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NEW YORK—MongoDB announced a new certification program for developers and database administrators (DBAs).
MongoDB will certify the knowledge of concepts and mechanics, including practical skills required to build applications backed by the NoSQL database. MongoDB certification offers DBAs and developers a new means to prove expertise on MongoDB and helps organizations hire and develop qualified professionals.
MongoDB announced its new certification program at the O’Reilly Strata Conference + Hadoop World event here.
The company will initially offer an Associate MongoDB Certified Developer exam beginning Dec. 3, and roll out Professional and Master MongoDB Certified Developer exams in the coming year. The exams, which cost $150, will be administered online through the MongoDB University platform to ensure worldwide accessibility. Certificates include a unique license number that can be verified through MongoDB University’s Website.
According to The 451 Group research firm, MongoDB is the most popular NoSQL database and now accounts for 49 percent of all mentions of NoSQL technologies in LinkedIn profiles. The formal certification will expand this reach and enhance the already thriving MongoDB online community.
“The launch of MongoDB certification is a response to the widespread adoption of our NoSQL database, and the increasing importance employers are placing on MongoDB expertise,” Andrew Erlichson, vice president of education and cloud services at MongoDB, said in a statement. “Our rigorous, hands-on exam helps developers and DBAs build their careers, while providing organizations with a trusted indicator that potential employees have the right skill set to deliver on projects in this competitive industry.”
While completing courses offered by MongoDB University will prepare individuals for the exams, certification is separate from MongoDB University coursework and is open to everyone, recognizing that many individuals will have acquired their knowledge of MongoDB by other means.
In a blog post on the certification, Shannon Bradshaw, director of education at MongoDB, said, “MongoDB certification offers developers and DBAs a new means to prove expertise on MongoDB and helps organizations hire and develop qualified professionals. These credentials recognize individuals with proven knowledge of the concepts and mechanics of the database and practical skills required to build applications backed by MongoDB.”
“Our research into the NoSQL database space indicates that interest in MongoDB is outpacing interest in other NoSQL database technologies by some margin,” said Matt Aslett, research director for data management and analytics at 451 Research. “These results illustrate that, whichever way you look at it, MongoDB is a driving force behind the emerging big data technology landscape.”
MongoDB University is an online learning platform run by MongoDB and is available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. The education resource’s free courses help teach individuals how to develop for and administer MongoDB quickly and efficiently. Over time, MongoDB will continue to add classes on such things as schema design, advanced scaling and replication and other topics. MongoDB University’s platform was developed in collaboration with edX, the not-for-profit consortium between MIT, Harvard and Berkeley.
Indeed, new offerings to MongoDB University include improved testing technology. MongoDB officials said one of the challenges of providing scalable massive open online courses (MOOCs) is creating problems that can be graded automatically but still engage the student deeply about course material. To address this, MongoDB University has developed an in-browser MongoDB Web shell that allows students to interactively test Mongo Query language against cloud-based MongoDB servers without requiring students to download MongoDB on their personal computers.
Moreover, MongoDB has added support for languages other than English in online courses and will expand beyond Japanese to include French and German in 2014.
Also, a new online course, “M202: MongoDB Advanced Deployment,” will be available in early 2014. In addition, the company will offer “MongoDB Advanced Operations Training,” a two-day, hands-on training for operations staff and DBAs who already have experience with MongoDB.
MongoDB has a thriving open-source global community with more than five million downloads, 100,000 online education registrations, 20,000 user group members and 20,000 MongoDB Days attendees.
Thousands of organizations have chosen the MongoDB document-oriented database due to its agile and scalable approach. Common use cases include operational and analytical big data, content management and delivery, mobile and social infrastructure, user data management and data hub.