IT Professionals Around the Globe Can Get Green Certified

OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL — IT professionals that are looking to add more green to their skill sets have a new tool at hand: A new specialized green IT certification exam from CompTIA offers workers the ability to prove their familiarity with the latest in environmentally friendly computing.

The new Green IT offering from trade association CompTIA Strata covers green technologies, techniques, standards and policies and is aimed at IT professionals who have purchasing and decision-making power at their companies.

"To fulfill the promise of green IT, technology professionals must add new skills unique to its environment," Terry Erdle, senior vice president of skills and certifications at CompTIA, said in a statement. "We're taking a big step in that direction through the training around CompTIA Strata -- Green IT and the validation delivered by this important new program."

The spread of the program worldwide follows a survey CompTIA conducted last year to take the pulse of green IT activities at corporations. In the 2009 CompTIA study, "Green IT: Insights and Opportunities," 40 percent of IT service providers said they provide energy audits to clients, 26 percent said they offer carbon footprint measuring and monitoring services, and another 23 percent plan to offer these services within the next two years.

Other findings from last year's study include:

• 72 percent conduct audits to assess the greenness of energy consumption/power management.
• 78 percent factor green into their decisions when purchasing monitors/displays.
• 77 percent consider power consumption a major factor influencing their purchase of PCs.
• 20 percent have budget allocated specifically for green IT initiatives.

The CompTIA Strata certification aims to demonstrate that IT professionals can implement environmentally sound green IT projects and practices, including electronics disposal, energy efficiency, measuring and reducing a firm's carbon footprint, implementing virtualization projects, and calculating ROIs on green IT projects.

A number of efforts launched last year to begin training IT professionals on the importance and impacts of green IT, including a green IT certification from the British Computer Society, a new green data center degree created by IBM, and a report from Cisco on training tomorrow's green IT workforce.

More details about the certification and exam are available at CompTIA.org.

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IT Professionals Around the Globe Can Get Green Certified