Top 10 IT Most Valuable Certifications

The certification landscape changes as swiftly as the technologies you support. Erik Eckel looks at the certs that are currently relevant and valuable to IT pros.

When it comes to IT skills and expertise, there are all kinds of “best certification” lists. Pundits are quick to add the safe bets: Cisco’s CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert), Red Hat’s RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer), and other popular choices.

This isn’t that list.

Based on years of experience meeting with clients and organizations too numerous to count, I’ve built this list with the idea of cataloging the IT industry’s 10 most practical, in-demand certifications. That’s why I think these are the best; these are the skills clients repeatedly demonstrate they need most. In this list, I justify each selection and the order in which these accreditations are ranked.

Why We Need Digital Wisdom

Article by Marc Prensky: Author of Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom. Follow him @marcprensky. 

For today’s young people, using technology is as fundamental as reading was for their parents and grandparents. It underlies and supports everything they do. Today we all face the need to adapt quickly to a very different world, one that is growing increasingly complex and changing at an ever-accelerating pace. Human minds, unaided, cannot deal satisfactorily with the demands of this new world—mind enhancement is required.