OVERVIEW
Red Hat is making some changes to its professional certification program. We will be expanding the number of Red Hat Certificates of Expertise that may be applied towards earning Red Hat Certified Architect, providing more flexibility in the Certificates one might choose to earn towards RHCA, and implementing some policy changes that will acknowledge and differentiate Red Hat Certified Professionals who are current.

We have several goals in making these changes:

• To provide more value to people who certify and to the organizations that seek them by streamlining the program and making it easier to understand
• To offer more avenues for individual specialization
• To encourage ongoing professional growth and development; and
• To support a growing catalog of software products with certification programs that can evolve and adapt to meet ever-changing needs.

Red Hat is fortunate in having a highly-qualified and loyal community of Red Hat Certified Professionals so we are committed to ensuring the continued value and stature of the credentials
they have earned while making changes that allow the program to evolve as technology and customer needs evolve over time.

EXAM ELIGIBILITY
Effective May 15, 2014 we are lifting the requirement that one must be a current Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) in order to take the following exams:

• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Deployment and Systems Management Exam (EX401)
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Server Hardening Exam (EX413)
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Clustering and Storage Management Exam (EX436)
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Performance Tuning Exam (EX442)

SERVICES FOR RED HAT CERTIFIED PROFESSIONALS
Effective October 1, 2014 Red Hat Certification online verification, search, logo access and other services will be provided subject to the following requirements:

• Red Hat Certified Professionals must agree to online Terms and Conditions and must map their certification IDs to a valid redhat.com user name
• Only certifications and certificates that are considered current will be reported by verify or be found by search;while verify and search will only display certifications that are considered current, an exam transcript at the bottom of the verify page will list all successful exam attempts but this listing will be differentiated from the certification listing
• Red Hat will only authorize Red Hat Certified Professionals to download and use logos for which their status is current

RED HAT CERTIFIED SECURITY SPECIALIST AND RED HAT CERTIFIED DATACENTER SPECIALIST
Red Hat is reducing the number of titles in its professional certification program in order to make the program simpler to understand for hiring managers, human resources professionals and others who seek certified professionals along and for those who seek certification by Red Hat. Red Hat Certified Security Specialist (RHCSS) and Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist (RHCDS) are being phased out but we are expanding the more widely-known Red Hat Certified Architect program and providing more ways to earn that credential. Please note the following regarding the phase-out of RHCSS and RHCDS:

• The exams required to earn RHCSS have been discontinued so it is no longer possible for new candidates to earn this credential.
• Sixty (60) days after the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 all RHCE certifications earned on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 will become non-current and thus will no longer meet existing RHCSS or RHCDS program requirements. Those who have earned RHCSS or RHCDS will not be able to re-certify those credentials but can apply their Red Hat Certificates of Expertise earned towards RHCA if they re-certify as RHCE under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 or 7.
• RHCEs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and have also earned RHCSS or RHCDS will continue to hold these credentials until three (3) years after the date the last required Red Hat Certificate of Expertise was earned. It will not be possible to re-certify as RHCSS or RHCDS but Red Hat Certificates of Expertise can be applied towards RHCA.
• RHCEs earned on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and later will not be eligible to earn RHCSS or RHCDS.

RED HAT CERTIFICATES OF EXPERTISE
Red Hat Certificates of Expertise will begin being designated as current or non-current. They have not been designated as current or non-current in the past but the technology releases on which they are earned have always been part of an individual’s certification record on the verification page. Re-certification and expiry policies of some kind are considered a best practice for certification programs. Introducing such policies reinforces that these Certificates are credentials in their own right. We will introduce these policies as follows:

Red Hat Certificates of Expertise earned on or after October 1, 2014 will be considered current for three (3) years from the date they are earned.

Red Hat Certificates of Expertise earned before October 1, 2014 will be considered current until October 1, 2017. Red Hat appreciates and acknowledges the professionals who have been earning Certificates of Expertise since 2005 and wants to ensure that the transition to the new policy is done in the least disruptive manner possible.

RED HAT CERTIFIED ARCHITECT
For nine years RHCA has been Red Hat’s capstone certification and has evolved into a highly sought-after credential worldwide. Much has changed in those nine years, however. Red Hat’s software catalog has expanded from Linux into middleware, virtualization, storage and cloud. Where we could once offer a single vision of what a Red Hat architecture might be, our ever-expanding technology portfolio makes many architectures possible and our customers are choosing among our technologies in the ways that make sense for them. A similar approach makes sense for our Architect-level certification, so we will be taking a less prescriptive approach regarding the exams one must pass in order to earn RHCA. RHCA will be changing as follows:

• RHCA can be acquired by earning RHCE plus any five of the following Red Hat Certificates of Expertise or certifications:
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Hybrid Cloud Administration
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Hybrid Cloud Storage
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Platform-as-a-Service
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Deployment and Systems Management
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Server Hardening
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Clustering and Storage Management
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Performance Tuning
• Red Hat Certified Virtualization Administrator
• Red Hat Certified System Administrator in Red Hat OpenStack
• Red Hat Certified JBoss Administrator
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Security: Networking Services*
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Directory Services and Authentication*
• Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in SELinux Policy Administration*
• Note: The Certificates in Security: Networking Services, Directory Services and Authentication, and SELinux Policy Administration Exams are no longer offered. However, these may apply towards RHCA subject to other terms and conditions as described in this document.
• If someone earns RHCA and subsequently earns additional Certificates of Expertise beyond the five required, Red Hat will acknowledge higher levels of accomplishment. For example, if someone earned RHCA and then earned two more eligible Certificates of Expertise, the verification page would report that the individual was an RHCA Level II.
• While Red Hat is not prescribing specific exams that must be passed in order to earn RHCA, we do have some recommendations on paths that might be useful to pursue. These include:
• Data Center focus: Red Hat Certificates of Expertise in Server Hardening, Deployment and Systems Management, Clustering and Storage Management, Performance Tuning and Red Hat Certified Virtualization Administrator
• Cloud focus: Red Hat Certificates of Expertise in Hybrid Cloud Administration; Hybrid Cloud Storage; Platform-as-a-Service; Red Hat Certified System Administrator in Red Hat OpenStack and Red Hat Certified Virtualization administrator
• Application platform focus: Red Hat Certificates of Expertise in Platform-as-a-Service; Deployment and Systems Management; Clustering and Storage Management, Hybrid Cloud Storage and Red Hat Certified JBoss Administrator
• These new requirements will not be in effect on the Verification page until October 1, 2014 but will be applied retroactively. This means that all existing RHCAs will continue to be RHCA, although some will also be higher-level RHCAs. It also means that some people will become RHCA based on credentials they already have because some credentials apply towards RHCA that did not apply before.

简言之，RHCA增加了LEVEl II （7门），LEVEL I（5门），在过渡期的老课（*）依然有效。