Rackspace Certifies Private Cloud Partners

Michael Garrity — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Rackspace, the developer of a popular open cloud, is now offering product certifications to its Rackspace Private Cloud partners.

In case you still haven’t heard of Rackspace, it’s a company that helps businesses easily deploy and manage private clouds, which can quickly (as in under an hour) be downloaded and used in a customer’s datacenter. These clouds are supported by Rackspace’s open cloud experts.

At present, thousands of different businesses, organizations and individuals across the globe use the Rackspace Private Cloud software, and according to the company, many of their partners have been asking for a way to certify their Private Cloud products, hardware or software through Rackspace. In doing this, it will be able to extend the capabilities of its open cloud solution by providing programs to its partners that can validate their offerings against Rackspace’s solution, making them more attractive to potential customers that also use the Private Cloud.

Because it can be difficult and costly (both in time and monetary investment) to build hardware, apps and platforms that run on Rackspace OpenStack private clouds, as it requires “deep expertise and knowledge,” customers can turn to the Rackspace Private Cloud certification program, which provides a consistent, supportable, tested platform to test products for compatibility with other open private clouds.

To increase versatility, Rackspace is actually offering two different types of product certifications. The first is the Technology Alliance Program that is designed for hardware and platform vendors that offer products and solutions in conjunction with the Rackspace Private Cloud. Partners can include compute, hardware, storage hardware, networking, operating systems and management tools, and they will work with Rackspace engineers to get detailed testing criteria in QA and validation labs to ensure compatibility.

The other type is the “Built For” Program, which was designed for software vendors that want to build applications running in guest virtual machines or to manage app workloads with the Private Cloud. Again, they’ll receive a testing suite and hosted validation environment that confirms their app’s compatibility with the Rackspace Private Cloud.

“Running a large-scale, enterprise private cloud is not an easy task,” says Rackspace’s private cloud vice president, Paul Rad. “Our goal is to help enterprise IT to deploy private clouds that have the efficiently and robustness of Rackspace’s public cloud, which runs thousands of virtual machines. The product certification program opens the door for IT executives to choose a certified stack that has been validated and supported by Rackspace and its certification partners.”

Is Your Affiliate Manager Certified?

Michael Garrity — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:47:00 GMT

Both weathered veterans and affiliate marketing newbies may occasionally require some assistance in their endeavors. This is why many affiliate networks or programs hire affiliate managers – individuals assigned to help affiliates generate sales, track purchases, send commissions and more.

But how does one know which of these managers he or she can really trust?

Renowned affiliate marketing network Rakuten LinkShare may have the answer, as the company recently launched the first testing and certification program for affiliate managers run by a major network in the industry. Affiliate managers in the Rakuten LinkShare network will be tested for their proficiency and knowledge, and the program will provide advertisers with the education necessary to become “experts” with the ability to drive results and show significant growth.

Among the topics covered in the program are: basic affiliate marketing knowledge, best practices and strategies that can be used to maximize sales. It will also include information that is unique to the LinkShare network. Plus, participants are granted access to special tutorials, webinars and even live events hosted by Rakuten LinkShare.

Certified affiliate managers will receive a badge that can be displayed on their websites and marketing materials. These certifications are valid for one calendar year, with an annual option for renewal that will address any changes in online marketing in that time.

Currently, the program is only out in the US and Canada, but it should be launched in the UK and Japan by the end of the year. The fee for the initial test is $250, with each subsequent renewal costing $50.

'Net Features : certification program

Rackspace Certifies Private Cloud Partners

Is Your Affiliate Manager Certified?