Of all the I.T. sectors dominating the modern world stage, this area is one of the largest and most encompassing. With so many complicated skills to embrace, a certain amount of specialisation is really the only realistic answer. Cisco and Microsoft are essentially the 2 leading businesses who rule this particular field. The software side of Networking is MS's focus, & the hard-ware side (routers, controllers and data switches etc.) is where Cisco primarily works. Security has grown to be a huge concern recently, which has forced both corporations to move into the sector in a big way. Another fast-growing area within this sector is wireless-connectivity & devices. And next we have Hacking (legitimately) and Digital Forensics : both of which are complex and highly specialist disciplines in their own right, & take a great deal of working experience and knowledge.

'CompTIA' (the Computing Technology Industry Association) is a world-wide business that right now offers some of the most reputed vendor-neutral accreditation paths available. In addition there are various other establishments, including the 'ISC2' (abbreviated from their somewhat long winded: 'International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium'!) & 'CWNP' (Certified Wireless Network Professional). Naturally Microsoft and Cisco provide a comprehensive range of professional level accreditations. The options may well be a bit over-whelming, and so we advise you to tread cautiously and go through all of your options with an expert who knows the process well. You could save a great deal of time & money, not to mention annoyance & discouragement.

We now have wider alternatives in addition to Cisco and Microsoft when it comes to becoming trained within these disciplines. Actually, there's a wide range of certification that is presented by very respected independent establishments -- & this is becoming more and more important. The need for grasping converging technologies & inter-connectivity in networks is now very well understood. Networking is in actual fact going through some significant paradigm shifts at the moment; thoughts generally are leaning toward 'greener' I.T., & both processing power and data storage are switching towards 'cloud' computing. Green I.T. doesn't specifically indicate environmentally-friendly -- it does of course have many elements designed to minimise the carbon dioxide impact etc., but its also strongly installed in the economic reality of cost reduction. The actual processing-power in modern computer systems is lower, which means there's much less heat to be cooled down. These two things together vastly lower the energy expenditure, and so impact upon a business' bottom line -- in particular in data centres & high-volume processing areas.

There are a number of speciality MCSE's from MS, that offer subjects such as Security or Messaging if that's the path you want. You could possibly decide to go for Security+ with 'CompTIA', followed by the 'Certified Information Systems Security Professional' ('CISSP'). Before you choose this route though you need to be aware about the level of work experience necessary for the CISSP. As always, we recommend talking with an experienced industry advisor in order to avoid any mistakes.

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