News

MEF Adds to Existing SDN/NFV Training, Certification

• By David Ramel
• 07/02/2018

With software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) steadily gaining traction in the new-age networking space, industry association MEF has announced a new certification program to prove expertise in those areas.

In a years-long maturation process, SDN and NFV implementations have largely been limited to proofs-of-concept, test labs, trials and experiments, but more recently have been seeing more real-world use cases.

Along with trend, industry efforts have been picking up to provide education and certification opportunities.

Last month, for example, open source champion The Linux Foundation unveiled a free course to serve as an introduction to modern, open source networking technologies including SDN, NFV, disaggregation, orchestration, network automation and more.

A course titled LFS165x - Introduction to Open Source Networking Technologies, available early next month via the edX educational firm, offers the chance for a verified certificate for $99.

Now, MEF if offering what it claims to be the first operator-grade, ISO-level SDN/NFV professional certification.

MEF said it covers:

• Operator-level understanding of SDN and NFV, sufficient to demonstrate mastery of the design, installation/deployment and management of complex SDN and NFV networks.
• The breadth of SDN and NFV skills necessary to address all the facets of advanced networking, vendor-neutral information that an IT technical professional needs to know (networking, virtualization in many forms), as well as the knowledge to plan, install, and operate advanced SDN and NFV networks) across a wide variety of network architectures.
• Domains include Planning, Building, and Operating SDN and NFV networks, with knowledge of architecture, testing, solution design, security, as well as metrics and management of a deployed SDN/NFV solution.

The course, built around three key themes of design, deploy and manage -- is currently offered for $320.

Like The Linux Foundation, MEF pointed to research that indicated employers use IT certifications as a reliable indicator of a good hiring candidate and that certified IT staff routinely earn higher salaries than their noncertified counterparts.

While that research pointed to a 2017 IT Skills and Salary Report published by Global Knowledge, The Linux Foundation cited the 2017 Open Source Jobs Report -- published in conjunction with careers site Dice -- that indicated some 50 percent of hiring managers are looking to hire for more networking expertise, with 55 percent saying that formal training or certification are priorities when choosing job-seekers.