Learning Tree International announced a 100% hands-on online certification program for the Certified Cloud Risk Management Professional (CCRMP) sponsored by Mission Critical Institute (MCI) and designed to expand the pipeline of job-ready cloud risk management professionals.

The CCRMP certifies that members of the Learning Tree community have become cloud risk management job-ready by successfully completing hands-on projects producing NIST Risk Management Framework and FedRAMP deliverables.

"This new affiliation with MCI will enable public and private sector organizations to address the critical need for additional cyber and cloud security professionals globally," said Richard A. Spires, CEO, Learning Tree International. "Under this program, attendees can gain valuable and practical NIST Risk Management Framework and FedRAMP experience, earn a hands-on cloud risk management certification, and progress toward leadership positions."

Grazed from Rackspace

Rackspace today announced that it has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Financial Services Competency status. This designation recognizes Rackspace for leveraging its deep expertise to implement effective solutions that help financial services organizations manage critical issues such as risk management, core systems implementations, data management, navigating compliance requirements, and establishing governance models. Rackspace delivers true transformation as a service across applications, data, security and infrastructure.  Achieving the AWS Financial Services Competency is an important step in Rackspace's broader effort to support financial services organizations with their digital transformation. 

According to a recent report from the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF), 72 percent of U.S. finance executives were either using cloud-based solutions in 2017 or they planned to do so in the future. While many banking, insurance, investment firms and other financial services organizations are moving to the cloud at an increasing rate, most lack the resources and expertise needed to navigate this digital transformation on their own. 

Cloud Computing is a method of delivering resources related to computing over the internet as scalable and expandable.

Application of engineering discipline to this concept is termed as Cloud Engineering.

It is associated with any technological responsibilities related to cloud computing.

Cloud computing builds a systematic approach to focus on standardization and governance of cloud applications.

A cloud engineer focuses on some key cloud services:

Druva, the leader in cloud data protection and information management, today announced that it has successfully completed the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type II certification for its data protection solutions. This certification further assures customers that Druva has designed and implemented effective internal controls that maintain the confidentially and privacy of the data it processes. 

Today's enterprises are turning to modern, cloud-based solutions to reduce the risk, cost and effort of managing data. As they increasingly depend on service providers to manage mission-critical data, they are also increasingly looking for companies that can demonstrate adherence to the highest security and compliance standards. Obtaining this certification affirms that Druva's information security practices, policies, procedures and operations meet the SOC 2 standards for security, availability and confidentiality.

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: James Bourne.

Oracle has announced its public cloud services have achieved various security and compliance certifications, including ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC1 and SOC2, in what the company describes as ‘continued momentum’ for its products. The Redwood giant’s platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has received Service Organisation Control (SOC) attestations across a variety of key services, while its Fusion software as a service (SaaS) is HIPAA-accredited and the ISO 27001 was awarded for ‘the proper management and security of assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted to an organisation by third parties’.

The move puts Oracle alongside its various industry competitors; for example, Microsoft’s SOC1 and SOC2 information can be found here – copies of the report are only available to customers who have signed an NDA – while ISO 27001 can be found here. The Oracle accreditations were administered by Schellman & Co...

Read more from the source @ https://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2017/apr/03/oracle-secures-iso-27001-hipaa-and-soc-certification-its-cloud-portfolio/

The International Association of Cloud & Managed Service Providers (MSPAlliance - www.mspalliance.com) today announced they have partnered with Ingram Micro Cloud to launch MSPAlliance's MSP/Cloud Verify Program, an initiative to promote best practices and improve service delivery among the managed service provider (MSP) and cloud computing community.

MSP/Cloud Verify is an examination conducted by the MSPAlliance based on 10 objectives of the Unified Certification Standard (USC), a set of globally accepted standards and best practices designed specifically for the MSP and cloud industry. Measuring against these 10 objectives quantifies the overall health, competency and service delivery capability of an MSP or cloud practice. The USC has been created by MSPs for MSPs and is updated annually by a committee of MSP/Cloud Verified companies.

Grazed from SkyKick

SkyKick (www.skykick.com), a global provider of cloud management software for information technology (IT) solution partners, today announced that SkyKick Cloud Backup and SkyKick Migration Suites are now compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. The certifications, which come at no additional cost to existing SkyKick products, provide additional assurance that sensitive customer data is being handled securely around the globe.

"We take data security and privacy very seriously, and our products have always been in line with important regulations. However, the HIPAA and Privacy Shield certifications eliminate the overhead of outside compliance management and provides our partners significant peace of mind," said Brad Younge, SkyKick co-founder and CTO. "The number of SkyKick IT partners managing cloud deployments in healthcare and in Europe has grown tremendously over the past year, and we're working hard to make it even easier for them to handle sensitive data."

Linux Academy, the foremost online Linux and cloud training platform and community, today launched the public beta of Cloud Assessments, a new platform that allows enterprises to test and train their IT teams, as well as prospective job candidates, on their technology. Individuals can also leverage Cloud Assessments to prove real, hands-on skill and earn micro certifications. The first Cloud Assessment offerings will focus on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

"In today's world of constantly changing technologies and competition for IT talent, it's necessary for companies to know for certain that their IT staff and new hires have more than a theoretical understanding of their technology, particularly AWS," said Anthony James, CEO and founder, Linux Academy. "Whether it's used by companies to test, vet, or train their teams on AWS skills or by individuals to assess and learn new ones, Cloud Assessments provides proof of those skills, and we're very excited about the tremendous advantages and opportunities it presents to both."

Mirantis launched the first vendor-agnostic Kubernetes and Docker certification, giving enterprises a way to identify container skills in a competitive cloud market. Professionals preparing for the certification are recommended to take the Kubernetes and Docker bootcamp. The company also announced a new online, self-paced KD100 training for self-learners looking for economy pricing and additional flexibility.

Cloud computing skills have progressed from being niche to mainstream as the world's most in-demand skill set. LinkedIn named cloud computing as the hottest skill in demand in France, India, and the United States in 2015. Within cloud computing, Kubernetes and containers have grown in popularity. The OpenStack User Survey shows Kubernetes taking the lead as the top Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) tool, while 451 Research has called containers the "future of virtualization," predicting strong container growth across on-premises, hosted and public clouds.

Grazed from GoCertify. Author: Tim Warner.

It's difficult to browse information technology (IT) industry news without seeing reference after reference to OpenStack. The buzz is that OpenStack is a free, fully open platform for building private clouds. What is OpenStack? How does it work? What OpenStack certifications may be available?

Understanding OpenStack

OpenStack is indeed free and open-source software (FOSS) written predominantly in Python; this means that you can inspect the source code and even make contributions if you're so inclined. Specifically, OpenStack is a cloud operating system that supports infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), primarily virtual machine, workloads. Hallmarks of cloud computing solutions are as follows:...