50 Hot IT Skills on the Rise

Here are the 25 certifications and non-certified skills most likely to increase in value over the next six months, as determined by Foote Partners LLC. But President David Foote cautions, "There is simply no such thing as a reliable six-month IT labor forecast in these volatile market conditions."   Rank  IT Certifications  Non-certified IT Skills  1 SAS Certified Base Programmer SAP Basis components  2  Red Hat Certified Security Specialist RAD/extreme programming/agile programming  3 CompTIA Security+ Virtual private networks   4  SAS Certified Advanced Programmer Business continuity and disaster recovery planning  5 VMware Certified Professional Web 2.0 skills (AJAX, Adobe Flex, Adobe Flash, JavaScript, JSON)   6 GIAC Security Essentials Certification Windows 7   7 Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator SAP Web Application Server   8  Cisco Certified Network Professional SAN/storage administration   9 Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional RFID/wireless sensors   10 Red Hat Certified Technician Python   11 HP Accredited Integration Specialist HTML/DHTML/XHTML  12 Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (all) Business performance management software/systems   13 Sun Certified Systems Administrator for Solaris SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)  14 Microsoft Certified Database Administrator SAP EBP (Enterprise Buyer Professional)   15 Cisco Certified Design Professional SAP FI -- FSCM (Financial Accounting -- Financial Supply Chain Management)   16 GIAC Certified Incident Handler Linux  17 CyberSecurity Forensic Analyst Ruby/Ruby on Rails   18 Certification Authorization Professional Social networks (tagging, virtual communities, social bookmarking, etc.)   19 Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (virtualization) SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management)   20 GIAC Security Audit Essentials SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management)   21 GIAC Secure Software Programmer ITIL v3 Foundation   22 IBM Certified Specialist - AIX Basic Op SAP WM (Warehouse Management)   23 Avaya Certified Specialist Web Dynapro   24 Check Point Certified Security Administrator SAP APO (Advanced Planner and Optimizer)   25 GIAC Certified Windows Security Administrator SAP PP (Production Planning) Source: Foote Partners IT Skills and Certifications Hot Lists, July 2010. Rankings are based on interviews with hundreds of executives and primary decision-makers from the 2,000 companies in Foote's database of research partners. (Courtesy: Jamie Eckle. CIO.com)