New Year, New Certs
With the New Year, we're embarking on several new certification exams. Development is currently underway on two security exams (a new version of CompTIA Security+ and CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner), CompTIA Storage+ powered by SNIA, and credentials around healthcare IT.
We all know how huge security is for the industry. CompTIA Security+ is the fastest growing exam in our history and continues to see growing demand from both the public and private sectors. (There are almost 160,000 CompTIA Security+ certified professionals worldwide!) The last revision was in 2008, thus it's time for an update of the exam content. Objectives are now available for this exam scheduled for a May 2011 release.
Development also is underway on CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP), our first entry into the world of advanced certifications. CASP is still a technical exam with a hands-on focus, but is intended to follow CompTIA Security+ or equivalent experience. The majority of the demand for CASP is coming from the government market, but there is a fit in the private sector as well. There are quite a few advance security certifications in the market, but these focus more on theory and management issues rather than implementation. Job roles suited to the new certification include titles such as security architect, information assurance manager, information systems security officer and security analyst. Look for this exam Q4 2011.
CompTIA Storage+ powered by SNIA (see press release) is the latest in the line of exams developed in partnership with other associations such as CompTIA Linux+ powered by LPI and CompTIA CTP+. This exam is designed to offer a foundation of knowledge for any storage professional seeking to validate expertise in the storage networking and information management areas. With the exponential growth in network storage and the regulatory drivers that require more data storage to be retained for longer periods of time, the industry needs qualified personnel to manage this data. Target candidates will have at least six months experience. A beta release of this new exam is scheduled for Q2 in 2011 with global availability in the second half of 2011.
We just completed the exam development workshop for the CompTIA Healthcare IT for EHR credential. The security and regulatory requirements for IT technicians working in the HIT/EMR setting are very different than in other IT environments, and technicians need to understand those issues. This exam will validate these skills. Watch for more information on this new credential very soon!
