A Red Hat certification provides validation of knowledge and expertise that is beneficial to both individuals and their employers. The certification program gives employers and managers ways to find and develop qualified professionals. It also helps individuals prove their skills with Red Hat's solutions. In short, it helps employers identify individuals with exceptional skills – and helps individuals better tout those skills to employers.

The highest level of certification we offer is the Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) designation. It’s the barometer by which individuals with the most experience in using Red Hat’s products are measured.

We recently announced changes to the RHCA certification. These changes provide greater flexibility and include newer Red Hat credentials covering cloud, virtualization, and application platforms. To become a RHCA, one must attain Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) status and acquire at least five of several possible certifications, each of which cover different product and solution areas.

The skills and knowledge demanded of enterprise IT professionals is changing. Enterprises now require professionals with both broad and deep architect-level skills and knowledge to get the most out of investments. While RHCEs are free to choose whatever combination of eligible credentials they want to apply towards earning RHCA accreditation, Red Hat is recommending three concentrations that align to the requirements found in many enterprises.

The Datacenter concentration includes:

  • Securing Red Hat systems against unauthorized access
  • Enhancing logging, auditing, and identity management capabilities
  • Deploying and managing virtualization infrastructure, hosts, and guests
  • Implementing high availability services on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Using the on-premise capabilities of Red Hat Storage Server
  • Deploying applications using Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform
  • Managing multiple systems using Red Hat Satellite

The Cloud concentration includes:

  • Creating, configuring, and managing private clouds using Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform
  • Managing virtual, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructures with Red Hat CloudForms
  • Creating, configuring, and managing a cloud application platform with OpenShift Enterprise by Red Hat
  • Implementing flexible storage solutions for on-premise and hybrid clouds
  • Managing multiple systems using Red Hat Satellite

The Application Platform concentration includes:

  • Installing, configuring, and managing Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform and the applications running on it
  • Creating, configuring, and managing a cloud application platform with OpenShift Enterprise
  • Federating data from multiple sources using Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization
  • Managing applications in hybrid cloud environments

As technology and requirements evolve, so will Red Hat’s certification concentrations.  We plant to introduce new concentrations in the future. Visit our website to learn more about the new RHCA certification concentrations.

If you are an IT professional interested in advancing your career towards architect-level responsibilities, we have a team available to help you get the skills and knowledge you need. Complete this form, and we will contact you.


About the authors

Randy Russell is the director of Certification and leads the team that develops and delivers Red Hat's certification programs and exams.  A long-time proponent of performance-based testing, he has served on the board and as president and chairman of the Performance Testing Council, as well as having presented on this subject and others at industry conferences such as the Association of Test Publishers, the European Association of Test Publishers, CeDMA and TSIA.  Prior to joining Red Hat, Russell was a system administrator and programmer at an environmental economics consulting firm.

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