Hadoop vendor MapR Technologies, Inc. is teaming up with Google Cloud Platform to offer each new registrant on its free Hadoop On-Demand Training program up to $500 of free credit to be spent on Google’s cloud services.

MapR is hoping the initiative will tempt more people to sign up for its free Hadoop On-Demand Training classes. The company says it’s already signed up 25,000 professionals to the program, but it’s clearly hoping for more with this fresh incentive, which will allows students to complete their training using Google’s infrastructure at no cost to themselves.

Students will be able to create the virtual environments they need to complete labs on Google’s infrastructure, and once they’ve finished those exercises, they’ll be free to continue using Google cloud services like Google Compute Engine, Google BigQuery, and Google Cloud Storage Nearline to better familiarize themselves with the tools.

“Working with Google Cloud Platform on this training initiative is strong validation of the demand for skilled Hadoop professionals and the huge momentum we’ve achieved since we launched this program in late January,” said Dave Jespersen, vice president of worldwide services at MapR Technologies. “MapR is revolutionizing Hadoop training by bringing to market a free, on-demand, interactive and engaging experience for data professionals and, with Google Cloud Platform, we are providing additional resources to extend their education and hands-on experience with Hadoop.”

MapR’s training program is designed to get IT professionals more accustomed to working with Hadoop, offering interactive video lessons, labs, quizzes and hands-on exercises. The company has recently added new courses to the program as well, including MapR Distribution Essentials, Apache Drill Essentials and Apache Drill Architecture. At the end of the courses, students have the opportunity to take exams in order to gain certified Hadoop professional designations for administrators, data analysts and developers.

For more information on how to redeem MapR’s free credit, follow this link to register for the company’s free Hadoop On-Demand Training classes.

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