Puppet Labs to Launch Its First-Ever Technical Certification Program

PORTLAND, OR--(Marketwire - Jul 18, 2012) - Puppet Labs, the leading provider of IT automation software for system administrators, is now establishing benchmark standards for the rapidly growing Puppet user base with the launch of its new Puppet Certification Program. The program will premiere at the company's signature IT operations conference, PuppetConf, on Sept. 26, 2012, where the initial 144 conference registrants will be the first to take the high-stakes, computer-based certification exams.

With more than 3.5 million downloads for Puppet and Puppet Enterprise in the past 12 months and thousands of customers using Puppet to configure and manage their IT infrastructure, including NYSE, Cisco and Zynga, Puppet has become the de facto industry standard for IT automation. The company's accelerated growth has driven a demand for Puppet skills in today's job market.

"With Puppet's rapid growth and rising customer adoption, it's no surprise that we would eventually expand our training services and offer an official certification program," said Luke Kanies, founder and CEO of Puppet Labs. "There is clearly a demand for Puppet certification, and we're excited to roll out a program that enables system administrators to stand out in a competitive job market clamoring for skilled Puppet professionals."

Establishing an industry-recognized benchmark of expertise in using Puppet IT automation software provides a number of benefits, including the ability to:

• Help organizations maximize their investment in Puppet software by employing system administrators who have demonstrated their Puppet proficiency
• Improve success of Puppet products by recognizing a community of professionals proficient in using Puppet software
• Provide an opportunity for system administrators and developers to distinguish themselves among their peers
• Assist hiring organizations in assessing candidate skills and abilities

"Among our high-profile client base, the demand for system administrators with Puppet expertise has increased 20% in the past year alone," said Jenny Rhoten, Director of Recruiting for Astreya, a global IT services company based in Santa Clara, CA. "Getting a formal Puppet certification further validates to hiring managers that this person has the necessary skills in configuring and managing IT infrastructures using Puppet best practices."

Puppet certifications will be available in two key areas:

• Puppet Professional Certification: This credential validates system administrator competencies in using Puppet IT automation software to manage their infrastructure proactively throughout its lifecycle.
• Puppet Developer Certification: This credential validates skills and competencies for developers who wish to expand their Puppet solution by developing extensions for Puppet in Ruby.

To be among the first to try your hand at getting Puppet certified, register for PuppetConf and take the exam for no additional cost. If you can't make it to PuppetConf, sign up here to receive a notification for when Puppet certification becomes available worldwide.

Supporting Quotes
"While recruiting system administrators for Brocade's IT team, we saw an upswing in candidates listing Puppet skills on their resumes," said Vince Taluskie, Sr. System Engineer, Brocade Communications. "It can be time-consuming to get a sense of where the candidate's Puppet skill set actually is during phone screens and face-to-face interviews. A Puppet certification would not only help a candidate stand out during the recruiting process, but it would also serve as a practical benchmark for our current staff to achieve beyond simply having been through the Puppet training."

"When we first started using Puppet in our environment, it helped shrink our day-to-day tasks and rollouts," said Shawn Molnar, Linux System Administrator at Kal Tire. "With Puppet certification as an extension to the formal Puppet training our team already has under our belts, we will be successfully positioned to further maximize the power of Puppet and cut down on time writing Puppet code."

Additional Resources

• Read up on the Frequently Asked Questions about the certification program
• Get an overview of the Puppet Professional Certification
• Get an overview of the Puppet Developer Certification
• Register for PuppetConf and be among the first to take the Puppet certification exams
• Prepare for the exams by attending the Puppet Education courses: brand new Puppet Fundamentals for System Administrators and Puppet Developer course
• Follow us on Twitter @puppetlabs

Pricing and Availability
The Puppet Certification Program will be available at no additional cost to the first 144 PuppetConf registrants who request to participate in certification testing on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. The worldwide availability of the Puppet certification exams at select Pearson VUE testing centers will start on Oct. 1, 2012. Exam price is $200 USD.

About Puppet Labs
Puppet Labs, Inc. (www.puppetlabs.com) was founded in 2005 and shipped the first release of the open source Puppet Project later the same year. Puppet's popularity has since grown to where it now is responsible for managing millions of nodes across thousands of companies and organizations, both on-premise and in the cloud, including Zynga, Citrix, Shopzilla, Match.com, Oracle/Sun, and other industry leaders. In 2011, Puppet Labs shipped its first commercial software product, Puppet Enterprise. Now numbering 90 employees and based in Portland, Oregon, Puppet Labs is backed by investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Google Ventures, VMware, Cisco, True Ventures, Radar Partners, and Emerson Street Partners.

Puppet Labs and Puppet are trademarks of Puppet Labs, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification purposes and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.