Preparation and examination for a Microsoft certification is the assured method of being a genuine Microsoft solutions professional. In the fairly distant past, the most recognized and sought-after Microsoft certification was the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (M.C.S.E.).

Well as time has passed, Microsoft no longer offers the M.C.S.E for its newest products. The M.C.S.E. only pertains to their 2003 server product line. Microsoft offers new certifications for all of their current product lines. Newer certifications, for example, Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (M.C.I.T.P.), Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (M.C.T.S.), Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (M.C.D.S.T.), Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (M.C.S.A.) and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (M.C.D.B.A.), fulfill most of the major IT scope. Other certifications focus on niche cases.

So, while M.C.S.E has been the best known certification that Microsoft offers, many more current certifications will solidify your Microsoft products knowledge. You can work your way to becoming a Microsoft Certified Architect, or even a Microsoft Certified Master! In Microsoft’s own words: “Microsoft Certification helps validate the skills you use every day. It helps you improve your technology problem-solving skills and your performance on the job. Go ahead. Strive for the rewards, respect, and recognition you deserve. Become a Microsoft Certified Professional!”

VMware Certified Professional (VCP) The VCP is the base certification for VMware. The core competencies for this class are to install, manage, and deploy a VMware system. Unless you are already a VCP or have other certified VMware trainings, you will need to take one of 3 five-day courses before you can take the VCP exam.

VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) The VCDX is the highest level certification. Once you have a VCP certification, you can then request a review of your VMware knowledge and experience. If you qualify, you will then be permitted to take both an Administration and a Design exam. Passing those exams then allows you to prepare and submit an implementation plan, at which you will defend during a later interview. If you can jump through all these hoops (without falling), VMware will bestow upon you this certification.

VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) The newest of VMware’s certifications, VCAP is designed to be an intermediate level certification. The certification process of the VCDX is thorough, and the VCAP was created to fill the void of the VMware professionals that were not quite ready to attempt a VCDX certification, but certainly have the experience and training far above that of which is required for the VCP. A VCAP offers either an Administration or Design test, and your certification will reflect your specialty based on which of these tests you choose to take and pass.

For more information, head on over to: http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/

Linux There are various Linux certifications available, which makes choosing the right certification difficult. You could get a distribution/commercial level certification, i.e. from Ubuntu, Redhat, Novell, etc. However, these certifications could limit your career options if a job opportunity comes up utilizing a different distribution from what you are certified in. Therefore, a more general Linux certification would be ideal, and the Linux Professional Institute supplies this. In fact, this institute provides some of the same certifications listed above on behalf of those organizations, but also supplies their own tiered certification system. Depending on your career goals, you can choose one of three certification levels to aim for, but for the purposes of a LAMP developer, Level 2 is recommended. Cost: ($160 per exam ~ approximately $640)

Apache There is no official or widely accepted Apache certification. Therefore, obtaining a Level 2 LPI Certification will give you the proper background for Apache. Most of the objectives of the second exam in Level 2 of the LPIC revolve around Apache operation and configuration, and thus will properly certify that you know Apache. Cost: ($0 – Included in LPIC)

MySQL There are multiple options for MySQL certification. You can get one of four Sun Certified MySQL accreditations from Oracle. This is as simple as an Associate Certification, meaning you are familiar with basic operations of MySQL, to a Cluster DBA Certification, meaning you can build, administer, and maintain large cluster databases. In between these two levels are the Developer and regular DBA options, which is one of the certifications you should aim for if you are seeking a career strictly as a LAMP Developer. Cost: ($195 per exam ~ approximately $390)

PHP Lastly, there is PHP. Zend is the industry leader in PHP, and thus you should seek your PHP certification from them. Cost: (approximately $160)

Keep in mind there are other great LAMP related certifications out there, but that this mix is a good recommendation if you are building your career in LAMP Development. Let me know in the comments if you think I’ve missed a crucial certification.

The certifications we’ll cover today often contain the terms “ethical hacker” or “penetration tester.” This simply means that the holder of such a certification should be able to test systems for vulnerabilities and then fix or mitigate the impact of any security holes that are discovered.

The Certified Ethical Hacker C|EH certification is probably the most well known of the exams we’ll cover today. This certification even has its own government approved version, the Certified Network Defense Architect C|NDA. No doubt, the word “hacker” was a bit too scary for some government folks and so they had to have an alternatively named version. Comments by some computer security professionals didn’t help either. Marcus Ranum said, “There’s no such thing as an ‘ethical hacker’ – that’s like saying ‘ethical rapist’ – it’s a contradiction in terms.” The other term commonly used, “Penetration Tester” obviously did not appeal to the government either. The C|NDA is only available to members of certain government agencies. The C|EH certification, however, is available to anyone who meets certain criteria, either having completed 67 modules of coursework or by submitting proof of 2 years of relevant information security work experience. The exam lasts 4 hours for 150 multiple choice questions for a fee of $250. When considering this certification beware its reputation among some in the security crowd as the aforementioned professional noted. However, know that companies do not seem to mind the term “hacker” even though it is often wrongly used by the news media to mean “computer criminal.”

Another security certification available is the Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers Certified Consultant. This is a very well respected certification. CREST bills themselves as a professional body and trade association with a mission to represent the information security testing industry. However, the certification has varying prices only listed in British pounds on their website. The fees include training courses that must be taken before the exam. So if you live in Great Britain this might be an option, otherwise you might decide to pass on this one.

The Mile2 Organization offers the Certified Penetration Testing Engineer (CPTE) certification. This certification is much like the other two in that it covers similar material. It costs $2,695 to take the required coursework and the exam. The exam is only 100 questions. Two hours and 40 minutes are given to take the exam.

Lastly, there is the Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP). This certification is offered by the group that created one of the most famous Linux Live CD’s for security testing, the Backtrack Penetration Testing http://www.backtrack-linux.org distribution. Backtrack was one of the first security testing Linux Live CD’s that offered the Metasploit Framework, one of the most powerful security testing tools available. This certification is the only one that actually requires proof of real penetration testing skills by demonstration in a lab environment. While a very new certification, the OSCP is certainly the most interesting of them all.

Well that’s all of the certifications that are specifically targeted at security. There are a few others, like the Cisco CCNA for example, that are often viewed as viable networking and security certifications, but they cover much more than just security. With more and more software vulnerabilities found every day, now is as good a time as any to get certified in computer security.

The one I’m sure everyone’s heard of, the CompTIA Security+ is well known but often thought of as the easiest to obtain. As of today, the exam costs $258 to take. Passing the exam requires a score of 560 on a scale of 100-900. This exam recommends having two years of networking with a focus on security. Exams taken/passed after January 1, 2011 will expire after three years. Exams taken/passed before this date will remain “lifetime certifications.”

An organization even older than CompTIA, called the Information Systems Audit and Control Association offers the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certification. This certification is US Department of Defense approved. While more targeted towards auditors, a well trained auditor can find security issues that users and management would never think of. The exam gives 4 hours to answer 200 questions. A score of 450 is required to pass on a scale of 200 to 800. The exam can cost anywhere from $345 to $575 depending on various factors. The certification requires a minimum of 5 years experience of professional Information Security auditing.

Likely to be the second most well known and certainly the most internationally known, is the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) created by the non-profit International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)². This certification has 250 multiple choice questions, six hours to take the exam, requires a score of 700 or greater for passing, and costs $450 if you register early enough. Late registrations raise the price to $599. Five years of professional experience is also required for this certification. The CISSP is only valid for three years and much be renewed after that. While the CISSP covers a broad range of subject matter, it has been criticized as doing only that and not really covering any subject matter in depth. Even so, CISSP professionals salaries are known to be often in excess of $100,000 a year.

If you’ve ever heard of the SANS Institute then you might have heard of the certification entity they oversee called the Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC). The certifications are linked to the training that SANS provides while focusing on vendor-neural security techniques to keep ahead of the “black hats.” Nearly two dozen certifications focusing on security, auditing, management, operations, and secure coding are offered by GIAC. The secure coding exams range from 50 to 100 questions for $349. All other exams, except the GSE, are $899. GIAC certifications are Internationally renowned as it is believed by many that anyone who has a GIAC certification really knows the subject matter extensively.

In Part II of this article I’ll cover some of the more obscure exams like the Certified Ethical Hacker exam. Until then, stay tuned.

LPI has a wealth of informative information on their website.

• Procedure for taking exams
• Detailed Objectives and Sample questions for the LPIC-1 exam

And if thats not enough there are many free resources out there, here are just a few:

• Wikibook on the LPI Certification
• IBM LPI exam prep
• O’Riley’s LPI Certification in a Nutshell, Second Edition
• A Practice Test Part 1 Part 2
• Free LPI Training Manuals

There are also several companies who offer exam prep materials at a cost:

• TestKing
• Apex Web Media
• Actual Tests

The free resources are recommended as they cover just about everything. With these resources anyone can study for the LPI LPIC-1 exam and then take the exam for $160. In todays rough job market this could be the thing that gets a foot in the door where a resume without might not.

So, why wait, go get the LPIC-1 now!

I agree with Bigelow on the matter of evolution, but not so much on the economical standing of businesses. It seems to me that credentials would be even more important when the economy is down. Making a huge investment, like hiring an IT professional would require more proof when making hire than ever before.

The current standing of IT certification has become so diluted with various sectors, you could spend more time than needed just to be ‘certified’ in a long line of areas. Many times the fields an IT professional will become certified in don’t necessarily pertain to the job they’re seeking. Therefore, the mindset is – why bother with certain certifications if they won’t even help land a job?

Even with all the problems surrounding IT certification, it will remain prevalent for one reason — change. IT related careers deal with some of the fastest changing problems one could imagine. What an IT professional learned about a year ago might be completely changed due to technological advancements in the present. It’s this fast shifting pace which will always keep IT certification a constant importance.

Many times a business will overlook IT, which can lead to some huge ramifications. Our own government is going through some problems regarding IT;dealing with network security. You can bet it’s vital their IT professionals receive professional training regarding the problems being faced.

It’s hard to argue the numbers presented in the survey I mentioned prior. However, I think many of those businesses simply haven’t learned the lesson yet. While there are plenty of competent IT professionals without certification, it just takes one bad apple to hurt a business. As technologies grow and continue to change, I think we’ll see businesses value the importance of certification, and realize why it’s so vital.

1.Detect garbage objects
2.Deallocate the memory of garbage objects and make it available for the program.

There are four approaches that a garbage collector may adopt to detect the garbage objects.

A) Reference -counting Collectors :-Reference counting garbage collectors keep a count of the references for the each live object.When an object is created ,the reference count of each object is set to one.When you reference the object ,the reference count is incremented by one.Similarly when a reference to an object is eliminated ,the reference count is decremented by one.An object which has reference count zero is a garbage object when the object is garbage collected ,the references of the object that it refers to are decremented.Therefore garbage collection of the one may lead to the creation of other garbage objects.This method can be executed in small parts with the program ,and the program need not to be interrupted for a long time. However ,there is an overhead of incrementing and decrementing the counter everytime something happens on the references side.

B) Tracing Collectors :-In this technique ,a set of root is defined from where objects are traced. An object is reachable if there are objects that referenced and cannot ,therefore be accessed in the program.Objects that are reachable are marked. At the end of the trace ,all marked objects can be garbage collected.
This is also known as the mark and sweep algorithm. The mark phase marks all the referenced objects. The sweep phase garbage collects the memory of unreachable and unreferenced objects.

C) Compacting Collectors :-These collectors reduce the degree of memory fragmentation by moving the all unused and free space on one side during garbage collection.The free memory is then available as one huge chunk.All references need to be shifted ,objects are the updated to refer to the new memory locations.

D)Adaptive Collectors :-This algorithm makes the use of the fact that different garbage collectors algorithm works better in different situations. The adaptive algorithm monitors the situation and uses the garbage technique that best suits the situation. It may switch from one technique to the other according to the need.

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