JEDDAH – Avaya, a leading provider of solutions to enable customer and team engagement everywhere, has announced Monday that it plans to create a new industry certification program to drive expertise in SDN-Fabric based networking. The Avaya Certified Expert-Fx program aims to bridge the current skills gap in the Middle East between traditional, hardware-intensive networking technologies and next-generation, software-defined fabric-based networking. The announcement was made at the annual Avaya Technology Forum in Dubai, with more than 500 technology and networking professionals from across India, China, Russia, the Middle East and Africa regions in attendance. “Businesses and organizations in the Middle East are already embracing the dynamic networking capabilities of Avaya Fabric Connect. The ACE-Fx certification will equip IT professionals with the expertise, power, and confidence they need to take these businesses and organizations to the next level with the advanced skills needed to design, build and manage the next generation networks.” Jean Turgeon, vice president for worldwide networking sales, and chief technologist, Software Defined Architecture (SDA), Avaya. A 2013 report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that emerging networking technology skills in the Middle East, such as those required for cloud computing, mobility, and virtualization, represented 38.4 percent of the total networking skills gap in 2012, growing to 46.3 percent in 2016. The certification program is designed to enable networking engineers and IT professionals to deliver the transformational networking capabilities provided by the Avaya SDN Fx architecture. Announced last month, Avaya SDN Fx, which is built on the Avaya Fabric Networking technology, provides a complete next-generation networking solution that delivers on the promise of SDN without the hidden complexity that comes with the towering overlays of software and hardware inherent in many other vendor approaches. Avaya SDN Fx provides “connect anything, anywhere” simplicity that can shave off weeks of provisioning time by making it easy to add devices and users at the network edge. SDN Fx is the ideal architecture to advance strategies for Smart Cities and the Internet of Things. The ACE-Fx certification program is being structured as a 4 ½-day intensive, hands-on workshop and exam held at Avaya Networking Lab facilities and other locations in the Middle East, China, Russia, India, African and Turkey. Designed for individual IT professionals, the ACE-Fx certification can help Avaya channel partners focused on networking reach Platinum Partner status by providing the third certification required for this status. Networking professionals can also be certified by Avaya for Networking Fabric and Mobility. Existing network industry certifications from other entities will also be recognized, allowing networking professionals to directly enter the ACE-Fx class without reinvesting in other Avaya courses. The ACE-Fx program is expected to launch in the second half of 2015. — SG
