Cisco, Microsoft certifications increase high-tech salaries

PMP credentials also boost salaries and employment opportunities, IT job site finds

For high-tech workers, it pays to be certified, according to research conducted by Dice Learning that shows 10 IT certifications stand out for delivering higher salaries.

"Not all certifications are created equal in terms of paycheck impact. While nearly half of all technology professionals have at least one certification, a minority attributed pay increases to certification," said Evan Lesser, director of Dice Learning, which offers technical training and information about certifications and career advancement, in a statement. "When you combine in-demand skill sets and proven salary impact, specific certifications become valuable to individual technology professionals."

Dice Learning used responses from some 17,000 high-tech professionals to determine which technical skills and IT certifications deliver more compensation and helped workers command higher salaries. For instance, IT pros certified as a Project Management Professional could demand more pay on the job and unemployed workers might find more open positions. According to Dice Learning, there are currently 1,400 available jobs on Dice.com with PMP certification listed as a requirement.

"It's a particularly important job today, when companies are beginning to resurrect projects they'd shelved during the downturn, but want them completed as cost-efficiently and quickly as possible," according to a Dice Learning press release.

Other certifications helping IT pros increase their compensation are vendor specific. Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCP) and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrators (MCSA) all landed on the list, showing that high-tech workers who can prove they are adept at Microsoft systems and associated skills will be in demand. For instance, Dice.com has 1,000 jobs listing a MSCE as a requirement.

"Sought by systems engineers, technical support engineers, systems analysts, network analysts and technical consultants, the MCSE is for professionals who spend their time maintaining the basic platforms on which so much business is conducted," Dice Learning states.

IT professionals trained as Cisco Certified Network Associates (CCNA) are also seeing bigger paychecks, according to this research. Having the "ability to install, configure, run and troubleshoot medium-sized routed and switched networks" is paying off for CCNAs, who by getting this IT certification also prove they can handle security and wireless technologies as well as a number of network protocols. Dice.com lists more than 650 available job opportunities requesting CCNA skills.

The Network + certification also landed on Dice Learning's list, which covers managing, maintaining, troubleshooting, installing and configuring basic network infrastructure. Offered by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), the Network + certification is also often included in programs by vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, Novell and HP. The A + certification, also from CompTIA, is often associated with technical support professionals and shows an IT pro can install networks and conduct preventative maintenance, as well as secure and troubleshoot networks.

Security certifications such as Security + from CompTIA and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) also deliver higher pay, according to Dice Learning, which states "security is a growing concern for businesses around the world." For CISSP holders, Dice.com currently lists 750 open positions.

Process skills could also mean more money, according to this research. ITIL certifications show IT professionals have studied the best practices and can apply them to an employer's IT service management efforts.

"The three-tier ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) certification demonstrates the expertise of professionals in tech management. Public and private organizations use the ITIL as a compendium of IT operational best practices," according to Dice Learning.

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Microsoft And Amazon Ink Patent Cross-Licensing Deal

Microsoft And Amazon Ink Patent Cross-Licensing Deal

Microsoft and Amazon.com have signed a patent cross-licensing agreement that gives each company access to the other's patent portfolio.

The deal covers a broad range of products and technology, according to a Microsoft statement, including Amazon's Kindle e-reading device that uses a combination of proprietary and open source software.

The agreement also covers Amazon's use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft has signed a number of similar agreements with companies that sell Linux-based software or build Linux into their hardware products. In the past, Microsoft executives have maintained that components of Linux may violate Microsoft patents.

Microsoft said Amazon would pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money under the agreement. But specific terms of the deal were confidential.

"Microsoft's patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved," Horacio Gutierrez, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Intellectual Property and Licensing, Microsoft, said in a statement.

Microsoft said it has entered into more than 600 patent licensing agreements since it launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, including deals with Apple, Novell, Hewlett-Packard and Samsung.

By Rick Whiting, ChannelWeb, February 24, 2010

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IBM pushes mainframe development to cut maintenance costs

IBM is promoting mainframe development as a way to reduce IT maintenance costs. The company today released Rational Developer for System z (RDz) version 7.6, which will look to attract new developers to mainframe development.

Scott Searle, a marketing program director with IBM Rational, said the software offers a “really compelling economic argument” for doing more development for the mainframe. He said that such development could cut a company’s application maintenance costs by about 10%.

“Many mainframe customers today really have shackles on their IT budget because 80 to 90% of it can be focused on maintenance,” Searle said. “If we can help them cut that [cost], the resulting increase to their ability to extend applications for developing new capabilities is almost doubled.”

IBM is also promoting green-screen development among younger developers. Searle claimed that once Java developers begin working with RDz, they will see that they can work on mainframe software just as easily as they build Java applications. He added that RDz can work with the Jazz-based Rational Team Concert for System z to support agile methodologies. It also works with IBM’s change and configuration management software.

“RDz allows you to integrate teams between distributed and mainframe, and so the teams will work on an application, and everyone sees the changes in real time,” Searle said. “They can track and govern the project through a single interface.”

Separately, IBM added a common repository to version 2.0 of Rational Team Concert for System z. According to Searle, the new repository is more consolidated regardless of the platform being developed on, bringing increased collaboration and information availability to distributed teams.

Rational Team Concert now can interface with COBOL, and has much better project predictability with new planning and risk assessment dashboards, Searle added. Teams can put policies into place for working on tiered applications with the new dashboards.

Searle said that IBM plans to invest in Rational Team Concert, with a goal of making it as functional and comprehensive as the Rational ClearCase software configuration manager.

“ClearCase does a pretty good job at governance and life-cycle management, but Rational Team Concert is really the big new step forward,” he said. “Rational Team Concert has great capabilities around management and process to ensure that the management team is comfortable with the pace of a development project, to make sure that all checkpoints are met on time and projects are under control.”

On SDTimes, Jeff Feinman writes, IBM pushes mainframe development to cut maintenance costs, November 19, 2009 

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IBM Deploys Cloud-Computing Business Intelligence System

IBM Deploys Cloud-Computing Business Intelligence System, By Rick Whiting

IBM has launched what it calls the largest private cloud computing system for business analytics, called Blue Insight, for its 200,000 employees and will offer customers the ability to build similar cloud-based systems based on the Blue Insight architecture.

Blue Insight will gather more than a petabyte of structured and unstructured data from more than 100 different databases and data warehouses throughout IBM and make it available to employees in the company's sales force and development operations, IBM said.

Blue Insight runs on an IBM System z10 mainframe computer with 48 processors and uses the company's Cognos business intelligence software.

The new cloud computing system will enable IBM employees to access information and analysis from anywhere in the world for making sales decisions and to predict and act on business opportunities.

A sales executive, for example, can query real-time data to identify sales opportunities and understand how many sales in their region are ready to close. On the development side, a manufacturing process engineer can analyze real-time data from a plant floor to improve yield and reduce shipment delivery times, IBM said.

"This new model of cloud computing will provide our employees with a single place to access real business insights, improve standards compliance and create a repository of best practices throughout our company," said Pat Toole, CIO, IBM in a statement.

The IBM Smart Analytics Cloud packages elements of Blue Insight for large businesses. The package includes the z10 mainframe running the Linux operating system, Cognos 8 business intelligence software, and a range of installation, implementation, planning and strategy services.