Open Cloud Academy a new "advanced technology training" certification program

How Rackspace is taking on Amazon now - Fortune Tech: " . . . Rackspace, along with its various partners and customers, seems to be having a hard time finding enough technical workers with "open" cloud computing skills. "The skills needed to build websites, like HTML and PHP [computer languages used in web development] are pretty mature," says Graham Weston, chairman and co-founder of Rackspace. "But the new skills are running those apps on a cloud-based server infrastructure--you just can't go to college to learn those languages." That's why Weston, a real estate tycoon who got his start marketing organic pork, is launching the Open Cloud Academy, a new certification program which aims to provide the "advanced technology training" needed to become a "top entry-level open cloud technologist." The small school, based in San Antonio (near Rackspace's headquarters), will teach six- to eight-week-long courses in software development, network security and cyber security. Rackspace says 91 people are already enrolled in the first pilot program, free of charge (future students will pay about $3,500 for the course). The new academy will give preference to military veterans, and Weston says Rackspace will hire about a third of graduating students. Eventually, he hopes to reach upwards of 1,000 graduates and open up online-only courses. "It's an intensive, boot camp style of learning--there's no lollygagging or football games here," says Weston. . . . "


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