MapR Offers Free Hadoop Training and Certifications

In an effort to make Hadoop training for developers, analysts and administrators more accessible, Hadoop distribution specialist MapR Technologies Tuesday unveiled a free on-demand training program. Another track for HBase developers will be added later this quarter.

“This represents a $50 million, in-kind contribution to the Hadoop community,” says Jack Norris, CMO of MapR. “The focus is overcoming what many people consider the major obstacle to the adoption of big data, particularly Hadoop.”

Training on Demand

The multi-course curriculum is built on interactive video lessons, hands-on exercises, labs and quizzes that professionals can tackle when and where they want, at their own pace. Norris notes that users can choose which course modules to pursue, essentially allowing them to create their own curriculum. MapR has also arranged for certification exams by Innovative Exams, a specialist in certifications and test proctoring.

[Related: IT Certifications: Discover Where the Value Lies ]

The developer track is about building big data applications in Hadoop. The topics range from the basics of Hadoop and related technologies to advanced topics like designing and developing MapReduce and HBase applications with hands-on labs. The courses include:

• Hadoop Essentials. This course, which is immediately available, provides an introduction to Hadoop, the ecosystem, common solutions and use cases.
• Developing Hadoop Applications. This course is also immediately available and focuses on designing and writing effective Hadoop applications with MapReduce and YARN.
• HBase Schema Design and Modeling. This course will become available in February and will focus on architecture, schema design and data modeling on HBase.
• Developing HBase Applications. This course will also debut in February and focuses on real-world application design in HBase (Time Series and Social Application examples).
• Hadoop Data Analysis – Drill. Slated for debut in March, this course covers interactive SQL on Hadoop for structured, semi-structured and nested data.

Norris notes that this learning path prepares the user for Hadoop Developer and HBase Developer certification exams. The exams cost $250 each and can be taken online with live remote proctoring.

[Related: MapR Makes Its NoSQL Database Freely Available in Community Edition ]

The data analyst track is about gaining insight on massive amounts of data. The topics range from Hadoop basics to data modeling best practices on HBase, batch and real-time SQL query technologies on structured, unstructured and semi-structured data with hands-on labs.

It includes the Hadoop Essentials, HBase Schema Design and Modeling, and Hadoop Data Analysis. Drill courses from the developer track and adds Hadoop Data Analysis – Hive, which focuses on analyzing and manipulating data using Hive on large-scale data sets. That course will debut in March.

The data analyst learning path prepares users for HBase Developer and Hadoop Data Analyst certification exams. These exams also cost $250 each and can be taken online with live remote proctoring. The HBase Developer exam is available immediately, while the Hadoop Data Analyst exam will become available in March.

The administrator track prepares you to lead the architecture and deployment of large-scale Hadoop clusters. Topics include learning how to architect, install, deploy, manage and scale a Hadoop cluster in a production environment with hands-on labs.

It includes the Hadoop Essentials course and adds Hadoop Operations: Cluster Administration, which focuses on installing and configuring Hadoop clusters, performance tuning and benchmarking, storage management, data ingestion, high availability, monitoring and management. It is available now.

This track prepares the user for the Hadoop Administrator certification exam, which, like the others, is available for $250.

Coming Soon …

In the second quarter MapR will roll out new courses aimed at developers, data analysts and data scientists, including: Hadoop Data Analysis (Pig), Introduction to Data Science (Mahout, MLlib, R), Designing and Building Big Data Applications and Advanced Data Science.

“There is ongoing momentum propelling Hadoop as deployments continue to expand in scope and size,” says Matt Aslett, research director of data platforms and analytics at 451 Research. “Hadoop skills remain highly valuable to employers and we expect this new on-demand training initiative from MapR to be of tremendous interest to individuals looking to build new areas of expertise in managing and analyzing data.”

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