IT professionals who are looking to broaden their skills in the cloud computing space now have access to a free annual subscription to Microsoft’s new IT Pro Cloud Essentials program, which provides services, training, support and certification in this technology space. Here are the details.
If you’re in the IT industry, I don’t need to quote stats and figures for you to know that cloud is big business and nearly all organisations are using cloud services in one form or another. There is a lot of opportunities for IT professionals who want to specialise in this space or simply upskill their cloud capabilities.
According to Microsoft senior product manager Javier Nino:
“The cloud opens up new opportunities for you to support the needs of your organisation. As an IT professional, people look to you to be the first to know about new technologies and you are vital to their technology adoption. But keeping up with the speed of innovation in the cloud can be painful if trials expire before you can do meaningful assessments or if information and support is hard to find.”
That is why Microsoft is giving away annual subscriptions to its IT Pro Cloud Essentials program which will provide:
- $100 per month worth of credits for three months for Microsoft’s Azure public cloud platform to test out cloud scenarios such as backup, disaster recovery, security and dev/test if you sign up to the program before September. Microsoft is working on a longer term free credit arrangement for the future.
- Three months free subscription to Pluralsight, an online training service
- Priority support in Microsoft’s TechNet forums
- Phone support for Azure or on-premise products
- A free certification exam voucher (on a first come first serve basis since there is a limited number of vouchers to go around)
- Extended trials of Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite and Office 365
Microsoft is also serving up its IT Pro Career Center for free, which helps IT workers plan their cloud career paths through set a curriculum they can follow for specific cloud roles. It provides a place where they can collaborate and learn with peers and get insights from industry experts as well.
It’s a smart move from Microsoft. Not only is it ingratiating itself with eager-to-learn IT professionals through this new program, it’s also promoting the Azure brand and its existing cloud services to a wider audience.
You can find out more over at the Microsoft TechNet Blog.
[Via Microsoft TechNet Blog]
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