Resource Library

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 ITIL® event management process defines three event types: informational, warning and exception. In this post, I will discuss the different event types and give real-world examples of each.

Your organization and a seller have just agreed to a contract with a total cost of $150,000, an estimated profit of $10,000, buyer/seller sharing of 70/30 and a ceiling price of $170,000. What is the PTA (point of total assumption)? A. $170,000 B. $160,000 C. $164,2...

You are the project manager on a construction project where you are deliberating between renting, leasing or purchasing a large piece of equipment. Equipment pricing: Rent at a cost of $2,500 per day; Lease for a 60 day period at $2,500 per day, with a 10% discount; Purchase at a price of $100,000. By looking at your project schedule, you have estimated that you will use the equipment about 50 to 60 days. Based only on price, which decision would you recommend?

AMC’s television series “Halt and Catch Fire” shows North Texas’ rise as the “Silicon Prairie.” In the 1980s and early 1990s, it’s where IBM PC cloning was explored and where first-person shooter games were created. It’s also the site of the first “logic bomb”—the source of my horror story.

You are estimating the total project cost using three points for cost estimates with a 95 percent confidence level. What is the cost estimate range if the estimated project cost is $120,000 and the standard deviation is $2,500?

Projects are a social endeavor. Traditional project management approaches have shied away from the social advantages a more agile project environment brings. By nature, we are storytelling, pattern seeking and social people. We need colocation to shine truly in a project environment.

Have you ever been tasked to do a certain job, but were restricted or prevented from doing it because of the lack of tools or authorization? Many IT administrators who consult or attend training have stories to share about the impediments to using the full power of Windows PowerShell for automating system tasks. There are some ways around this. Although there are many options, we’ll focus on one technique for opening up the use of PowerShell for certain kinds of SharePoint administration.

Learn about earned value (EV) and how a project manager can use it to determine project progress.

I’d like to share some best practices for training BI administrators and architects in your organization. Because they will ultimately lead a major BI upgrade, administrators need training before a major project begins, not a few days or weeks before a go-live like other stakeholders. While there are many facets to upgrading your SAP BI system, I’m focusing on the need for BI architects and administrators to understand the BI4 platform’s new tools, new architecture and new monitoring capabilities.

What were the top paying IT and project management certifications for 2016? his article will help you answer both questions by providing a review of the 15 top-paying certifications.

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!

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.

If you work in IT, there is no doubt that you've lived through more than a few IT nightmares. In celebration of Halloween, we've asked a few of our instructors to share some of the horror stories from their own consulting careers.

In reviewing the list of best-paying jobs in IT, you’ll see some areas you might expect like cloud computing and other areas you probably didn’t, like business technology or enterprise infrastructure management. The top 10 functional areas are based on the 2016 IT Skills and Salary Survey conducted by Global Knowledge in October 2015. Note that all references to “average” represent the mean, not the median or other statistical measures.

On September 26, 2016, Microsoft announced the general availability of Windows Server 2016. We already have a taste of what the user interface looks like from Windows 10. In actuality, there are a few other features that Windows 10 picked up first, such as PowerShell 5.0 and the latest version of Hyper-V, that are also part of Windows Server 2016. Many other heavy-hitting server-only features will be here soon.

As the technology industry has advanced, the professional certification industry has grown alongside it. The Global Knowledge 2016 IT Skills and Salary Report revealed that Cisco, Microsoft, IT service management, ITIL and security certifications are the most lucrative to obtain.

Are you prepping for the PMP exam? What should you know about the impending new edition of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK® Guide before scheduling your examination?

One of the best ways to increase your satisfaction with your compensation is to increase the amount of control that you have over it. That inevitably means getting comfortable talking with your boss about a raise.

Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private Network (DMVPN) is a Cisco network solution for those with many sites that need access to either a hub site or to each other.

Routers and switches make up the bulk of the network infrastructure and are vulnerable to attack. In a previous article, I talked about some of the different ways of hardening your network devices. In this blog, I’d like to specifically examine the routing protocols used on the major Cisco network operating systems.

One size does not always fit all. At times there’s a need to run more than one routing protocol and have more than one routing domain: multivendor shops, migration from one protocol to another, scalability issues of a single protocol, political or personal preference, production versus test networks, mergers, and acquisitions.

The question of how a project manager working in a functional or matrix organizational structure gets team members to perform is asked in almost every project management class I have taught.

This article will serve as an important reference in optimizing and stabilizing your Group Policy Deployment.

Modern quality management and project management are complementary. They both emphasize customer satisfaction and the underlying belief that quality leads to customer satisfaction. The main objective in quality management is making sure that the project meets the needs it was originally created to meet—nothing more, nothing less. In other words, to ensure quality, you must meet the needs of the stakeholder.

Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is a protocol designed to go beyond what Network Time Protocol (NTP) can offer relative to accuracy. PTP is IEEE standard 1588 that can give local computing systems accuracy within the sub-microsecond range (such as microsecond, nanosecond or picoseconds) whereas NTP is within milliseconds or longer. PTP standard was first released in 2002 and known as 1588-2002. In 2008, the IEEE released a revised standard for PTP, known as 1588-2008, that improved the accuracy and precision of the protocol. It is also known as PTPv2 and is not backward compatible with the older version. PTP was developed for packet based network for control and measurement systems.

Get an insider’s take on 2017 cloud computing, DevOps, and Internet of Things (IoT) trends from an industry expert.

What is Network Time Protocol (NTP)? Well, it’s a network protocol used to synchronize clocks between computing systems over a packet switched network. It’s been around since the mid-1980s and was developed by David Mills at the University of Delaware; it is one of the oldest protocols still around on the Internet. NTP replaced other time synchronization technologies that didn’t have some capabilities to adjust time based on location of the time source or time server relative to the receiver or adjusting to the variation of delay found on typical data networks.

The purpose of Interior Routing Protocols (IGP), and routing protocols more generally, is to advertise the existence of destination networks. All protocols then have some method of picking what they would consider to be the best path and maintain the information. By...

You may have heard about IT service management and ITIL being yesterday’s news, but the survey suggests you need to re-evaluate those rumors. The enduring value of ITSM credentials and practices have been championed by Gene Kim, one of the Godfathers of the DevOps world, who has said, “It is my firm belief that ITSM and the DevOps movement are not at odds. Quite to the contrary, they’re a perfect cultural match.”

Having a breadth and depth of skills -- especially on new and emerging technologies -- can only weigh in your favor.

Learn about the most important and surprising findings from the Global Knowledge 2017 IT Skills and Salary Report. Topics discussed include top salaries, skills gaps, workloads and certifications.

If you want to stay relevant as an IT professional, you have two choices: evolve your current skills or make a big change.

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.

Here are the top 12 major IT skills. In each case, you will read why they made the list and what those surveyed looked at to hire in that skill set.

In 2013, Cisco released their Software Defined Networking (SDN) solution for the data center known as Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). For many years, the networking industry has been asking for an approach to configuring networking devices more efficiently than having to individually configure each and every router and switch.

This article defines many of the most commonly used terms in the virtualization vocabulary.

Let's look at 10 ways the cloud will change (and to a large degree already has changed) the world.

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.

IT professionals benefit from gaining skills in data analysis, cybersecurity, cloud computing, virtualization and hyperconvergence, and mobile app development.

The opportunities and challenges bring your own device (BYOD) represents are real; enterprises must make their network infrastructure BYOD-ready to meet the onslaught.

In the future, IT leaders will face a host of multi-dimensional challenges as global business increases in technological complexity; some of the challenges include harnessing mobilization and use of social media for business, developing employee- and customer-facing business applications.

Thinking about getting ITIL certified? In this post, we cover the value of each ITIL certification and dive into survey results to determine whether ITIL certifications are worth it. The results are in!

We spoke with Doug Cutting about his role with Cloudera and learned more about Big Data, training options for IT professionals interested in Big Data, and how Cloudera compares to Red Hat.

There are many career pitfalls in the IT field, especially if they are clearly outlined in an employee handbook.

I am a VMware Certified Instructor and every single time I teach, I get questions regarding certification. IT certifications always seem to be a controversial topic, and the question is always, "Why should I become certified?"

If you are considering career options or have been in the workforce a few years and are seeking a career change, you might want to consider training to become a computer support specialist.

Certifications are now considered the pinnacle of achievement in the tech industry. That’s a huge change in perspective from a decade ago when many IT professionals still didn’t understand the merit of certification.

To help you stay ahead of the game, here are ten IT skills that are on the brink of extinction.

As with all technologies transforming the way organizations operate, it’s expected that roles will also evolve. Cloud computing already has and will continue to change traditional IT roles and functions for years to come. We'll begin our overview of the transformation of cloud job roles with a look at some of the top cloud computing roles and responsibilities for architects, engineers and developers.

There is a wide-range of services available in GCP ranging from Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to completely managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). In the first part of this series, we will discuss the available infrastructure components and how they provide a powerful and flexible foundation on which to build your applications.

Global Knowledge is your partner when deciding which learning solution is the best fit for you and your organization, supporting your team throughout the process. Talk with us now to learn what you should consider when evaluating solutions.

The debate on the value of certification is over. Certifications matter—now more than ever.

While anyone with a strong general background in information technology shouldn't have too much trouble finding work in today's economy, there are some areas of specialization that are in higher demand than others. Some are in such high demand, in fact, that many IT hiring managers report they're having difficulty finding qualified candidates.

IT and general technology trade shows offer ample opportunities for learning about the latest trends and product releases in an environment outside of the office. They also provide opportunities for training and achieving sought-after certifications.

This article addresses non-technical skills you need to do to be a success in IT.

General character attributes every IT pro should have and on the things that every IT pro should know or do.

XenApp 6.5 brings a host of features and benefits that most companies will need as the technology continues to evolve and user requirements continue to expand.

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.

So you've decided to take one of the latest certification exams. Passing this one may just add to the alphabet soup of certifications that are already attached to your signature or maybe it's the first certification that you've ever acquired. In either case, you'll want to use every advantage available and you'll want to avoid any pitfalls. Although each exam is content specific, there are some overall guidelines that will help you pass any certification exam. I'll list six mistakes commonly made when approaching a new exam and how to avoid them. My hope is that some of these tips may give you the slight edge you need to convert a potential failure into a success.

You might already know what cloud computing is, and you might already be implementing it into your business, but are you able to have a conversation about it? The lingo surrounding this newer technology can be a bit, well, cloudy. Here are just some of the terms we keep hearing as cloud computing spreads from organization to organization.

Virtualization is an umbrella term that continues to evolve to include many different types that are used in many different ways in production environments. Originally virtualization was done by writing software and firmware code for physical equipment so that the physical equipment could run multiple jobs at once. With the success of VMware and its virtualization of x86 hardware, the term virtualization has grown to include not just virtualizing servers, but whole new areas of IT. This article is going to look at the origins of virtualization and how some of the historical development has spurred on today's virtualization. In addition, we will discuss different types of virtualization that are being utilized in the marketplace today and a listing of some of the leading vendors.

ITIL Foundation Exam-Taking Tips

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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..

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

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.

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.

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.