The whole SQL world is an interesting place, part Database Admin, part Developer, and part system administrator all rolled into one neat package. Well, knowing some of them, maybe not so neat. Theirs is a difficult world because of the different areas they must master – back up the database, write cleaner and more efficient and secure code, come up with new queries, study for the new SQL 2012 exams coming out in June (oops, didn’t want to slip that in too soon).

2011 was a remarkable year, what with the extraordinary weather patterns, more than the usual worldwide political turmoil, and national apprehension over the delicate state of our economy. During times like these, people tend to increase their need to communicate, to give and get information, to reach out to their friends, family, community, and the world. It’s all about information flow. As 2012 begins, my predictions for technology are all about communication and the information stream. Technology in 2012 and beyond will significantly shift and enhance the exchange of information for people and for enterprise organizations.

As IT Professionals, we’ve seen technology change very rapidly over the past 10 years. We’ve managed to keep pace and learn new skills on the job or through training courses. What might surprise you are the skills that high school kids possess today. Here is a look at some skills that many high school kid have — do you?

When most people hear the word “Certification”, dollar signs immediately begin dancing in their heads. While some certifications do command a higher salary, this isn’t true for all. With the recent completion of our annual IT Skills and Salary report, I thought it would be a great time to look at some of the more popular certifications — and their associated pay.

One interesting facet of the IT industry is the need to learn new skills on a continual basis. New technologies are released all the time, and new operating systems seem to roll off the factory floor every 18 months or so. What this means for us IT professionals is we must continuously update our skills or become redundant. What are outdated skills? Some skills have been in continuous use for over 50 years (COBOL programmers) and will still be in demand for the short term, but their days are numbered. Others are hard to think of as just a pure IT skill (typing) but do have a dramatic impact overall (texting or IM).

During the economic downturn, many American companies saw months of staff reductions through layoffs and delays in hiring replacement workers for those who have retired or left the company. Many companies held off performing upgrades to their current systems or delayed implementing new systems altogether. The good news is that the IT economic doldrums seems […]

At one point, Microsoft and the Help Desk Institute (www​.ThinkHDI​.com) had combined forces to develop and deliver the MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician 7 certification.  The MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician 7 was developed to identify quality help desk support professionals who had deep technical expertise (validated by Microsoft) and also possessed strong customer service skills […]

Now here is something very cool from the Microsoft Learning  –  Virtual Business Card.  Now what, may you ask is a Virtual Business Card?  They are a tool that you can use to create, customize, and share your credentials online in a visually striking manner. Everyone who has an MCP or MCT profile can now create their […]

Here is an interesting MCTS certification  –  High Performance Computing  —  Development.  You can earn this certification by simply passing the 70-691TS: Windows HPC Server 2008, Developing, exam.  If you are interested in this exam, you should have a minimum of three or more years of experience developing Windows-based high performance computing software for systems such as Windows Compute […]

How to prepare and study for the 70  –  680 exam….lots of hard work.  Ok, that wasn’t that helpful  –  but it is true!  Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are available for download  –  you will need them (or at least Windows Server 2008 if you do not have a 64 bit system handy to run Hyper-V if you […]