IT certifications can help you verify your IT skills and experience and demonstrate to both current and prospective employers that you have the know-how in specific domains to use in your current role or to further your career.
Information technology is the lifeline of the modern era. Can you imagine a life without smartphones and computers? Indeed no one can in modern times. Monitoring the changing pattern of technological usage and growth can also help in understanding how the professional world may change in the future. Information technology has grown tenfold in recent years and is constantly growing. IT professionals need to continue to advance their education and training to keep up with these developments, and obtaining credentials is a valuable way to demonstrate this knowledge and skillset.
There are many credentials on the market today that IT professionals can choose from when seeking to advance their careers. Below are some of the IT certifications that I believe will be valuable and in demand in 2022.
1. Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE)
The Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE) certification offered through ISACA is designed to demonstrate you have the skills to navigate the increasing complexity of data privacy. It’s an experience-based technical privacy certification that assesses your ability to implement privacy by design, which results in privacy technology platforms and products that build trust and advance data privacy.
2. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification offered through (ISC)² demonstrates your knowledge and abilities with IT security and information assurance. The certification covers topics such as organizational structure, security and risk management, asset security, security operations, identity and access management (IAM), security assessment and testing, and security architecture and engineering.
3. Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert
The Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification is designed for cloud professionals who are responsible for advising stakeholders and building reliable cloud solutions for the business. The expert-level exam covers your skills and knowledge when it comes to deploying and configuring infrastructure, implementing workloads and security, and creating and deploying apps. The exam also covers topics such as designing a data platform solution, business continuity and infrastructure strategy, and how to develop for the cloud. You’ll need to know how to determine workload requirements, design data platform solutions, create a business continuity strategy, and design for deployment, migration, and integration.
4. Project Management Professional (PMP)
The PMP certification is offered through Project Management Institute and is targeted at advanced project management professionals. The certification covers the fundamentals of project management, including the five main stages of a project’s lifecycle: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling, and closing.
5. Certified Ethical Hacker
Offered through the EC-Council, the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Certification demonstrates your ability to find vulnerabilities in computer systems and to prevent hacking. As an ethical hacker, you’re someone who uses the same skills, techniques, and knowledge as a malicious hacker to help establish better security measures to prevent future attacks. Ethical hackers are responsible for finding weaknesses in the organization’s networks and systems and then using that knowledge to protect the company against potential threats.
6. Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)
ISACA’s Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control™ certification is an enterprise risk management qualification. It is favoured by professionals looking to build upon their existing knowledge and experience of IT/business risk, identification, and implementation of information system controls. The certification requires pre-requisite skills such as the ability to manage the ongoing challenges of enterprise risk and to design risk-based information system controls. CRISC helps IT professionals prepare for real-world threats, with appropriate tools to both evaluate and manage risk. As a result, the CRISC certification is widely seen as the go-to accreditation for experts in the field of risk and information systems controls or those looking to progress their careers in this area.
7. Information Technology Certified Associate (ITCA)
ISACA®‘s new Information Technology Certified Associate™ allows those new to IT to build their IT knowledge and skills in five essential work-related domains—with five knowledge and performance-enhancing certificate programs that stack up to one certification. Training for the certificate exams consists of a combination of knowledge-based and hands-on lab-based training. ITCA’s stackable certificates (in Computing Fundamentals, Networks and Infrastructure Fundamentals, Cybersecurity Fundamentals, Software Development Fundamentals and Data Science Fundamentals) and final certification can prove you have a solid foundation in information technology that can get you started or reskilled in your IT career.
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