Resource Library

As organizations look to do more with fewer resources and better leverage scarce knowledge across their entire organization, they have found that the traditional hierarchical management structure no longer meets the needs of the business. Enterprises have turned to the matrix organizational structure for increased flow of information across departments and greater flexibility and responsiveness.

Look back at the some of the highest paying IT certifications of 2020.

System Administrators, or SysAdmins, are the “installation specialists,” “configuration specialists” and “fixers” in IT. If you’ve ever seen Pulp Fiction, SysAdmins are like Winston Wolfe — their job is to solve problems.

For organizations getting started with RHEL, Red Hat Training has developed a series of courses to develop the skills needed for basic administration and configuration of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. These courses introduce key command line concepts and enterprise-level tools, laying the foundation for the rapid deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The curriculum also introduces the basic administration skills needed for resolving configuration issues and integrating Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems with other existing environments. View the slide deck>>

This Certification Prep Guide provides an overview of the current Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification and offers helpful tips that you can use when preparing for your PMP certification exam.

Cybersecurity has matured into a complex and diverse set of functions. Each of these functional specializations represent different roles requiring different knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Here are 18 certification options, in no particular order, that are worth your effort based on site searches, feedback from subject matter experts and data in the Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report.

Project Scope Management sets the foundation for the creation, development and successful delivery of a project. Learn about the project management process here.

As IT departments struggle with skills gaps and businesses attempt to recovery economically from the COVID-19 pandemic, these 10 IT skills are essential to drive success. Job roles in these areas pay well, but decision-makers are struggling to find qualified candidates. If you’re looking to make an IT skills investment or start a new career path this year, these are the areas to consider.

The PMP certification exam is changing but the PMBOK is not. Everyone planning to pursue their PMP certification in 2020 needs to know what is changing and how it will affect the way they prepare for the exam. In this session we will identify and explore the changes that PMI has announced to the PMP Certification Exam Blueprint, when and how the exam will be affected, and will look at a few examples of potential new questions. View the slide deck>

According to the Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report, women make up 16% of the tech workforce, and an even smaller percentage (8%) are at the senior or executive level. Here’s an overview of the most popular and most pursued certifications by women in tech.

In 2020 we will see the complete ITIL4 education portfolio released and in all likelihood the start of the retirement of the ITIL v3 qualifications. Our ITIL guru, Barry Corless lead author for ITIL4 incident and problem management practices, will talk about the course content, the practical skills you’ll learn, and who will benefit from attending each courses. If you plan to continue your ITIL education then you cannot afford to miss this webinar.

After several decades on the market, the Project Management Professional® certification continues to be one of the most in-demand certifications worldwide. Learn how you can increase your salary, project success, and organizational value with this recorded webinar.

The Red Hat® Learning Subscription delivers 12-months of unlimited access to all Red Hat Online Training courses. The Standard RHLS subscription is a higher tier with access to 5 certification exams and up to 2 retakes.

Global Knowledge subject matter experts know certification exams inside and out. They understand the study methods and test-taking techniques that pay off the most when it’s exam time. Here are 10 certification exam tips and tricks, directly from our experts and Certification Prep Guides, that will best position you for certification success.

VMware vSphere: ICM 6.7 is the foundation for most other VMware technologies in the software-defined data center. The recent update from 6.5 brings important new features and enhancements.

How do you measure the experience and knowledge of an IT professional? One way is through certifications. Earning any certification is a notable achievement, though not all certifications carry the same perceived worth.

Take your VMware vSphere training to the next level—set up your own training lab environment. This paper is broken down into three major sections: the hardware required, the VMware Workstation configuration, and installing vSphere and vCenter (vC).

A lot of IT pros would like to get their work to fund their training and certifications, but if the issue isn't approached with care and forethought, it can be dangerous territory. So how do you justify the costs of training? Luckily, a help desk tech in the healthcare field named R. Lee Young offered up some great suggestions.

Certifications are the most common way in IT to prove you have the skills to solve various technical and business challenges. In this article, I'll address a range of skill sets. For each certification listed, I've included what the certification measures, the requirements to obtain it.

Whether you are just getting started in business analysis or want to gain a better understanding of certain aspects of business analysis, we have compiled a list of frequently used terms to help you get started.

The methods we have used in the past to secure our networks won’t work for tomorrow’s networks. Cloud-based applications and multi-tenant environments require greater scalability, agility and control. Software-defined networking (SDN), such as that provided by VMware NSX, can deliver a new platform that transforms networking and provides for much more specific control of the security of your data and networked applications.  In this white paper, author Bill Ferguson describes the microsegmentation of security and illustrates how you can use NSX to provide security that works on today’s and tomorrow’s networks.

The VMware NSX platform combines networking and security functionality directly in the hypervisor and it interoperable with a vast majority of VMware’s products. The platform provides a set of logical networking elements and services, using logical switching, routing, load balancing, VPN, firewall, etc. This product decouples network functionality from the physical devices.

VMware announced Horizon 7 in February and subsequently released the software updates. Horizon 7 provides a more streamlined, high-performance virtual desktop and application experience. New updates include features such as Instant Clones, Smart Policies, Blast Extreme and greater scalability with Cloud Pod Architecture. Let’s dig into the seven key features that Horizon 7 brings!

Which mainstay certifications should be in your list of credentials? What's the next up-and-coming certification? This article will help you answer both questions by providing a review of the 15 top-paying certifications.

Do you want to take your Power System to higher levels of cloud functionality but don't know what's available? Join us for this free webinar, presented by IBM and sponsored by Global Knowledge, to hear senior power cloud consultants Vess Natchev and Kyle Wurgler share an exciting new cloud solution for Power Systems. In this interactive webinar, you'll gain insight on the details and features of the new cloud solution from IBM and VMware.

With the release of vSphere 6, there are big changes that allow for zero downtime with data access and recovery. The new features enable live migrations across long distances with enhanced vMotion features, datastore backup capabilities around Fault Tolerance upgrades and a new Content Library. These advances help you keep up to date with the latest in server virtualization.

Introducing new talent to an established organization can be difficult for many reasons. Seasoned employees may view the incoming new hires as "too green" or as not having the required skills to contribute in a meaningful way. They may worry about having to "waste time" teaching the newbies things that they should already know or get aggravated when the new employees are not familiar with "the way we do things around here." Additionally, it is difficult to know if the right new hires are being put into the right positions for their interests, abilities and talents. After all, a resume and an interview can only tell a hiring manager so much about the person they are bringing on board, and often talented employees are simply being put into a role that is not a good fit.

We often discuss how to manage projects, but we overlook an essential step: proving project value. Proving project value ensures that organizational strategies are aligned with project objectives.

My most recent blog addressed whether PMP and CAPM boot camps are worth the time and effort. I concluded that for most exam writers, it really did make sense to buckle down and take advantage of all that a quality boot camp offers.

The past months have seen the release of both the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)'s long-awaited A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK® Guide) v3 and the Project Management Institute® (PMI®)'s Business Analysis for Practitioners. While both represent interesting developments in the field of business analysis, they also provide lots of information to process. There's no need to go it alone! Join Global Knowledge instructors Cheryl Lee and Adam McClellan for this complimentary, hour- long webinar to learn about the differences between the two guides, how both guides compare to the previous version of the BABOK ® Guide, and where all this might be going.

It’s not uncommon for different teams to be managing the virtual switch and physical switch configurations. This can make it very difficult to troubleshoot unless each configuration parameter has been gone through manually. There have been enhancements to the vSphere Distributed Switch over the past few years to address these operational challenges.

Complexity has always been a part of projects. But today, globalization, new technologies and changing markets have combined to add to the complexity. Today's projects have more stakeholders, more ambiguity and more politics than ever, and project managers need new tools and approaches to succeed. Join Alexander Stanisic and Michelle Moore of Global Knowledge for an information-packed hour on how to manage the complexity of the 21st-century project.

In many organizations, the Program/Project Management Office (PMO) is viewed as purely a cost center, so it becomes marginalized by additional layers of bureaucracy, oversight and cost. But the essence of the PMO and portfolio management in general is to add value to the organization. So how do organizations reconcile the cost of the PMO versus the value it adds? The short answer is to flip the conversation on its head and talk about the PMO as a revenue driver rather than a cost center. In this hour-long webinar, Global Knowledge PMP-certified senior product manager Daniel Stober will explain how, by focusing on efficiencies gained and reduced waste, you can shift the conversation from the PMO being a necessary evil to the PMO being critical for organizational success.

Virtual storage area network (VSAN) and VMware View can offer cost savings and performance benefits compared to traditional SAN implementations for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). If you are starting a new desktop virtualization project, it would be wise for you to take the time to explore your options and compare VSAN to other options.

There are two types of virtual switches available using vSphere, the vSphere Standard Switch and the vSphere Distributed Switch. The vSphere Standard Switch (vSwitch or vSS) resides in and is manually configured and administered on each ESXi host. The vSphere Distributed Switch (dvSwitch or vDS) provides similar functionality but is centralized to vCenter Server and is more featured. This white paper will cover the vDS architecture as well as an overview of many of the different features that are exclusive to the vSphere Distributed Switch.

Discover the ways in which VMware's new vSphere 6.0 is more powerful, more manageable, more secure, and more flexible than any previous release of vSphere.

What’s the difference between high availability and fault tolerance in VMware vSphere? This article elaborates on first configuring high availability and then layer on the fault tolerance capability. Learn more.

One of the advantages of vSphere is that you can move a virtual machine from one location to another, across servers, storage locations-even data centers. Physical servers don't have that ability and that can have many implications for disaster recovery, availability, and so forth. This white paper explains why migrations are useful, the methods that vSphere makes available for you to manually move a virtual machine (VM), and how vSphere can automate the process for you in various scenarios.

For project managers, meeting stakeholder expectations means that you have to know what the expectations are to begin with if you are ever expected to meet them. After expectations have been set, follow up with your stakeholders to ensure that the expectations haven't changed. People change their minds often, so communicate in order to influence their perceptions and expectations. You may be surprised how simple communication and understanding expectations can positively affect your next project.

In this hour-long webinar, Global Knowledge instructor and PMP-certified project management expert Daniel Stober will look beyond the triple constraint model and focus on the true essence of project success: stakeholder satisfaction. Many project managers (PMs) fall into the familiar habit of managing based on the constraints of time, cost and scope. While all of these are important, managing them effectively doesn't guarantee project success if the PM fails to conduct proper stakeholder management. To manage stakeholders effectively, the PM has to set expectations. Once expectations are set, the PM must influence the perception of project performance with the stakeholder. Tune in as Dan explores methods you can use to accomplish that goal.

With VMware's recent release of the Horizon Suite (specifically View 6), VMware has taken the performance and usability features and put them all under the Blast moniker. This category of features is grouped from a marketing perspective but will retain their technical terms in the documentation, similar to how the term vSphere encompasses both ESXi and vCenter. Learn about the various features of the components that comprise the Blast family, including a brief discussion of what they are, improvements in version 6, and any notes or requirements for implementation.

VMware Horizon 6 was announced in April and began shipping in June 2014, bringing a more unified suite delivering more integration with infrastructure and cloud products and more simplicity for all devices. Along with the numerous updates across the Horizon suite, VMware has transitioned to a more traditional product licensing hierarchy. This paper explores the new licensing model and provides an overview of the new features associated with VMware Horizon 6.

This power session is an introduction to Managing Stakeholder relations. It offers new ways of managing and dealing with projects, which focus more on communications, understanding stakeholders' needs and managing their expectations, as well as learning about organizational politics and culture, and performing value-add activities. It provides a practical approach to managing issues that matter most for project success - communication, stakeholder expectations, risk, change and quality; so that the scope, schedule and cost end up on target, achieving the desired outcomes for the organization.

The project manager (PM) and business analyst (BA) have to be key allies in the management of any project. That can be difficult when project work is duplicated because of the overlapping tasks defined by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) and the Project Management Institute (PMI®). Still, as long as roles are clearly defined and understood, the two can cooperate and collaborate, instead of competing. In this hour-long webinar, Global Knowledge instructor and PMP-certified project management expert Daniel Stober will explain how to delineate the roles.

Samuel Brown, project management instructor and consultant, has taught Global Knowledge courses for more than fifteen years. In this video clip, Samuel discusses Global Knowledge's unique and effective approach to helping students prepare for PMP certification.

Kirsten Lora, Global Knowledge Senior Product Director, discusses the benefits of our IT Project Management course.

Global Knowledge Course Director Samuel Brown introduces the Work Breakdown Structure and why it matters to project management.

This paper is aimed at IT professionals who are interested in earning a VMware Certified Professional on Data Center Virtualization (VCP5-DCV) certification. It provides the benefits of having the certification, details for earning the certification and tips for passing the exam.

Whether you're a Project Manager or a Business Analyst, you can certainly relate to a situation where you've felt like your cohort on a project was from a completely different planet! This panel discussion webinar between our PM expert, Ori Schibi, and our BA expert, Cheryl Lee, will explore some of the misconceptions that each role has and learn how to play nicely with each other in the project world.

Most organizations quickly realize that knowledge management must be integrated with incident management in order to improve the quality of service and the efficiency of providing assisted service. What is not as quickly recognized is the value of integrating knowledge management with problem management.

Today, every project comes with limited resources and an impossible timeline. You have to prioritize, but how do you determine what's most important? The answer is to do more than just prioritize. You have to fully understand your company's strategic direction and make every action align with that strategy. In this hour-long webinar, project management expert Yvan Bastien will show you how to reach that full understanding and make the kinds of informed decisions that lead to success.

In 2013, VMware announced VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN), which is VMware's native version of Software Defined Storage (SDS). It is simple, easy to setup and managed by user-defined policies. This paper explains VSAN, its basic requirements and how it works.

The technologies examined reduce operational expenses (OpEx), not capital expenses (CapEx) that has traditionally been the focus of virtualization. Many companies implemented virtualization with the goal of saving money in the form of fewer servers to buy with a side benefit of reducing the footprint of the servers and lowering the required power and cooling. Most of the savings were in capital, but do not expect the same with many of the technologies listed here, because some may even require some additional capital expenditures, at least for software, in order to save on the day-to-day operations of IT. The bigger cost in running an IT department is in the OpEx category anyway, so savings there are recurring.

Global Knowledge Senior Business Skills instructor Samuel Brown covers tips for preparing and practicing for the PMP exam.

If you have been working with vSphere 5.1 or 5.5 lately, you have undoubtedly noticed that the latest features such as XvMotion and vSphere Replication are only available on the Web Client. This cheat sheet for the new Web Client includes instructions for configuring VMs, networking, storage, resource settings, cluster settings, permissions, and many other settings.

You know you need to invest in training, but how do you get the best return on investment (ROI) from your training dollars? To help you make smart training decisions, we've put together this guide, which illustrates some alternative and little-known payment options, the types of discounts and promotions available with training and a suggested list of courses that give you excellent value.

Global Knowledge Senior Business Skills instructor Samuel Brown covers tips for preparing and practicing for the PMP exam.

vSphere 5.5 is now available with myriad small improvements such as a faster Web Client, LACP, Autoscale and higher configuration maximums. In addition, there are changes coming such as VSAN, which may be ground-breaking in regard to VM storage of the future. Since the release of vSphere 5.5, they have not yet announced a change to the blueprint for the test. That being the case, I will say, for now, that the VCP-510 test should remain unchanged as well. My goal here is not to reeducate you on everything that you need to know for the test; instead, it is to point out the few changes that might apply in your company or organization.

VMware vCloud Director fashions the provisioning of the software-defined datacenter layer to allow for a full virtual datacenter deployment within a short period of time. A vCloud consists of many layers and can quickly become a complex architecture. Before any deployment, requirements should be defined so that the vCloud can be designed to offer those services needed. It is imperative to understand the many components of vCloud, how each vCloud construct fits, which allocation models are available, and what network options can be chosen.

For a project manager (PM) who has served as a military officer on a battalion or higher staff, the parallels between the military decision-making process (MDMP), the orders production process, and project management doctrine prescribed by the Project Management Institute (PMI) are difficult to ignore. Both the MDMP and the processes outlined in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) are iterative in nature, allow for the introduction of changes to the original plan, assign tasks and responsibilities, and involve the concept of managing the scope of the operation or project.

With the growth of bring your own device (BYOD) and mobility, users are increasingly asking for computing anywhere from any device at any time. Users now expect productivity on the go with a desktop that can be freely accessed and secure. We're no longer a society that sits at a desk to be productive. The VMware Horizon Suite allows the datacenter administrators to satisfy the accelerated mobility needs of the workforce while still maintaining an IT solution that is easily managed and secure.

Resource Pools are often misunderstood, disliked, and untrusted by vSphere Administrators. However, resource pools can be very useful tools for administrators who want to configure resource management without having to individually configure each VM. This leads to the administrator’s desire to explore the proper usage of resource pools.

Once an organization has categorized suppliers, one of the benefits that is quickly realized is an understanding of how supplier changes affect the buying organization and vice-versa. Changes are the modification, addition, or removal of something from the environment. The scope and scale of each change can be different. Change management covers everything from regular, low-risk, operational modifications all the way to significant organizational strategic shifts.

This white paper has three main goals. The first is to generate a better understanding of the cloud in both the business and IT communities. The second is to describe the major components of vCloud and the virtual datacenters they provide. The third is help businesses visualize and understand how vClouds could be beneficial in addressing their specific IT needs.

This vSphere Essentials white paper will give you a basic understanding of some of the concerns or planning points to consider as you get ready to deploy vSphere in your organization. This is a glimpse into some of the essential things to consider for implementing vSphere. This will focus on some of the basics that vSphere administrators run into when installing the latest features and not realizing they still have some older versions implemented.

Lessons learned is a theory, or conclusion, based on evidence at a given time and describes what went wrong (as well as what went right) throughout the lifecycle of a project. Although it’s completed during the project closeout process, it should occur during the entire project lifecycle to ensure all information is captured and documented. Consequences of not having a project review of lessons learned are the increased likelihood of repeating actions that might have caused:

Here are seven tips for working with vSphere, including: Logging in via Command Line, dealing with connection problems using ssh to an ESXi host; network performance issues; possible storage problems; Log Files to View in vSphere ESXi 5; network performance troubleshooting; migrating to a virtual machine using VMotion.