Top Certification Vendors

When you are a career-oriented person, one of the most important goals for you is developing new skills and staying updated with the current market trends. The IT industry is very competitive nowadays because organizations not just need the best solutions and services but also the most experienced workforce. This means that the professionals have to adapt their abilities and enroll in different certification programs to upscale their knowledge.

Are you curious to find which are the most popular vendors that offer valuable certificates for IT specialists who want to become aware of the latest technologies and products? Go on reading to clarify this dilemma and find out more about the accreditation paths offered by Microsoft, CompTIA, and Cisco.

Microsoft Certification Program

Microsoft is among the most recognized international vendors that offer certifications for different categories of IT professionals. You don’t need to have advanced experience in using Microsoft services and tools if you want to get one of its certificates and can even start from scratch. For this purpose, the company provides fundamental-level accreditations to help you create a knowledge base and continue leveraging your skills until you achieve the expert level. The spheres one can choose from include Azure, Dynamics 365, Visual Studio, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and others.

By adding the Microsoft certification under your belt, you demonstrate solid evidence to any recruiter that your understanding of the concepts of some particular IT field has been validated by one of the best trainers in the world. According to the vendor’s research, 91% of those who have obtained Microsoft certificates have gained more professional credibility. Also, more than half of these specialists have realized that they are more sought by their colleagues for advice. Finally, 93% of the certified specialists ensured that such accreditation adds value to them.

Microsoft offers three levels of the certification track. The Fundamental certificates are recommended for beginners. These include Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals or Microsoft 365 Certified: Fundamentals, among the rest. Earning any of them is beneficial for those who want to make a career change and start their journey related to Microsoft’s tools and services. The second level is Associate and verifies more improved skills. For example, here one can opt for Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate or acquire Microsoft Certified: Power Platform App Maker Associate, to name just a few. Also, one can explore the vendor’s expert-level and specialty certificates. Note that most of them are role-based, making one ready to serve as an administrator, security engineer, developer, data analyst, and many more. Still, there are some accreditations dedicated to certain products such as SQL Server and others.

Cisco Certification Program

The Cisco certification program helps professionals to get prepared for any job requirements in the networking area. One’s path can start with the entry-level CCT certificate or associate accreditations like CCNA, DevNet Associate, and CyberOps Associate. These ones help the candidates shape their skills so that they understand more about the latest technologies and expand their careers.

The Specialist-type certifications focus on helping the applicants learn more about managing business architecture, working with collaboration tools, achieving customer success, and managing data center features, among the rest. Note that neither associate nor specialist certificates are mandatory prerequisites for obtaining those of the Professional level. Under this category, one can opt for DevNet Professional or CCNP Enterprise, Collaboration, and Data Center accreditations, to name a few.

The fifth path is represented by Expert level. The certifications included in it are recognized worldwide. So, the individuals can choose to obtain CCDE, CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure, or CCIE Security, among others. Finally, the ultimate stage of accreditation is Architect. This is the maximum level that one can achieve and become an expert who knows how to properly design networks.

CompTIA Certifications

Unlike Microsoft and Cisco, CompTIA offers vendor-neutral certifications that allow you to find a job in any company worldwide and work with various technologies. As for the CompTIA certification program, it includes four levels that take the professionals through different stages to strengthen their skills. Therefore, they vary from entry level to the expert one, each of them having certain particularities.

When they are just starting out, individuals can go for Core certificates. Therefore, they will get the fundamental knowledge of the field as well as understand the basics of using CompTIA products and their features. For example, they will learn about networking, operating systems, hardware, and many others. The options under this track include CompTIA IT Fundamentals (ITF+), A+, Network+, and Security+. These are the initial steps for building a successful career in IT.

The Infrastructure certification pathway focuses on helping the candidates know which are the best IT processes that they can implement in their business. Therefore, thanks to these certificates, they will be able to manage and support network operations and data centers. Those interested in choosing this track can opt for CompTIA Cloud+, Server+, and Linux+ accreditations. Through them, one will validate skills in managing and deploying IT infrastructure and will be prepared to assume various roles that require these abilities in international organizations.

The third certification path is Cybersecurity. Considering that the number of cyberattacks affecting businesses from different sectors is constantly growing together with the number of devices connected to a program at the same time, companies need skilled professionals who have validated skills in the IS area. Therefore, getting the CompTIA certification dedicated to this field and becoming a cybersecurity specialist can be a smart choice to get hands-on abilities of addressing security issues and incidents. For example, professionals can take exams for CompTIA PenTest+, CASP+, and CySA+.

The vendor also offers some Additional Professional certificates that relate to training and project management. In case you have such interest, you can choose the CompTIA Project+, CTT+, or Cloud Essentials+ accreditations. Therefore, you will gain the necessary skills to advance in your career and become a valuable employee.

Conclusion

All the three mentioned vendors offer certifications that leverage the individuals’ skills and help them get some of the most well-paid jobs in the world. The majority of international organizations use products and services delivered by these companies. Therefore, they need seasoned professionals who know how to manage, deploy, and troubleshoot these solutions to improve their processes’ performance and secure business continuity.