Your company's information systems are critical components to achieving your corporate mission. In today's environment, if your systems are not functioning smoothly, neither is your business. You must be confident to rely on the proper operation, security, and continuous availability of your networks and applications.

Whether you're a technical manager or a manager of human resources, you're responsible for ensuring that your technical professionals are appropriately trained to run the systems. However, it's often difficult for a manager to have visibility into the skill set of those professionals.

The major technology vendors and professional organizations have established certifications to address this problem. Each certification has a clear definition of the skills that the holder of the certificate has developed. To ensure that the technical professional does, in fact, possess the requisite skills, he or she must pass one or more exams that objectively assess the extent of those skills.

The advancement of technology is constantly accelerating. Keeping up is a real challenge for the technical professional. Nonetheless, being well trained on these technologies give you a distinct advantage over the other technicians in today's competitive workplace. Plus, new technologies come out almost daily, it seems. How do you know which ones are most valuable to your employer?

The major technology vendors have their "fingers on the pulse" of their marketplace. They know best which of their new technologies are being adopted and which of their established technologies are being most widely applied. These vendors then tailor their certification programs to demonstrate competency with these technologies.

The exams that test your competency for the various certifications are rigorous. However, in order to prepare for them, you have to develop those skills that are in the highest demand by corporate America. Furthermore, those skills will serve you well as you apply them day-to-day in your career. Holding a certification or specialization demonstrates your value as a technical professional.

Cisco developed the Cisco Career Certifications program to fill the growing worldwide demand for more trained computer networking experts. Cisco also has a number of specializations that address new developments that give rise to specific needs, such as information security. The program is designed to provide focused areas of study as well as validate different levels of expertise.

	Certifications: include associate, professional, and expert levels.
	Specializations: demonstrate significant competency in specific technology areas, solutions, and/or job roles.