The Citrix Certified Administrator™ (CCA) certification program is now more beneficial for IT professionals by segmenting programs by individual product. These new programs deliver more targeted training to IT professionals and help justify the training and certification costs to managing executives.

The new citrix certifications include CCA for Citrix Presentation Server™ 4.0 and CCA for Citrix Password Manager™ 4.0. These new, product-specific certifications reflect input from training and certification candidates who want to take the CCA certification but currently administer one, specific Citrix product.

“Restructuring the CCA certification broadens our ability to certify more individuals and provide relevant education to each,” said Karl Liebman, senior director, consulting and education, Citrix. “This significant change in our training program enhances learning and provides important cost-benefits to our customers.”

New requirements and preparatory tools have been developed for both certifications. The first CCA certifications immediately available for point products from the Citrix Access Suite™ 4.0 are for Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 and Citrix Password Manager 4.0.

The Citrix Certified Administrator for Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 includes a four-day instructor-led training course called Citrix Presentation Server 4.0: Administration.

This course gives trainees a solid, practical foundation in the deployment and management of Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 and its components, including Web Interface and Secure Gateway. The CCA for Citrix Password Manager 4.0 includes a two-day instructor-led training course called Citrix Password Manager 4.0: Administration.

Instructors lead candidates through interactive discussions and hands-on labs that teach how to install and administer Citrix Password Manager 4.0.

The Citrix Consulting and Education department has also developed eLearning classes to help prepare students for the instructor-led courses.

These preparatory courses are comprised of two types of courses, “Architectural Overview” and “Common Management Platform Administration.” The architectural overview course for each product is designed to introduce candidates to the components, functionality and architecture of the products.

The common management platform administration course is a foundation course designed as a general introduction for Citrix administrators and IT professionals to common features of the management platform for Citrix Access Suite products. The assessment given at the end of this preparatory course is a requirement for the new CCA certifications.

In recent years, IT professionals have witnessed a prolonged decline in salary tied specifically to obtaining technical skills and certifications. Yet, historically, IT certifications had been a necessity for career training and promotion.

According to a Foote Partners’ Pay Index report released in February of this year, IT professionals saw a 4 percent increase in pay in 2004, following a 5.6 percent decline in 2003.

Foote Partners placed the Citrix Certified Administrator on the “hot certifications” list, stating that it grew over 15 percent in 2004. Among many contributing factors to the past decline were CIO budget restraints and debates over valued experience versus certification credentials.

The new CCA model eliminates costs of unnecessary training and allows users to secure critical, real-time credentials that can be immediately applied to an IT professional’s current workplace.

CCA

Citrix’s CCA (Citrix Certified Administrator) is an entry to mid level certification for IT professionals who want to demonstrate “basic administrator-level expertise on Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server, with a general understanding of the other products in the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite.” This certification is the starting point for other Citrix technical certifications.

The Citrix certifications program got its start in August of 1997 and regularly gets updated as new products.

CCEA

Citrix’s CCEA (Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator) is a mid level certification for IT professionals who want to expand their skills “required for installing and administering the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite of products.” This certification builds on the Citrix CCA (Citrix Certified Administrator) certification.

The CCEA got its start in February 2000 and regularly gets updated as new products are released. The program underwent a major change in December, 2003.

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