Open source is all the rage but, interestingly, neither Red Hat nor Novell's Linux certifications were among the top 20 professional certifications in ZDNet Asia's IT Salary Benchmark 2006 survey.
Executives from Novell and Red Hat told ZDNet Asia that certifications in open source software should become more important as the technology gains greater traction among businesses.
David Bebko, marketing director for Novell Asia Pacific, noted that while certifications may not be relevant to the open source community since a developer's work is easily assessed in the public domain, certifications are necessary to businesses deploying open source software.
He said: "If you look at the history of open source, it tends to focus more on R&D (research and development) than implementation, but that's changing."
From the R&D perspective, Bebko noted that certification in open source technologies is less important because "anybody can submit code, which gets reviewed by your peers who either accept or reject your code."
"There is less need to worry upfront about whether someone has the skills or not," he said. "If someone doesn't contribute good code, then it's not a cost to a corporation--it's only a cost to the community which has to review code that it may not accept."
However, as more businesses implement open source software, certification then becomes important, because it demonstrates knowledge that a company is going to invest in, Bebko said.
"One of the values that certification offers is the assurance that an employee that you're going to invest on, has the minimum understanding of the skills you're looking for," he explained.
In addition, Bebko noted the demand for open source software now surpasses the number of people skilled in open source technologies. Certification is thus important to ensure that businesses find the right people for open source deployments.
Randy Russell, director of certification and curriculum at Red Hat, noted that the vendor's certifications do not assess how well software codes are written. Rather, certifications such as the Red Hat Certified Engineer test a candidate's ability to implement open source systems.
"They are not necessarily producing code; they're taking a supported product from Red Hat to solve production needs in an enterprise environment," Russell said. "There is an absolute need to demonstrate that you have knowledge and skills necessary to manage a data center and that you know more than just getting Linux up and running."
However, open source vendors such as Novell and Red Hat hire a number of prominent open source engineers who've made a name for themselves in the community.
Bebko said: "But we do not hire everybody in that manner--certification is still one route by which we can assess an engineer's ability".
Indeed, Red Hat requires its job applicants for some engineering or consulting positions to either possess Red Hat certifications or earn it within a stipulated period.
Apart from technical skills, hiring managers are also increasingly looking at the business acumen possessed by IT workers. "It is a very good skill to have, whether you're developing open source or proprietary software," Bebko said.
"To an open source engineer, business acumen is very useful, but it's always a challenge to develop code that will exactly meet business requirements," Bebko explained. "Business people usually have a difficult time expressing what their needs are in terms that an engineer can understand."
Red Hat's Russell acknowledged that there are other traits besides technical competency that employers are looking for. "But very often, that technical piece is often the most mysterious, because the hiring person isn't necessarily somebody who has the open source expertise."
Business acumen, however, becomes more important to a software architect since he is expected to implement systems that are aligned with an organization's needs, Russell said. "These are the things that we might be looking at as additional educational points for our certification programs in the future."
"But right now, having somebody who knows which the toolsets are available while having the ability to communicate with technical staff, can bring about a transformative change in IT groups," he added.
Bebko said "tens of thousands" of engineers have been certified by Novell in the Asia-Pacific region, out of which Linux engineers make up a small but growing proportion of Novell certification holders. And Red Hat has 15,000 Red Hat certified engineers and technicians in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Russell.
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