Most Popular 10 Travel Destinations at Airbnb

The Airbnb Juggernaut rolls on with  newer travel destinations being added  and a with an ever increasing consumers flocking to  the website  Airbnb reticently conducted a research to  find out which global destinations were trending, they looked at year-to-year growth in the number of reservations made per listing. They only considered destinations with at least 100 listings and 10 reservations per month from 2012 to 2013.

 Last week  Airbnb was trending as users looked  for the hottest vacations and destinations

The infographic   showing the The hottest destinations among Airbnb travelers  are  shared in the above post, the top 10 Destinations that are high " in the list for  Travellers& more http://bit.ly/Airbnb2014 #travel #infographic 2

The 5 Digital Tactics that Will Give you the Biggest Return this Year

Managing Online Marketing 2014 Keynote from Smart Insights

This is the summary of A summary of 6 key areas to help manage online marketing based on the research between TFM&A and Smart Insights. A keynote from Dave Chaffey presented at TFM&A conference, London, 2014.

According to latest  Smartinsights  keynote presentation these 5 tactics would be

Content marketing 2. Conversion rate optimisation 3. Mobile marketing 4. Search marketing (SEO and PPC) 5. Social media marketing 

To know more about  online trends, Internet Penetration, Consumer Technology, and Mobile Computing , Please follow the links below 

Consumer Technology

PC Shipments

Display Advertising

Ad Networks

Mobile Computing

The Hour of Code – 3rd to 9th March 2014

By Robert Chapman

March 3th - 9th will mark the 25^th anniversary of the World Wide Web and what could be a better way of celebrating it then mastering the art of coding? Code.org is bringing Hour of Code to schools nationwide to get students, teachers and parents to learn the basics of coding in just one hour.

Complementing the Government’s Year of Code 2014 campaign, Hour of Code will be a fundamental part of preparing teachers and students for the curriculum changes that will cover computer science from September 2014.

In the course of Hour of Code students will be able to learn the basic skills of computer programming in 60 minutes, through fun tutorials. Suitable for all ages and abilities, neither students nor teachers need any prior experience to use the self-guided materials that are accessible for free on the UK Hour of Code website.

Don’t think coding is for techies only, watch the following video and see the likes of will.I.am from the Black Eyed Peas and basketball player, Chris Bosh talk about their experiences with coding:

For more information and taking part visit Code.org and register today! 

About the Author:

Robert Chapman is CEO and co-founder of Firebrand Training. He has had a varied career covering hardware, software, services, from a management, sales and technical perspective.

Retiring Microsoft exams – the latest update

By Sarah Morgan

Microsoft has announced the next batch of retiring examinations. This time, retirements concern 17 exams in 13 Microsoft certification courses.

The first exam to kick off the new batch of retirements is Exam 98-373: MTA Mobile Development Fundamentals of the MTA Gaming & Mobile Development Fundamentals course and it will do so on 30th June 2014.

The remaining 16 exams will retire on the same day, 31st July 2014. They are as follows:

Exam - Course

• Exam 70-595 - TS: Developing Business Process and Integration Solutions by Using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 – MCTS BizTalk Server 2010

• Exam 70-518 - PRO: Designing and Developing Windows Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4– MCPD / MCTS .NET 4 Windows Developer

• Exam 70-519 - PRO: Designing and Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4 – MCPD / MCTS .NET 4 Web Developer

• Exam 70-671 TS: Volume Licensing Specialist, Small and Medium Organizations AND Exam 70-672 TS: Volume Licensing Specialist, Volume Licensing Specialist, Large Organizations – MCTS Volume Licensing Specialist

• Exam 70-583 - PRO: Designing and Developing Windows Azure Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4 - MCPD / MCTS .NET 4 Windows Azure Developer

• Exam 70-513 - TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4AND Exam 70-516 - TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 - MCTS .NET 4 Services & Data

• Exam 70-177: MCTS Microsoft Project Server 2010, Configuring - MCTS Project Server 2010, Configuration

• Exam 70-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development AND Exam 70-451: PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 ­- MCTS / MCITP Database Developer 2008

• Exam 70-450 Pro: Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Server Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - MCTS / MCITP Database Administrator 2008

• Exam 70-516 - TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Exam 70-511 - TS: Windows Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Exam 70-513 - TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4AND Exam 70-515 - TS: Web Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 - MCTS .NET 4 Data Access, Windows and Service Communication Applications, MCTS .NET 4 Data Access and Web Applications AND MCTS .NET 4 Data Access, Web and Service Communication Applications

For more information on all retiring examinations, visit Microsoft Learning. 

Feeling confused? Call our Microsoft specialists at 080 80 800 888 and they will answer your questions. 

About the Author:       
Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. 

US Consumers find enough time to spend14.28 billion minutes on Facebook

US Smartphone users spending 114.28 billion minutes on Facebook « Technology Bookmarks: "According to the  statista,this is the time spent on selected mobile services in the United States . During February 2013 smartphone users in the United States spent 114.28 billion minutes on Facebook"

Careers Advice for you from Microsoft

Changing roles can be challenging, as there are always so many questions and so few answers. Microsoft knows this too, so if you’ve been thinking about trying yourself in a new role or technology, you are in luck, because the TechNet team has planned out some great events for you.

In order to you get into a role that you’d really enjoy, Microsoft will run three career evenings at its London offices. Each of those evenings will be themed around a particular group of technologies:

• Thursday 6th March - SQL & SharePoint
• Thursday 3rd April - Data Centre & System Centre
• Thursday 1st May – Azure & Office 365

At these events you’ll have the chance to meet Microsoft’s HR expert Emma Broadway who will provide an employers’ perspective to help you market yourself. You’ll also meet Microsoft learning partners, MVP’s and Microsoft apprentices to learn about the technological side of things.

These evenings are open to all, and whatever your IT career aspirations are, you’ll pick up some good tips and advice whether or not you are in the transfer market.

What employers have to know about cyber-security

Nowadays, many of the greatest assets of businesses are intangible. Be it a logo, an idea or confidential information, it is essential to be up-to-date on how to keep your intellectual property safe. To learn about protecting your intellectual property (IP), read the following summary of the article written by Simon Ewing for RealBusiness.co.uk

Keeping IP safe

There’s no nice way to put it. Even if you have the most sophisticated protection out there, you’ll have a hard time preventing others from using your IP in breach of your rights.

Once your copyrighted materials and your branding are online, you can easily become the victim of copyright infringement and others plagiarising your work. The only way to tackle this problem is registering a trademark and putting a copyright notice on all relevant materials, because security systems can do little to help you out here.

If your IP continues to be abused, you can reach out to the Patents County Court for help if someone abuses your IP with a misleading domain name then you can usually action their removal from the domain without having to go to Court.

Protecting confidential data

It may be difficult to guard against breaches targeting confidential information, but the best method to defend is by being proactive and prepared to take immediate action as soon as the breach has been detected.

From a legal perspective, adequate cyber security may not only be a “good-to-have” feature, but in fact a legal requirement, if your business handles sensitive customer data, such as personal information.

If personal information does happen to leak out, you may receive a letter from the Information Commissioner and ultimately get fined. Not to mention that your clients and customers will be furious. And this may damage your business and its reputation. You need to be on top of your duties when it comes to data protection and if you’re handling particularly sensitive personal information, you need to consider whether you should apply more thorough security measures to be on the safe side.

You must keep in mind that in some cases your security systems will not protect you and you need to be proactive and be prepared to enforce your rights in connection with intellectual property and confidential information when necessary.

Consumer Electronics New Frontier : Curved Screens

Among the latest buzzwords across the Tech Industry has been " Curved Screens. Both LG and Samsung have placed huge bets on this technology as they believe that this is going to be " the one giant leap for " Consumer  Electronics Industry

Marketing Gimmickry aside, the technology behind these devices is the real achievement, because they point to a future where flexible materials have become a common fixture everywhere — and not just in the living room.

How does  Curved screens work ? Basically there are two kinds of screens : LCD and  OLED screens , which are seen in smartphones and your LCD TVs and could be applied to only flat surfaces .However  the breakthrough came in 2012. 

This was when "Corning  Corp,the company behind Gorilla Glass unveiled a flexible kind of glass called Willow. Willow is about as thin as a piece of paper and comes off the production line in gigantic, 300-meter-long rolls. It's been chemically coated to conduct electricity and enhance transparency. According to Vinita Jakhanwal, an industry analyst at IHS, these and similar types of glass make it possible to build rounded surfaces that can accept LCD or OLED layers.

Samsung is the first OEM  to deliver curved TVs  with 105 inch  screen in a serious way, debuting two series of mainstream LED LCD models, one with 4K resolution and one with standard 1080p, at CES 2014.

Get Ready For Voice Calls From WhatsApp by August

After Text Messaging, WhatsApp to allow free voice calls by mid-year  "Fresh from a $19-billion (14-billion-euro) takeover by Facebook, mobile 

messaging service WhatsApp said Monday it will launch free voice calls by mid-year. The introduction of free calls, revealed on the opening day of the four-day World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain, would match rival application Viber's similar offering. "We are going to introduce voice on WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year," according to WhatsApp founder Jan Koum

WhatsApp Founder Basking in the Glory of " being the latest Poster boy of the Tech industry reflected on his early days, when he was  told  that" He was not good enough to quality for Yahoo " as an Enginerr

Further Jan Koum  " announced that today WhatsApp total subscribers was around 465million users. In the first 4 years of launch " WhatsApp has Beaten Facebook, Gmail and Skype . ( see the image)

Cisco patches six vulnerabilities

By Sarah Morgan

A total of six vulnerabilities in Cisco hardware and software products have been revealed and patched by the company. Security advisories and updates have been issued for several products.

The following products are vulnerable to one or more of three vulnerabilities in Cisco IPS products:

• Cisco ASA 5500 Series Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module (AIP SSM)
• Cisco ASA 5500-X Series IPS Security Services Processor (IPS SSP) software and hardware modules
• Cisco ASA 5505 Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Card (AIP SSC)
• Cisco IPS 4200 Series Sensors
• Cisco IPS 4300 Series Sensors
• Cisco IPS 4500 Series Sensors

New vulnerabilities – denial of service

• Cisco IPS Analysis Engine Denial of Service Vulnerability
• Cisco IPS Control-Plane MainApp Denial of Service Vulnerability
• Cisco IPS Jumbo Frame Denial of Service Vulnerability

Note: Some of the products can be attacked remotely without authentication, so updates are urgently needed.

The second advisory describes an unauthorised access vulnerability in the Cisco Unified SIP Phone 3905. By exploiting this vulnerability, an unauthenticated, remote attacker could gain root-level access to your affected device. Cisco Unified SIP Phone 3905 Firmware versions prior to 9.4(1) are affected.

The third advisory concerns Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Director Software versions prior to Cisco UCS Director Release 4.0.0.3 HOTFIX. A vulnerability in the UCS Director could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to take complete control of your affected device.

The last advisory concerns Cisco Firewall Services Module (FWSM) Software. The vulnerability is a race condition during memory de-allocation. An attacker, by sending the proper traffic to the module, could cause the software to reload. Repeated exploitation would cause a denial of service in the software. FWSM versions 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, and 4.1 are affected.

For more information read Larry Seltzer’s full article on ZDNet.com

About the Author:        

Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. 

Daily Charts :Direct Marketing, as important as digital Marketing :

 The above data shows the increase in digital ads and decrease in Traditional ads  compared between August 2011 to February 2014

More than 9 in 10 companies believe that some form of data is essential to their marketing success, reveals a recent reportfrom Experian Quality Data. But, obviously, some forms of data are simply more essential than others. Not surprisingly, contact data is considered essential by most respondents connected to data management – who hailed from the US, UK, Netherlands, Spain, Germany and France

Advertising Spends in Western Europe :Top 3 Nations with Highest Spends Between 2011 to 2017

The Above data comes from Emtest review conducted by the OECD

Smartphone Penetration in China to cross 44% in 2017,

 T

The Writing on the wall is loud and Clear . Smartphone Users  in China are expected to number  591  million by 2017.This is a almost rise of 42%  compared to 2013 . Along with this the Mobile Phone users is set to rise to 49% in china  from 43% in 2014

Why The PR Role in Your Organization Needs to Go Digital

 In the world of social media and Mobile App , how do you deal with a PR role in a organization. In todays age of technology,Twitter and Smartphones have made the " role of a PR  Guy almost redundant

How can you connect with journalists and News Agencies in the ever increasing noise of technology that seems to dim the voices of the "Traditional PR " and made it almost redundant

 So how do you reinvent the " Digital PR Role in Your Organization .

1)Monitor Google Trends: Any event which you wish to publish, broadcast or decimate needs to go online within 24 hours...  This  happens once the volume of searches are big enough ' to propel your brand  within the first  news searches

2) Use Social Tools To Track: Among many  websites which can track your Presence across the social PR landscape ..Social Mention  is what i use personally  This tool  analyses what consumers are saying about your  brand , bundles them under positive and negative sentiments, gives you the sources from where you are getting your maximum buzz  and helps you the get a holistic view of your brand

3)Use Twitter to Engage and not simply dissemate : Your  Twitter account should be doing much more than merely "manufacturing  drab stories" day after day , week after week. It should be a tool for constant engagement, for example , Video of your CEO explaining a new corporate development, feature your " HR Head on how ' They have launched a new initiative for new trainees ,

4) Use Social, Local and Mobile :  Your Company  has just launched a new product .. and have been getting rave reviews about it ...    can you create a social app, which can be shared across the web,  start a promoted tweet activity  " asking users to share using # Hastags ( with your Brand name ),

5) Incentivize  your "digital PR Channels : What about creating Mobile App... where users can  read the Testimonials or  interact with a video ..or create an app where  users  buying online "via  the website or mobile app are entitled  for a  15% discount for the first 100 online bookings

Top 20 Trending Tweets on Facebook Buyout of #WhatsApp

Top 20 Tweets on #WhatsApp Acquisition from Simplify360

5 Ways How Facebook Plans to Integrate and Stream WhatsUp Messenger in Your Daily Lives

What made Facebook like WhatsApp - Biggest technology acquisition from Simplify360

Indonesia is replacing China as the Asian Hub of Mobile Social Activity

source: Statista

This timeline presents the digital advertising expenditure per internet user in Indonesia in 2010 and 2011 and provides a forecast for the spending until 2016. 

The second chart shows the increase in mobile users from 2011 to 20117 ( projected )According to eMarketer, digital advertising spending in Indonesia will amount to 18 U.S. dollars per internet user in 2013.

UK Tablet ownders downloading more Apps has compared to Smartphone uses

via source 

The above data from statista shows the number of apps downloaded monthly in the UK in 2013, by mobile device. Around 20% reported downloading over 5 tablet apps. Meanwhile, 18 percent of respondents reported downloading three to four tablet apps per month.

US Smartphone users spending 114.28 billion minutes on Facebook

Find more statistics at Statista

According to the  statista,this is the time spent on selected mobile services in the United States . During February 2013 smartphone users in the United States spent 114.28 billion minutes on Facebook

US Smartphone Users Spent 0.68 billion mobile minutes on WhatsAp last year

This chart by statistica shows the number of monthly mobile minutes spent on WhatsApp by U.S. smartphone users from March 2012 to February 2013. In February 2013, iOS and Android users in the United States spent 0.68 billion mobile minutes on WhatsApp Messenger

"WhatsApp" Powered Facebook Mobile set to Explode

 

WHATS APP HOW FACEBOOKED 

What Facebook couldn't achieve with its own messaging app, the social networking site will probably get via WhatsApp: instant presence on people's handphones, including in India, its second-largest user base where WhatsApp is hugely popular.

Whatsup is pretty big in  all developing countries which has " seen an over increasing"  in Smartphone penetration .WhatsApp is all of 4 years , founded in  2010 and has different carriers across the Globe  has more than 20 million active users each in Germany, Mexico, India and Spain are among the top 4 markets followed by China, Brazil, Indonesia 

According to Forrester Research, WhatsApp is adding more than a million registered users everyday. If WhatsApp continues to maintain the same growth rate, a number of WhatsApp users would easily cross 1 billion by the end of 2015. So, WhatsApp would become second to Facebook with more than a billion users.

In  India Facebook boasts of  "100 million active users in India as of Jan,2014 and 70% of them use the Mobile Media ...This out of a million Mobile base in India  , and nearly seven out of ten of them are mobile users. It's been a key driver of mobile internet access -- which accounts for 90 percent of the nearly 200 million internet users reported by the regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), late last year.  

According to the Facebook annual report, in the fourth quarter of 2013, around  75 million monthly active users came to Facebook via their mobile devices. India accounts for a bit less than a tenth of WhatsApp's 450 million users worldwide. According to Forrester Research, WhatsApp is adding more than a million registered users everyday. 

A video tour of Firebrand Learn

By Sarah Morgan

As you might know, last September marked the launch of Learn, Firebrand’s self-study platform, where students can access course material, practice tests, exercises and additional resources at no cost.

The first course made available on Learn was PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP). In case you haven’t checked it out yet, you are in luck, because now it's even easier with Mike Greer's fantastic video tour of the platform.

“This video is a quick tour of the free training materials available at the Firebrand website to help you qualify for your PMP (Project Management Professional) certification from PMI (Project Management Institute). We quickly "walk through" the website's collections, including powerful "accelerated" study tools, exercises and answers. If you want to know what's involved in getting that PMP certification, this website is a GREAT place to start!”

About the Author:       
Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. 

Landing Pages vs Social Engagement :Which Metric is Given More Weightage to Google

Monetizing Mobile Apps To Creating Marketing propositions

Marketing Apps [Infographic] from ion interactive

Estrategias para desarrollo crossplatform en Windows Phone 8 y Windows 8

El día de hoy fuí invitada a dar un #DevHangout en DevAcademy.la sobre Windows Phone 8 y Windows 8. Me propuse a mi misma procurar comunicar todos esos temas que necesitamos que los desarrolladores de estas tecnologías empiecen a aplicar en sus apps y bueno el resultado fue muy bonito.

La charla es un compendio principalmente de buenas prácticas enfocadas al uso de MVVM partiendo de prácticas básicas hasta prácticas avanzadas sugeridas. 

Un consejo adicional que les puedo dejar, es que si no entienden mucho que son las vistas modelo o como definirlas se vean el post que publique antes sobre tema, explicandolo detalladamente.

Espero que les sirva mucho y que los anime a profundizar en los temas que les haga falta aprender, recuerden igual que tenemos un proyecto en construcción aquí en el blog donde justamente hemos estado aprendiendo todas las cosas que menciono en la charla.

Les comparto además las diapositivas de la presentación

 

Estrategias para desarrollo crossplatform en Windows Phone 8 y Windows 8 from Sorey Garcia

Apprenticeship over university – the practical experience

By Sarah Morgan

Up until recently, most school leavers were all psyched about university applications to get a degree that could kick-start their working lives. The idea was to get the best academic experience possible at a seemingly good price. However, with the increased university fees fewer teens are even considering the idea of pursuing a degree. 

Learn and get paid

Nowadays, more and more organisations have staff members who aren't even old enough to drive, yet they do their jobs so well, that most university graduates could learn from them. Fortunately, more and more teenagers start to grasp the idea of how practical work experience could benefit them more than a degree and thus the numbers of apprentices are slowly starting to increase. 

After finishing school, some youngsters would rather head straight into work, to gain practical knowledge and skills than spend three more years in education. Last year, the number of applicants increased by 27% and it's been increasing ever since. In 2013 over 130,000 vacancies were posted online and they generated more than 1.4 million applications, an increase of just over a third from 2012. Jaine Bolton, director of the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), said: "These figures show that the demand for apprenticeships keeps growing. It is the first choice for many talented young people and more employers wanting young talent need to wake up to this fact."

Better employment prospects with apprenticeship experience

Recent surveys showed that young people with work experience have a much better chance of getting a job than university graduates, because practical knowledge tends to outweigh that "piece of paper". Education and Skills Minister Matthew Hancocksaid: "We've got a lot in the pipeline to make apprenticeships even better and more accessible."

At the end of 2013 the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Chief John Cridland called for that apprenticeships were to be given an equal status to as degrees. He said: “We need to widen the gateways into higher-skilled work for far more people, including those already working, or those for whom a degree may not be the best option.”

Why apprenticeships are better

People would say that apprenticeships are better for young people and more fulfilling than university because part-takers get real-life work experience. Although university has its own perks, such as theoretical knowledge, being an apprentice is something different. Apprentices learn along the way and gain skills that are required for other jobs, and therefore have the edge over those peers, who spent years learning concepts and theories, without actually practicing them. 

About the Author:       
Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. 

Cisco Tech Huddle - Mobile Enterprise

By Sarah Morgan

Nowadays it is a common expectation from employees as well as customers to be able to access data without having to be in the office. In the next series of Cisco Tech Huddle events you’ll have the chance to learn about how to access company data by using Cisco Collaboration Edge technology.

You’ll also learn about the latest product updates and see some live demos. What’s more you’ll be able to exchange ideas, experiences and ideas with your peers through interactive discussions.

Cisco will be discussing the latest innovations in mobile enterprise technology, including: 

• How Cisco CMX can help your organisation better understand customer behaviour on your site
• How Jabber Guest can provide your organisation with valuable real time communications with Guests to your business
• About Cisco’s Collaboration Edge architecture
• Live demonstrations of how these products and services integrate to offer real value to your business!

There'll be dedicated 'Ask me about...' sessions, where Cisco experts will answer all your questions.  Plus, you’ll have the chance to win an iPad mini, as well as some Jabra devices, when attending the Cisco Tech Huddle.

When and where are these events happening?

• Aberdeen: 18th March
• London City: 18th  March
• Reading: 20th March
• Belfast: 20th March
• Glasgow: 20th March
• Dublin: 25th March
• Manchester: 25th March

If you can't make the dates above, there's also a summary webinar taking place on 27^th March 11:30-13:00

For all of the above dates, you can register on the Cisco website and see the full agenda here.

About the Author:       
Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. 

Moving on from MCSA Windows Server 2012

By Sarah Morgan

The MCSA Windows Server 2012 qualification has proven exceptionally popular with the technical community over the last 18 months. Rightly so, as the qualification gives students a solid grounding in all aspects of Windows Server 2012 roles and features, and once the certification has been attained, students can be confident in capably working with the operating system.

Since its release in 2012, many have now held the MCSA certification and have been using the associated technologies for an extended period of time. This segment of the server community frequently seeks the qualification or qualifications that are next on the ladder.

Taking the next step

MCSA Windows Server 2012 is the prerequisite qualification to a range of MCSE qualifications, including: MCSE: Messaging and MCSE: Communications, which are tracks for those specialising in Exchange Server and Lync Server technologies. MCSE: SharePoint is also an option for those planning to work with SharePoint on a regular basis. All three of the aforementioned MCSEs are clearly defined and easy to differentiate from each other.

There are however a series of Microsoft qualifications that are not so easy to differentiate, as they appear to have considerable crossover. These are the qualifications we will be taking a closer look at in this article. They include the MCSE: Server Infrastructure, MCSE: Private Cloud, and Microsoft Specialist: Server Virtualization with Windows Server and System Center qualifications.

Know the right direction

In order to pick which qualification is right for you, take a look at your job role and ask yourself the following questions:

• How much do I work with System Center 2012 R2?
• How much do I work with Microsoft Virtualization technologies?

If you work primarily with Microsoft infrastructure, using Microsoft Virtualization and want to evaluate the System Center 2012 R2 suite: MCSE: Server Infrastructure is the choice for you.

If you work primarily with Microsoft infrastructure and you use Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager to manage your virtualization environment. Or you currently work with a third-party hypervisor and will be transitioning to Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager. In this case, Microsoft Specialist: Server Virtualization with Windows Server and System Center is for you.

If you work in a data centre managing the virtual environment for your internal business units or for your customers. You now wish to gain an in-depth knowledge of the System Center 2012 R2 product suite. Then MCSE: Private Cloud is for you.

To read the full article written by Firebrand’s lead Windows Server Instructor Mike Brown, check out ServerWatch.com

About the Author:       
Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. 

Why children should learn to code

By Sarah Morgan

First of all what is code? According to the definition by Year of Code: “code is the language we use to instruct computers.”

We are living in a software-dominated world. Telephone calls go over software-controlled networks; television is delivered over the internet; people don’t buy maps anymore, they use the web; and we all shop online.

The next generation’s world will be even more online and digital. Soon, houses will be controlled with software, some medical care will be delivered over the web and even cars may drive themselves. To succeed in such a world, children must learn the basis of computational thinking.

Software is the new world language

Because software is becoming so critical and omnipresent in our lives, we have familiarise ourselves with it. Of course not every job in the future will involve programming, but it is still essential that children learn how to master computational thinking.

Computational thinking combines mathematics, logic and algorithms, and teaches you how to tackle large problems by breaking them down into a sequence of smaller, more manageable problems. But the benefits of this approach reach much further than just knowing how to code. Computational thinking is everywhere, including physics, music, engineering or medicine. It’s a skill that everyone should learn, because you’ll benefit from it, no matter what you end up working as.

In September 2014 coding will be introduced to the school timetable for every child aged 5-16 years old, making the UK the first major G20 economy in the world to implement this on a national level. This is a landmark policy change that will arm a generation of school-leavers with the skills for the 21st century.

For more information read the full article on why everychild should learn to code.

About the Author:        

Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry.