtual ILT delivery have been successful and popular.
  • Training is available for each release and is updated for every dot release.
  • Regular knowledge sharing occurs between Red Hat University, services on-boarding teams (early users of most training), engineering/core teams (engineering subject matter experts), and the Red Hat Training and Certification team (training delivery).
  • Red Hat leverages advisory boards to help maintain the relevance of its certifications and engages with internal and external communities.

We’re also happy to announce that the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) program recently marked a key milestone – it turned 10! Join us throughout 2009 as we celebrate its success and the achievements of all who have earned it. If you know an exceptional RHCE, please be sure to nominate them for the 2009 RHCE of the Year contest. Winners will be recognized at the 2009 Red Hat Summit and JBoss World co-located this year in Chicago, Sept. 1-4, 2009.

Please note: this blog includes excerpts from the competitive analysis IDC MarketScape: Worldwide IT Education and Training 2009 Vendor Analysis (document #216830), February 2009.