Hortonworks, the Yahoo spinoff dedicated to providing services and support for Apache Hadoop, today unveil HortonWorks University. Hortonworks already offers both online and in-person training courses, but the company is now expanding its offering to include a Apache Hadoop certifications and a Certified Training Partner Program.

According to the Hortonworks’ announcement “Hortonworks University courses feature a blend of expert content and hands-on labs that prepare students for the real-world challenges of building, deploying and managing Apache Hadoop applications.” The company offers two main courses: a four day course for developers and a two day course for administrators.

Services Angle

Hadoop is still seen as a daunting, complex system. Training programs are the first step for many organizations. Hortonworks’ primary competitor Cloudera consolidated its trainings under the Cloudera University brand last October. And in November alternative Hadoop distribution vendor MapR announced its free online training program via MapR Academy.