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Scrum serves as a framework for the development of software and other products. It helps teams collaborate and provides a way to address challenges and changes in order to deliver a high value product. The Scrum Master promotes and supports the framework (Scrum). A Certified Scrum Master (CSM) helps everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.

Global Knowledge subject matter experts predict the top trends for 2020 in IT training, Microsoft, Cisco, AWS, cybersecurity and more.

We asked Global Knowledge’s tech enthusiasts for their ideal wish list items this year. Check out our list of the top 12 tech gifts of 2019.

Ask any executive today about digital transformation and they’ll likely tell you about their organization’s plans to integrate cutting-edge technologies. 

Managers are in dire need of cybersecurity professionals with specific skills. If you’re looking to advance your career, or transfer into the cyber field, now is the time to get certified.

Cybersecurity is a top technology investment area around the globe, with over half of our survey respondents saying it’s a priority. It’s no longer a niche skill—every IT professional needs some cybersecurity knowledge.

As IT professionals gravitate away from classroom training and toward on-demand courses and e-learning, IT skills gaps have spiked. Instructor-led training is still the best option to fill critical skills needs and shouldn't be pushed aside entirely for more convenient and cost-effective options.

Explore how IT decision-makers’ training views have changed since we first released our annual IT Skills and Salary Report 12 years ago. Once viewed as an expense, IT leadership now sees professional development as an investment. Even with shrinking budgets and a recent rise in skills gaps, the value of training is currently at an all-time high.

The value of IT certifications has grown considerably over the last decade. Examine the evolution of certification trends, see the top-paying certifications and learn how decision-makers are struggling to hire certified employees.

Looking ahead at new and emerging certifications provides insight into the areas deemed valuable in the IT industry. If you are an early adopter or in a position where you need to show that you have the bleeding-edge expertise of a technology, this list of recent and upcoming certifications is for you. 

Google Cloud certifications had a breakout year according to the Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report. GCP Cloud Architect is the top-paying IT certification in North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), while Google Cloud salaries are 34% higher than the average for North America. As more IT departments adopt multi-cloud strategies, Google Cloud skills are increasing in popularity.

If you’re worn out by daily road rage—how many middle fingers can you see in one day—or irked at the prospect of being taxed to death, maybe it’s time for a change. Future job opportunity, salary, cost of living and quality of life are a balancing act. We can’t tell you what to do, but we can let you know where IT professionals are making the highest average salaries in the U.S.

ISACA certifications are some of the most popular and highest-paying in the Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report. Eleven percent of IT professionals in the United States and Canada are ISACA-certified, and their salaries are 12% above the North American average.

There’s undeniably good news for Citrix-certified IT professionals this year. Pursuing at least one Citrix certification has the potential to unlock a host of benefits ranging from above average salaries to greater prestige in the workplace thanks to improved knowledge and capabilities resulting from certifications. Simply put: Citrix certifications pay big dividends according to the Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report.

There’s a reason why one out of four certified IT professionals in North America hold at least one CompTIA certification. IT professionals who hold at least one certification have higher salaries, are more productive and generally are more satisfied in their job than their non-certified peers.

This year, CISSP-certified IT professionals have the third highest global salary ($116,573) and the 10th highest in North America ($123,815). This is nothing new—CISSP has ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. each year since 2015, even coming in first in 2018. CISSP is a top-paying certification year after year. But how has it remained so relevant and valuable?

There are two types of networks: those that have been hacked and those that will be. To defend against hacks, cyber professionals can benefit greatly from ethical hacking programs.

In 2019, Microsoft has thoughtfully adapted their curriculum to boost Azure skills adoption. And to further speed up Azure consumption, Global Knowledge has stepped in to support Microsoft’s evolution and their new strategy. We’re fighting change with change. And here’s how we did it.

Online instructor-led training provides an accountability partner, providing you with the highest likelihood of acheiving your desired certification.

Five tips for staying above the office drama that could cost you your job.

There’s a lot to experience whether you are a Cisco Live vet or newbie. Here are a few things I’m looking forward to seeing at Cisco Live 2019.

For organizations with the willingness to get in shape and regain their corporate vitality, combining and aligning best practice frameworks is a sure way to achieve that goal. Admittedly, it takes work. Combining ITIL® 4 and project management should be high on your list.

Should an organization that is the victim of an intentional nefarious hacking activity resort to retaliation? It’s a question that has been gathering a lot of attention. Retaliating against bad actors might seem appealing, but what are the legal ramifications? In this article, find out if there is a legal precedent to "hacking back."

Learn about all of your options before choosing the path that works for our organization. Here we look at three of the common metrics questions and how ITIL® offers a balanced view for solving them.    

Answer the questions posed in our ITIL Decision Tree to see if you should pursue ITIL 4. It’s easy-to-follow and no matter how you answer, it will provide a distinct next step for your ITIL journey.

IT professionals comment on all aspects of the tech industry in responses to Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Survey. Hot topics this year include training obstacles, skills gaps, leadership and digital transformation.

ITIL is one of the most sought-after certifications among IT professionals—nearly one in five is ITIL-certified. Find out how ITIL students apply what they learned to their job.

In the world of corporate technology training, blended or hybrid learning is a recent introduction. While a few learning providers have launched offerings, only Global Knowledge has implemented a solution—Blended Live—that utilizes the true potential of a blended learning delivery model.

As organizations struggle to balance budgets and prioritize training, skills gaps are growing—75% of North American decision-makers report existing skills shortages. And the impacts are potentially disastrous. With so much on the line, initial and ongoing training are instrumental to project and organizational success.

To help set you up for training success, here are 4 tips to select the right instructor-led course.

The ITIL 4 update is the first since 2011, and will address the new processes, vocabulary, and methods used in modern IT, including DevOps, Agile, and Lean IT development.

Ask yourself these four questions and you'll pick the best course for your needs.

ITIL® 4 Foundation Bridge is a new Global Knowledge course that addresses the specific needs of professionals who have already achieved the ITIL v3 Foundation certification and wish to upgrade to ITIL 4. 

In support of software-defined networking, Cisco has introduced several products to strengthen networks and meet the increased demand for flexible and cost-efficient solutions. The Cisco SDN solution in the data center is ACI. Outside the data center the primary Cisco solution is DNA.

The CCNAX - CCNA Routing and Switching Boot Camp is a great option to obtain Cisco Routing and Switching skills while pursuing the CCNA Routing and Switching certification. 

Software-defined networking (SDN) is a solution that will enable your organization to meet the demands of network programmability and automation. The result will be greater network agility to support new applications while complying with increasing security needs.

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.

Do you remember that teacher that made the most difficult concepts easy to understand? The one who amazed you with their complete understanding of the subject matter. We remember those teachers too and the concepts they imparted on us. We know that a good teacher can have a lifelong impact on their students. That’s why we employ only the best and brightest instructors at Global Knowledge.

Convenience remains an alluring course feature today, as students migrate from traditional classroom environments to digital learning.

Cloud computing has risen from relative obscurity to the No. 1 tech area of interest in the world, according to the 2017 Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report.

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.

IT is a very fast changing industry – what is hot today may be a tiny niche market in only a few years and lesser known things may turn out to be huge trends. That having been said, there are many certifications that will be around for a long time. However, this does not imply that recertification and/or continuing education credits are not required to maintain certification. Predicting the future is always challenging, including in IT, but these certifications are good bets.

If you work in IT, chances are you have your very own IT horror story. Who are we kidding? Chances are you have several IT horror stories. In honor of Halloween, we asked for the worst of the worst - the one your IT buddies tell their IT buddies. We got some good ones too. It was tough, but we compared the stories and narrowed it down to our three favorites who we present here for your (scary) reading enjoyment.

Digital transformation means different things to different people. One fact they all agree on is that the capability needed to manage this new paradigm will lead to new ways of working, new skills, new technology and embracing more collaborative ways of co-creating value. That challenge has been the driving force for the latest iteration of ITIL®.

Every data center has unique hardware and software requirements that can pose significant management challenges to IT. Cloud utilization, virtualization, mobile device management, app development, security, and storage networking represent just a few of the management challenges facing IT today. Add to that the responsibility of providing the infrastructure for processing an exponential increase in data and making it available to an increasingly mobile workforce on a daily basis.

It doesn't take pure imagination to realize that when it comes to your career, inspiration may come from the least likely of places. It also doesn't seem possible that four decades ago "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" hit the silver screen. Growing up, it was one of the few movies I always made sure to watch whenever it was on TV. I'm sure I wasn't alone.

Cloud adoption continues to soar. In fact, worldwide Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) public cloud services grew by 29.5 percent in 2017, according to Gartner. If it’s not in a company’s current plans to utilize cloud technology, it most certainly will be (or should be) in the next couple of years.

We asked for your top IT horror stories, and you delivered. Read the most unexpected and cringe-worthy IT nightmares from fellow IT professionals.

ITIL® 4 reflects new ways of working that have accompanied the digital revolution. Service Management, and ITIL in particular, is still an important toolset but you are now integrating its adoption and use with a vast array of new ways of working (DevOps, Agile, SIAM, Site Reliability Engineering). Since ITIL v3 was released in 2006, a large number of new and updated technologies (Cloud, Serverless Computing, Software-Defined Networking, AI, etc.) have emerged that now need managing. ITIL 4 reflects these changes. Here are some frequently asked questions about ITIL 4, as well as answers that explain what it entails, why we need it and how it differs from ITIL v3.

There is a reason why Agile training methods are becoming mainstream. They can work! Although every Agile practice is not necessarily appropriate for every organization, each practice has delivered real value to many organizations, and some Agile practices can be used by anyone!

Technology trends such as these show no signs of abating, and IT administrators need to be prepared. Having a well-rounded and versatile team of IT practitioners is becoming increasingly necessary. In the following article, we examine five key skills that every IT department should have covered, regardless of the size of the company.

Have you been afraid to implement PowerShell in your environment because of security fears? The reality of PowerShell security doesn’t always match the perception. When compared to other scripting languages, PowerShell is actually more secure by default.

Discover three tips for managing IT certification and recertification requirements.

Certifications matter. A lot. That’s one of the major takeaways from the Global Knowledge 2018 IT Skills and Salary Report. The benefits, both personally and organizationally, are undeniable—certified professionals are more effective, complete tasks faster and are more sought after.

Despite a growing awareness and preparation for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, the overall arc of DDoS attacks is not weakening, but actually gaining more attention from the companies and personnel who have experienced these threats first-hand.

Behind various Google services lies the powerful Cloud AI, a neural net-based, machine learning technology that Google has perfected for use with services like image search and voice recognition. Here are five ways you could use Cloud AI to improve your business.

A longtime leader in data analytics, Google continues to earn their position by continually improving their data analytics offerings. Now, with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), you can capture, process, store, and analyze your data in one place, allowing you to change your focus from infrastructure to analytics that informs business decisions. However, you can also use GCP Big Data tools in combination with other cloud-native and open-source solutions to meet your needs. Below is an overview of GCP Big Data Tools and how you might utilize them to improve analytics.

Google takes security to a whole new level thanks to their years of experience as one of the most popular targets on the internet for would-be hackers and denial of service bots. This led Google to build a sophisticated security infrastructure the likes of which few companies or organizations can claim. Google approaches security holistically and involves everything from the physical data centers, to the data pipelines between them, down to the training of each employee that is responsible for managing the infrastructure.

Multi-factor authentication is a method of logon verification where at least two different factors of proof are required. There are generally three recognized types of authentication factors:

Consider how many financial transactions are performed on the Internet everyday. Protecting all this data is of upmost importance. Cryptography can be defined as the process of concealing the contents of a message from all except those who know the key. Cryptography can be used for many purposes, but there are two types of cryptographic algorithms you need to understand, symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric uses a single key, whereas asymmetric uses two keys. What else is required to have a good understanding of cryptography? It’s important to start with an understanding of how cryptography relates to the basic foundations of security: authentication, integrity, confidentiality, and non-repudiation.

Routers and switches make up the bulk of network infrastructure and are vulnerable to attack. We hear about mass Denial of Service (DOS) attacks or Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS), but the network itself is as big a risk because if it is taken out, there is no path for the data to flow.

Yes, there’s big money in AWS Certification, which tends to outpace other cloud certification salaries, but there’s more to the cloud than dollars and cents.

Take charge of your Cisco network devices with Python programming As a network engineer, you might wonder why there’s any need for you to learn Python. After all, network automation is clearly where the industry is headed. And there are many tools that allow yo...

Moving capabilities to a cloud provider such as Microsoft Azure is pretty straightforward. However, given the depth and breadth of service offerings provided by Azure, it’s easy to miss the product’s less obvious capabilities. If you're implementing a Microsoft Azure cloud platform, you'll want to consider these five services to save time, money, and your sanity.

Though there are several sources for agile certifications, the Project Management Institute (PMI)® Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® has established itself as the world’s fastest growing agile credential. The PMI-ACP certification formally recognizes your knowledge of agile principles and your skill with agile techniques.

Quality, as we know it today, is an accumulation of several concepts that together create a comprehensive approach to quality. The views of quality, as described in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and tested on the PMP® exam, focus primarily on the work of three major contributors: W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran and Philip B. Crosby.

There are two basic types of addresses used in Local Area Networking (LAN): logical addresses and physical addresses. Understanding the differences between the two addresses begins with developing an understanding of the following terms.

Here are four tips to make sure you’re taking full advantage of your investment in the Ultimate IT Skills Collection.

End of year IT project spending has a higher chance of failure. Instead, invest your funds in the resources that manage and own the technology—your people. Learn how to choose the best IT training company for you at the last minute..

If your organization has upgraded to Office 2016 or Office 365, you now have access to Excel 2016. Now what? Are there any new features? The answer is yes, especially if you need business intelligence tools and new ways to present your data.

When Global Knowledge and ctc TrainCanada joined forces in August 2017, Global Knowledge added Concept Training, an innovative and industry-leading training methodology, to course deliveries. Going forward, when you take a Microsoft Office course with us, you’ll get to experience our Concept Training methodology. But what does that really mean?

Since Google favors LinkedIn when it comes to search results, keep that in mind if you're networking or job hunting. If a potential employer considers you for a position, don't think they aren't Googling you too.

The 2018 Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report has been released and you can download your copy now. We surveyed over 16,000 IT professionals around the world and asked them to provide insights into training, salaries, job satisfaction, certifications and much more. As a result, our annual report is one of the most comprehensive in the industry, while providing the clearest picture of worldwide IT departments.

Here are six tips to ensure you’re investing your time in quality and credible resources.

Topping this year’s list is ISACA with four IT certifications, followed by AWS, Cisco and Citrix. Our 2018 IT Skills & Salary Report also shows trending areas in cybersecurity, cloud computing, and business—demonstrating what skills you need to become a more valuable and higher-paid IT professional.

If you’re looking for serious change, why not focus on your IT professional career? How much can you really learn from a five-point “Hack” list that speaks to everyone, yet no one? Not much. Too many articles rattle off a quick hit list. After reading this goal-setting guide you’ll be able to develop a game plan to bring successful change in your professional life.

Each year as the data from the Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Survey is put through the analysis process, certain trends become clearer. One of those is the prevalence of IT professionals who pursue certifications across multiple categories.

Unlike ITIL, DevOps is more of a philosophy than a formal framework. DevOps, which is short for Collaboration between Development and Operations, arose as a movement within IT best practices when IT managers began to realize that something needed to be done to close the communications and collaboration gap between development groups and support operations staff. After some time and examination, it became clear that there was no inherent conflict between the DevOps movement and ITIL—the two, in fact, are quite complementary.

Data from Global Knowledge’s 2017 IT Skills & Salary Survey revealed which certifications can help you advance your IT career and earn a better paycheck. From AWS to Microsoft and Citrix, these up-and-coming certifications are in security, cloud computing, networking, and more.

Data center return on investment – which is measured by time to cost savings, time to revenue, time to break even, etc. – has proven more elusive than expected. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t attainable. To understand the genesis of the bad and ugly parts of data center ROI, we need to recognize the good parts and appreciate why so many companies are putting their faith in new and unfamiliar technologies.