Resource Library

Every second of every day, data is being sent and received. Billions of data packets are processed by your company’s network every day. In fact, you received dozens of packets just to read this article, but the vast majority of us have no idea how this works. People have no clue as to what goes on behind the scenes to ensure data actually gets to the right device.

Microsoft retired the MCSA and MCSE certifications on January 2021. Does that really mean it is the end? It isn’t. Join this webinar to understand the logical next steps and new certification paths. View the slide deck>>

This certification profile covers the job functions and titles held by the professionals who hold the certification, views on job security and satisfaction, CISSP salary information, along with other certifications held and tenure. The data is from Global Knowledge’s annual global IT Skills and Salary Report so you won't find it anywhere else.

The updated version of the CISSP exam was released on May 1, 2021. The new version now includes a significant number of new topics.

Many companies have a so-called five-nines goal, meaning that the network needs to be available to the users at least 99.999% of the time. To achieve that goal, IT professionals must consider high availability in the network design, including both physical and logical redundancy.

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>>

Follow these four troubleshooting tips to help you work through a challenging repair and reach a solution without much wasted time and resources.

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.

Here's an introduction to encryption. What is it? Why do we need it? It's a complicated area, so we're here to help get your started. You'll understand the general function of three categories of mathematical ciphers: Symmetric, Asymmetric and Hashing. 

Many certification roadmaps include (ISC)2’s CISSP (Certified Information System Security Practitioner) as a crucial cybersecurity certification to consider in a career and education plan. One example is the CompTIA IT Certification Roadmap, which places CISSP in the “Expert” column of the Information Security pathway. The CompTIA roadmap of IT certifications is not alone in recognizing the importance and value of the CISSP.

The 2021 revised and updated version CISSP (Certified Information System Security Practitioner) certification exam will be released on May 1, 2021. This new version of the popular CISSP exam will include a modest revision and re-organization of previously included topics, but will integrate a significant number of new topics.

The Ethernet switch has become an integral part of the world’s LAN infrastructure. At its core, the Ethernet is a shared network, each node contending for access to precious bandwidth and dealing with the repercussions of collisions.

Learn about the five types of area networks.

Advancing your knowledge of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud can be life-changing.

An quick fundamental overview of layer two devices.   To learn more about this and similar topics, enroll in our exclusive Understanding Networking Fundamentals course.    

Cybersecurity is one of the most important fields of work in our world today. It’s an ever-changing discipline that requires ongoing education and adaptability, even for cybersecurity experts.

This guide provides an overview of the Security+ certification, including who the certification is for, how to earn and maintain it, the positive impact that it will have on your career, and options for advancement following your Security+ certification.

The Security+ certification is a common component of a cybersecurity professional’s resume, which would leave a gap if it is not present. Learn about the new material that will be present on the SY0-601 Security+ exam.

The cloud has been around for over a decade, but great cloud engineers are in short supply. What sets a great cloud engineer apart from simply a good one? Experience plays a big part, and the general expectation seems to be that you will become great by putting in your time. However, the truth is that to be a great cloud engineer you do not just slowly grow into your role. You actively aim for ways to improve both your skills and your approach to using technology. Here are three examples of what great cloud engineers do to be highly successful.

The field of cybersecurity is growing, and it is no wonder. Global Knowledge’s 2020 IT Skills and Salary Report confirms the value of security experts, with those functioning in the Cybersecurity/IT Security field in the U.S. reporting an average annual wage of $153,655. Here’s an exclusive Security+ certification profile.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on businesses. Cost-cutting efforts have resulted in organizations having to do more with less. Safety protocols and social distancing guidelines have meant that more employees are working from home. The reality of remote workers and the access, reliability, and security issues that they create are at the forefront of the challenges facing IT departments.

Using Palo Alto Networks, PAN-OS, enterprises can build an IT Security Platform capable of delivering protection against all stages of the Cyber-Attack Lifecycle. From Reconnaissance to Act on Objective, the PAN-OS Single-Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) engine combines efficient throughput with maximum data protection. This recorded webinar will describe how the SP3 Architecture can increase network traffic visibility and enable you to control your environment. View the slide deck>

Organizations and individuals are threatened with ever-growing cyber threats and must be prepared to address them. The more we are connected to networks, the more suspectable we are to attacks, therefore enterprises must stay current applying various cybersecurity measures and maintaining awareness of cybersecurity trends. View the slide deck>    

Explore how Azure provides easy-to-use services to help you get started with building Data and AI solutions. Learn about many areas of AI, including machine learning, and how many modern applications and services depend on predictive machine learning models. We will also talk about the fundamentals of database concepts in a cloud environment and how to build your foundational knowledge of cloud data services within Azure.

The IT Skills and Salary Report covers a lot in the published report, and that’s only the surface. Here are four snippets of AWS data that weren't included in the published report.

This webinar begins with a general introduction to Microsoft SQL Server editions and versions. We will then highlight several scalability features of SQL Server. Next we will look at the High Availability Options of SQL Server. Finally we will look at Azure SQL deployment and Availability solutions. View the slide deck>

Systems engineers are the men and women responsible for keeping your applications running and databases responsive, and while the cloud has removed much of their responsibilities regarding hardware, their jobs are by no means easy. Lack of attention to details is always a factor in most mistakes, but these issues stem from misperception and a lack of understanding regarding the cloud itself.

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.

Cloud and virtualization technologies have spawned a whole ecosystem of applications. But like any powerful technology, they can be used for bad as well as good. This session reviews the top 10 most common mistakes made in cloud and virtualization security.

Watch this recorded webinar to understand the basics of the Risk Management Framework (prescribed by NIST Standards) and how to begin to apply it.  

This webinar will provide a high level overview of Microsoft SCCM 2012R2 and the new features available. You will learn day-to-day management tasks, including how to query data, manage applications, hardware and software inventory and software updates by using Configuration Manager. View the slide deck>

It is everyone’s job, not solely cybersecurity professionals, to consider how their work affects security.

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.

Aside from plenty of laughs, “Groundhog Day” delivers powerful messages about change, love and being a good person. Phil is unable to break the time loop until he totally changes who he is. Unless you’re as selfish and heartless as Phil, by making incremental changes over time you’ll bring success to your life and career.

It’s inevitable. At some point in your career, you’ll find yourself working alongside individuals who fall into the general category of “Difficult People.” The effects these people can have on an organization vary greatly but usually involve many problems for the team. This white paper describes some of the more common types of difficult people and provides you with tips on how to handle them.

When creating products, providing services and achieving results, consistency is the goal of quality management. This white paper gives you a basic overview of the tools and techniques you need for quality planning and quality assurance. Learn which resources help you to evaluate programs, prioritize objectives or discover problem areas. Featured within this white paper are Kaoru Ishikawa’s seven quality tools which include flowcharts, histograms and cause-and-effect diagrams. 

Projects are often complex, made up of a large number of moving pieces. This brings numerous challenges. By using the three key steps mentioned in this white paper, your projects will run more smoothly from start to finish.

Here are five date points from the 2020 IT Skills and Salary Report that illustrate important trends in professional development, skills gaps, hiring and top-paying certifications.

Organizations rely on administrators to do a lot. If you’re admin reading this, you know this far too well.

With Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) as popular as it is in the provider space and private MPLS clouds for larger enterprise, we needed some tools to help troubleshoot and maintain these networks. With the providers in mind, the normal ping or traceroute may not be enough.

The key difference between hubs, switches and bridges is that hubs operate at Layer 1 of the OSI model, while bridges and switches work with MAC addresses at Layer 2 of the OSI model.

Let's start with defining the job of a cloud architect. You are responsible for planning, designing, migrating, and implementing cloud-based infrastructures, but the effectiveness of these specialists is not guaranteed.

These mistakes can be resume-updating events if you are not careful. Take the time to learn the skills of a cloud architect and both your career and your employer will benefit.

Early one morning, an engineer end user discovered that the Engineer servers were unreachable, and he didn’t know if he could reach the Internet. The administrator investigated the user’s PC with the IPCONFIG /ALL command and verified that the PC was a DHCP client, but it had received an address from the Accounting DHCP server, not the Engineering DHCP server.

While Apple has created many fine things, they were yet to be created themselves when Xerox PARC scientists created Media Access Control addresses. These MAC addresses are 48 bits or 6 bytes long, so they are also known as MAC-48 or EUI-48. EUI stands for Extended Unique Identifier. It is written in hexadecimal characters as shown below:

When you connect your server or storage, it will send a Fabric login (FLOGI) request. This FLOGI request serves two purposes: Fibre Channel ID is the WWPN connection to this port from the FLOGI server Exchange buffer credits with the switch To better understand the first function, it is exactly the same if I rewrite it as, “request an IP address for a MAC address from the DHCP server”.

Join this exciting journey through the Microsoft cloud. We will discuss how companies have implemented Azure and other Microsoft cloud services and solutions. We will also address hesitations companies may have as they consider cloud technologies. In addition, we will explore practical tips about how to begin or continue your journey as you implement cloud solutions.

Hackers are looking for your company’s network. Unless you are offline and have no internet connectivity, the company network is discoverable.

Finding the right job may not always be that easy. For IT and cybersecurity professionals who are searching for a new job, or would just like to hang onto their current one, there are steps you can take to improve your job position. Whether you’re looking to get better at your job or advance up the ranks of your organization, these tips are aimed at you!

With 2021 quickly approaching, you need to be ready for existing and new threats. If you want to secure your system from hackers, then you need to think like them. In 2020, we saw attacks on many companies such as Twitter, Experian South Africa, British Airlines, DigitalOcean, etc. These companies have trained security teams, but hackers continue to find ways exploit vulnerabilities.

There are several advantages to implementing a route-based VPN (a.k.a. tunnel interface VPN) instead of a site-to-site one. Learn more.

In this 1-hour webinar, you will learn more about the current DevOps market landscape and how to lead a conversation with the C-suite about how to sustain high-velocity businesses with DevOps training and certifications across three key success factors: Culture, Practices & Automation. View slide deck>

What’s the difference between incidents and problems? This article explains the differences between these ITIL® concepts, how they are related, and why it matters.

The coronavirus pandemic changed how people around the world work and receive skills training. Virtual meeting services saw incredible growth, they also faced new security challenges. As a key Global Knowledge partner, we worked closely with Gary and the Zoom team as they rapidly upgraded their platform to ensure the maximum possible level of safety for all users. However, technology is only as powerful, or safe as the people who use it. So, in this webinar Gary will provide expert (and entertaining!) advice on how to use virtual meetings safely when there is not a Global Knowledge instructor on-hand to help. Joining Gary is Kevin, our CXO: another big personality with a wealth of IT experience and a passion for ensuring our customers receive the best possible experience, every time they connect with Global Knowledge.

The session will start with a general introduction to Microsoft SQL Server editions and versions. We will then highlight several scalability features of SQL Server. Next we will look at the High Availability Options of SQL Server. Finally we will look at Azure SQL deployment and Availability solutions. View the slide deck>

This Certification Prep Guide provides an overview of the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification and offers helpful tips that you can use when preparing for your certification exam. 

The world of Incident Response is evolving. No longer do we focus on indicators of compromise; we now focus on attacker behavior. MITRE has turned attacker behaviors into a usable framework shared both on their website and on GitHub. MITRE provides the MITRE ATT&CK Navigator on GitHub which includes a complete mapping of all techniques and sub-techniques to help you understand the attacker’s behavior. The Navigator can be leveraged to optimize Incident Response, evolving your team from responsive to predictive response.

Keep your project on time and within budget by controlling the baselines, budget, and schedule. View our comprehensive guide to project management, from project scheduling to cost control, from the experts at Global Knowledge.

The Information Technology (IT) profession is a pretty exciting place to be, right now. We’re seeing an unprecedented influx of new technologies and approaches, including AI, robotics, automation, and next-level networking. More importantly, today’s IT workers have become the guardians of identity and curators of information. Given the increased movement to remote working the IT community must be conscious their teams skillset in the midst of increasing and complex cybersecurity threats designed to hit organizations where it hurts...their people. If you’re curious about what it’s like to be part of the IT profession in quickly changing virtual world, then watch CompTIA’s Chief Technology Evangelist, Dr. James Stanger, to learn more. James discusses the pillars of IT that help create our (post)-modern world, and dispel a few myths about the cybersecurity profession. If you’re interested in learning more about the different cybersecurity pathways available to you, and how you can become a unique contributor to the cybersecurity profession, then we welcome you.

Have you ever wondered which skills are required for a successful career in technology at Microsoft? Whether you are an aspiring future Microsoft employee, or just looking for expert advice and inspiration on what skills to add to your toolbelt to build a career in the tech premier league, this webinar is for you. Watch this webinar as Andrew Ludlow, Enterprise Security Executive, and Jason Johnson, who leads the Microsoft Aspire Experience program, share discuss in-demand certifications and soft skills for careers at Microsoft, with an additional focus on the importance of cybersecurity skills.

Prepping for a Microsoft certification exam? Global Knowledge's own Tracy Wallace has you covered with these six tips for passing any Microsoft exam.

Critical thinking allows us to take control of our thinking rather than letting it become hijacked by convenience, mindset, assumptions and bias. This white paper will walk you through understanding the implications of inputs (data) and influences (bias) to the reasoning process. You will learn how to develop a questioning outlook and quality standards that will lead you to make more effective decisions.

What quality did the most influential leaders throughout history, such as Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher, all have in common? They were some of the greatest orators the world has ever known. Their communication skills were the tools with which they built up nations with strong foundations. They taught us that the most fundamental factor of success is without a doubt communication, and that strong communication is the pathway to strong leadership. Here you will find a breakdown of what makes an effective communicator and how you too can develop your leadership skills through communication.

The novel coronavirus has changed many aspects of life for millions of people globally, including where they work. With the increase in remote work, it is important for both individuals and companies to be aware of the added cybersecurity risks. Join us as Paula shares real world examples and tips on how we all can be better prepared.

Expert Hesham Mahmoud discusses the importance of cybersecurity, how to secure your IT infrastructure and detect the latest vulnerabilities and threats your organization might encounter. This webinar will cover the latest cybersecurity trends and how to react to data breaches. View the slide deck>

Project quality management is the process of determining the quality standards that are applicable to a project and devising a way to satisfy them. Learn more here.

Whether you’re a current cyber pro looking to specialize, or new to the industry and looking for direction, Focal Point Academy’s lead cyber workforce expert can give you the insight needed to fast-track a career into today’s most in-demand cyber jobs, like Threat Hunting and Reverse Engineering. We’ll profile the top job roles for the next few years, break down the knowledge, skills, and abilities required in each, and show you how to build a training plan that gets you the job you want. And best of all, we’ll end with a special offer designed to help jump start the process for you and your team. View the slide deck>

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

There’s a lot of pressure on IT decision-makers to fill the cybersecurity holes in their organization. The cyber skills shortage is palpable and growing. Cybersecurity is the most challenging IT hiring area in the world. Those of you expecting to hire your way out of your cyber skills gaps, we have some bad news for you—it’s not viable.

Implementing business analysis (BA) in organizations needs to be done in a well-planned process. The three steps are contingent on the BA maturity of the organization, its vision for how BA will be used and the degree of executive sponsorship.

Microsoft is retiring the MCSA and MCSE certifications January 31st, 2021. Does that really mean it is the end? It isn’t.Join this webinar to understand the logical next steps and new certification paths. View the slide deck>

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 purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate how administrators can get a secure and scalable instance of Docker Enterprise up and running within 2 hours. Topics include: installation of Docker Enterprise Edition, implementing container best practices, and configuring Kubernetes to support multiple users and applications.

A quick 30 minute introduction to Business Analysis for those who are considering the field. This webinar looks at why the BA is essential to the business, what BAs do, and certification paths for Business Analysts. View the slide deck>

This webinar will examine how to create various services in Azure. We will consider the different ways available to create resources in Azure. View the slide deck>>

Kubernetes automates container management. The process of container orchestration is so complex that trying to manage containers by hand has become impossible. There are many, components to container orchestration, but one of the most misunderstood is networking. In this 1-hour webinar we’ll explore how k8s actually performs IP networking and service discovery, two of the most critical components for successfully delivering microservices. We’ll examine how kubernetes carries the burden of cloud networking and lastly what it takes to pass the CKAD/CKA Certifications.

Agile is a group of methodologies (including SCRUM, XP, Lean, and Kanban) that values a pragmatic mind-set and a flexible approach. Most, but not all agile methodologies, apply an incremental approach utilizing short work intervals to provide functional results quickly and adjust for the customer’s evolving understanding of the real need. This session will look at the foundation for agile and then take a high-level walk through the agile life cycle.  

These technology job roles are proven to be essential during a crisis as enterprises scramble to change strategies and meet goals. The skills demonstrated by IT professionals in these 10 positions can make the difference between business success and failure, especially during a recession.

5G is the next-generation of mobile networks beyond the 4G LTE mobile networks existing today. The vision of 5G is becoming clearer and most experts say 5G will feature network speeds that are blazingly fast at 20 Gbps or higher and have low latency at mere milliseconds. Companies that can convince their staff to embrace what 5G is trying to do, will reap continuous deployment, incrementally adding new capabilities at the pace of a new “G” per year, but without the pain of each giant leap to convert from one G to the next.

Discover what's possible with unlimited Microsoft training. The GK Polaris Discovery subscription includes access to over 100 Microsoft courses, allowing you to prep for the Microsoft certification of your choice. Learn about the value of certification, the benefits of virtual classroom training, and how GK Polaris can help boost your career.