2/15/2006 -- The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) announced Thursday it has awarded more than 30,000 certifications worldwide.

"This milestone clearly demonstrates the growing demand for a solid base of highly skilled and certified Linux professionals," said Jim Lacey, president and CEO of LPI. "It is also further evidence of the value of a vendor-neutral Linux certification to the enterprise environment where such a concrete demonstration of skills and knowledge is a necessity."

According to a statement issued by LPI, the total number of certifications includes more than 27,200 entry-level LPIC-1 certifications and over 4,830 professionals certified at the intermediate (LPIC-2) level, which was named by CertCities.com as one of the 10 hottest certs for 2006. The non-profit Linux certification organization also said it had delivered over 100,000 of its vendor-neutral exams worldwide as of November. This represents an uptake of 25,000 exams over the record it hit in February 2005.

LPI was established in 1999, and its exams are available in seven languages through test providers Pearson Vue and Prometric.

For more on the announcement, go here. -Dan Hong