Since ZCP opened to the public, two questions keep coming up. Engineers ask how to prove they can run workloads on it. Customers ask how to hire people who already know it. Today ZCP has no credential for either. We are fixing that.
In January 2027 we will launch ZCP Training and Certification, a program issued by ZSoftly. Practitioner opens first. This post covers what the program is and why we are building it ourselves. It also explains why the learning platform runs on Moodle with its IOMAD distribution and not Frappe Learning, which we also build and host for customers. The levels, fees and partner details are on the training page.
What the program is
The program has four levels:
- Practitioner covers how ZCP is organised: accounts, regions, compute, storage, networking, Kubernetes, billing and the CLI. It is for anyone who works with the platform.
- Associate covers building and operating workloads on ZCP day to day.
- Professional covers designing platforms on ZCP, with four tracks: Networking, Storage, PaaS and DevOps.
- Expert covers hybrid cloud and multi-cloud architecture with ZCP as one of the platforms.
Every level has three parts: a learning path, hands-on labs and an exam. The learning paths and labs are free. The exam fees are CAD 100 for Practitioner, CAD 250 for Associate, CAD 300 for Professional and CAD 500 for Expert. Practitioner launches at beta pricing.
The labs run on ZCP itself. Each learner gets a sandbox with free lab credits. Labs use the same console, CLI and API as customers. There is no simulator.
Candidates sit the Practitioner exam online, without proctoring, under an honour code. Live proctoring starts at Associate. A first group of candidates sits the Practitioner beta exam. We review every question and set the pass mark from the results.
Each pass earns a certificate and a digital badge. Employers verify either on a public page, without contacting us.
Why we are building it
A platform needs people who know how to run it. ZCP is a Canadian public and private cloud built on open-source foundations. Its parts, Apache CloudStack, KVM, Ceph and Kubernetes, are documented. ZCP as a whole is not. To have customers run production workloads here, we must teach them how and define what “knows ZCP” means.
Customers and partners asked for it. Customers want a credential to name in a job post. Partners who deliver projects on ZCP want proof that their engineers know the platform. A badge employers can verify serves both.
We already train people. ZSoftly began as a professional services and career development company, and our remote engineering training reached more than a hundred people before the platform work started. This program builds on that.
The program will run on the product it certifies. The learning platform, lab sandboxes, exam delivery and verification page will run on ZCP in Canada. We will operate them the way we operate every other ZCP service.
Why Moodle and IOMAD, not Frappe Learning
We build and host two learning platforms for customers: Moodle, including its multi-tenant IOMAD distribution, and Frappe Learning, which sits inside the Frappe business suite next to ERPNext, CRM and HR. Both are open source. We recommend one or the other during discovery, depending on who the learners are.
In October 2026 we tested training platforms against one list of requirements. The list: partner tenants with their own administrators, bulk learner upload, blended courses with practical sign-off, certificates stored as issued, scheduled reports per partner, a web services API and Canadian hosting. We compared Moodle with IOMAD, Frappe Learning and several commercial platforms. IOMAD met most requirements as standard features. We built the rest on ZCP and tested it.
A certification program is a training network. Our partners and client employers will run cohorts. Each needs its own space, its own administrators and its own reports, while ZSoftly keeps full visibility across all of them. IOMAD is built for this.
Three more things settled the choice:
- The exam engine. Moodle’s quiz engine has a question bank with categories, many question types, randomised selection, timed attempts, attempt limits and pass marks. A certification exam needs all of that from day one. In our review, Frappe Learning’s quizzes work as in-course checks. That suits staff training. It does not replace an exam engine.
- Certificates and badges. Moodle issues certificates on completion rules and stores the issued file, so it never changes when a template changes. It supports Open Badges, an open standard for verifiable digital badges. The verification page we are building reads from those records.
- Operating history. Moodle’s reporting, scheduled report delivery and web services cover what the program needs. We have tested partner tenants, certificate handling and reporting on ZCP, so the build starts from working parts.
Frappe Learning fits a different case. If you train your own staff or customers and want courses next to your ERP, CRM and HR records, we recommend it, and we will keep building it for customers through our business applications practice.
Where it runs
Everything will run on ZCP in Canada. Learner records, exam results, certificates and backups will stay in Canada, with disaster recovery copies in a second Canadian region. Moodle and IOMAD are GPL software, so there is no per-learner licence fee. The policies that govern the program, the candidate agreement, the privacy notice and the data retention rules, will be published with the first exam.
What happens between now and January
The work before launch:
- Stand up the learning platform on ZCP, with sign-in and self-enrolment through ZCP accounts.
- Publish the course catalogue, the Practitioner learning path and the learner dashboard.
- Build certificate and badge issuing, and the public verification page.
- Write the Practitioner exam blueprint and exam guide, then the question bank.
- Run the beta exam and set the pass mark.
- Open lab sandboxes with free credits.
- Publish the certification policies, candidate agreement and privacy notice.
- Launch the training and certification pages on this site.
Associate, with live proctoring, follows Practitioner. Professional and Expert come after that, and we will publish their dates only when we are sure of them. The program is on the public roadmap, and we will update this post as each stage opens.
Training partners and collaborators
We cannot reach every learner ourselves. If you run a training company, a college program, a user group or a consultancy and want to offer ZCP courses in Canada or worldwide, tell us about your audience. Partners get their own space on the platform, with their own learners, branding and reports.
If you want to sit the Practitioner beta exam, talk to us. The first cohort sets the pass mark.