Professional certification (Computer technology)

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A Professional certification in the Computer technology field is a designation earned by a person to assure that he/she is qualified to perform a job or task.

Certifications, generally, need to be renewed periodically, or may be valid for a specific period of time (e.g. the life-time of the product upon which the individual is certified). As a part of a complete renewal of an individual's certification, it is common for the individual to show evidence of continual learning — often termed continuing education — or earning continuing education units (CEU).

Certification is often used in the professions of software engineering and information technology.

The most successful certification programs are oriented toward specific technologies, and are managed by the vendors of these technologies. These certification programs are tailored to the institutions that would employ people who use these technologies. (Vendor Specific Certifications)

Apple Inc. sponsors the Apple certification program [1]
Cisco Systems sponsors the Cisco Career Certifications program
Citrix Systems sponsors the Citrix Certified Administrator program
Hewlett-Packard sponsor the HP-CP certifications related to HP Technologies [2]
Dell sponsors the Dell Certified Systems Expert program with Associate and Master levels [3]
IBM sponsors certifications [4]
Juniper Networks sponsors the Juniper Networks Technical Certification Program [5]
LANDesk sponsors the Certified LANDesk Administrator and Certified LANDesk Engineer program
Microsoft Corporation sponsors the Microsoft Certified Professional program
MySQL sponsors a certification program [6]
Nortel sponsors the Nortel Certifications program
Novell sponsors a certification program
Object Management Group sponsors the Certified Professional program for the Unified Modeling Language
Oracle Corporation sponsors the Oracle Certification Program
Red Hat sponsors the Red Hat Certification Program
Sun Microsystems sponsors the Sun Certified Professional program
Sybase sponsors the Certified Sybase Professional program
Zend Technologies sponsors the Zend Certified Engineer program

Third-party commercial organizations and vendor neutral interest groups that sponsor certifications include:

The BSD Certification Group Inc. A non-profit organization committed to creating and maintaining a global certification standard for system administration on BSD based operating systems.
Basic Computer Literacy Certification
XML Certification Program - XML Master
eCertifications
Certiport sponsors the Microsoft Office Specialist and IC3 certification (Internet and Computing Core).
CompTIA
European Computer Driving License-Foundation sponsors the European Computer Driving Licence (also called International Computer Driving Licence) (ICDL)
ExpertRating
International ICT Council
ISC2 sponsors the CISSP security certification
Linux Professional Institute
NACSE (National Association of Communication Systems Engineers) sponsors 36 Vendor Neutral, knowledge specific, Certifications covering the 5 major IT Disiplines which are: Data Networking, Telecomm, Web Design & Development, Programming & Business Skills for IT Professionals.
Planet3 Wireless sponsors the Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) certification [7]
Prosoft Learning Corporation offers CIW, CCNT, CTP, AssessPrep certification tracks. Prosoft Learning
SAGE (organization) sponsors the cSAGE program
SANS Institute operates the Global Information Assurance Certification program
Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) sponsors the SNIA Certification Program[8]

General certification of software practitioners has struggled. The ACM had a professional certification program in the early 1980s, which was discontinued due to lack of interest. Today, the IEEE is certifying software professionals, but only about 500 people have passed the exam by March 2005.

The IEEE Computer Society sponsors the Certified Software Development Professional as well as membership designations, "Senior" and "Fellow" which reflect experience and peer review qualification.
The IET sponsors the Chartered Engineer and Incorporated Engineer, which can be ratified into the European Engineer^{[citation needed]}
The BCS sponsors the Chartered IT Professional (CITP) programme.
The Institute for the Certification of Computing Professionals sponsors the Certified Computing Professional (CCP) and Associate Computing Professional (ACP) certifications
The BDPA IT Institute sponsors the BDPA IT Associate (BITA), the BDPA IT Professional (BITP), and the BDPA IT Master (BITM) certifications
The Canadian Information Processing Society sponsors the Information Systems Professional certification in Canada.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants sponsors the Certified Information Technology Professional program.

[edit] Information systems security

In an information systems environment that requires formal security accreditation, Certification refers to the comprehensive evaluation of the technical and non-technical security features of an information system.

Certification is formally defined by Krutz and Vines as:

“

The comprehensive evaluation of the technical and non-technical security features of an information system and the other safeguards, which are created in support of the accreditation process to establish the extent to which a particular design and implementation meets the set of specified security requirements.

”

[edit] Criticisms

See also: Controversies over the term Engineer

The current proliferation of IT certifications (both offered and attained)^{[citation needed]} has led some technologists to question their value. Proprietary content that has been distributed on the Internet allows some to gain credentials without the implied depth or breadth of expertise. Certifying agencies have responded in various ways: some now incorporate hands-on elements, anti-cheating methodologies or have expanded their content. Others have expired and restructured their certificate programs, and/or raised their fees to deter abuse.