Hitch your IT career to a rising star with DevOps certification

Hitch your IT career to a rising star with DevOps certification

Savvy IT industry watchers have probably been noticing something called “DevOps” come gliding into view for a while now, striking regular pings on the scope of anyone scanning for either hot trends or spiking salaries. Even proponents of DevOps, however, sometimes struggle to define it in layman’s terms, a challenge that anyone who has ever tried to explain development methods like Agile or Scrum to someone outside of IT will understand. Beneath the jargon, however, there’s an important development model that is quickly gaining in popularity. If you’re involved in IT, then this is something that’s probably worth taking the time to understand.

What is DevOps?
DevOps is a compound of “development” and “operations.” It’s a software development method that stresses communication, collaboration, integration, automation, and measurement of cooperation between software developers and other information technology professionals. DevOps is often shown graphically as three overlapping circles consisting of Development, Quality Assurance, and Information Technology Operations, with DevOps being the area of overlap that ties all three circles together.

DevOps is so much more, however, than the intersection of three circles. It’s often the intersection of five or ten circles — it just depends on the company that the DevOps is supporting. DevOps spans the entire delivery pipeline. This includes improved deployment frequency, which can lead to faster time to market, lower failure rate of new releases, shortened lead time between fixes, and faster mean time to recovery in the event of a new release crashing or otherwise disabling the current system. Simple processes become increasingly programmable and dynamic when using a DevOps approach, which aims to maximize the predictability, efficiency, security, and maintainability of operational processes. Automation often supports this objective.

DevOps integration targets product delivery, quality testing, feature development, and maintenance releases in order to improve reliability and security and provide faster development and deployment cycles. Many of the ideas (and people) involved in DevOps come from the enterprise systems management and agile software development movements.

DevOps aids in software application release management for an organization by standardizing development environments. Events can be more easily tracked as well as resolving documented process control and granular reporting issues. Companies with release/deployment automation problems usually have existing automation but want to more flexibly manage and drive this automation without needing to enter everything manually at the command-line.

Ideally, this automation can be invoked by non-operations employees in specific non-production environments. The DevOps approach grants developers more control of the environment, giving infrastructure more application-centric understanding.

The adoption of DevOps is being driven by factors such as:
● Use of agile and other development processes and methodologies
● Demand for an increased rate of production releases from application and business unit stakeholders
● Wide availability of virtualized and cloud infrastructure from internal and external providers
● Increased usage of data center automation and configuration management tools
● Increased focus on test automation and continuous integration methods

According to David Geer, 42 percent of IT pros surveyed had adopted or planned to adopt DevOps development approaches (Information Week, 2014 DevOps Survey). That number ballooned to 66 percent of U.S. companies using DevOps approaches by the time of a Rackspace survey only 10 months later. With DevOps clearly taking over the coder’s realm, most programmers will eventually have to yield to and master this mindset.

What does DevOps mean for a programmer’s profession?
There's a lot of interest in DevOps in the IT world right now.DevOps introduces developers to operational requirements and the tools and methods necessary to ensure that the code they create is immediately functional, of high quality, and fit for the production environment. With solid training in these tools and methods, developers should find their talents highly sellable in a career world that is increasingly favorable to DevOps practitioners.

Adam Gordon, CTO of New Horizon Computer Learning Centers of south Florida, sats that important developer skills for DevOps environments include automating configuration management (infrastructure lifecycle management) using vendor-neutral tools such as Puppet, Chef, Ansible, SaltStack, and Docker. These tools integrate with a host of popular platforms and software including Amazon EC2, Amazon Web Services, CFEngine, Cisco, Eucalyptus, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Bluemix, Jelastic, Jenkins, Linux (various distributions), Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, OpenSVC, Rackspace, Rightscale, Salt, SoftLayer, Vagrant, VMware, and a rapidly expanding number of examples.

Some of the most popular vendor-specific DevOps platforms include those from Microsoft and VMware, says Gordon. Microsoft’s DevOps-related products include System Center with its System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). These Microsoft developer tools enable functions such as automated configuration management, monitoring, and custom management pack development. VMware tools such as vCloud Air (vCloud Hybrid Service) bridge the VMware development platform to tools such as Puppet and Chef, according to Gordon, while the vRealize cloud management platform automates infrastructure and application delivery, monitoring, analytics, and management.

Finally, Red Hat Linux developers will find that learning to deploy this distribution can be useful for work in Red Hat-related DevOps environments.

Does everyone love DevOps?
No, not everyone. Take Jeff Knupp, for instance. In an April 2014 blog, Knupp claims that DevOps is “killing the developer.” Allow me to quote directly from Mr. Knupp’s post:

“There are two recent trends I really hate: DevOps and the notion of the ‘full-stack’ developer. The DevOps movement is so popular that I may as well say I hate the x86 architecture or monolithic kernels. But it’s true: I can’t stand it. The underlying cause of my pain? This fact: not every company is a start-up, though it appears that every company must act as though they were.

“DevOps is meant to denote a close collaboration and cross-pollination between what were previously purely development roles, purely operations roles, and purely QA roles. Because software needs to be released at an ever-increasing rate, the old ‘waterfall’ develop-test-release cycle is seen as broken. Developers must also take responsibility for the quality of the testing and release environments.

“The increasing scope of responsibility of the ‘developer’ (whether or not that term is even appropriate anymore is debatable) has given rise to a chimera-like job candidate: the ‘full-stack’ developer. Such a developer is capable of doing the job of developer, QA team member, operations analyst, sysadmin, and DBA. Before you accuse me of hyperbole, go back and read that list again. Is there any role in the list whose duties you wouldn’t expect a ‘full-stack’ developer to be well versed in?

“Where did these concepts come from? Start-ups, of course (and the Agile methodology). Start-ups are a peculiar beast and need to function in a very lean way to survive their first few years. I don’t deny this. Unfortunately, we’ve taken the multiple technical roles that engineers at start-ups were forced to play due to lack of resources into a set of minimum qualifications for the role of ‘developer.’ ”

“Imagine you’re at a start-up with a development team of seven. You’re one year into development of a web application that Xs all the Ys, and things are going well, though it’s always a frantic scramble to keep everything going. If there’s a particularly nasty issue that seems to require deep database knowledge, you don’t have the liberty of saying, ‘That’s not my specialty,’ and handing it off to a DBA team to investigate. Due to constrained resources, you’re forced to take on the role of DBA and fix the issue yourself.

“Now expand that scenario across all the roles listed earlier. At any one time, a developer at a start-up may be acting as a developer, QA tester, deployment/operations analyst, sysadmin, or DBA. That’s just the nature of the business, and some people thrive in that type of environment. Somewhere along the way, however, we tricked ourselves into thinking that because, at any one time, a start-up developer had to take on different roles, he or she should actually be all those things at once.

“If such people even exist, ‘full-stack’ developers still wouldn’t be used as they should. Rather than temporarily taking on a single role for a short period of time, then transitioning into the next role, they are meant to be performing all the roles, all the time. Most good developers can almost pull this off.”

Certifications in DevOps
The DevOps certification realm is taking root quickly. One organization that is out in front of the pack, however, is Amazon Web Services. If you want to make a strong move into DevOps, then consider any of the following credentials.

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

Description
The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam validates technical expertise in provisioning, operating, and managing distributed application systems on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include the ability to:

● Implement and manage continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS
● Understand, implement, and automate security controls, governance processes, and compliance validation
● Define and deploy monitoring, metrics, and logging systems on AWS
● Implement systems that are highly available, scalable, and self-healing on the AWS platform
● Design, manage, and maintain tools to automate operational processes

Prerequisites
Required Prerequisite: status as AWS Certified Developer – Associate or AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

Eligibility
● Two or more years’ experience in provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments
● Experience in developing code in at least one high-level programming language
● Experience in automation and testing via scripting/programming
● Understanding of agile and other development processes and methodologies

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
170 minutes to complete the exam
Exam available in English
Exam registration fee is $300

DevOps is a hot trend in software development right now.AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
Description

The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate exam validates technical expertise in deployment, management, and operations on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include:

● Deploying, managing, and operating scalable, highly available, and fault tolerant systems on AWS
● Migrating an existing on-premises application to AWS
● Implementing and controlling the flow of data to and from AWS
● Selecting the appropriate AWS service based on compute, data, or security requirements
● Identifying appropriate use of AWS operational best practices
● Estimating AWS usage costs and identifying operational cost control mechanisms

Prerequisites

No prerequisites; recommend taking System Operations on AWS
Eligibility

● One or more years of hands-on experience in operating AWS-based applications
● Experience in provisioning, operating, and maintaining systems running on AWS
● Ability to identify and gather requirements to define a solution to be built and operated on AWS
● Capabilities to provide AWS operations and deployment guidance and best practices throughout the lifecycle of a project

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
80 minutes to complete the exam
Available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese
Practice Exam Registration fee is $20
Exam Registration fee is $150

AWS Certified Developer – Associate
Description

The AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam validates technical expertise in developing and maintaining applications on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include:

● Picking the right AWS services for the application
● Leveraging AWS SDKs to interact with AWS services from your application
● Writing code that optimizes performance of AWS services used by your application
● Code-level application security (IAM roles, credentials, encryption, etc.)

Prerequisites
No prerequisites; recommend taking Developing on AWS
Eligibility
● One or more years of hands-on experience in designing and maintaining an AWS-based application
● In-depth knowledge of at least one high-level programming language
● Understanding of core AWS services, uses, and basic architecture best practices
● Proficiency in designing, developing, and deploying cloud-based solutions using AWS
● Experience with developing and maintaining applications written for Amazon Simple Storage Service, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service, Amazon Simple Notification Service, Amazon Simple Workflow Service, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and AWS Cloud Formation.

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
80 minutes to complete the exam
Available in English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese
Practice Exam Registration fee is $20
Exam Registration fee is $150

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
Description
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam validates advanced technical skills and experience in designing distributed applications and systems on the AWS platform. Example concepts you should understand for this exam include:

● Designing and deploying dynamically scalable, highly available, fault tolerant, and reliable applications on AWS
● Selecting appropriate AWS services to design and deploy an application based on given requirements
● Migrating complex, multi-tier applications on AWS
● Designing and deploying enterprise-wide scalable operations on AWS
● Implementing cost control strategies

Prerequisites
Status as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Eligibility
● Achieved AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
● Two or more years’ hands-on experience in designing and deploying cloud architecture on AWS
● Abilities to evaluate cloud application requirements and make architectural recommendations for implementation, deployment, and provisioning applications on AWS
● Capabilities to provide best practices guidance on the architectural design across multiple applications, projects, or the enterprise

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
170 minutes to complete the exam
Exam available in English and Japanese
Practice Exam Registration fee is $40
Exam Registration fee is $300

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Description

Intended for individuals with experience in designing distributed applications and systems on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include:
● Designing and deploying scalable, highly available, and fault tolerant systems on AWS
● Lift and shift of an existing on-premises application to AWS
● Ingress and egress of data to and from AWS
● Selecting the appropriate AWS service based on data, compute, database, or security requirements
● Identifying appropriate use of AWS architectural best practices
● Estimating AWS costs and identifying cost control mechanisms

Prerequisites
None, but it is recommended that candidates take the Architecting on AWS and AWS Certification Exam Readiness Workshop
Eligibility
● One or more years of hands-on experience in designing available, cost efficient, fault tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on AWS
● In-depth knowledge of at least one high-level programming language
● Ability to identify and define requirements for an AWS-based application
● Experience with deploying hybrid systems with on-premises and AWS components
● Capability to provide best practices for building secure and reliable applications on the AWS platform

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
80 minutes to complete the exam
Available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese
Practice Exam Registration fee is $20
Exam Registration fee is $150

There's a lot of interest in DevOps in the IT world right now.AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
Description

The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam validates technical expertise in provisioning, operating, and managing distributed application systems on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include the ability to:
● Implement and manage continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS
● Understand, implement, and automate security controls, governance processes, and compliance validation
● Define and deploy monitoring, metrics, and logging systems on AWS
● Implement systems that are highly available, scalable, and self-healing on the AWS platform
● Design, manage, and maintain tools to automate operational processes

Prerequisites
AWS Certified Developer – Associate
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
Eligibility
● Two or more years’ experience in provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments
● Experience in developing code in at least one high-level programming language
● Experience in automation and testing via scripting/programming
● Understanding of agile and other development processes and methodologies

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
170 minutes to complete the exam
Exam available in English
Exam registration fee is $300

Click here to view complete Q&A of 70-697 exam

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft 70-697 Training at certkingdom.com

Future-proof your IT career: 8 tech areas that will still be hot in 2020

It’s prudent for IT pros to cultivate skills that are in high demand. Even better are skills that will stay in demand. Here are eight key technology areas that show no signs of falling out of favor.

Wanted: Programmers, security experts, cloud capacity managers
More than 90% of U.S. companies are using some form of cloud computing, according to CompTIA's most recent Trends in Cloud Computing study. Moreover, the November 2014 report found that companies are moving infrastructure or applications between private and public clouds. IT leaders predict that movement will accelerate in the future, which will generate a host of cloud-centric jobs, including cloud security.

A related position will be dedicated to cloud capacity management. "We expect many [organizations] will operate in a hybrid environment, a mix of private and public cloud, so the question becomes how to dynamically switch demand for compute and storage from private and public clouds," says Mike Sutcliff, group chief executive for Accenture Digital. "That's going to require new techniques and disciplines that many IT organizations don't have in place today."

Programmers skilled in Perl, Ruby, Ruby on Rails and Python, Java and JavaScript, as well as those comfortable with API development and a DevOps environment, will also be in high demand, because cloud technology depends heavily on those disciplines. (See 10 hot cloud computing skills for details.)

Wanted: Data architects, integration experts, Hadoop pros
Cliff Justice, leader of KPMG's Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory practice, says organizational needs around analytics will be huge, driven partly by the sheer volume of data collected but also by the increasing number of applications (such as robotics) fueled by analytical output. As a result, companies are adding and creating IT positions to handle the work.

According to Barry Brunsman, principal in KPMG's CIO Advisory Management Consulting practice (pdf), you'll see roles like these: Data architects, who design the structure to support emerging needs; data integration engineers, who ensure that data solutions and analytics from any number of sources can be integrated; and IT planning analysts, who aggregate and analyze data from many internal and external sources to help IT know what its business partners are likely to need in the future.

Technical titles that are and will remain hot include Hadoop developer, data engineer, big data software architect and enterprise data architect, says Christian P. Hagen, a partner with the Strategic IT Practice at management consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

At the same time, organizational demands around analytics will create a new batch of leadership positions tasked with understanding how to use analytics to achieve goals and objectives. "Analytics won't mean just working with tools. Companies will need someone out in front, someone who can get at how analytics will transform the company and IT as well," Hagen says.

Hagen says leadership positions emerging in this field are chief analytics officer, chief data officer, chief digital officer, head of business analytics and vice president of enterprise data.

Wanted: "Digital artisans"
The pressure to be more than a pure technologist will continue in the upcoming years - and that means more than adding one or two business skills to your resume. Tech pros who successfully navigate the changes roiling the industry will be able to demonstrate business acumen across the spectrum, says R "Ray" Wang, founder and principal analyst with Constellation Research Inc. He calls these new specialists "digital artisans," explaining that they're "those who can balance right brain and left brain skills."

Middle-of-the-road products, services and solutions aren't enough to sustain companies in an increasingly competitive landscape, Wang says. To thrive in the next five to 10 years, organizations need to seek out talent "that can think outside of the box but execute within the system," he says. To deliver that kind of strategic value, IT pros need to be authentic, relevant, transformation-minded, intelligent, speedy, artistic and non-conformist. (Get it? A-R-T-I-S-A-N.)

Wanted: Hardware, software, analytics experts
The 2014 PwC report The Wearable Future (pdf) sees a world where wearable devices will be used to train new employees, speed up the sales process, improve customer service, create hands-free guidance for workers and improve the accuracy of information collected to serve the growing analytics movement at companies everywhere.

Jack Cullen, president of IT staffing firm Modis, predicts the move to wearables could spur as much, if not more, new development as did the move to smartphones. "By the time 2020 rolls around, wearable devices could be as common as the iPhone today, and that creates all new opportunities," Cullen says.

Cullen expects that organizations of all kinds will identify workers and processes that could benefit from wearables, which it turn means IT departments will seek out technologists with the ability to deploy, manage and maintain hardware as well as experts who can develop, customize and support the applications and analytics programs that will make wearables useful within their specific organizations.

Wanted: In-the-weeds tinkerers and big-picture thinkers
Research firm IDC predicts in its Worldwide and Regional Internet of Things 2014-2020 Forecast that the global IoT market will grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to $7.1 trillion in 2020.

"Technology is being built into almost everything we have," says David Dodd, vice president of IT and CIO at Stevens Institute of Technology. That means a bright future for technologists who understand the underpinnings of this kind of connectivity. Indeed, IoT could breed a new specialist who can combine skills in hardware, engineering, programming, analytics, privacy and security.

Dodd, though, believes the IoT skill most in demand will be in understanding what value comes from all this connectivity. Organizations are realizing it's not enough to simply connect items and gather data, they need to know how those connections and the data they generate can solve problems or advance organizational goals. Companies "want people who can understand and formulate the future of IoT," he says.

Position yourself for long-term growth
Smart companies have a corporate roadmap that spells out where they'd like to be three, five and 10 years out, how they're going to get there, and how technology fits into that vision. As a smart IT professional, can you say how your skills and position figure into your company's plans -- or the industry's as a whole?

Sure, organizations will still need programmers and developers, but they'll want (and pay better salaries to) programmers who know how to work with robots and developers who know how to apply their craft to wearable devices. So, yes, while labor market experts expect that IT as a whole will continue to add good jobs through 2020 and beyond, savvy tech pros are taking pains to ensure their personal roadmap is steering them towards concentrations with maximum longevity.

What follows are some specialties worth pursuing to future-proof your tech career.

Wanted: Tech experts to lay the groundwork for enterprise AI/robotics
Artificial intelligence and robotics have already moved from science fiction to reality, and soon they'll be coming to a business near you. According to a 2014 Pew Research Center report (pdf), these technologies "will permeate wide segments of daily life by 2025, with huge implications for a range of industries such as healthcare, transportation and logistics, customer service and home maintenance."

Not surprisingly, technologists skilled in this area will be in high demand, says KPMG's Justice. He notes that IT professionals will have roles to play in programming, integrating and building out the infrastructure for organizational applications of AI and robotics.

Wanted: Programmers to tap internal, external power of APIs
There's already plenty of buzz around application program interfaces (APIs) -- the sets of routines, protocols and tools that specify how software components should interact and facilitate access to Web-based applications.

Software vendors have been providing API for years, and now companies of all disciplines are making theirs public so other developers can design applications that interact with their original software. For that reason, the importance of APIs is about to explode. Companies will require more and more APIs to tap the power of emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things, robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as maximize value for existing tech-driven trends such as mobile connectivity.

IT shops will need professionals to actively develop and manage APIs for use within the organization and to connect with outside users, Accenture's Sutcliff says. These technologists need to have strong development skills as well as an understanding of data sources, data structures and the organization's applications portfolios. Sutcliff notes that this position won't be about one specific language or API, but more about assembling pieces together.

Wanted: Broad and deep security chops
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates a 37% growth in information security analyst positions between 2012 and 2022 for good reason -- all these emerging technologies are requiring, and will continue to demand, even more attention from an organization's security program.

"For all the great opportunities that social and mobile and cloud and analytics and the Internet of Things are going to bring, any economic gains that will be realized by all these new technologies can be undercut significantly if there aren't really robust security programs and protocols in place," says Matt Aiello, a partner in the Washington office of Heidrick & Struggles, which specializes in recruiting CIOs and senior-level technology, engineering and operations executives. Aiello and others say the security expert of the future will need to ensure that security is embedded in all levels.
 

---

Best Microsoft MTA Certification, Microsoft MCTS Training at certkingdom.com

11 ways to re-energize your IT career

Mid-career blues, begone. Here are 11 actionable items tech pros can tackle to keep moving on up in IT.

Stuck in the middle -- and blue?
Eric Reed knows a thing or two about mid-career pitfalls. He's seen some mid-level IT managers get too enamored with technology for its own sake, rather than viewing it as a way to advance business goals. Other would-be leaders didn't know how to communicate or collaborate with non-IT colleagues and were sidelined as techies rather than ID'd as future business leaders.

Reed is grateful he was able to overcome those challenges in his own career and sustain his momentum -- he's now CTO at GE Capital. With that goal in mind, Computerworld asked Reed and other seasoned IT pros for advice on how to keep your tech career from getting bogged down. Read on for their tips.

Develop a road map
It's smart to know not just where you want to land but how best to get there. Piera Palazzolo, senior vice president at Dale Carnegie Training, which specializes in business-oriented improvement, recommends starting with self-reflection. Map out the exact positions you'd like to hold and the ultimate title you'd like to achieve. "Then set a course for yourself and find out what you need to learn," Palazzolo says. Talk to your supervisor and other higher-ups in the company to determine how they can help you and whether your company's plans for you mesh with your own.

Gain new perspective
Managers often pay lip service to the concept of "walking the shop floor," but James Stanger, senior director of product development at CompTIA, an IT trade association, suggests going beyond the typical pat-on-the-back mentality. Instead, get to know how your direct reports, your colleagues and your customers view the world.

"In middle management, due to the demands of the job and just trying to get it done, people get these blinders on, and they don't think about how others think," Stanger says. Try asking: What do you think about this problem? What's your perspective? Can you explain your need here?

"Take those blinders off and you'll find yourself much more nimble in your thinking," Stanger says, which in turn will make you a better problem-solver -- a valued leadership quality.

Find leadership opportunities
To continue honing your leadership skills, look for opportunities that will get you noticed -- especially ones outside of your department. "Volunteer for a cross-functional task force that exposes you to senior leaders. Get out of your silo, and get more people in your organization to know who you are," says Carly Goldsmith, a career coach specializing in guiding mid-career professionals. She suggests seeking out projects and committees that will help you grow your skills.

One of her clients took Goldsmith's advice, joining a project that required her to have more interactions and strategic conversations with senior leaders. The move paid off: She was offered a promotion shortly after the project wrapped up

Be a perfectionist
Sure, no one's perfect, but if you're gunning for more responsibilities, you have to make sure you're doing your current job as close to perfect as possible.

Sean Andersen, director of interactive services at Six Flags Entertainment Corp., works with IT managers across the company's 18 theme parks. He says he notices the ones who "keep their house in order" -- consistently fulfilling all of their assigned duties, including routine and mundane tasks that often get overlooked. Andersen taps those individuals for special projects because they're most likely to be able to handle additional responsibilities.

Case in point: When the company launched a pilot program with the new Chromebox two years ago, he went to the manager who had everything else already under control.

Learn constantly, and share what you discover
To protect yourself from becoming technically obsolete as you move up in management and away from the tech trenches, you need to be constantly building and refreshing a well-rounded set of skills. "The idea is to be constantly learning," CompTIA's Stanger says. Take more classes, get another certification, earn an advanced degree, he says.

If you're like most workers, your current job requirements already fill your work week, which means you'll have to dig hard to find more hours for learning something new. Andersen, the Six Flags executive, says he carves out time -- usually late at night -- to read up on and test out new technologies. And he says he likewise has doled out plum assignments to direct reports who show similar initiative.

Compensate for your blind spots
Reed, the CTO at GE Capital, admits that in the past he often didn't think about the impact his decisions had on other people. "I'd sign onto an objective and put together a plan, but I was not thinking about the ramifications on the team," he says. He didn't realize the problem until someone on his team called him out on it.

Reed says his headlong decision-making style didn't kill his career, but it had done some damage with his business partners. Now that he's became aware of his blind spot, he works to keep it front of mind as he makes commitments that affect his team.

Bernadette Rasmussen, divisional senior vice president of information management and CTO of Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC), agrees with Reed's approach. "Listen to your team members, listen to your peers and listen to your business leaders," she advises.

Know how your business makes money…
It's not enough to have generic business acumen. That's required for most technologists these days.

To gain a leadership position, you have to know how your organization operates and, more importantly, how it makes money. "Some people get into middle management and they don't understand that. They don't understand that we're not here to implement neat technology. We're here to help the business make money," Reed says.

He recommends spending more time meeting with business colleagues to develop that insight and then using it to make smarter decisions within IT. Understanding which technologies have the biggest impact on the company's bottom line will help you prioritize projects and deliver the big bang that draws attention, Reed says.

… then use that knowledge to drive business results
As an IT middle manager, you most certainly need to know technology and must consistently deliver on your technology projects. As an aspiring C-level leader, your priority should be making sure those projects deliver a tangible benefit to the company. In other words, show your ROI.

"You must change your perspective from mastering technology to helping your organization drive results," says HCSC's Rasmussen. "Help connect the dots, drive change with perspective beyond your own and add your unique value," she advises.

Be the expert that people seek out
You need to be more than an expert to attain a corner office -- you need to be the expert.

Theresa Caragol learned that lesson during her upward climb. "You have to be the best and have the deepest expertise so someone says, 'If I want to understand this, I have to go talk to this person.' And if you're the expert in more than one technology, that's even better," she says.

Caragol, now global vice president for channels and partners at Extreme Networks Inc., positioned herself as an expert in software-defined networking at a previous employer. Her mentors helped line up opportunities for her to speak on the topic, which brought her to the attention of those in positions to promote her. She worked her way up to vice president of global channel, alliances and partners at Ciena Corp., her previous employer, a role that in turn served as a stepping stone to her current position.

Manage up and manage down
If you really want to shine, make sure your team does. And make your manager look good, too. After all, in almost all cases your boss will be the one to recommend you for top assignments and promotions. Have regular face-to-face conversations where you can talk about company objectives, professional goals and, yes, even your personal interests, says Dale Carnegie Training's Palazzolo.

Put the same effort into building relationships with your team, because you're only as good as the output you get from them. Vidhya Ranganathan, senior vice president of products and engineering at cloud-services firm Accellion Inc., takes a commonsense approach to building relationships. She regularly has lunch with her team and chats over coffee. "It's not to give them [formal] guidance, but to just listen and let them know I'm available," she says.

Avoid missteps
To make your rise through the ranks as painless as possible:
Don't wait for your manager to offer you opportunities. There's a reason why Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently found himself embroiled a firestorm of criticism when he urged women seeking a raise to "have faith in the system" rather than asking for what they want -- it's bad advice for all employees. "Too often, middle managers take a passive approach to their career advancement" -- including raises and promotions, career-coach Goldsmith says. "Go out and find the opportunities yourself.
Don't linger in a job you dislike or that's not well suited for you. "Motivation plummets, mistakes are made, stress increases. And whether you're conscious of it or not, you start to be seen as a poor performer," Goldsmith explains.
Don't get trapped in the weeds. According to Goldsmith, middle managers often do more hands-on work than they should. You need to move out of the tech trenches and lead your team, not code with them.

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com