IT professionals to share factors impacting earnings and career advancement

CARY, N.C. and NEW YORK - Global Knowledge, the world's leading IT and business skills training provider and Windows IT Pro, a division of Penton, the leading independent community for Microsoft Windows IT professionals, today announced the launch of the eighth annual IT Skills and Salary Survey.

The survey, one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind in the industry, addresses issues relevant to IT professionals including salaries for key certifications, emerging trends and economic factors impacting business conditions and compensation.

In response to recent trends Global Knowledge is seeing, this year's edition features more questions around cloud computing and related business transformations, including cloud adoption's impact on hiring and role enhancements.

The 2015 IT Skills and Salary Survey is designed to collect, aggregate, analyze and share the salaries of IT professionals and key reasons for year-over-year change.

Other factors included in the survey are workplace satisfaction, work-life balance, the importance of training and professional development, potential impacts for recruitment and career advancement and resource planning

Increased adoption of bring your own device (BYOD) and software-defined networking (SDN) show the need for business analysis, which the survey addresses to close the skill gap perception and gauge impacts to IT professionals.

Last year's IT salary survey yielded more than 16,300 responses from around the world. Key findings included:

• Training and certifications boost salary: Higher raises were likely for respondents who trained to gain new skills, as well as for those who earned a certification.
• Compensation is climbing: Average salary for respondents was 13 percent higher in 2014, with 70 percent reporting a raise and 52 percent receiving a bonus - the highest since the study's inception in 2008.

Professionals from all areas of information technology are invited to take part in this important research to identify salary trends, valuable training and certifications, and other fundamental topics before October 24, 2014. Participants in the approximately 10-15-minute survey will receive a copy of the final report when it is published in March, and will be entered into a drawing to win one of eight $250 American Express gift cards.

About Global Knowledge

Global Knowledge is the world's leading IT and business skills training provider. Offering the most relevant and timely content delivered by the best instructors, we provide customers around the world with their choice of convenient class times, delivery methods and formats to accelerate their success. Our business skills solutions teach essential communications skills, business analysis, project management, ITIL service management, process improvement and leadership development. With thousands of courses spanning from foundational training to specialized certifications, our core IT training is focused on technology partners such as Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Citrix, IBM, Juniper, Microsoft, Red Hat and VMware. We offer comprehensive professional development for technologies like big data, cloud, cybersecurity and networking.

Founded in 1995, Global Knowledge employs more than 1,300 people worldwide and is headquartered in Cary, N.C. The company is owned by New York-based investment firm MidOcean Partners.

About Penton

Penton drives performance every day for more than 16 million professionals each and every day. They rely on us to deliver: Insights, information & workflow tools to inform critical business decisions; networking & community to engage them with industry peers & partners; and marketing services to advance their business performance & deliver ROI.

Penton is a growth company with a track-record of strong performance and success and is backed by its co-owners: MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP. For additional information on the company and its businesses, visit www.penton.com.