VDI and Mobility certifications more valuable than MS an Cisco in the near future?

N2IT

I do a lot of research on trending technologies and how they will impact business in the near future. Obviously mobility and virtualization (client and server) are coming back on strong.

Do you think in the future the shift will begin and people will start to get more mobility/VDI certifications.

A couple of reasons why I ask

The impact in my current environment has been huge. I attended a CAB meeting and over 80% of the managers had iPads with hybrid docks. I don't see laptops being rolled out anymore, people are going with iPad and other tablets. They just don't need the big bulky laptops anymore. I have a little 4310 Dell and it looks like a fat bulldog compared to their slim streamline machines.

VDI has already been rolled out to an business unit and has been working pretty flawless, which is rare in my environment. This has caught the eyes of upper management and they are full throttle with this project.

Two service desk members just recently were picked off to a business IT group supporting IOS applications. They both received a nice pay bump 30%.

Another was recently pulled into a VDI group and will be handling the trouble tickets allowing the engineers to do their main task.

Just some observations, thoughts?

Getting ahead of the curve is something I have always tried to do and help others do. Is it more advantgous to ramp up on mobility, IOS, Android, and VDI?

YFZblu

As for Android, IOS, and VDI I will leave that to others.

I do think Cisco Wireless could be a good one to pick up going forward as a result of mobility and BYOD pushes in the Enterprise. I also think this brings a new dynamic for the Security teams to deal with.

As far as my organization is concerned we do see IOS devices in executive leadership; however that is not a significant group and those individuals are also issued laptops.

N2IT

I don't mean to imply that Cisco or Microsoft are going away. Not the case at all I just meant that there would be a potential lean to the other technologies which would take away from the other certifications. (Only so much training budget per household).

Interesting take about the CCNA wireless. I could see that being a hot Cisco cert in the future.

SteveO86

I think I'd put value in CWNA than the CCNA:W but that is just my opinion. CWNP does good job of teaching about 802.11 and is not vendor specific.

N2IT

Steve you clearly are a network professional.

This is an interesting take, but one that I think has merit.

Would this be a case of getting both to be safe (CWNA & Wireless NA) or as long as you have an NA or higher and then going with the CWNA would be enough?

Iristheangel

Microsoft and Cisco will continue to thrive - Especially since both companies are starting to adapt to both mobility and virtualization - but I do believe there will be a bigger push for MDM and security solutions to protect the networks. We're going to see more mobile devices come in and, of course, new threats that those bring with it. I'm excited to see it go in this direction. It's going to be a lot of fun for us nerds

MentholMoose

VDI certs and experience are quite valuable already. In the last year and a half I've seen huge demand for VDI skills. Value-wise I don't know how VDI skills or certs compare to Cisco. Compared to Microsoft skills and certs, I guess you could say VDI is more valuable, but having strong VDI skills requires at least average knowledge of Microsoft software. The main VDI products (View and XenDesktop) run on Windows Server, integrate with AD, and deliver Windows desktops, so it would be hard to focus only on VDI.

powerfool

I think we are in a "wait and see" period with the release of Windows 8 and the rumblings of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). If this takes off, I think we could see some extremely drastic changes in the economy. For starters, hardware vendors will be hurting even more as a single individual on the market will have one less device (when considering personal and business); on the flip side, individuals could rationalize shorter buy-cycles for new gear since they "need" improvements for work. Second, commercial real estate could take a dive if BYOD really takes off. If folks are able to BYOD, then why even have them in the office, or at least, why have them in the office as much? I know that my company has been reducing office space over the past two years even though we have grown our workforce by about a third. BYOD requires changes in the IT infrastructure to maintain economies of scale... this means VDI, at some level or another... likely a tablet-friendly OS to accommodate folks on whatever touch screen device they may have... so Windows 8? BYOD could be the big push that Microsoft needs for Windows 8 to become widely adopted. Developing apps for each platform? Crazy. Storing company data on personal devices? Horrible policy. VDI keeps the data in the datacenter and it makes one platform for developers while still offering capabilities to all viable end-user platforms.

SteveO86

N2IT wrote: »

Steve you clearly are a network professional.

This is an interesting take, but one that I think has merit.

Would this be a case of getting both to be safe (CWNA & Wireless NA) or as long as you have an NA or higher and then going with the CWNA would be enough?

Thanks for the kind words bud.

If you work with Cisco WLC's and LWAPs, I'd say read the configuration guide for the specific WLC version you are running and if you have time go for the CCNA:W. In my opinion though if you are familiar with the 802.11 protocol then WLAN deployments get much easy, each vendor calls certain features by different names but those features tend to follow a standard. If you work with one vendors equipment that makes it much easier.


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I'd also like to think BYOD is going to be much more common especially in the future. Look at new devices like Cisco ISE which makes it a little easier to secure BYOD deployments. Trust me I hate to give in to BYOD but sometimes it's tough to find management stand behinding that decision especially when someone of a C-level wants it.

I'm also looking at a VDI deployment using VMWare View for a few call centers, luckily my responsibility is the network in this deployment.

wes allen

I think knowing about stuff like 802.1x, NAC, Mobile authentication, and two factor auth is going to be pretty useful.

steve13ad

I found these on vmware's website awhile ago, and I've been meaning to share. I've watched most of the first one and it's pretty interesting.

VMware Communities: VMware Mobile Secure Desktop Bootcamp