Cloudera launches BASE to groom data professionals

Data management and analytics platform Cloudera built on Apache Hadoop and the latest open source technologies has launched BASE or the Big Analytics Skills Enablement initiative – an industry-led ecosystem that is designed to groom a future workforce of data professionals.Designed to strategically fill the skilled data professionals gap that the industry is currently facing, BASE pulls industry players and academic institutions together to equip more people with necessary skills in the areas of big data and analytics.The initiative also encompasses elements whereby trained data professionals will be matched to opportunities across sectors where their skills are required.Dato’ Yasmin Mahmood, chief executive officer, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) said: “Digital Malaysia is a national agenda that aims to turn Malaysia into a developed digital economy that connects and empowers the government, businesses and citizens.""Transformational technologies such as Big Data Analytics (BDA) plays a pivotal role in ensuring the success of this initiative by creating new business value solutions and prompting significant innovation and advancements across multiple industries. Malaysia is well on our way to become a BDA hub in the ASEAN region and we are glad to partner with Cloudera on its BASE Initiative which takes us a step forward in this direction.”Currently, businesses such as Intel, Dell, Red Hat, Microsoft, SAS Malaysia and Fusionex have already stepped forward to join the BASE initiative in Malaysia, committing to play a role in this collaborative ecosystem.Academic institutions like Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) have also joined to provide training in data skills. Cloudera has also garnered support from Ambition Asia to match data professionals who have completed their training to the right job vacancies.Cloudera’s Chief Architect and the co-creator of Apache Hadoop, Doug Cutting commented: “At Cloudera we see a clear shortage of skilled data professionals across industries. We see an opportunity for us to play a catalyst role to bring various bodies into a collaborative effort, much like the open source community did when we were creating Hadoop. This collaborative innovation will help us bring new data-enabled talent into the market through skilled professionals who can who can leverage the tools and actualize data for business and the community.”The BASE Initiative is also complementary to the Cloudera Academic Partnership (CAP) program, where the company partners with accredited, non-profit institutions around the world to help develop the next generation of data professionals.Through CAP, Cloudera provides partner institutions with a complete, industry-standard Hadoop curriculum at no charge that can be incorporated into computer science and business analytics courses. Teaching staff and students of affiliated institutions also get access to software and discounted training to help accelerate the adoption of the Hadoop platform.Currently, over 100 academic institutions around the globe are members of CAP. This includes UTAR in Malaysia, which recently jointly announced its participation in CAP.Additionally, through Cloudera’s market-leading global training program, 65 percent of the Fortune 100 and all 20 of the top 20 global technology firms have leveraged Cloudera's expertise to train employees on topics like Apache Hadoop, data science, Apache Spark and big data application development.