Certifications

ISACA’s Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control is built for professionals who connect technology risk to business decisions. The current CRISC exam reflects that role directly: governance, risk assessment, risk response and reporting, and technology and security. It is not simply a cybersecurity exam and it is not an audit credential with a different name. CRISC focuses on identifying risk, evaluating its business impact, selecting and monitoring responses, and communicating risk information to the people who own decisions. ISACA updated the CRISC exam in November 2025, so candidates preparing…

CKA and CKAD are both hands-on Kubernetes certifications, but they validate different kinds of responsibility. The Certified Kubernetes Administrator is aimed at people who operate the platform itself: cluster architecture, installation, networking, storage, scheduling, and troubleshooting. The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer is aimed at people who use that platform to build and run applications: workload resources, deployments, configuration, security context, observability, services, and application-level troubleshooting. That distinction matters more than the shared word “Kubernetes.” A developer can be highly effective with Deployments, Services, probes, ConfigMaps, Secrets, and Helm without being…

Microsoft retired AI-102 and the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification on June 30, 2026. The successor exam, AI-103: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure, reflects a different kind of engineering responsibility. Candidates still need to understand Azure AI services, but they must also design applications that retrieve evidence, invoke tools, evaluate results, enforce permissions, and remain observable after deployment. That shift matters to anyone returning to Azure AI after studying AI-102. An old computer-vision lab might still teach valuable techniques, while an old objective checklist could lead you away…

2026 exam context: This article discusses how PMP has changed over time. PMI’s July 2026 exam refresh now weights People at 33%, Process at 41%, and Business Environment at 26%, with stronger emphasis on value, stakeholders, AI, and sustainability. See PMI’s current PMP exam update. The Project Management Professional certification has long been considered the gold standard for project managers across industries worldwide, and its recent transformation marks one of the most significant shifts in the credential’s history. PMI recognized that the traditional model of project management, rooted almost entirely…

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate AWS SAA-C03 remains the current associate solutions-architect exam. The current AWS exam guide validates the ability to design solutions aligned with the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The demand for cloud-native certifications has grown at a pace that few industry observers anticipated even five years ago. Organizations across every sector are migrating workloads to public cloud platforms, and the need for professionals who can architect, deploy, and manage those environments has created intense competition for certified talent. AWS certifications sit at the center of this transformation,…

Are you looking to supercharge your career in information security? If so, you’ve likely encountered the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) certification. This prestigious credential from ISACA is perfect for professionals eager to go beyond technical skills and dive into the management side of information security. But how does it affect your paycheck? Spoiler alert: The impact is substantial. Let’s dive into the salary trends for CISM professionals and discover how this certification can significantly enhance your earning potential. Why CISM? Before diving into the salary benefits, it’s essential to…

The Red Hat Certified Engineer credential remains one of the most respected certifications in the Linux and open source ecosystem, distinguishing professionals who can configure, automate, and manage enterprise Linux environments with genuine technical depth. Unlike many certifications that rely heavily on multiple choice questions, the RHCE exam takes a fully hands-on, performance-based approach, requiring candidates to complete real configuration tasks within a live environment under time pressure. This format demands not just theoretical knowledge but practical fluency with command line tools, automation frameworks, and system administration tasks that mirror…

There is no single “CEH salary” because Certified Ethical Hacker holders work in many different roles. EC-Council currently maps CEH to security administration, SOC analysis, cyber defense, incident response, vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, consulting, cloud security, threat hunting, application security, and other functions. Compensation follows the role, location, experience, industry, and scope of responsibility more than the certification title by itself. For U.S. context, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a May 2025 median annual wage of US$129,180 for information security analysts, with the lowest 10 percent below US$75,090 and…

The CISSP exam remains built around the eight-domain outline that ISC2 refreshed on April 15, 2024. That outline is still the current public exam framework in October 2026: 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. CISSP is broad by design. It validates the ability to reason across technical, managerial, governance, architecture, and operational security concerns rather than specialize deeply in one product or attack technique. The exam uses computer-adaptive…

ITIL training in 2026 should distinguish between new learners entering through ITIL Foundation (Version 5) and existing ITIL 4 holders who already have valid knowledge and credentials. Version 5 is not simply a slide-deck refresh; PeopleCert describes it as an evolution toward digital product and service management, AI-enabled environments, lifecycle thinking, and updated qualification paths. ITIL 4 remains available during the phased transition, and PeopleCert currently plans to sunset ITIL 4 modules on December 31, 2027. ITIL 4 holders can also use the optional Foundation Bridge (Version 5) to focus…

“GDPR certification” can mean two different things, and confusing them leads to weak exam preparation. Professionals can take third-party privacy credentials and training exams that test GDPR knowledge. Separately, the GDPR itself provides Article 42 and 43 mechanisms through which accredited bodies can certify processing operations or issue approved data-protection seals. There is no single EU-run professional exam that makes an individual universally “GDPR certified.” For career-focused study, the useful objective is therefore to understand the regulation well enough to solve scenarios: identify roles, determine lawful processing obligations, apply the…

The technology industry has undergone a fundamental transformation over the past decade, with data emerging as one of the most valuable assets any organization can possess. Companies across every sector are investing heavily in professionals who can collect, process, analyze, and extract meaningful insights from massive volumes of information. Google Cloud recognized this growing demand early and developed a certification program designed to validate the skills of professionals who build and manage data systems at scale. The Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer certification stands at the center of this ecosystem,…

Microsoft PL-600 and the Power Platform Solution Architect Expert certification retired on June 30, 2026. There is no current PL-600 exam to schedule, so a modern article should not present it as an active certification target. The solution-architecture skills behind it remain valuable, however, especially for professionals designing Power Platform and Dynamics 365 solutions. Keep the architect mindset, not the retired exam checklist The durable job is translating business goals into a solution that can be built, secured, operated, and changed safely. That requires requirements discovery, architecture decisions, data modeling,…

What is ISO Certification Anyway? What exactly is ISO Certification, you ask? Let’s dig a little deeper before we decide if it’s the magical cure-all it’s often hyped to be. ISO, or the International Organization for Standardization, is not about churning out rigid, one-size-fits-all directives. Instead, it’s about crafting frameworks that ensure products, services, and systems are safe, reliable, and of consistent quality. When a company earns ISO certification, it’s not just adding another trophy to the shelf. This certification demonstrates to customers, partners, and the regulatory community that the…

VMware Certified Technical Associate (VCTA) material still exists, but candidates starting in 2026 should not assume that VCTA is the center of Broadcom’s current VMware certification strategy. Broadcom’s current certification catalog emphasizes VMware Cloud Foundation career credentials at the VCP and VCAP levels, legacy VMware certifications, VCDX, and Application Networking & Security certifications. That does not make VCTA knowledge useless. It changes how you should evaluate the credential. The better question is whether a VCTA target is actively available for your technology area and whether it leads toward the current…