The will offer badges for various areas of expertise, including Apps deployment, sales, software development and technical support.

At launch on Wednesday, the program will offer globally its first certification, Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist, for IT professionals who know how to configure and implement the suite.

The materials, including study guides, are only in English, but Google plans to translate them into other languages. Certifications for other areas, like sales and application development are in the works.

Demand for a certification program came both from channel partners and from Apps customers, said Stephen Cho, director of Google Apps Channels.

"Customers have been asking for a way to identify partners who have expertise on staff, to make sure they have successful deployments," he said. "And partners have been asking for a way to differentiate themselves by showing the depth of their expertise."