The Top 10 IT Certifications of 2019: Boost Your Career with Industry-Leading Credentials

The year 2019 represented a particularly significant moment in the history of IT certification as a career development mechanism, coinciding with a period of accelerating digital transformation across virtually every industry sector and a corresponding surge in employer demand for technology professionals with verified, specialized competencies. Organizations were racing to modernize legacy infrastructure, migrate workloads to cloud platforms, strengthen cybersecurity postures in response to escalating threat landscapes, and implement data analytics capabilities that could extract competitive advantage from the enormous volumes of information their operations generated. Each of these strategic imperatives created urgent demand for professionals whose skills were validated through recognized credentials rather than merely claimed through resume assertions that hiring managers had limited ability to independently verify.

The certification landscape of 2019 reflected these demand dynamics in the distribution of salary premiums, employment opportunities, and professional recognition associated with different credentials. Certain certifications commanded exceptional market value because they aligned precisely with the technology investments organizations were prioritizing, while others that had been highly valued in earlier periods began showing signs of diminishing returns as the technologies they validated became commoditized or were superseded by newer approaches. Understanding which certifications delivered the greatest career impact in 2019 requires appreciating both the technical domains they covered and the broader organizational and market forces that determined their value in the employment marketplace of that specific moment.

Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect

The Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect certification emerged in 2019 as one of the highest-valued credentials in the entire IT certification market, consistently appearing at or near the top of salary surveys conducted by major compensation research organizations including Global Knowledge and Dice. This elevated market position reflected the broader competitive dynamics of the cloud computing market, where Google Cloud Platform was making significant investments to expand its enterprise customer base and organizations that had chosen or were considering GCP needed professionals capable of designing, deploying, and managing solutions on the platform effectively. The relative scarcity of GCP-certified professionals compared to the growing demand from organizations adopting the platform created a supply-demand imbalance that translated directly into premium compensation.

The examination itself tested candidates on a sophisticated range of cloud architecture competencies including designing infrastructure for high availability and disaster recovery, selecting appropriate GCP services for different workload types, implementing security controls aligned with compliance requirements, optimizing solutions for cost efficiency, and migrating existing on-premises workloads to cloud environments. Candidates were expected to approach these competencies not as isolated technical facts but as integrated design principles requiring judgment about trade-offs between performance, cost, reliability, and security in realistic organizational contexts. The case study-based examination format, which presented complex organizational scenarios requiring candidates to design comprehensive cloud solutions, distinguished the GCP Cloud Architect certification from more straightforward multiple-choice examinations and rewarded candidates who had developed genuine architectural judgment through real cloud project experience.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional

Amazon Web Services maintained its position as the dominant cloud platform throughout 2019, and the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional credential reflected that dominance by remaining one of the most recognized, respected, and financially rewarding certifications available to cloud computing professionals in that year’s market. Positioned as an advanced credential building upon the foundation established by the associate-level Solutions Architect certification, the professional version tested a significantly deeper and broader range of competencies spanning complex multi-account architectures, hybrid connectivity solutions, advanced networking configurations, sophisticated security implementations, and the design of highly available systems capable of maintaining operations through various failure scenarios. The difficulty of this examination relative to associate-level AWS credentials made it a genuine differentiator for experienced cloud architects.

Compensation surveys from 2019 consistently placed AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional holders among the highest-earning IT professionals across all certification categories, with average salaries in North American markets frequently exceeding one hundred fifty thousand dollars annually when combined with relevant professional experience. This exceptional compensation reflected both the technical depth the certification validated and the critical importance of cloud architecture decisions to organizational performance, security, and cost management at a time when cloud spending was growing rapidly and the financial consequences of poor architectural choices were becoming increasingly visible to executive leadership. Organizations competing for the limited pool of AWS-certified architects at the professional level were willing to offer compensation packages that reflected the genuine scarcity and strategic importance of this expertise.

Certified Information Systems Security Professional

The CISSP certification administered by ISC2 maintained its status throughout 2019 as the gold standard credential in information security, representing a level of validated expertise and professional commitment that employers across every industry and geography recognized as the benchmark qualification for senior security roles. Unlike many certifications that focus on specific technologies or platforms, the CISSP validated a comprehensive understanding of information security across eight domains including security and risk management, asset security, security architecture and engineering, communication and network security, identity and access management, security assessment and testing, security operations, and software development security. This breadth of coverage made CISSP holders uniquely qualified to address security challenges that spanned organizational functions rather than remaining confined to narrow technical specializations.

The CISSP’s requirement for five years of verified professional experience in covered security domains before the credential could be fully awarded distinguished it from certifications that could be earned through examination preparation alone, ensuring that CISSP holders had demonstrated sustained professional engagement with security responsibilities rather than merely theoretical knowledge of security concepts. This experience requirement made the CISSP particularly credible to hiring managers and executive leadership evaluating candidates for senior security roles including Chief Information Security Officer, Security Director, Security Architect, and Senior Security Analyst positions where professional judgment developed through real-world experience was as important as technical knowledge. In 2019, the CISSP consistently appeared among the top five highest-compensated IT certifications across multiple salary surveys, reflecting its enduring value in a security talent market characterized by severe professional shortages.

Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate

Microsoft’s introduction of its role-based certification framework in 2018 and 2019 transformed how the company structured its credential portfolio, replacing the older MCSA and MCSE certifications with role-specific credentials aligned to actual job functions, and the Azure Administrator Associate emerged as one of the most immediately valuable of these new certifications given the rapid enterprise adoption of Microsoft Azure as a primary cloud platform. The AZ-104 examination, which served as the qualifying assessment for this credential, tested candidates on implementing and managing Azure identities and governance, deploying and managing storage solutions, configuring and managing virtual networks, monitoring and backing up Azure resources, and managing Azure compute resources including virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions.

The timing of this certification’s prominence in 2019 aligned with a period during which many large enterprises that had standardized on Microsoft technology stacks were making significant migrations to Azure, creating immediate and urgent demand for administrators capable of managing cloud infrastructure that differed substantially from the on-premises Windows Server environments that existing staff were accustomed to managing. Organizations that had invested heavily in Microsoft technologies including Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server found Azure’s deep integration with these familiar platforms compelling, and the administrators who developed Azure expertise during this transition period positioned themselves as essential resources during a migration wave that generated sustained demand for certified Azure professionals well beyond 2019.

Project Management Professional Certification

The Project Management Professional credential administered by the Project Management Institute retained its position in 2019 as one of the most broadly recognized and financially rewarding professional certifications available not just within IT but across the broader professional landscape, reflecting the universal organizational need for professionals capable of delivering complex technology initiatives on time, within budget, and to the quality standards that stakeholders require. Unlike vendor-specific technical certifications whose value depends on the market penetration of a particular platform or technology, the PMP’s value derived from the universal applicability of project management competency across every industry, technology domain, and organizational context, making it one of the most portable and durable credentials a technology professional could hold.

Salary surveys conducted in 2019 consistently showed PMP holders earning salary premiums of twenty percent or more compared to project management professionals without the credential performing similar roles, a premium that reflected both the verified competency the certification represented and the organizational risk reduction associated with employing certified project managers on high-stakes technology initiatives. The PMP’s requirement for substantial documented project management experience alongside the examination created a credential that signaled genuine professional readiness rather than theoretical knowledge alone, which contributed to the sustained respect and financial premium it commanded among employers who had experienced the costly consequences of placing inadequately experienced project managers in charge of significant technology programs.

Certified Ethical Hacker Credential

The Certified Ethical Hacker certification offered by EC-Council occupied a distinctive and valuable position in the 2019 IT certification landscape by validating the offensive security mindset and technical penetration testing skills that organizations needed to proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities before malicious actors could exploit them. As cybersecurity threats continued escalating in sophistication and financial impact throughout 2019, organizations increasingly recognized that defensive security controls alone were insufficient without complementary offensive security assessments that tested those defenses against the techniques and tools that real adversaries would employ. This recognition drove demand for professionals with credibly validated ethical hacking skills and created strong market value for the CEH credential among employers building or expanding penetration testing and vulnerability assessment capabilities.

The CEH curriculum covered a comprehensive range of offensive security topics including footprinting and reconnaissance, scanning networks, enumeration, vulnerability analysis, system hacking, malware threats, sniffing, social engineering, denial of service attacks, session hijacking, evading intrusion detection systems, hacking web servers and applications, SQL injection, hacking wireless networks, and cloud security assessment. This breadth of coverage provided certified professionals with the conceptual foundation needed to conduct comprehensive security assessments, though practitioners typically supplemented CEH training with additional specialized skills and hands-on experience to develop the practical proficiency required for sophisticated penetration testing engagements. The CEH served effectively as a career entry point into ethical hacking and as a credential that demonstrated security assessment awareness for professionals in adjacent roles including security operations, vulnerability management, and security architecture.

Cisco Certified Network Professional Enterprise

The Cisco Certified Network Professional Enterprise certification maintained its position in 2019 as the premier mid-level networking credential for professionals working with Cisco infrastructure, validating advanced competency in enterprise networking technologies including dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 architecture, virtualization, infrastructure, network assurance, security, and automation. The CCNP Enterprise credential, which Cisco restructured in 2019 as part of a broader certification portfolio realignment, required candidates to pass a core examination covering fundamental enterprise networking technologies alongside a concentration examination in a chosen specialization area, creating a certification structure that validated both broad competency and specific expertise in areas including advanced routing, SD-WAN, wireless, or design.

The market value of the CCNP Enterprise in 2019 reflected the continuing dominance of Cisco equipment in enterprise network infrastructure and the genuine technical depth required to deploy, configure, optimize, and troubleshoot complex Cisco networking environments at scale. Network engineers holding the CCNP Enterprise commanded salary premiums over CCNA-certified peers that reflected the substantially greater technical complexity and independent judgment required at the professional level compared to the associate tier, and they occupied a career position that provided clear advancement pathways toward the expert-level CCIE credential that represented the pinnacle of Cisco networking achievement. For network professionals working primarily with Cisco infrastructure, the CCNP Enterprise represented one of the clearest and most financially rewarding credential investments available in 2019.

VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization

Server virtualization had become foundational infrastructure technology by 2019, and VMware’s continued dominance of the enterprise virtualization market made the VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization credential one of the most practically valuable certifications available to infrastructure professionals responsible for designing, deploying, and managing virtualized data center environments. The VCP-DCV validated proficiency with VMware vSphere, the core virtualization platform used by the majority of enterprise organizations that had implemented server virtualization, covering installation and configuration of ESXi hosts and vCenter Server, virtual machine management, storage configuration including VMFS and NFS datastores, network virtualization with vSphere Standard and Distributed Switches, resource management and monitoring, and business continuity features including vSphere High Availability and vSphere Fault Tolerance.

The practical significance of VCP-DCV certification in 2019 stemmed from the near-universal presence of VMware virtualization in enterprise data centers and the direct operational responsibility that certified professionals carried for the availability and performance of the virtual infrastructure hosting business-critical applications. Organizations that had consolidated hundreds of physical servers onto virtualized infrastructure depended on competent virtualization administrators to maintain that infrastructure reliably, and the VCP-DCV provided employers with credible assurance that certified candidates possessed the specific technical knowledge required for this responsibility. The credential also served as a valuable complement to cloud certifications for infrastructure professionals navigating the hybrid environments that most enterprises operated in 2019, where on-premises VMware infrastructure and cloud-hosted workloads coexisted and increasingly needed to be managed in integrated ways.

CompTIA Security Plus Certification

CompTIA Security+ occupied a unique and valuable position in the 2019 certification landscape as the most widely recognized vendor-neutral entry-level cybersecurity certification, serving as the foundational credential through which hundreds of thousands of IT professionals demonstrated baseline security competency to employers across every industry segment and organizational size category. Unlike advanced security certifications that required years of professional experience before candidates could qualify, Security+ was accessible to motivated candidates relatively early in their IT careers, making it an essential stepping stone for professionals transitioning into security roles from other IT disciplines and a baseline requirement for security-adjacent positions including system administration, network engineering, and help desk roles where security awareness was increasingly expected alongside primary technical responsibilities.

The Security+ examination in 2019 covered threat intelligence, attack types and mitigation techniques, identity and access management, cryptography and public key infrastructure, network security architecture, cloud and virtualization security, application development security, risk management, and incident response and forensics fundamentals. This comprehensive coverage across security domains provided candidates with the conceptual vocabulary and foundational knowledge needed to engage meaningfully with security challenges in their roles and to continue developing specialized expertise through experience and additional certifications. The Department of Defense’s recognition of Security+ as meeting the baseline certification requirements for certain IT positions under DoD Directive 8570 created particular demand among government contractors and military IT professionals, adding an institutional dimension to the credential’s market value that extended its relevance beyond the commercial sector.

Certified Cloud Security Professional Credential

The Certified Cloud Security Professional certification offered by ISC2 emerged as one of the most strategically valuable credentials of 2019 by addressing the intersection of two domains experiencing simultaneous explosive growth in organizational importance: cloud computing and cybersecurity. As enterprises accelerated their migration of sensitive workloads to cloud environments, the security implications of these migrations became increasingly consequential and complex, requiring security professionals who understood not just traditional information security principles but the specific architectural patterns, shared responsibility models, compliance considerations, and threat landscapes associated with cloud-hosted infrastructure and applications. The CCSP validated precisely this combination of cloud and security expertise in a way that neither purely cloud-focused nor purely security-focused certifications could accomplish alone.

The CCSP examination covered six domains including cloud concepts, architecture and design; cloud data security; cloud platform and infrastructure security; cloud application security; cloud security operations; and legal, risk, and compliance considerations specific to cloud environments. This curriculum provided a comprehensive framework for securing cloud deployments across the major platform providers while remaining vendor-neutral enough to apply across different cloud environments rather than being tied to the specific services and terminology of any single provider. For experienced security professionals looking to demonstrate cloud-specific expertise and for cloud professionals seeking to develop security depth, the CCSP represented an exceptionally well-positioned credential that addressed a genuine gap in the market for validated expertise at the intersection of these two rapidly evolving disciplines.

Conclusion

The ten certifications highlighted throughout this guide collectively represent the range of credentials that delivered the greatest combination of career advancement potential, salary premium, and professional recognition across the IT landscape in 2019. What distinguished these credentials from the hundreds of alternatives available in that year’s market was their alignment with the specific technology priorities that organizations were actively investing in, the genuine technical depth they validated relative to the examination difficulty required to earn them, and the sustained market recognition they commanded among employers, hiring managers, and compensation decision-makers who understood their significance.

Looking at these ten certifications as a group reveals meaningful patterns about what the IT employment market was valuing in 2019. Cloud computing credentials from Google and Amazon reflected the dominant strategic investment organizations were making in platform migration and cloud-native application development. Security certifications at multiple levels from entry-level Security+ through advanced CISSP and specialized CCSP reflected the escalating organizational concern about cybersecurity risk that was driving security hiring across every industry. The PMP reflected the enduring organizational need for effective project leadership on complex technology initiatives regardless of what underlying technologies those initiatives involved. Networking and infrastructure credentials from Cisco and VMware reflected the ongoing importance of foundational infrastructure expertise even as cloud adoption accelerated.

For technology professionals evaluating certification investments at any point in their career journey, the 2019 landscape offers instructive lessons that extend beyond its specific historical context. Certifications that align with major organizational technology investments consistently deliver stronger career returns than those in domains experiencing declining adoption. Credentials that validate genuine expertise through difficult examinations and experience requirements maintain their value better than those achievable through minimal effort. Vendor-neutral certifications in foundational disciplines provide career portability that vendor-specific credentials cannot always match. And the combination of technical certification with business-relevant skills including security awareness, cloud architecture judgment, and project management competency creates professional profiles that organizations across every sector find compelling, regardless of which specific year’s market conditions define the precise financial premium associated with any particular credential combination.