Trends in Cybersecurity to Impact CompTIA Credentials
It's a big cybersecurity year for tech industry association CompTIA. Most of CompTIA's popular IT credentials are on a three-year renewal cycle, which means that it's time for both the Security+ and Cybsecurity Analyst (CySA+) certifications to get a top-to-bottom overhaul. The point of reviewing and updating certification exams is to keep them current, of course, so that the skills certified don't wind up out of step with the current job market. With the new CySA+ exam due in April, and the new Security+ exam coming in October, CompTIA director of products Patrick Lane – who manages the CySA+, PenTest+, and CASP certs – took to the IT Career News blog this week to offer a sneak peek at some of the emerging cybersecurity wrinkles that will exert influence on the content of the revamped exams. For example, the snowballing impact of cloud computing is affecting cybersecurity along with everything else. There are also new laws and regulations to account for, as well as the increasing scope and complexity of cybersecurity incident response. All in all, Lane considers six area of cybersecurity evolution that will reshape the certification landscape.
There's Still Time to Take and Pass the Old Cisco Exams
Sticking to the realm of certification overhauls for a moment, the countdown clock ticking away the weeks and days until Cisco wipes out its current certification regime (and installs a wholly new scheme) is getting close to the zero hour. On the other hand, certifications completed before Feb. 24 will remain valid over the normal term (three years), so there's a fairly strong incentive to cross the finish line – at least as long as you're already coming around the final turn. Cisco executive Joe Clarke is cheering on the finishers in a recent post to the Talking Tech with Cisco blog over at Cisco Learning Network. Clarke is basically making the same pitch to certification candidates that Sammy Hagar once expressed to, er, someone in that one Van Halen song: "Come on, baby, finish what ya started." Clarke's focus is specific to the professional-level CCNP certifications, but the five key rationales that he outlines for those wondering whether to go ahead and seal the deal can be broadly applied to all of the other on-the-brink Cisco credentials. If you're close to wrapping up your current Cisco certification and could use some extra motivation, check out Clarke's post.
New CertMag Certification Survey Needs Your Reponses
If it seems like the team at Certification Magazine just barely got done disclosing the big picture details of their annual Salary Survey, well, yeah, that's true. Some might ask, "How can there be another survey already?" As the noted astrophysicist Steve Perry once observed, however, "The wheel in the sky keeps on turning," and the next CertMag survey is now upon us. Are you a certified web design or web development professional? If so, then it may interest you to know that CertMag craves your input for its Web Design and Development Certification Survey, which launched earlier this month and will unspool through the end of February.
Roll the Dice on These Top Tech Cities, Job Roles
'Tis the season for tech influencers to reveal the results of their most recent surveys. As previously mentioned, Certification Magazine just finished tooting the horn of its annual Salary Survey, and a few weeks before that CompTIA riled up GoCertify's own Ed Tittel by proclaiming Austin, Texas, the nation's No. 1 "tech town." Next up at the plate is IT employment facilitator Dice.com, which has words of its own to say about both tech salaries and tech towns. Dice's list of top tech-opolises, for example, doesn't take lifestyle factors into consideration, so the thriving burg of, um, "Silicon Valley" – which is apparently a city in California, as opposed to being the nickname of tech-rich region in California centered around San Francisco and Oakland – is the No. 1 apple of its IT eye. (In your face, Austin!) Dice also lists the most valuable IT skills that employers are seeking, with Apache Kafka topping the list. (Incidentally, Apache Kafka is the No. 1 search result on Google for the term "Kafka." Suck it, that one Czech dude who wrote the novel no one actually likes about the salesman who turns into a giant cockroach!)
That's all for this edition of Certification Watch. Please keep your certification news and tips coming to the GoCertify News Editor.
Privacy Policy Update
We have updated our Privacy Policy to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)