Golden time awaits cyber security professionals

CompTIA is a US-based not-for-profit organization made to serve and connect global IT industry.

Within last 12-18 months, it has identified Indian market as a priority region for international growth. Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO, CompTIA, in an interaction with Prasoon Srivastava of CIOL, discussed the working of the organization and its engagement with Indian market. Excerpts:

CompTIA has been involved with Indian IT industry since long. What is the reason for increasing the focus in this market in the last 18 months time?

The expanding Indian IT market has made its presence felt in the global market. The transfer of technology is instant; therefore organizations need a strategic business partner to help them leverage key business opportunities, enhance the skills of their employees and achieve sustainability.

CompTIA is the only not-for-profit trade association that has the depth of membership and the breadth of global reach to represent the full spectrum of the IT industry. CompTIA has an in-depth understanding of the industry and the right mix of experts and services to provide excellent support to the Indian IT companies. We’re committed to growing our Indian operations to the next level of excellence and partnering with Indian companies and organizations.

Though CompTIA is a non-profit organization, the cost of certification being provided by it is equivalent to the average monthly income of most Indian families that are clubbed under middle income group. Is there any plan to tune the cost of certification as per Indian mass market?

CompTIA is sensitive to the economics of obtaining an IT certification. We make every effort to price our certification exams at an affordable level that allows us to cover our expenses in developing exams that are of the highest quality, security and relevance. All CompTIA certification exams are considered 'high stakes' because they are certifying professional skills in a manner that is legally defensible.

We believe that a short-term investment in a CompTIA certification can deliver long-term financial benefits to the individual who is certified. A 2009 CompTIA survey around the world found that an IT worker’s average salary increased by nine per cent immediately following certification; and by 29 per cent from the point of their first certification.

How does CompTIA differentiate or define 'standards' in cases where a proprietary technology has more than half the market share?

All CompTIA certifications are vendor-neutral which allows them to validate a strong skills foundation relevant across multiple networks, operating systems and product lines. There are currently more than 1.85 million CompTIA certified professionals worldwide, credentialed in a variety of areas, including PC repair, networking, security, Linux, convergence technologies, project management, servers and printing and document imaging.

There are, however, instances where a particular proprietary product or solution is so dominant in the marketplace that it becomes a de facto standard. We take this into account as we develop and update our certification products. We’re also guided by a broad cross-section of industry representatives who serve on our certification advisory committees.

In fact, recently only we announced that our flagship CompTIA A+ certification exams will be updated with new content related to the Windows 7 operating system beginning in January 2011. We took this step based on the market’s acceptance and adoption of Windows 7 and on the recommendation of our CompTIA A+ advisory committee.

How is the training on Open Source-based certification program picking up globally and in India?

Independent reports indicate that the number of Linux jobs in 2009 grew as much as 5 per cent and that there was a 10 per cent salary premium for IT professionals with enterprise Linux skills. To serve this growing market, CompTIA has partnered with the Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the world's leading Linux certification organization, to standardize our entry-level Linux certification programs on LPIC-1.

CompTIA has adopted LPI's Level One certification exams (LPIC-1) for its CompTIA Linux+ certification. This enables successful candidates to earn both the new "CompTIA Linux+ Powered by LPI" certification and the existing LPIC-1 certification.

Which are the main training area within IT domain that are going to see huge demand for IT professionals and why?

We’re seeing a huge focus in cyber security. A 2009 CompTIA survey of more than 1,500 IT professionals worldwide found the greatest number of IT certification holders expects to pursue additional training in the area of security, and the related fields of ethical hacking and computer forensics.

Over the next five years, we expect that 37 per cent IT professionals will pursue new certifications on security, 18 per cent on ethical hacking, 13 per cent on forensics, 7 per cent on Green IT, 5 per cent each on healthcare and mobile and 2 per cent will go for software as a service.

Another trend we see is that more and more companies are involved in offering enhanced services including remote infrastructure management services to global clients. This requires manpower with up-to-date skills on basic hardware and networking support skills.

There is huge demand for networking professionals in India. Therefore infrastructure management and system level experts are the key career choices that Indian youth can explore and the best way to progress is CompTIA certification. Since these are foundational skills, the candidate can then proceed towards aiming for vendor-specific certifications from Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, etc.

What kind of engagements has CompTIA planned for Indian market in the next couple of years?

In the short term, our primary aim is to create pan-India availability of authorized CompTIA training. We have already engaged with some leading players, and are in the process of getting more and more training companies to sign up. In parallel, we are also talking to employers on the value of hiring certified manpower, so that the industry creates a demand for absorbing these certified individuals.

As a global organization, virtually all CompTIA member benefits are available to all members regardless of where they are located. Our roster of current members includes many respected and recognized global firms in the IT industry, including Cisco, Dell, HP, Intel, Lenovo and Motorola.

In 6 to 9 months, our programs will be available in multiple academic institutes where students can avail the training and certification programs on campus. We have plans to launch our fundamentals of IT program called Strata within the vocational education system so that people passing out from ITIs and polytechnic colleges can demonstrate skills and get employment.

We have also had discussions with government and leading industry associations to be part of the various government-backed skill development programs. This is extremely relevant as all our programs are vendor neutral and helps create the core skills in ICT.