Developers can now become Apache Spark certified. Databricks, the company that founded the open-source Big Data processing engine, and O’Reilly Media are teaming up to launch the Apache Spark Developer Certification Program.
Spark made strides earlier this year when the Apache Software Foundation moved it from Apache Incubator to a top-level project. “The adoption of Apache Spark by businesses large and small is growing at an incredible rate across a wide range of industries, and the demand for developers with certified expertise is quickly following suit,” said John Tripier, alliances and ecosystem lead at Databricks.
“To meet that demand, in addition to our existing Spark training resources, we’re excited to partner with O’Reilly in the launch of the Spark Developer Certification program to encourage and further grow the community of Spark developers building next-generation Big Data applications.”
The program, created by Databricks’ Spark experts and O’Reilly’s editorial team, will consist of a formal exam and subsequent certification, and is designed to establish an industry standard for assessing and authenticating Spark technical expertise. The certification exam will be offered through Databricks’ Spark summits, through its training workshops and at Strata events, according Ben Lorica, chief data scientist at O’Reilly. In addition to the certification program, O’Reilly will also be providing resources such as books, videos and training days.
“O’Reilly has a rich history of working directly with the originators of technologies we believe in, and this new Spark Certification program continues that tradition,” said Lorica. “I’m delighted to be partnering with the creators of Spark to build a program that defines the state of the art and helps developers and companies keep pace with the latest innovations in the Big Data space.”
The program will formally launch at O’Reilly’s Strata Conference + Hadoop World in New York, Oct. 15-17. More information about the Spark Developer Certification is available here.
