Best IT Certifications for 2024

Earning specialized certifications is a surefire way to advance your career in the IT field, regardless of industry or current career level. The right certification validates your skills and knowledge, which makes you more desirable to future employers who want to attract and retain the best employees. Below, we’ll explore the top IT certifications and share how to examine your goals to choose the right path forward. 

We’ve narrowed IT certifications into specific categories to help IT professionals assess what’s available and pursue the best certifications to show their willingness to learn and develop the in-demand career skills employers want.

Database platforms have changed greatly over the years, but database technology remains important for various applications and computing tasks. Available certifications for IT professionals include those for database administrators (DBAs), database developers, data analysts and architects, business intelligence, and data warehousing specialists, and other data professionals.

Obtaining database certifications demonstrates an understanding of database concepts, design, implementation, administration and security. This can boost your credibility in the job market and show potential employers that you have the skills needed to work with databases. The best database certifications include the following:

SAS is one of the world’s leading firms for business analytics, data warehousing and data mining. Today, the SAS Global Certification Program offers 23 credentials across categories including foundation tools, advanced analytics, business intelligence, data management and administration.

SAS programmers remain in high demand, with a quick search of job boards showing thousands of open positions. Obtaining SAS certification shows employers that you are proficient in the company’s popular suite of tools. Some of SAS’s certification programs include the following: 

Many professionals earn certifications to help navigate their career paths. According to the IT Salary Report, 92 percent of information technology professionals have at least one certification.

Cisco Systems is a market leader not only in networking and communications products, but also storage networking and solutions for data centers. Cisco offers a variety of certifications for IT professionals, ranging from entry level credentials to expert-level exams. 

These certifications prepare professionals for Cisco-related careers. A search of job boards reveals thousands of open positions for Cisco experts, underscoring the continued relevance of these skills. Some of Cisco’s certifications include the following:

Dell Technologies remains one of the world’s leading computing companies. In addition to its well-known hardware lineup, Dell also offers solutions for networks, storage, servers, gateways and embedded computing, as well as a broad range of IT and business services.

Becoming certified in Dell products can help make IT professionals competitive in engineering roles for server, virtualization, networking, systems, integration and data security. Additional roles include consultants, account executives, system administrators, IT managers and deployment managers.

In the mobile era, it has become increasingly important for network engineers to support local, remote and mobile users, as well as provide proper infrastructure. The focus on application and app development now leans more toward mobile environments, requiring security professionals to thoroughly address mobility from all perspectives.

Due to the fast-changing nature of mobile technology, not many mobility certifications have become widely adopted. However, a few of the top mobility certifications can help IT professionals stand out in this rapidly evolving field. 

If part of your job includes selling and implementing an IT solution, you may want to pursue the best sales certifications. You’ll show your organization that you’re willing to go above and beyond to reach sales targets.

As remote and computer-based work has become more common, it’s more important than ever that businesses and individuals be able to maintain their hardware. While discussions about potential computer-related jobs often revolve around software work and coding, jumping into the IT field by becoming a computer technician is an excellent starting point.

Today, thousands of hardware technician jobs are available across the country. Entering this industry becomes more accessible for those who acquire computer hardware certifications. These certifications can showcase your expertise and proficiency in the upkeep of computers, mobile devices, printers and other hardware components.

IT pros with solid cloud computing skills continue to be in high demand as more companies adopt cloud technologies. Today, Google Cloud is one of the market leaders in the cloud computing space. 

Regardless of where you are in your IT career, engaging with certification programs can demonstrate your willingness to keep on top of rapidly evolving cloud technologies. To that end, Google has introduced a host of certifications for its cloud platform, including the following: 

In the fast-changing world of technology, it can help to focus on certifications that have stood the test of time. “Evergreen” refers to certifications that remain popular year after year. 

The top evergreen certifications are based on recent pay surveys in IT, reports from IT professionals about certifications they want or pursue the most, and those that appear most frequently in online job postings. Obtaining these credentials is one step toward ensuring that your skills remain relevant for a long time: 

IT governance provides structure for aligning a company’s IT with its business strategies. Organizations faced with compliance rigors always need experienced IT pros who can see the big picture and understand technology risks. This means certified IT governance professionals are likely to remain in high demand.

Earning one of the following certifications proves a commitment to understanding the role of IT governance and its position in a company’s current and future success. Getting certified can validate your expert knowledge and lead to advanced career opportunities.

An IT system administrator is responsible for managing and maintaining the information technology infrastructure within an organization. The position demands sought-after career skills, ranging from configuring and maintaining servers and clients to managing access controls, network services, and addressing application resource requirements.

If you’re in charge of managing modern servers, there’s a long list of tools and technologies that system administrators must master. Obtaining some of the most prominent system administrator certifications can demonstrate your mastery to potential employers. 

ITIL, or Information Technology Infrastructure Library, was developed to establish standardized best practices for IT services within government agencies. Over the ensuing four decades, businesses of all types embraced, modified, and extended ITIL, shaping it into a comprehensive framework for managing IT service delivery. 

The ITIL framework remains the benchmark for best practices in IT service and delivery management, offering certification programs that cater to IT professionals at all levels. These training and certification courses ensure that IT professionals stay well-prepared for the ongoing evolution in IT service delivery management. There are four certifications in the ITIL certification program:

An IT enterprise architect is responsible for designing and managing the overall structure and framework of an organization’s information technology system. Enterprise architect certifications are among the highest that an IT professional can achieve; fewer than 1 percent ultimately reach this level. 

Enterprise architects are among the highest-paid employees and consultants in the tech industry. These certifications can put IT professionals on a path to many lucrative positions. The average worker earns over six figures annually. Some top enterprise architect certifications are listed below:

To become an enterprise IT architect, you’ll need knowledge of systems deployment, design and architecture, as well as a strong business foundation.

CompTIA is a nonprofit trade association made up of more than 2,000 member organizations and 3,000 business partners. The organization’s vendor-neutral certification program is one of the best recognized in the IT industry. Since CompTIA developed its A+ credential in 1993, it has issued more than two million certifications.

CompTIA certifications are grouped by skill set and focus on the real-world skills IT professionals need. Armed with these credentials, you can demonstrate that you know how to manage and support IT infrastructure. 

A longtime leader in database software, Oracle also offers cloud solutions, servers, engineered systems, storage, and more. The company has more than 430,000 customers in 175 countries. 

Today, Oracle’s training program offers six certification levels that span 16 product categories with more than 200 individual credentials. Considering the depth and breadth of this program — and the number of Oracle customers — it’s no surprise that Oracle certifications are highly sought after. 

Vendor-specific certifications address a particular vendor’s hardware and software. For example, you can pursue Oracle certifications and Dell certifications to become an expert in those companies’ environments.

Business continuity and disaster recovery keep systems running and data available in the event of interruptions or faults. These programs bring systems back to normal operation after a disaster has occurred.

Business continuity and disaster recovery certifications are seeing a healthy uptrend as new cloud-based tools grow in popularity. While business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning have always been essential, they’re becoming more critical than ever — and IT certifications are following suit.

Dell EMC Reveals U.S. Distribution Changes: Ingram Gets EMC Back; Arrow, Avnet, Carahsoft Unlock Dell Enterprise

Dell EMC has restored Ingram Micro's EMC relationship in the United States and extended all or part of Dell's heritage enterprise portfolio to Arrow, Avnet and Carahsoft.

Ingram Micro still employs a lot of the talent that drove the Irvine, Calif.-based distributor's success with EMC before it severed ties with Ingram in April 2015, according to Kirk Robinson, Ingram Micro's senior vice president of go-to-market. Ingram Micro plans to shift its existing EMC resources back into place, Robinson said, and hire the certified engineers and other talent to be the dominant Dell EMC distributor.

"When the relationship ended with EMC, we were their 'Distributor of the Year' because we were consistently outperforming Arrow and Avnet," Robinson told CRN. "We're going to build that playbook back out, and we're going to raise the bar even higher."

[Related: Arrow Snags $350M of Channel Business From Competitors, Lands Dell Enterprise Portfolio]

Ingram Micro's go-to-market efforts will initially leverage the distributor's business intelligence capabilities and target new solution providers that are not reselling EMC today, Robinson said. Once channel partners are allowed to switch distributors again, starting in August, Robinson said Ingram Micro will pursue restoring relationships with its former EMC partners.

"Customers have been coming to us and asking, 'When are you going to get EMC back?'" Robinson said. "When the gate opens up, we're going to go back to working with all of the accounts that we were performing with when we were [EMC] Distributor of the Year."

Arrow enjoys a commanding lead in EMC distribution market share in North America, and looks forward to extending conversations with its existing EMC partner base from data center storage and backup to Dell's heritage compute and networking platforms, according to Ben Klay, vice president and general manager of Arrow's infrastructure systems group.

"We think this opens us some new markets to us," Klay told CRN. "It's not every day we get to expand the portfolio like this."

Klay said Arrow had built its dominant market position around EMC by employing a dedicated compensation model, where the distributor's EMC team only got paid when EMC products were sold.

Tech Data no longer enjoys the distinction of being the only distributor carrying Dell and EMC's entire product line in the U.S. now that EMC has restored ties with Ingram Micro.

But Tech Data's comprehensive capabilities across both Dell EMC's value data center and emerging technology practice as well as its volume PC, mobile and entry-level server business are unparalleled in the industry, according to executive vice president and chief operating officer Rich Hume.

"We have strength in both, and we aren't coming from a cold start," Hume told CRN. "The relationship has existed across all of those areas for a good period of time, and we do business with all three Dell Technologies companies [Dell, EMC and VMware] at scale."

That relationship will be bolstered in the next few months when Tech Data's $2.6 billion acquisition of Avnet Technology Solutions (TS) closes, which Hume said will amplify the distributor's capabilities around EMC's security, analytics, and hyper-converged infrastructure practices.

Avnet TS has been an EMC partner for more than 15 years and believes Dell's acquisition of the vendor will open up new opportunities, the company said in a statement. The distributor did not immediately address how it will benefit from adding Dell's enterprise portfolio to its line card.

Synnex will continue distributing Dell's legacy client and enterprise products, and, along with Ingram Micro, had been one of only two distributors offering the vendor's U.S. federal program, according to Reyna Thompson, vice president of product management for Synnex's ConvergeSolv Secure Networking Group.

Thompson said in a statement that Synnex offers a dedicated sale Dell ruggs rep to all 20,000 of its reseller accounts, differentiating themselves from peers who service resellers from the 'next available person' in the queue.

Synnex has a dedicateded computing specialist on staff, Thompson said, and also maintains an exclusive program that offers networking resellers access to MDF, demo gear, asset buyback programs, call campaigns and weekly inventory reports.

Executives from Dell and Carahsoft were not immediately available for comment. Carahsoft had been serving legacy EMC partners exclusively in the U.S. government space and is now authorized to also sell Dell's Compellent storage line to federal customers.

Platte River Networks moved all of its Dell direct business to Ingram Micro two years ago and has benefitted greatly from Ingram's marketing and training funds and continued education offerings, according to David DeCamillis, vice president of sales and marketing for the Denver-based company.

DeCamillis said Ingram Micro's partner community was shocked when EMC dropped the distributor in North America two years ago and isn't surprised that Dell came in and reversed that decision.

"Ingram really knows how to deal with reseller partners," DeCamillis said.