Ideal IT Certification Hunt

Google announced that from June 1, 2010 on, IE6 will not be supported in Reader. From Match on, Google supported no IE6 Docs and Sites. Customers who login Docs and Sites through IE6 are unable to use some key functions of them.

Google also acclaimed that IE6 is not the only browser that they stop supporting. Currently, it does not support Firefox 1.0, Firefox 2.0, Safari 2.0, Safari 3.0, Chrome 1, Chrome 2, and Chrome 3. It is said that Google made this decision in hope of focus all his attention on improving Google Reader while not mend problems between Reader and some fossil browser.

It is understandable that Google say no to IE6. In February this year, Google said that it will withdraw support from Gears, a browser plug-in that enables users to visit Gmail off line.

A few days ago, Cisco said that it would sonly release a product which can bring revolutionary change to Internet. And the second day after the news was released, the stock price of Cisco rise. And now the revolutionary product of Cisco is launched into market.

AT & T Inc. said that they have already finished the testing for CRS-3 and the testing result shows that CRS-3 enables a much faster speed than the traditional one - about 10,000 times. No doubt, the newly released CRS-3 will do great help to the increasingly complex and heavy tasks on network database in the coming few years. The marketing price of CRS-3 in America is $90,000.

Few days ago, Google announced that it was considering withdrawing from Chinese market. And yesterday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Jiang Yu claimed the position of Chinese government on the issue. Jiang said that the internet in China is an open one and any internet service operator has a right to develop its legal business. Also, she emphasized that as any other countries in the world, Chinese government is against any hacker attacks and the managements adopted on Chinese internet service are in line with the general way used in the world.

Due to the withdrawing news issued by Google, the stock price of Google declined. It seems that the investors hold a negative opinion against the news. And most people believe that the withdrawing news is no more than a rumor and Google will not doing that.

The competitions among IT industry are always intense. And in 2009, the most attracting competition in IT industry is no doubt goes between Google and Microsoft.

In the operating system area, Google released its Chrome OS for notebook while Microsoft issued the Windows 7. As Chrome OS is based on cloud computing, it still unpredictable to say that whether Google will catch up with Microsoft in the OS field. At the same time, Windows 7 which is claimed to be started in 7 seconds is on market with its lofty tone.

In the Mobile operating system area, Google updated two versions of Android and was adapted by many mobile phone vendors. As to Microsoft, contrasted with the success on Windows 7 for PC, Windows Mobile 7 even didn't show up. They only issued the 6.5 version in token of compensation to those eager mobile phone users.

In the search engine area, there is no doubt that Google hold the trump card. Although Microsoft released its search engine Bing which performed beyond the expectation, it still can not wavering the leading position of Google in search engine area.

In browser area, Google has Chrome while Microsoft has IE8. To Chrome browser, 2009 is definitely a booming year as the development edition of Chrome has already been updated to version 4.0. As to IE8, it's complained that its name falls short of its reality and most of the parameters of which are no more than fake.


The last competition aspect between Microsoft and Google is the customers. Google offers a very low license fee and total cost to its customers. And as to the counterattack of Google's marketing strategy, Microsoft decided to reduce its license fee in case that they may choose Google apps.

The competition between these two giants will last for a long time. And competition is always a good thing no matter for software vendors or for customers. For vendors, in order to win the competition and occupy a bigger market share, they have to adopt the latest technology and reduce the cost. For customers, they can enjoy a better service as well as a favorable price.

The Christmas of 2009 was already passed. Then what exactly is the most popular gift in this season? According to a report given by Amazon, Kindle is the most popular one among all goods sold on Amazon this year as well as in the history of Christmas gift selling in Amazon.
In the day of Christmas, the sales volume of e-book in Amazon overtakes that of printed-books for the first time.

Kindle is designed by Robert Brunner who predicted that Kindle will change the way people read just as ipod does on music. There are many e-readers in market and the biggest share of the market is occupied by Sony Reader. As to Kindle, despite of the abundant resources it have, the main feature of Kindle is that it supports online purchase and subscribe.

It's really a shame for Microsoft that it was unveiled that the intellectual property right of 80% of the codes for MSN Juku - the micro blog service providing by MSN, in fact are hold by Plurk - a Taiwan micro blog service provider.

As a giant who always boost his valuing and protecting on intellectual property right, Microsoft has to adapt to his new role - infringer while not protector. Though Microsoft has already admitted his fault and apologized, there is still far before the issue to an end.

For years, Microsoft has built a great reputation among IT industry as well as users. However, when we look back of this year, it's easy to find that Microsoft had hit the headline for been sued for his infringements for many times.

As to this issue, Microsoft explained that the codes he used for MSN Juku are provided by his subcontractor. Though Microsoft failed in supervising the legality of the codes, it's not the initial motivation for Microsoft to plagiarize the codes.

Plurk showed astonishment on what Microsoft did to their codes. Its official announcement read: when you are good enough, people will imitate what you did. So sometimes imitation may be the most directive way to show one's admiration. However, it's terrible and a shame to copy on other's codes and page design, especially for such a well known corporation as Microsoft. Plurk also said that they may sue Microsoft for what they did.

RIM announced that it will cooperate with China Mobile - one of the biggest mobile solution operators in china, and release Blackberry in China. This is no doubt the fight back for Apple's promotion of iphone in China.

Though Blackberry wins great popularity in U.S., it seems that it attract less attentions than iphone among Chinese users. According to a survey by a well known Chinese social website, only 30% of the respondents prefer to use Blackberry while the rest are prefer to use iphone.

The main reason for this is the core service of Blackberry - mail receive and dispatch offend the taste of Chinese people. RIM locates the user of Blackberry in china are business people, and set a high spend standard, which will no doubt discourage some ordinary Blackberry fans. And as Chinese mobile operator provide excellent message service in low price for years, users get used to send messages while not mail to others. As for the target users of Blackberry in China, they are mainly middle manager around 40 years old who are much more prefer to use touch screen while not Qwerty keyboard mobile phone.

It seems that there will be a tough war between Blackberry and iphone in China. Let's look forward it.

Since the day when Google announced its operating system - Chrome OS on, it gains great concern from the internet users. It's said that comparing with other operating systems like Windows and Mac OS, there are five unique features of Chrome OS.

1. Chrome OS is an operating system as well as a browser which means if users install Chrome OS, they need not install any other browsers such as Firefox or IE.

2. Chrome OS can do self-regeneration. It will check the completeness of the code and restart and repair the destroyed codes.

3. All the application is based on web and need no installation. All Chrome OS applications need no installation as well.

4. As Chrome OS can't support hard disk, it can't operate in traditional laptop. Chrome OS is mainly used in Netbook.

5. Chrome OS can lead to a high startup speed. Google said that users need only wait for a few second after they start their netbook and hen enjoy surfing online.

1. DOS 4.0 (1988)
2. Ashton-Tate dBase IV (1988)
3. Polaris Packrat 5.0 (1993)
4. Microsoft Word 6.0 for Mac (1994)
5. Starfish Sidekick (1998)
6. Netscape 6 (2000)
7. Intuit TurboTax 2002 (2002)
8. PalmOne Treo 650 (2004)
9. Hotmail (2007)
10. iMovie 08 (2007)

1) Microsoft, the IT giant who insists on intellectual property rights, lost a lawsuit against Chinese Zhongyi Electronic Ltd.

In April, 2007, Zhongyi sued Microsoft for its usage on Zhongyi word stock with no previous consent gaining from Zhongyi Electronic Ltd. Zhongyi claimed that since 1998 on, Microsoft has paid nothing for its usage of Zhongyi word stock. In 16th Nov, the First Intermediate People's Court in Peking, China pronounced Microsoft's loss in the lawsuit. The following operate system are all to be judged as infringement:
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows XP (Home Edition)
Microsoft Windows XP (Profess-Edition)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Standard Edition)

2) Microsoft issued Office 2010 public testing edition which is downloadable on its official website. The public testing can only be taken in company while not at home.

Though Microsoft hammered away at the use for Office network version will not replace Office desktop version, the product will shock the office network software such as Docs and Zoho.

1. What's Cisco certification?
Cisco certification is released by a well-known network provider - Cisco. In Cisco Career Certification Program, Cisco request that there should be certified engineer in all Cisco agent so as to provide better service to clients as well as build a certification system for network engineer who is familiar to Cisco product.

2. Why for Cisco certification?
It's a global-known fact being an international talent will benefit both the individual and the company. To be an international talent, an international certification is no doubt the best passport. While among all certifications in market, Cisco certification which was released by the well-known network enterprise Cisco enjoys wild acceptance and great reputation.

3. How certification benefits the candidates?
a) Candidate who gains Cisco certification usually enjoys a favorable salary;
b) The certification owner can enjoy credit exemptions for associate professions.

4. Who need Cisco certification?
a) College graduate: facing fierce competition, college graduate can pale others in job hunting by processing a Cisco certification.
b) Individual who wants to change his profession: for people who want to enter into IT industry, Cisco certification is no doubt the best license to validate your capability for a job role.
c) Network Technician: for these people, Cisco certification enables them to ask for a higher position and better pay.

5. I don't have college experience or computer major background. Can I gain Cisco certification?
Of course you can, in fact there are great number of candidates who didn't have computer major background. Only if you own courage and capability in learning something new, you can pursue Cisco certification and there is great possibility for you to gain certification.

6. Despite a good pay, what other benefits can I enjoy if a gain Cisco certification?
a) Be list into talent pool;
b) Chances for attending Cisco Technical lecture class;
c) Gain competitive edge and become popular in big enterprises;
d) License enables you to immigrate or work abroad;
e) Gain trust from Cisco as well as client;
f) Gain technical support from Cisco;
g) Be allowed to put Cisco logo on your resume.

7) How much does CCIE certification cost?
Two exams, written exam and lab exam, are required for CCIE certification. The written exam costs $350 USD while the beta exams allow $50 USD discount. The lab exam costs $1400 USD. If candidates can't pass both the exam at their first try, it may cost more.

8) How can I recertify my CCSP certification?
CCSP certification is valid for three years. There are two paths available for candidates to recertify their CCSP certification. One is to pass any 642 exam which belongs to professional level certification; the other is to take and pass any CCIE written exam. Candidate should pay attention to that the two paths can be followed only when candidate processes a valid CCSP certification.

9) Can I take CCNP exam directly?
No, you can't. A valid CCNA certification can act as the prerequisite of CCNP exam.

10) What can I do after gaining CCNAcertification?
As we all know, CCNA certification is an associate level certification which validate the fundamental skills and knowledge of candidates'. CCNA certification enables candidate to pursue other higher level certifications, which means CCNA is just a springboard for candidate. After gaining CCNA certification, candidates can consider about pursuing other higher level certifications in Cisco certification system.

RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer, the most authoritative certification in Linux area, is also one of the most popular IT certification both in employers and employees. It validates to your potential employers that you process a certain skills in Linux area. Also, it satisfies your ask for a higher salary and position.

To a manager who is looking for IT professionals, people who have gained RHCE certification would be his first choice. Dislike any other certifications; there is no written exam but only lab exam for RHCE certification, which requires a high capability in individual and efficient working.

From May 1st, 2009 on, the exam time for RHCE certification has adopted to 3.5 hours from the previous two opinions of 2.5 hours and 3.0 hours. The modification no doubt increases the difficulty of the exam and thus increases the value of the certification.

A research on RHCE shows that:
1) The benefits bring by the certification is above and beyond the investment on your training and certification.
2) RHCE is a reliable standard for employ and promotion as well as occupational planning.
3) RHCE is one of the best measures for companies to improve the technical level of their employees.
4) RHCE enjoys a wide acceptance in the whole IT industry.
5) Candidates feel proud for their RHCE certification, special mark using right, and the T-shirt.

In the economic recession period, companies in almost all industries are trying to decrease the expenditure and there is no exception in IT industry. Some companies ask employees to reduce their salary while some ask employees to leave directly.

As I mentioned in the former article, there are many acquisition occur this year and an inevitable sequence of acquisition is lay off. Just a few days ago,Adobe, a US software company, announced that it is cutting 680 jobs, which means one in ten employees will be fired because of the economic crisis.

It seems that this winter will be doomed a cold winter. We hoped that the spring of 2010 will bring a warm wind to the economy.

It is the worst time as well as the best time now. And to Hewlett-Packard (HP), it's no doubt the latter one. On November 12, 2009, HP announced its acquisition plan on 3COM- a network system marker.

During the economic depression, growth of the most creative and prosperous industry as Information Technology is slow down. Some IT enterprises wander on the survival edge. Company pays much effort in increasing income and reducing expenditure - salary reduction and even lay off. However, at the same time, some enterprises take the advantage of the industry depression and buy other companies.

The acquisition war began with the symbolic event that Oracle issued its acquisition plan on Sun in April. From then on, acquisition news kept on hitting the headline of newspaper as well as websites, for example the competitive purchase of EMC and NetApp to Data Domain, Toshiba buys hard disk business of Fujisu. And now it's turn for HP.

Few months ago, Cisco released Unified Computing System and idea on Virtual Computing Environment alliance in purpose of data center transforming. And Cisco's announcement on its advance in server market remarks the relationship transformation from the former cooperative partner to forceful competitor.

Insiders of IT industry said the HP acquisition on 3Com is in accordance with expectation. The acquisition of HP is the second counterattack to its former cooperative partner - Cisco. The first counterattack would be HP released Converged Infrastructure Architecture which aimed at Cisco UCS.

Just as what Dave Donatelli, the vice executive officer of HP, said, HP is trying to balance the market which is now dominated by one network provider. After the acquisition on 3Com, HP will operate its data center solutions on 3Com network products which mainly compete with Cisco Nexus 7000.

As another competitor of Cisco, IBM still keeps in silence till now. It's an expectable fact that in the near future, IBM will take action and let's look forward it.

As I mentioned before, on the acquisition Oracle made on Sun, EU express its objection. Recently, EU issued an assessment in objecting the acquisition. The commission though the acquisition may lead to less competition in the industry as well as larger unemployed population.

To EU objection, Oracle insisted its former opinion that the acquisition will harm no party's benefit and it shows strong opposition to EU assessment.

Usually, numerable and detailed subjects are included in Oracle exam. Thus it requires strong practical skills for candidates. So in order to prepare well, candidates should pay much attention to the practice part.

On Oracle official website, there are several measures available for candidates. Candidates can take courses in Oracle College where instructor-led training and technology-based training are available. It's one of the best ways to prepare for your OCP certification. The courses can help you process a knowledge foundation and also gain suggestions on how to prepare for the exam.

For people who have a strong ability in self-study, they may learn by themselves. However, it requires high degreed self-discipline and insistence. Also, candidates can practice the Oracle theories in their dairy work and it's definitely the best way to memorize the knowledge.

During the preparation, candidates can download test content checklist to make sure that whether they comprehend all of the topics. Oracle updates the checklist now and then, so candidates should pay close attention to it.

The last measure for candidates to get ready for the exam is taking exam simulation tools that released by the third party. Now, there are too many available materials online that candidates should select it carefully.

No matter how difficult the exam is, the point is candidates should feel confidence about themselves and prepare the exam by working hard to bone.

Slashdot published a research that Windows 7 vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses. At first, the tester installed Windows 7 on a PC with no anti-virus protection. Then they threw ten virus samples on the PC to see what happened. The result is that User Access Control, the default configuration of Windows 7, stopped only one virus.

Honest to say, I feel a little upset when I saw the news. If Windows 7 is such a vulnerable OS, then why should I want to buy it? However, when I noted that the research was give by an anti-virus software provider, the result seemed less reliable. What's more, UAC is never been defined as an anti-virus software and no promotion of Windows 7 has showed that users need not to run anti-virus on this new OS.

We do things for reasons, so as choosing Linux certification. Now I'll tell you three reasons for choosing Linux certification.

Rocketing development
As we all know, Linux is an operation system with opened source code. As the openness and technology sophistication of Linux are coincident with users' need on right to know, it gains great popularity and enjoy a favorable reputation.
There are more than 8 million Linux users in the world, and more than 29% of the internet servers adopt Linux system. With the rocketing development of internet, Linux grows in sharpest speed. What's more, the insert mode system of Linux enables Linux becomes the most potential operation system. Thus, a Linux professional will have a promising future.

Badly needed talent
With the widespread of Linux, the talent, especially advanced talent on Linux, is badly needed. If you process Linux certification, for example the well-known RHCE certification or ThizLinux certification, then you'll prove to your manager your professional skill on Linux and justify your ask for a higher position or higher pay.

Low cost
Comparing with some other expensive certification exams, the cost of Linux certification is quite low. While the low cost may enjoy a high pay back. It's said that an experienced Linux designer enjoy a high salary level than windows system developer. Though it's not recommend that candidates choose a certification by its cost, it really an important factor, especially to the graduates.

Linux will not change your past, however, it may give you a bright future.

SCWCD exam is a 150 minutes exam which contains 50 questions. The passing score is 72%. Here I provide some tips for your SCWCD exam.

Usually for questions of SCWCD, rare compilation trap will be set up - this is quite different from SCJP. SCJP concerns much on the understanding on Java and designing of Java. Some codes seem right while not perfect. So in facing such questions, candidates should consider about the logical relationship between the codes.

The second tip for SCWCD is you should remember the modules, for example "request.getParameter". The fixed order should be memorized carefully and all the activities are done in a fixed container. You don't need to think about the reason for the using.

Also, for exam preparation, you should find a good book and understand all the topics. During which process, you can take exam simulation to practice and find your weak points which should made up later.

One thing candidates should bear in mind is that a thorough understanding is the guarantee for success in SCWCD.

With the greater and greater pressure in job market, many college graduates are thinking about achieving a certification. Just as an old saying reads: a good start is half success. However, it's never an easy job to find the suitable one for candidates. Weather your certification makes you unique and gain popularity in employers is quite important.

When you search on the internet, you will find that there are many people who process certification. However, does processing a certification equals to finding a good job? Certifications vary from each other, which mean candidates should choose the more valuable certification.

In choosing certification, candidates should first consider the influence of the certification. As we all know, there are numerable certifications available in market. It's impossible for a candidate to take every one of them due to one's limit energy, time and money. It's the best for candidates to choose a certification with wide affect while not the narrow one.

The second thing candidates should bear in mind in selecting certification is that to choose a certification with wide acceptance. It will do you good in job hunting. Also, you should consider the value a certification will bring to you in a company. A certification that only qualifies you to enter into a company or a certification that allows you gaining persistent promotion, which one will you choose? It's an obvious answer, isn't it?

Now, the certifications are mainly released by vendors. When mentioned about certification vendors, you may tell the name of some IT giant such as Microsoft, Cisco or IBM. Yes, these vendors released the many certifications on market. However, just because of the popularity of these certifications, the value of these certifications reduces, especially the mid-level certifications. Also, with the diversification development of technologies a company adopted, talent who processes more than one certification becomes more and more favorable to employers.

The last thing I want to mention is that certification is important, while practical skills are more important. No matter which certification you choose, you should process skills and know how to provide solutions for customers' requirements. thus you can maintain your job or even ask for a promotion.

Certifications change day by day, that's why candidates should aware of that changes and thus arrange the revision plan.
Here I provide a list on the retired certifications in November and new IBM certification in October, hoping to be useful for you.

Certifications are retired in 1st, Nov, 2009:
1) IBM Certified Specialist - IBM Storage Sales Version 9
2) IBM Certified Specialist - Systems Storage Sales for DS5000 v1
3) IBM Certified Specialist - Distributed Systems High Volume Sales v1
4) IBM Certified Specialist - Storage Sales for N Series Version 2

New certification available in October:
1) IBM Certified Specialist - System X Technical Principles V9
2) IBM Certified Deployment Professional - WebSphere Process Server V6.2
3) IBM Certified Administrator for SOA Solutions - WebSphere Precess Server V6.2

Cisco announced its intention in acquiring ScanSafe, who provides software-as-a-service web security solution to businesses. The initial motivation for Cisco to acquire ScanSafe is to build network security architecture with fewer borders. With the rocketing growing of web security market, Cisco's acquiring of ScanSafe will bring nymarable profit to him.

After the purchase of Sun, Oracle released Sun Oracle Database Machine which was said the first OLTP database machine in the world. This machine is a combination of Sun's hardware components & FlashFire technology and Oracle's software.

A person who has general knowledge on certification would know that the questions in tests are all choice questions. However, rare people considers about the initial motivation of this setting.

As we all know, certification validate candidates' capabilities and skills. A suitable testing manner would help vendors to select the qualified person.

Unlike analysis questions, choice questions are more objective which guarantee the fairness in score mark - here is the first reason.

Secondly, when doing choice question, candidates has to distinguish the right one from the wrong. If candidates know nothing or little about the topic, then it will be hard for them to select the right one. Luck will not besides them in doing every question.

What's more, choice question is a simulation for the knowledge and information in real life. For example, when a customer complain about a problems and also many information to you, you have to figure out the useful information and solve the problems with them just like what you do in choice question.

Despite of the fore mentioned, choice question simulates a working environment for candidates who have to clear the way, choose the right one and finally gain a favorable score.

Microsoft released their latest Operation System - Windows 7 on market recently. And to promote it, the advertisers figured out many ways, some are quite interesting. Here they come.

In Japan, Microsoft cooperates with BurgerKing and the later one put a new hamburger which named Whopper in market. The most unique feature of Whopper is that it contains 7 pieces of hamburg. What's more, if you are among the first 30 one to buy Whopper in a day, you can enjoy a special offer at 777 yen while the original price would be 1450 yen. It really funny that the number of the hamburg and the price all contain "7", echoing Windows "7". However, I wondered that does there have someone who can eat such a whopper?

Another interesting news associated with Windows 7 is that the first Windows café in the world was opened in Paris. Just as its name suggested, it's a café with a theme of Windows. Also, there are products of other brands, such as SONY, Kaspersky, etc.

Since the releasing of the news read Oracle purchases Sun, conflict arose.

For ordinary users of Sun, they are afraid of their SQL and the consistence as well as convenience in using soft of Sun. While to European Commission, whether the purchase counters anti-competitive rules or not is what they mainly concern. Needless to say to say IBM, the most predominant competitor of Oracle is not welcome the purchase.

EU investigation into Oracle takeover is due to end on 19th Jan, 2010. And Sun will cut 3,000 jobs till that time. It seems that Sun has to bear losses for a little more time.

To answer back all the doubts, Oracle insists that the purchase will benefit the both parties and promise that it will harms no rights of the Sun users.

Recently, the news on Tandberg keeps on appearing on the newspaper. After the acquisition by Cisco in 1st Oct, Tandberg announced that it signed a contact with the certification exam provider - Pearson VUE.

The contact is valid for a multiyear; and during this period, Pearson VUE will take the charge of the computer- based test providing for Tandberg certification exams.

Tandberg is a leading provider in high definition video conferencing and telepresence area. Signing the contact with Pearson VUE may bring numerable candidates to its certification exam.

Last month, Oracle dumped Prometric and chose Pearson VUE as its exam provider. Exact reason for the switch was not given. However, the frequency of the exam provider changing makes it normal news to public.

There are two main exam providers - Prometric and Pearson VUE. Prometric now is exam verdor for Microsoft, Dell, Oracle, and etc while Pearson VUE provides exam services for Cisco, CompTIA, and etc.

To candidates, what they concerned is whether the aforementioned switch may bring any inconvenience to them. As the cost and difficulty of the exams are settled by vendors while not exam providers, then what's the sense on such switching?

Various vendors provide various certifications. In order to make them globally available, vendors have to choose an exam provider with adequate examination halls which are distributed all around the world. Also, the ultimate goal for vendors releasing certification is to find qualified IT professionals and thus benefit themselves. So if a exam provider adopts the advanced technology in preventing cheat in certification exam and guarantee the truth of candidates' score, then it will gain preference of vendors. And in such a circumstance, more candidates pass the exam, more popularity and benefit the exam provider gain.

As the rocking development of IT certification, more and more people are considering achieving one. Some of the candidates want to find a short cut in their way to certification, and thus urged a new industry - certification materials providing, such as Pass4sure, Testking. Candidates who use such materials can easily gain the soul of the topic vendors required and pass the certification exam.

To such a phenomenon, exam providers hold quite an ambiguous attitude. For one hand, they hope that more candidates could pass the certification exam which will benefit them consequently. However, at the other hand, they are not that confidence about the quality of the materials and feel worried about whether candidates gain knowledge from the materials.
A golden role in marketing is demand explains presence. No matter whether the material providing is good or bad, at least it's reasonable. Candidates should clearly know their own goal and try all their best to achieve it.

A survey on IT certification recently released by About.com and it's obvious to notice a fact that IT certification now plays a more and more important role in job markets. Also, among all the sampled people, 80% of whom remarked "Yes" on the question whether they considered about achieving a certification.

It's said that the 2009 is the toughest year for the employees no matter in which industry. Even in such an innovative and energetic industry as Information Technology, people feel much pressure on maintaining their job and salary, let alone asking for a promotion or higher pay. And to prove his personal value to the company, people will consider about gaining an IT certification. This is just the topic today: candidates' point of view on certification.

Firstly, why do candidates want to achieve a certification? As mentioned in the former paragraph, the IT employees bear too much pressure on them and if they want to ask for a career development no matter in salary or position, they have to validate themselves. IT certification enjoys good reputation and world widely acceptance. Naturally, it's considered as the sharpest sword to chop down the brier in their road of career.

As for the new college graduates, the reason for pursuing certifications is more obvious - for becoming more competitive in job hunting and finally gain a ideal job. The disadvantage of the newly graduate is that they almost have no practical experience. And through the survey in About.com, experience is considered as more important than certification by the samples of the website, which means if the non-experienced graduates achieve no certification, they can hardly find a job in IT industry.

However, to say is always much easier than to do. Candidates face many problems or puzzles in their way to certification. They are primarily hindered by how to choose a suitable certification. Certifications vary in paths & areas as well as some of them are recommended to process experience. Almost half of the candidates acknowledge that they have met the requirement for two or more certifications which are similar to each other and there is no exception whether it's issued by a big company or not.

Apart from the ambiguous requirement of certification and the difficulty in choosing a suitable certification, there's also a pessimistic fact that certifications are costly and time consuming. Candidates have to work hard to bone in their exam preparation period which usually last for a long time. If the candidate pass the exam and achieve the certification, that would be a temporarily happy ending as the certification requires for recertifying a few year later. If candidate doesn't pass the exam, they waste time, energy and money. Then, only two roads can be taken in front of them: they give up and gain nothing come back; or they gamble more on certification and retest.

That explains the appearance of online certification materials providing. Some websites, e.g. pass4sure, are providing simulations and materials for IT certification candidates and gain much popularity. Candidates want to pass the certification in a short cut without spending too much energy and money. If the candidates use the materials as an assistant in test preparation, that would be good for his knowledge consolidation. However, if candidates fully depend on the question pool of the materials, then their certification would be cheaper and they will finally be found not qualified for the job.
World changes, people are trying all their best to adjust themselves to live in a better life. Certification is a useful tool for IT practitioners. However, challenges are always beside the opportunity. It's hoped that all candidates could achieve success in their certifying road.

After the biggest update releasing in June 2009, Microsoft is planning to issue its biggest ever security update today. Eight of the total 13 bulletins are rated as the most serious sort of vulnerability, which includes Windows, Internet Explorer and some element of Office. The FTP (File Transfer Protocol), one of the loopholes, is said to be attacked by some hi-tech criminals. The new version of Microsoft's operating system is due to come in 22nd Oct.

Explosive news is on between Oracle and Sun. Oracle announced in its official website that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Sun Microsystems. And as soon as the news released, there appeared many questions on the acquirement. Customers and partners are worried about the blemish on their own benefits and to comfort the upset, Oracle gives a statement on the questions that were frequently asked and ensured that until the deal closes each company will continue to operate independently and it is business as usual. After the finish of the acquirement, the customers will be transacted into the catalog of Oracle. Additionally, Oracle lists several benefits that will bring to the customers and partners and said that it will provide simple, flexible and effective services to all customers.

000-528 is the test for IBM Certified Advanced Application Developer - WebSphere ILOG JRules6.x. The test lasts for an hour during which candidates should get 68% right of the total 100 questions.

000-667 is the required test for IBM Certified SOA Designer, IBM Certified Administrator for SOA Solutions - WebSphere Process Server V6.1, and IBM Certified Administrator for SOA Solutions - WebSphere Process Server V6.2. 60 questions are included in the 150 minutes test and 55% would be the passing score of it.

000-669 is associated with IBM Certified SOA Associate, IBM Certified Administrator for SOA Solution - Web Sphere Process Server V6.1, and IBM Certified Administrator for SOA Solution - Web Sphere Process Server V6.2. 67% of the total 54 questions should be passed in one and a half hour so as to achieve the certification.

COG-200 is associated with IBM Certified Developer - Cognos 8 Controller. The test cost 2 hours and candidates should get 65% right of 94 questions which covers key concepts, technologies, and functionality of the Cognos products.
COG-205 is the required test for IBM Certified Specialist - Cognos 8 Controller. Candidates should finish 47 questions in an hour and get at least 72% of them right so as to achieve the certification.

COG-300 is associated with IBM Certified Specialist - Cognos TMI Data Analysis. The total number of the questions is 42 and candidates should get 76% of them right in an hour.

COG-310 is connected with IBM Certified Developer - Cognos TM1. Candidates should finish 63 questions in one and a half hour and the passing score would be 73%.

COG-400 is the required test for IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 Planning and IBM Certified Solution Designer - Cognos 8 Planning. Candidates should accompalish 90 questions in two hours and the passing score would be 73%.

COG-480 is the test for IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 Planing. 57 questions should be finished in an hour and candidates should gain at least 75% to pass the exam.

COG-105 is the test for IBM Certified Solution - Cognos 8 BI and IBM Certified Specialist - Cognos 8 BI. The test contains 56 questions which should be finished in 60 minutes and get at least 64% of them right so as to pass the exam.

COG-112 is the test for IBM Certified Designer - Cognos 8 BI Reports and IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 BI. The test totally cost an hour and candidates should get the passing score of 74% in all 50 questions.

COG-122 is associated with IBM Certified Administrator - Cognos 8 BI and IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 BI. In the test of an hour, candidates should finish 47 questions and get the passing score at 78%.

COG-125 is for IBM Certified Developer - Cognos 8 BI Data Warehouses and IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 BI. To achieve this certification, candidates should get at least 78% right of the 84 questions in one and half hour.

COG-132 is the test for IBM Certified Deloper Cognos 8 BI Metadata Models and IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 BI. In the testing time of an hour, candidates should take 53 questions and get at least 71% score.

COG-135 is associated with IBM Certified Developer -Cognos 8 BI OLAP Models and IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 BI. The test cost one hour and a half. During this time, candidates should take 65 questions and get the score no less than 76%.

COG-142 is the required test of IBM Certified Developer - Cognos 8 BI Scorecards and IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 BI. Candidates have to take 75 questions in one and a half hours and gain at least 66% to pass it.

COG-145 should be passed if candidates want to achieve IBM Certified Designer - Cognos 8 BI Multidimensional Reports and IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognog 8 BI. During the test time of an hour, candidates should take 57 questions and get 75% of them right.

COG-180 is associated with IBM Certified Solution Expert - Cognos 8 BI. The test cost an hour and during this time, candidates should finish 66 questions and get 71% of which right.

I bet you know the IBM advertisement which says that they can build a smart planet. The world changes, so people should adjust themselves so as to follow the changing steps of the world. That's why you need a certification.

As I mentioned IBM Ads here, I'd like to say something about IBM certification. There are mainly four categories of IBM certifications - software, hardware, services and other.

Seven certifications series are included in software: IBM Cognos & IBM Information Management, IBM Lotus, IBM Rational, IBM Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), IBM Tivoli Software, IBM WebSphere and XML. Five certification paths are in hardware category: Dynamic Infrastructure, IBM Power Systems, IBM System Storage and Total Storage, IBM System x, and IBM System z. Only one certification is included in services path - IBM Internet Security Systems. In Other category, there are six certifications: Advanced Manufacturing Science, IBM Infrastructure Systems Architect, Innovation enabled by On Demand Business, IBM Learning, PL/I, and Retail Store Solutions.

Detailed knowledge of each certification will be given later, please look forward it.

It was really funny: Jack said that I'm a fake geek, I know little about IT industry, but strangely I spare almost all my spare time on searching anything connect with IT, no matter the new technology or certification. I nodded with his opinion; I just want to be a big fan of IT while not a expert.

I'm in fancy of IT because it's really amazing that people just put some code together while the computer knows what to do next. It symbolized the advanced knowledge super intelligence of human.

And if one want to enter into the IT industry, then a certification which validates one's certain skills and knowledge would be a prerequisite. However, there are numerable types of certification on market and almost every vendor trumpet the benefits of the certification they provide. One should be careful in choosing a suitable certification as once you decide, you have to pay effort and money on it.

I think firstly, one should know exactly his goal and position - this is the golden rule not only in choosing certification but in doing everything. In this rule, I mean one should classify the paths he wants to follow. Is it network, security, or routing & switching? Apart from this, one should value himself to see whether he is qualified for the certification he chooses. Never try to pursue the certification that beyond your ability as your attempt on it will be proved in vain eventually.

Also, one should consider about his career development, especially for those freshmen who just graduate from colleague. For example, one should definitely choose Microsoft certification if he want to work in Microsoft or companies that applied Microsoft technologies.

Once one make the final decision on which certification to pursue, then he'd better put every effort on it. Certification preparation requires plenty of time and energy as well as money. Candidates should pick up materials carefully as a good material would cut off your preparation time and vice versa. Visiting certification forum occasionally may give candidates some hints in choosing exam materials.

Then if getting fully prepared, one can go to register the exam and take the exam. There is never too much careful in this part. And wish everyone good luck in exam.

I took a serious look at the detailed knowledge of CompTIA and find it quite different from any other certification vendors. The full name of CompTIA is Computing Technology Industry Association. It is the most powerful association in IT industry and more neutral when compared with other vendors. The corporation members includes the most powerful companies in IT industry, like Microsoft, Cisco, and IBM etc.