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UAP Intelligence Network – Real-time monitoring of official UAP reports from government agencies and scientific institutions worldwide

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  • The Winds on Mars are Stronger Than We Thought

    A "Serpent" dust devil imaged by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

    Dust devils are a regular occurrence on Mars. Similar to Earth, these short-lived whirlwinds emerge when surface heating occurs, causing changes in air pressure and a vertical column of wind to form. As the column pulls in surrounding air, it becomes a vortex that kicks up dust, which it carries with it across the surface. While Mars has a very thin atmosphere, less than 1% that of Earth’s, the lower gravity means that its dust devils grow larger than anything we see here. And according to new research by an international research team, these dust devils will reach velocities that are higher than what we expected.

    The research was led by Dr. Valentin Bickel from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern. He was joined by researchers from the University of Bern’s Space Research and Planetary Sciences (SRPS), the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research (CEPSAR) at the Open University, the Institute of Planetary Research (IPR) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The paper detailing their research and findings was recently published (Oct. 8th, 2025) in the journal Science Advances.

    Dust devils and dust storms play an integral part in Mars’ atmospheric dynamics and are central to the distribution of dust across the planet’s surface. While robotic missions are unable to monitor the winds visually, dust devils are valuable indicators for researchers that allow them to study wind patterns. This is one of the primary science objectives of the European Space Agency’s *Mars Express* and *ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter* (TGO), which has been studying Mars since 2003 and 2016 (respectively).

    *Artist’s impression of the ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) studying the Martian atmosphere. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab*

    For their research, the team analyzed images taken by the TGO’s Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) and the Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) using state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. “Using a state-of-the-art deep learning approach, we were able to identify dust devils in over 50,000 satellite images,” Bickel explained in a University of Bern press release. “Our study is therefore based exclusively on data from European Mars exploration.”

    They then examined stereo images from 300 of the identified dust devils, which they placed in a time sequence to obtain measurements of their movements and velocities. The results showed that the dust devils and winds powering them can reach speeds of up to 44 m/s, or 160 km/h (~145 ft/s, 100 mph), much faster than previously thought. Prior measurements have shown that winds on Mars generally remain below 50 km/h (31 mph), with some rare cases reaching as high as 100 km/h (62 mph). These stronger winds could be responsible for a large part of the dust uplift, which has a major influence on Mars’ weather and climate. Said Bickel:

    These strong, straight-line winds are very likely to bring a considerable amount of dust into the Martian atmosphere – much more than previously assumed. Our data show where and when the winds on Mars seem to be strong enough to lift dust from the surface. This is the first time that such findings are available on a global scale for a period of around two decades.

    By providing valuable data on Mars’ atmospheric dynamics, this study could help advance research into a number of fields. This includes the formation of features like dunes and slope streaks, as well as climate models that predict periodic and seasonal changes in weather. This will be especially important when planning future missions to the Red Planet, including crewed missions expected to happen in the coming decades. These models help mission planners to assess the potential risks for equipment and crews and for designers to adapt the technical systems involved.

    Said co-author Daniela Tirsch from the Institute of Space Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), “A better understanding of the wind conditions on Mars is crucial for the planning and execution of future landed missions. With the help of the new findings on wind dynamics, we can model the Martian atmosphere and the associated surface processes more precisely.” The team plans to continue their investigation into dust devils and supplement their findings using coordinated observations by CaSSIS and HRSC, which they hope will make mission planning more efficient.

    Further Reading: University of Bern, Science Advances

  • Riverbed tackles AI data bottleneck with new Oracle-based service

    Riverbed tackles AI data bottleneck with new Oracle-based service

    Riverbed recently unveiled statement. “We will continue to build on our momentum, helping customers maximize the return on their AI investment.”

    According to Riverbed’s 2025 Global AI Research, 75% of 1,200 organizations surveyed plan to establish an AI data repository strategy, with 90% identifying data movement as vital to their AI success. The survey also reports that just one in 10 AI projects extends beyond pilot mode into an enterprise-wide deployment, often due to data quality issues and slow data movement.

    “Customers are looking for faster, more secure ways to move massive datasets so they can bring AI initiatives to life,” said Sachin Menon, Oracle’s vice president of cloud engineering, in a statement. “With Riverbed Data Express Service deployed on OCI, organizations will be able to accelerate time to value, reduce costs, and help ensure that their data remains protected.”

    Riverbed’s Aras explains that its Data Express Service uses post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to move petabyte-scale datasets through secure VPN tunnels to ensure that customer data remains protected during the transfer process. The technology is based on Riverbed’s SteelHead acceleration platform running RiOS 10 software.

    “Our cloud-optimized technology design delivers much higher data retrieval, data movement across the network, and data write rates, through highly performant data mover instances, instance parallelization and matched network fabric configurations. The design is tailored for each cloud, to ensure maximal performance can be achieved using cloud-specific product adjustments,” Aras says.

    “The time for preventing harvest-now, decrypt-later is now,” Aras says, referring to the security threat where encrypted data is intercepted and stored for decryption once quantum computers become powerful enough. The Riverbed service addresses use cases spanning AI model training, inference operations, and emerging agentic AI applications.

    Data Express is initially deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, but Riverbed said the service will orchestrate data movement across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, as well as on-premises data centers. General availability is planned for Q4 2025.

  • Wi-Fi 8 is coming — and it’s going to make AI a lot faster

    Wi-Fi 8 is coming — and it’s going to make AI a lot faster

    While it seems like Wi-Fi 7 was just released (it was actually officially released in Jan. 2024), work is already underway on its successor Wi-Fi 8.

    In fact, Broadcom just announced the industry’s first Wi-Fi 8 silicon as an early entrant ahead of the specifications being finalized. Formally known as IEEE 802.11bn, Wi-Fi 8 is not expected to be finalized until 2028, though that isn’t slowing down the pace of technology development.

    Unlike previous generations of Wi-Fi that competed on peak throughput numbers, Wi-Fi 8 prioritizes consistent performance under challenging conditions. The specification introduces coordinated multi-access point features, dynamic spectrum management, and hardware-accelerated telemetry designed for AI workloads at the network edge.

    The 802.11bn specification also marks a departure from single-feature Wi-Fi generations. Previous standards centered on one major capability: OFDMA for Wi-Fi 6, 6 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi 6E, 320 MHz channels for Wi-Fi 7. Wi-Fi 8 instead bundles multiple coordinated technologies to address median and tail latency performance.

    “Wi-Fi 8 is entirely different, where you don’t have just one anchor feature,” Christopher Szymanski, director, product marketing at Broadcom, explained to Network World. “Here you see a variety of features that come together collectively work so well in creating a much better user experience.”

    Ultra High Reliability architecture

    A core part of the Wi-Fi 8 architecture is an approach known as Ultra High Reliability (UHR). This architectural philosophy targets the 99th percentile user experience rather than best-case scenarios. The innovation addresses AI application requirements that demand symmetric bandwidth, consistent sub-5-millisecond latency and reliable uplink performance.

    Traditional Wi-Fi optimizes for 90/10 download-to-upload ratios. AI applications push toward 50/50 symmetry. Voice assistants, edge AI processing and sensor data all require consistent uplink capacity.

    “AI traffic looks different,” Szymanski explained. “It’s increasingly symmetric, with heavy uplink demands from these edge devices. These devices are pushing all this data to the cloud or locally with on prem. That calls for smarter resource management.”

    Coordinated Multi-AP Operation comes to Wi-Fi 8

    Wi-Fi 8 introduces inter-access point coordination as a core innovation. Multiple APs communicate and collaborate rather than operating independently. This represents a significant architectural change from autonomous AP operation. Enterprise deployments gain prioritized packet handling across the infrastructure. APs label and process voice and video traffic cooperatively. The system ensures latency-sensitive applications receive resources even during congestion. 

    The coordination is enabled with a series of capabilities including:

    • Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR) allows access points to negotiate transmit power dynamically. When one AP detects that a client has strong signal strength, it informs neighboring APs. Those neighbors can increase power for their own clients without causing interference. The coordination prevents the hidden node problem while maximizing spatial reuse.
    • Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF) extends this concept to directional transmission. Access points share client location information and coordinate beam patterns. Multiple APs can simultaneously serve different clients in the same coverage area by steering beams away from each other’s clients.

    “It’s going to feel like you have one cohesive network, rather than having four or three overlapping mesh networks,” Szymanski said.

    Dynamic spectrum access innovation

    Wi-Fi 8 introduces three related features that fundamentally change how devices access available spectrum. These three features work together to maximize spectrum efficiency. Broadcom’s apartment density simulations showed 200% median throughput improvement and 6x lower latency at the 99th percentile compared to Wi-Fi 7.

    Non-Primary Channel Access (NPCA) breaks the primary channel requirement. Current Wi-Fi requires the primary channel to be clear before using any spectrum. A device with 160 MHz capability cannot use the secondary 80 MHz if the primary 80 MHz is busy.

    NPCA allows devices to transmit on secondary channels without waiting for primary channel availability. This fills spectrum that would otherwise remain unused.

    “Not everybody’s transmitting at the same bandwidth,” Szymanski explained. “You have IoT devices that are much narrower bandwidth, or you have a laptop that might be a 320 megahertz capable device. Right now, that spectrum would lie fallow. With non primary channel access, you can fill up the whole medium.”

    Dynamic Sub-Channel Operation (DSO) enables access points to identify and avoid congested spectrum in real-time. Rather than staying on a configured channel, APs dynamically shift to clearer frequencies within their operating band. The feature operates on a per-transmission basis.

    Dynamic Bandwidth Expansion (DBE) allows real-time channel width changes based on client capability and spectrum conditions. An AP can allocate 320 MHz to a capable laptop while simultaneously serving a 20 MHz smartphone. The bandwidth adjusts dynamically as spectrum availability changes.

    Extended range technologies land in Wi-Fi 8

    Wi-Fi 8 introduces Extended Long Range (ELR) mode specifically for IoT devices. This feature uses lower data rates with more robust coding to extend coverage. The tradeoff accepts reduced throughput for dramatically improved range.

    ELR operates by increasing symbol duration and using lower-order modulation. This improves the link budget for battery-powered sensors, smart home devices and outdoor IoT deployments. Broadcom claims 2x better range in line-of-sight scenarios and 1.5x improvement in non-line-of-sight conditions compared to Wi-Fi 7.

    Distributed Resource Units (dRu) complement ELR by allowing non-contiguous spectrum allocation. An IoT device can maintain connectivity using scattered spectrum fragments across the band. This proves particularly valuable in congested environments where clear contiguous spectrum is unavailable.

    The specification includes refined Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS). Wi-Fi 8 adds more granular rate steps between existing MCS levels. This provides smoother transitions as signal conditions change. Devices spend less time at suboptimal rates.

    Improved Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) coding enhances error correction. The better forward error correction allows higher data rates at a given signal-to-noise ratio. This improves performance in noisy RF environments.

    Together, these features deliver 50% reduction in active power consumption for battery-operated IoT devices while extending usable range.

    Seamless roaming enhancements

    Wi-Fi 8 enhances roaming to maintain sub-millisecond handoff latency. The specification includes improved Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS) and introduces coordinated roaming decisions across the infrastructure.

    Access points share client context information before handoff. When a device moves, the new AP already knows the client’s capabilities, security credentials and QoS requirements. This eliminates re-authentication delays that cause audio drops and video freezes.

    The coordinated approach prevents ping-pong roaming. APs negotiate which one should serve a client based on current load and signal quality rather than signal strength alone. A client won’t repeatedly switch between two APs at a coverage boundary.

    “Enhanced roaming means that anywhere you sit in your home or in your network you’re next to an AP,” Szymanski said. “It’s going to provide that sort of unified network experience.”

    The improvement particularly benefits voice and video applications. Current Wi-Fi can experience 50-100 millisecond gaps during roaming. Wi-Fi 8 targets single-digit millisecond handoffs.

    Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 silicon portfolio

    As part of its Wi-Fi 8 effort Broadcom announced four chips spanning residential, enterprise and mobile markets.

    • BCM6718: A four-stream, 320 MHz tri-band radio for residential gateways and service provider equipment with BroadStream telemetry engine and third-generation DPD front-end modules.
    • BCM43840: A four-stream Wi-Fi 8 chip for enterprise access points with advanced location tracking and support for higher client density.
    • BCM43820: A two-stream scanning and analytics radio for dedicated monitoring in enterprise deployments, operating independently of data radios.
    • BCM43109: A combo chip for mobile devices integrating two-stream 320 MHz Wi-Fi 8, Bluetooth 6.0, Thread v1.4, Zigbee Pro and 802.11az secure ranging.

    Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 silicon is based on 802.11bn draft 1.5. Szymanski acknowledged the specification remains under IEEE development but expressed confidence in compatibility.

    “Draft 1.5 is frozen, but things are still working through the process,” he said. “We have a very high degree of confidence that this will be fully compliant with the bn spec and with the Wi-Fi Alliance certification.”

  • AI certifications outpace non-certified AI skills in pay growth

    AI certifications outpace non-certified AI skills in pay growth

    Pay boosts for IT skills have been in decline for three years—but AI certifications are contradicting the trend, according to new data from Foote Partners.

    Both IT certifications and non-certified skills experienced a 0.7% dip in pay premiums during the third quarter of 2025. Yet AI-related certifications climbed nearly 12% over the past year, marking a significant difference from the bigger trend. Foote Partners found that during the same time period, pay for non-certified AI skills decreased 1%. Organizations such as CompTIA and vendors like Cisco have launched AI-related certifications.

    “We are continually asked about how AI and other fast-paced emerging technologies are impacting jobs and pay for tech professionals. To answer this question, we have decades of data from our ITSCPI [IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index] research to show the popularity of incorporating agility tools like skill pay premiums into pay practices,” said David Foote, chief analyst and research officer at Foote Partners, in a statement. “Right now, there are 124 AI-related skills and certifications with average pay premiums ranging from an equivalent of 7% to 23% of base salary. Technology development and adoption rates are uncertain, influencing pay volatility, which has become more extreme in recent years.”

    Foote Partners found that despite the growth in AI certification pay, non-certified AI skills still command significantly higher bonuses than AI certifications—averaging the equivalent of 14.5% of base salary compared to 8.3% for certifications, according to Foote Partners’ IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index, which tracks compensation data from 4,865 U.S. and Canadian employers covering 476,748 tech professionals.

    “Employers are thinking about jobs more as tasks, not titles: tasks that can be done entirely by an AI agent/robot, tasks that will be done with a human working with an AI agent/robot, and finally, tasks that are uniquely human,” Foote said in the report. “Skills are mapped directly onto each of these three task categories, with new skills and skills combinations required by each task that will always be changing.”

    The research shows 404 of 1,371 skills and certifications (30%) changed market value in Q3 2025, up from 280 (21%) one year ago. In Q3 2025, 161 IT skills and certifications gained market value while 243 declined—a dramatic shift from the prior quarter when gains and declines were nearly balanced.

    A key finding is that non-certified IT skills show significantly more volatility than certifications. Over the past year, an average of 35% of non-certified IT skills changed in market value every 90 days, compared to 19% for IT certifications. Foote Partners explained how each type of skill is valued: non-certified skills are market-driven by employers, while certifications are heavily influenced by vendor-driven promotional marketing.

    Beyond AI, the highest-paying non-certified IT skills—earning between 20% and 23% of base salary—include DevSecOps, Site Reliability Engineering, DataOps, blockchain technologies, Event-Driven Architecture, security architecture, and risk analytics.

    On the certification side, skills earning 10% to 13% of base salary include offensive security certifications (such as OSEE, OSEP, and OSWE), GIAC security credentials, and project management certifications like PMI-PMP. Certifications in database/data management, networking and communications, and applications development experienced the steepest pay declines. The average cash pay premium for 648 IT certifications decreased to 6.4% of base salary, while 734 non-certified IT skills decreased to 9.5% of base salary.

    According to Foote Partners, certifications decline in value for multiple reasons, such as they expire or they are retired. The research firm explains that as more professionals attain a certification, supply catches up with demand, which drives down market value.

    “But just as often it is their popularity that drives down pay premiums for a certification: as interest in a certification escalates and more people attain the certification, the gap between supply and demand for the certification narrows, driving down its market value as the laws of scarcity would dictate,” the report stated.

  • Diamond Blankets Will Keep Future Chips Cool

    Today’s stunning computing power is allowing us to move from human intelligence toward artificial intelligence. And as our machines gain more power, they’re becoming not just tools but decision-makers shaping our future.

    But with great power comes greatheat!

    As nanometer-scale transistors switch at gigahertz speeds, electrons race through circuits, losing energy as heat—which you feel when your laptop or your phone toasts your fingers. As we’ve crammed more and more transistors onto chips, we’ve lost the room to release that heat efficiently. Instead of the heat spreading out quickly across the silicon, which makes it much easier to remove, it builds up to form hot spots, which can be tens of degrees warmer than the rest of the chip. That extreme heat forces systems to throttle the performance of CPUs and GPUs to avoid degrading the chips.

    In other words, what began as a quest for miniaturization has turned into a battle against thermal energy. This challenge extends across all electronics. In computing, high-performance processors demand ever-increasing power densities. (New Nvidia GPU B300 servers will consume liquid cooling, where air or fluid carries the heat away.

    The dominant cooling strategies today center around advances in heat sinks, fans, and radiators. In pursuit of even better cooling, researchers have explored liquid cooling using microfluidic channels and removing heat using phase-change materials. Some computer clusters go so far as to submerge the servers in thermally conductive, dielectric—electrically insulating—liquids.

    These innovations are critical steps forward, but they still have limitations. Some are so expensive they’re worthwhile only for the highest-performing chips; others are simply too bulky for the job. (Your smartphone can’t carry a conventional fan.) And none are likely to be very effective as we move toward chip architectures resembling silicon skyscrapers that stack multiple layers of chips. Such 3D systems are only as viable as our ability to remove heat from every layer within it.

    The big problem is that chip materials are poor heat conductors, so the heat becomes trapped and concentrated, causing the temperature to skyrocket within the chip. At higher temperatures, transistors leak more current, wasting power; they age more quickly, too.

    Heat spreaders allow the heat to move laterally, diluting it and allowing the circuits to cool. But they’re positioned far—relatively, of course—from where the heat is generated, and so they’re of little help with these hot spots. We need a heat-spreading technology that can exist within nanometers of where the heat is generated. This is where our new low-temperature diamond could be essential.

    How to Make Diamonds

    Before my lab turned to developing diamond as a heat-spreading material, we were working on it as a semiconductor. In its single-crystal form—like the kind on your finger—it has a wide bandgap and ability to withstand enormous electric fields. Single-crystalline diamond also offers some of the highest thermal conductivity recorded in any material, reaching 2,200 to 2,400 watts per meter per kelvin—roughly six times as conductive as copper. Polycrystalline diamond—an easier to make material—can approach these values when grown thick. Even in this form, it outperforms copper.

    As attractive as diamond transistors might be, I was keenly aware—based on my experience researching gallium nitride devices—of the long road ahead. The problem is one of scale. Several companies are working to scale high-purity diamond substrates to 50, 75, and even 100 millimeters but the diamond substrates we could acquire commercially were only about 3 mm across.

    Gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistors were an ideal test case for diamond cooling. The devices are 3D and the critical heat-generating part, the two-dimensional electron gas, is close to the surface. Chris Philpot

    So we decided instead to try growing diamond films on large silicon wafers, in the hope of moving toward commercial-scale diamond substrates. In general, this is done by reacting methane and hydrogen at high temperatures, 900 °C or more. This results in not a single crystal but a forest of narrow columns. As they grow taller, the nanocolumns coalesce into a uniform film, but by the time they form high-quality polycrystalline diamond, the film is already very thick. This thick growth adds stress to the material and often leads to cracking and other problems.

    But what if we used this polycrystalline coating as a heat spreader for other devices? If we could get diamond to grow within nanometers of transistors, get it to spread heat both vertically and laterally, and integrate it seamlessly with the silicon, metal, and dielectric in chips, it might do the job.

    There were good reasons to think it would work. Diamond is electrically insulating, and it has a relatively low dielectric constant. That means it makes a poor capacitor, so signals sent through diamond-encrusted interconnects might not degrade much. Thus diamond could act as a “thermal dielectric,” one that is electrically insulating but thermally conducting.

    Polycrystalline diamond could help reduce temperatures inside 3D chips. Diamond thermal vias would grow inside micrometers-deep holes so heat can flow from vertically from one chip to a diamond heat spreader in another chip that’s stacked atop it. Dennis Rich

    For our plan to work, we were going to have to learn to grow diamond differently. We knew there wasn’t room to grow a thick film inside a chip. We also knew the narrow, spiky crystal pillars made in the first part of the growth process don’t transmit heat laterally very well, so we’d need to grow large-grained crystals from the start to get the heat moving horizontally. A third problem was that the existing diamond films didn’t form a coating on the sides of devices, which would be important for inherently 3D devices. But the biggest impediment was the high temperature needed to grow the diamond film, which would damage, if not destroy, an IC’s circuits. We were going to have to cut the growth temperature at least in half.

    Just lowering the temperature doesn’t work. (We tried: You wind up, basically, with soot, which is electrically conductive—the opposite of what’s needed.) We found that adding oxygen to the mix helped, because it continuously etched away carbon deposits that weren’t diamond. And through extensive experimentation, we were able to find a formula that produced coatings of large-grained polycrystalline diamond all around devices at 400 °C, which is a survivable temperature for CMOS circuits and other devices.

    Thermal Boundary Resistance

    Although we had found a way to grow the right kind of diamond coatings, we faced another critical challenge—the phonon bottleneck, also known as thermal boundary resistance (TBR). Phonons are packets of heat energy, in the way that photons are packets of electromagnetic energy. Specifically, they’re a quantized version of the vibration of a crystal lattice. These phonons can pile up at the boundary between materials, resisting the flow of heat. Reducing TBR has long been a goal in thermal interface engineering, and it is often done by introducing different materials at the boundary. But semiconductors are compatible only with certain materials, limiting our choices.

    Thermal scaffolding would link layers of heat-spreading polycrystalline diamond in one chip to those in another chip in a 3D-stacked silicon. The thermal pillars would traverse each chip’s interconnects and dielectric material to move heat vertically through the stack. Srabanti Chowdhury

    In the end, we got lucky. While growing diamond on GaN capped with silicon nitride, we observed something unexpected: The measured TBR was much lower than prior reports led us to expect. (The low TBR was independently measured, initially by Martin Kuball at the University of Bristol, in England, and later by Samuel Graham Jr., then at Georgia Tech, who both have been coauthors and collaborators in several of our papers.)

    Through further investigation of the interface science and engineering, and in collaboration with K.J. Cho at the University of Texas at Dallas, we identified the cause of the lower TBR. Intermixing at the interface between the diamond and silicon nitride led to the formation of silicon carbide, which acted as a kind of bridge for the phonons, allowing more efficient heat transfer. Though this began as a scientific discovery, its technological impact was immediate—with a silicon carbide interface, our devices exhibited significantly improved thermal performance.

    GaN HEMTs: The First Test Case

    We began testing our new low-TBR diamond coatings in gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs). These devices amplify RF signals by controlling current through a two-dimensional electron gas that forms within its channel. We leveraged the pioneering research on HEMTs done by Umesh Mishra’s laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I had been a graduate student. The Mishra lab invented a particular form of the material called N-polar gallium nitride. Their N-polar GaN HEMTs demonstrate exceptional power density at high frequencies, particularly in the W-band, the 75- to 110-gigahertz part of the microwave spectrum.

    RELATED: Gallium Nitride and Silicon Carbide Fight for Green Tech Domination

    What made these HEMTs such a good test case is one defining feature of the device: The gate, which controls the flow of current through the device, is within tens of nanometers of the transistor’s channel. That means that heat is generated very close to the surface of the device, and any interference our diamond coating could cause would quickly show in the device’s operation.

    We introduced the diamond layer so that it surrounded the HEMT completely, even on the sides. By maintaining a growth temperature below 400 °C, we hoped to preserve core device functionality. While we did see some decline in high-frequency performance, the thermal benefits were substantial—channel temperatures dropped by a remarkable 70 °C. This breakthrough could be a potentially transformative solution for RF systems, allowing them to operate at higher power than ever before.

    Diamond in CMOS

    We wondered if our diamond layer could also work in high-power CMOS chips. My colleagues at Stanford, H.-S. Philip Wong and Subhasish Mitra, have long championed 3D-stacked chip architectures. In CMOS computing chips, 3D stacking appears to be the most viable way forward to increase integration density, improve performance, and overcome the limitations of traditional transistor scaling. It’s already used in some advanced AI chips, such as AMD’s MI300 series. And it’s established in the high-bandwidth memory chips that pump data through Nvidia GPUs and other AI processors. The multiple layers of silicon in these 3D stacks are mostly connected by microscopic balls of solder, or in some advanced cases just by their copper terminals. Getting signals and power out of these stacks requires vertical copper links that burrow through the silicon to reach the chip package’s substrate.

    In one of our discussions, Mitra pointed out that a critical issue with 3D-stacked chips is the thermal bottlenecks that form within the stack. In 3D architectures, the traditional heat sinks and other techniques used for 2D chips aren’t sufficient. Extracting heat from each layer is essential.

    Our research could redefine thermal management across industries.

    Our experiments on thermal boundary resistance in GaN suggested a similar approach would work in silicon. And when we integrated diamond with silicon, the results were remarkable: An interlayer of silicon carbide formed, leading to diamond with an excellent thermal interface.

    Our effort introduced the concept of thermal scaffolding. In that scheme, nanometers-thick layers of polycrystalline diamond would be integrated within the dielectric layers above the transistors to spread heat. These layers would then be connected by vertical heat conductors, called thermal pillars, made of copper or more diamond. These pillars would connect to another heat spreader, which in turn would link to thermal pillars on the next chip in the 3D stack, and so on until the heat reached the heat sink or other cooling device.

    The more tiers of computing silicon in a 3D chip, the bigger difference thermal scaffolding makes. An AI accelerator with more than five tiers would well exceed typical temperature limits unless the scaffolding was employed. Srabanti Chowdhury

    In a collaboration with Mitra, we used simulations of heat generated by real computational workloads to operate a proof-of-concept structure. This structure consisted of dummy heaters to mimic hot spots in a two-chip stack along with diamond heat spreaders and copper thermal pillars. Using this, we reduced the temperature to one-tenth its value without the scaffolding.

    There are hurdles still to overcome. In particular, we still have to figure out a way to make the top of our diamond coatings atomically flat. But, in collaboration with industry partners and researchers, we are systematically studying that problem and other scientific and technological issues. We and our partners think this research could offer a disruptive new path for thermal management and a crucial step toward sustaining high-performance computing into the future.

    Developing Diamond Thermal Solutions

    We now intend to move toward industry integration. For example, we’re working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Threads program, which aims to use device-level thermal management to develop highly efficient and reliable X-band power amplifiers with a power density 6 to 8 times as efficient as today’s devices. The program, which was conceived and initially run by Tom Kazior, is a critical platform for validating the use of low-temperature diamond integration in GaN HEMT manufacturing. It’s enabled us to collaborate closely with industry teams while protecting both our and our partners’ processes. Defense applications demand exceptional reliability, and our diamond-integrated HEMTs are undergoing rigorous testing with industry partners. The early results are promising, guiding refinements in growth processes and integration techniques that we’ll make with our partners over the next two years.

    But our vision extends beyond GaN HEMTs to other materials and particularly silicon computational chips. For the latter, we have an established collaboration with TSMC, and we’re expanding on newer opportunities with Applied Materials, Micron, Samsung, and others through the Stanford SystemX Alliance and the Semiconductor Research Corp. This is an extraordinary level of collaboration among otherwise fierce competitors. But then, heat is a universal challenge in chip manufacturing, and everyone is motivated to find the best solutions.

    If successful, our research could redefine thermal management across industries. In my work on gallium nitride devices, I have seen firsthand how once-radical ideas like this transition to become industry standards, and I believe diamond-based heat extraction will follow the same trajectory, becoming a critical enabler for a generation of electronics that is no longer hindered by heat.

  • What Do We Do If SETI Is Successful?

    The Search For Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is evolving. We’ve moved on from the limited thinking of monitoring radio waves to checking for interstellar pushing lasers or even budding Dyson swarms around stars. To match our increased understanding of the ways we might find intelligence elsewhere in the galaxy, the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) is working through an update to its protocols for what researchers should do after a confirmed detection of intelligence outside of Earth. Their new suggestions are available in a pre-print paper on arXiv, but were also voted on at the 2025 International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Sydney, with potential full adoption early next year.

  • AWS DNS error hits DynamoDB, causing problems for multiple services and customers

    Monday got off to a bad start for Amazon Web Services users served by the company’s US-EAST-1 region, when a DNS problem rendered the DynamoDB API unreliable, with consequences for many AWS services and customers.

    Although the root cause of the incident apparently affected a single API in just one of many AWS cloud regions, it provided a key database service on which many services — Amazon’s own and those of its customers — were built, in that and other regions.

    AI search company Perplexity was one of those affected by the incident, reporting that it was “experiencing an outage related to an AWS operational issue”. And although online design tool Canva didn’t name AWS as the source of its problems, it reported a major issue with its underlying cloud provider resulting in increased error rates for its users during the same time window.

    Real-time monitoring service Downdetector noted that outages at Venmo, Roku, Lyft, Zoom, and the McDonald’s app were “possibly related to issues at Amazon Web Service.”

    Increased error rates

    AWS itself first reported the incident on its service health status page at 12:11 a.m. Pacific time, saying, “We are investigating increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region,”

    A little over an hour later, it had narrowed the problem down to the DynamoDB endpoint, which it said was also affecting the other services, and half an hour after that, the company reported: “Based on our investigation, the issue appears to be related to DNS resolution of the DynamoDB API endpoint in US-EAST-1. We are working on multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovering.”

    By this time, it was clear that the problems were not confined to users or services on the US East Coast.

    “Global services or features that rely on US-EAST-1 endpoints such as IAM updates and DynamoDB Global tables may also be experiencing issues,” it said.

    By 2:27 a.m. Pacific time, a little more than two hours after it began investigating the incident, the company reported that it had applied initial mitigations and recommended customers retry failed requests, warning that there may be additional latency as some services had a backlog to work through.

    Three hours after it began its investigation, the company reported that global services and features reliant on US-EAST-1 had recovered and promised further updates when it had more information to share.

    Cloud dependencies

    While this outage was quickly fixed, it shows that even in the cloud there are single points of failure that can have worldwide consequences.

    A few months ago, it was Microsoft with egg on its face, as a problem in Azure’s US East region rippled out to affect other organizations. Before that, a series of outages at IBM Cloud had customers wondering if they had made the right design choices. The third, shorter, outage affected 54 IBM Cloud services.

  • Why Mesh Networks Break When Big Crowds Gather

    Why Mesh Networks Break When Big Crowds Gather

    A decentralized networking technology originally built for battlefields and Burning Man is today being reimagined from the ground up.

    Mesh networks—named for their fishnet-like connections—emerged over the past few decades from rigorous, mathematical research on keeping data flowing even when portions of a system fail. But the theory hasn’t always matched up to reality. Real-world mesh networks have proved vulnerable to shutdowns in some of the very settings, such as certain kinds of large crowds, they’re supposed to be good at handling.

    So researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard, and the City College of New York have recently built a prototype mesh networking system that’s been hardened for some of the most challenging and adversarial environments around: political protests.

    In a paper presented last week at the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Taipei, the researchers announced a prototype mesh network called Amigo. Amigo, for starters, has been designed to work in environments where the Internet has been shut off, as seen during unrest in India, Iraq, and Syria, among other countries.

    “Shutting down the internet during times of great civil protest is a way to prevent people from being able to organize and come together,” says Tushar Jois, assistant professor of electrical engineering at City College. “That is what we’re specifically tailoring our technology for.”

    Amigo proposes at least three ways to bolster the more traditional approaches to mesh networks. Recent scholarship on mesh outages in protest scenarios reveals problems such as network messages failing to deliver, appearing out of order, and exposing users to being traced—even if the nodes in the network (e.g. phones running the mesh app) are right next to each other. The researchers found that prying beneath the mesh network’s high-level, encrypted communications and down into nuts-and-bolts Wi-Fi operations revealed opportunities that previous mesh networks had failed to seize on.

    “The story is the cryptography alone won’t save us,” says Jois. Jois and colleagues presented a version of their Amigo paper earlier this year at the Real World Cryptography conference in Sofia, Bulgaria.

    Why Political Protests Matter in Mesh Networks

    Amigo drew key lessons from a set of studies on mesh networking in a range of recent political protests—including Hong Kong pro-democracy actions in 2019 and ’20.

    For example, how previous mesh networks handled routing of their messages could accidentally lead to a flooding of the zone. Multiple nodes in a stressed network can pump out redundant messages into the network, causing communications to grind to a crawl. By contrast, Amigo forms what the researchers call dynamic “cliques”—where only designated leader nodes exchange messages with each other, while regular nodes just talk to their leader. This technique, the researchers say, substantially reduces message traffic, decreasing the chance the network might seize up.

    “We’re one of the people to discover that in secure mesh messaging, we’ve had this blind spot,” Jois says. “So we proposed some new algorithms that help address this blind spot. Dynamic clique routing basically allows groups of nodes to self-organize routing units in a geographic area based on GPS.”

    Another example is Amigo’s approach to cryptography and anonymity. Previous mesh environments provided no easy way to remove members from encrypted groups. (In a protest setting, group removal might be necessary, for instance, because a device or its user has been apprehended by authorities.) Older mesh standards also leaked metadata that could reveal other group members. Amigo aims to correct both problems.

    “One thing we talk about is outsider anonymity,” Jois says. “People who are outside your group don’t know that the group exists.” Amigo, he says, adds new algorithms to ensure outsider anonymity and group removal. Jois adds that Amigo aims to achieve these goals while still retaining protections of existing encrypted-message networks like WhatsApp and Signal.

    Traditionally, Jois adds, encrypted messaging provides a couple of important features. One feature involves protecting past messages: via “forward secrecy,” even if keys are stolen today, past messages are still secure. The other involves protecting future messages: via “post-compromise security,” even a compromised system can heal by generating new keys and thus locking an intruder out of future communications. Amigo retains both features.

    “We add [our new protections] to the classic forward secrecy and post-compromise security,” Jois says. “But maybe there are more properties that we need from a security perspective. So I think juggling all of those will be fun.”

    Diogo Baradas, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Waterloo in Canada, adds that Amigo could find applications beyond political protests.

    “Another scenario where such crowd dynamics are of particular interest include natural disaster scenarios— like flooding, fires, and earthquakes—where Internet communications may become unavailable,” says Baradas, who is not on the Amigo team. “And affected citizens, first-responders, and volunteers must coordinate to ensure a fitting response.”

    Cora Ruiz is a graduate student in Jois’s Security, Privacy and Cryptographic Engineering Lab at City College. She’s been investigating the “random walk”-style approach to modeling crowds in most mesh network environments.

    Like nitrogen and oxygen molecules in a sample of air, individual mesh nodes today are typically imagined to each trace random paths whose motions are uncorrelated to nearby nodes. If this, Ruiz says, is how mesh networks mathematically model crowd behavior, then no wonder mesh networks seize up in certain real-world environments.

    “There’s really no understanding of the way that protesters are physically moving in these mass civil protests,” Ruiz says of traditional mesh models of crowd behavior. “And without having that understanding of the way that people move and what drives the movement, what it looks like on any level, it’s going to be nearly impossible to develop a really tailored solution.”

    So instead, Ruiz is exploring ways to bring models of what she calls psychological crowds into mesh network algorithms.

    “Psychological crowds are a concentration of people in a place that have a certain shared sense of self,” she says. “And that shared sense of self can directly impact the way that people move. They tend to move closer together. They don’t tolerate as much distance being put in between one another. They move slower.”

    Jois says developing more realistic mathematical models of psychological crowds is a cross-disciplinary effort. It’s part math, and it’s part sociology and group psychology. “[Ruiz’s] current work is about determining communications dynamics and [group] dynamics by going to protest activists and journalists—in these places where internet shutdowns are common—and figuring out what are their needs,” he says.

    “Since mesh is so heavily impacted by physical movement and traffic patterns,” Ruiz adds, “Having a strong understanding is key to furthering Amigo and other future mesh messaging tools.”

    Jois adds that Amigo drew as inspiration for its crowd models a document created in 2019 by Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, advising fellow activists how to march and gather. From that and other studies that could help devise mathematical models of real-world crowd movements, Jois says Amigo represents an important next step toward bringing mesh networks into the real world.

    “Our results show that there is like some foundational work necessary in mesh networking,” Jois says. “We can stand in our academic spaces and say, ‘Oh well, this is what we think is necessary.’ But unless we get that from the source, we don’t know.”

  • Shioli Katsuna on Mitsuki's 'Invasion' season 3 journey and her cool Apex Alien connection (exclusive)

    Shioli Katsuna on Mitsuki's 'Invasion' season 3 journey and her cool Apex Alien connection (exclusive)

    1. Entertainment
    2. Space Movies & Shows

    Shioli Katsuna on Mitsuki’s ‘Invasion’ season 3 journey and her cool Apex Alien connection (exclusive)

    News

    By
    Jeff Spry

    published

    17 October 2025

    ‘Building that was a very careful and sensitive process because I had to imagine everything’

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    Shioli Katsuna with an apex alien in “Invasion” Season 3
    (Image credit: Apple TV)

    Apple TV’s “Invasion” Season 3 drops its penultimate episode on Friday, Oct. 17, and fans are on the edge of their sofas primed to get a glimpse of what’s inside that ginormous derelict mothership as our group of reluctant heroes crosses over into the Dead Zone.

    It’s been a sensational third outing for this sci-fi drama conceived by Oscar-winning producer Simon Kinberg (“Deadpool,” “The X-Men Films”) and his partner David Weil (“Citadel”), and there’s been an enormous influx of new viewers hooked on its alien encounters.

    Actress Shioli Katsuna’s Mitsuki Yamato has been one of the core characters throughout the entire series, and as we discovered last week in the episode titled “Life in the Dead Zone,” she’s now formed a remarkable bond with one of the spider-legged extraterrestrial apex aliens that we can’t wait to see evolve.

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    • ‘The threat has evolved’: Humanity faces the ultimate apex aliens in stunning new ‘Invasion’ season 3 trailer (video)

    • ‘It’s not over!’ — ‘Invasion’ Season 3 clip carries an ominous warning from Trevante (exclusive)

    • ‘Invasion’ star Shamier Anderson says he’s ‘out of here’ if aliens do actually invade (exclusive)

    Apex aliens aid an injured creature in “Invasion” Season 3 (Image credit: Apple TV)

    “I got to do that episode with the director Alik Sakharov, who I’ve been with since season two, and I have the most trust with him,” Katsuna tells Space.com.

    “So I was very excited entering that episode because I knew I was in good hands. I do meet up with other characters in the episode, like the Infinitas, and have interactions with other people, but it was mostly a lot of scenes where it was non-verbal. It’s so much content with the alien, and I have an arc with it without any lines. Building that was a very careful and sensitive process because I had to imagine everything.”

    Katsuna did have the benefit of a performance capture artist on set to act against and to set correct eyelines for a more authentic, emotional delivery that comes across as perfectly organic.

    “We had this amazing actor who specializes in playing aliens and other creatures named Keith [Arbuthnot]. Keith is a genius, and the people in props made him this suit to make him tall. He loves do-it-yourself, and he’d bring in all these tools that he made to help me out. Without Keith, that episode would not have been possible. It was a lot of preparation as well to really be able to find what she was going through in that episode.”

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    Get the Space.com Newsletter

    Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

    Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Shioli Katsuna stars in Apple TV’s “Invasion” Season 3 (Image credit: Apple TV)

    Besides the role of Mitsuki being one that’s more physically and mentally demanding this year, Katsuna considers the unique elements of “Invasion” that make the project so special for fans.

    “I think it’s a very character-driven show. If anything, we have many more aliens in this season,” she adds. “In the first season, it was only like an episode or two with the aliens. It’s really focusing on these individual characters from different countries, ethnicities, and ages. With our show, obviously, it’s an alien invasion, but we all experienced something similar during COVID and perhaps the strike, and it’s truly what humans go through emotionally when there’s something you have no control over. It’s ultimately about human connections and trying to survive together.

    “For me personally, Mitsuki is kind of on a different journey. For her, it’s not so much about the human connection yet. It’s about connecting with a different entity and having an awakening, and connecting to a realm on a very different frequency. That’s something I experienced during these past two years. It’s almost like my personal life and Mitsuki were kind of on a parallel journey, so it meant more and brought out a real immersion within me.”

    “Invasion” Season 3 streams exclusively on Apple TV and airs its penultimate chapter, “Homecoming,” on Oct. 17, 2025, with the season finale, “The End of the Line,” landing Oct. 24.

    Watch Invasion on Apple TV:
    All three seasons of the excellent alien invasion thriller are on the streaming service, along with other hit sci-fi shows like Severance, For All Mankind, Foundation, and Silo. It’s low-key the best streaming service for sci-fi these days.

    Apple TV costs $12.99 per month, but there is also a free 7-day trial for new members who want to check out the service without committing.

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    On a trip to Mothership Containment Outpost, and still want to keep up with Invasion? A VPN allows you to watch your streaming shows from anywhere in the world, avoiding pesky geoblocking restrictions.

    There are lots of VPN services to choose from, but NordVPN is the one we rate best. It’s outstanding at unblocking streaming services, it’s fast and it has top-level security features, too. With over 5,000 servers, across 60 countries, and at a great price, it’s easy to recommend.

    Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

    Jeff SprySocial Links NavigationContributing Writer

    Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

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  • Network jobs watch: Hiring, skills and certification trends

    Network jobs watch: Hiring, skills and certification trends

    Network and infrastructure roles continue to shift as enterprises adopt technologies such as AI-driven network operations, multicloud networking, zero trust network access (ZTNA), and SD-WAN. Here’s a recap of some of the latest industry research, hiring statistics, and certification trends that impact today’s network professionals, infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders, and data center teams. Check back for regular updates.

    AI certifications garner higher pay

    Pay boosts for IT skills have been in steady decline for three years—but AI certifications are contradicting the trend, according to new data from Foote Partners. In Q3 2025, both certified and non-certified IT skills saw a 0.7% dip in cash pay premiums. But AI-related certifications managed to rise nearly 12% year over year, while pay for non-certified AI skills dipped 1%. The research tracks 124 AI-related skills and certifications, with pay premiums ranging between 7% and 23% of base salary. Interestingly, non-certified AI skills still tend to pull in higher bonuses—averaging 14.5% of base pay versus 8.3% for certified AI roles. Beyond AI, top-paying domains include DevSecOps, SRE, DataOps, blockchain, and security architecture. Read the full story here.

    October 2025

    AI and automation reshape IT job market

    Artificial intelligence and automation are driving substantial job reductions across the IT job market, according to new research from Janco Associates. The management consulting firm reports that the telecommunications industry has lost 59% of its positions to automation and AI, marking a trend that is now spreading to other IT disciplines. Janco Associates reports that some industry leaders are predicting that about 18% to 22% of the workforce will be eliminated due to automation and AI in the next 5 years. And many CIOs and CTOs expect to cut existing positions for IT professionals in the next three years. More than half of CIOs and CFOs surveyed by Janco Associates indicated that they would prefer AI-enabled developers with two to three years of experience over traditional IT professionals with five years of experience and no AI skills. Among the roles expected to be reduced due to AI and automation are support roles, help desks, non-automated testing, code generation, and legacy infrastructure administration. Still, Janco Associates reports that certain areas continue to see growth. For instance, positions in AI development and deployment, big data analytics, cybersecurity, and compliance continue to grow.

    September 2025

    AI job listings spike 94%

    According to new data from CompTIA, active employer job listings requiring artificial intelligence (AI) skills surged by 94% in August compared to the same month last year. Tech occupation employment data includes employers across all industry sectors, and the latest research from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), analyzed by CompTIA, revealed that tech employment increased by an estimated net new 247,000 workers in August. In August, the tech worker unemployment rate edged up to 3%, while employer job postings for tech positions declined 2.6% from July’s numbers. “Hiring intent data continues to show employers pursuing tech talent across a range of disciplines, from AI and data science to tech support and cloud engineering,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, in a full story here.

    February 2025

    CompTIA launches CloudNetX certification

    The vendor-neutral CompTIA CloudNetX certification is now available, targeted at senior-level tech pros who want to validate that they’ve got the skills to design, engineer, and integrate networking solutions from multiple vendors in hybrid cloud environments. Professionals should have a minimum of ten years of experience in the IT field and five years of experience in a network architect role, with specific experience in a hybrid cloud environment, CompTIA recommends.

    “The demand for highly skilled network architects has surged as organizations increasingly adopt hybrid cloud solutions,” said Katie Hoenicke, senior vice president, product development at CompTIA, in a statement. “For seasoned network professionals, CompTIA CloudNetX can help them enhance and validate the advanced skills needed to excel in these complex environments.”

    CompTIA says the exam covers:

    • Technologies such as container networking, software-defined cloud interconnect, and generative AI for automation and scripting.
    • Network security, including threats, vulnerabilities, and mitigations; identity and access management; and wireless security and appliance hardening; and zero-trust architecture.
    • Business requirements analysis to design and implement network solutions, ensuring candidates can align technical skills with organizational goals.

     Read more about CompTIA’s Xpert Series certifications here.

    February 2025

    Tech skills gap worries HR, IT leaders

    An overwhelming majority (84%) of HR and IT leaders surveyed by technology talent-as-a-service provider Revature reported that they are concerned with finding tech talent in the coming year. The survey polled some 230 HR and IT decision-makers, and more than three-quarters (77%) said that their team has been affected by the current IT skills gap. While 56% of respondents sad upskilling/reskilling is their strategy for closing the IT skills gaps, many reported ongoing challenges. Among the challenges survey respondents have experienced are:

    • Finding qualified talent with the necessary skills: 71%
    • IT staffing companies can’t deliver talent quickly: 57%
    • Upskilling/reskilling in-house talent: 53%
    • Learning Management Systems are ineffective: 30%
    • Overall cost of training and staffing: 23%

    When asked which technical skills are important, 29% of respondents pointed to artificial intelligence, generative AI and machine learning skills. And 75% of respondents believe they are highly prepared or prepared for the influx of new technologies such as genAI, with 63% believing genAI will positively impact training and 56% saying it will help with hiring and retention in 2025.

    February 2025

    CompTIA releases AI Essentials program

    CompTIA recently launched its AI Essentials program that promises to help professionals develop skills in AI fundamentals.

    The CompTIA Essentials program provides self-paced lessons with videos, activities, reflection questions, and assessments. The training will help professionals distinguish AI from other types of intelligence and computing and teach them how to communicate about AI effectively. Students will also learn how to create AI prompts and navigate the privacy and security concerns that AI technology presents.

    The program uses both realistic scenarios and practice activities to experience how AI is applied in real-world situations. According to CompTIA, topics covered in the training include: AI Unveiled; Generative AI Frontiers; Engineering Effective Prompts; Balancing Innovation and Privacy; and Future Trends and Innovations in AI.

    Available now, CompTIA AI Essentials costs $129 and includes a license that would be valid for 12 months. Read the full story here.

    January 2025

    Mixed bag for IT, tech jobs

    Industry watchers continue to keep close tabs on the IT workforce as some research shows 70,900 tech jobs were cut from the economy, while other organizations report that unemployment rates for technology workers has dropped to 2%, representing the lowest level in more than a year.

    Janco Associates reports that 48,600 jobs were lost in 2023 along with 22,300 positions eliminated in 2024, based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. “In 2023 and 2024, there was a major re-alignment in the way things are done within the IT function. With all the new advances in technology, many jobs have been eliminated or automated out of existence,” said M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco.

    Separately, CompTIA recently reported that the tech unemployment rate dropped to 2%, while the national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1% for December. CompTIA reported that the base of tech employment throughout the economy increased by a net new 7,000 positions, putting the total number of tech workers at about 6.5 million.

    January 2025

    CompTIA updates penetration testing cert

    CompTIA recently announced it had upgraded its PenTest+ certification program to educate professionals on cybersecurity penetration testing with training on artificial intelligence (AI), scanning and analysis, and vulnerability management, among other things.

    PenTest+ will help cybersecurity professionals demonstrate their competency of current trends, prove they are up-to-date on the latest trends, and show they can perform hands-on tasks. According to CompTIA, professionals completing the PenTest+ certification course will learn the following skills: engagement management, attacks and exploits, reconnaissance and enumeration, vulnerability discovery and analysis, and post-exploitation and lateral movement.

    The PenTest+ exam features a maximum of 90 performance-based and multiple-choice questions and runs 165 minutes. Testers must receive a score of 750 or higher to pass the certification test. CompTIA recommends professionals taking the certification course and exam also have Network+ and/or Security+ certifications or equivalent knowledge, and three to four years of experience in a penetration testing job role. Pricing for the exam has yet to be determined. Read the full story here.

    January 2025

    CompTIA launches SecurityX cert

    CompTIA this week made available its SecurityX certification, which it had announced as part of its Xpert Series of certifications. SecurityX is designed for IT professionals with multiple years of work experience as security architects and senior security engineers who want to validate their expert-level knowledge of business-critical technologies. The program will cover the technical knowledge and skills required to architect, engineer, integrate, and implement enterprise security solutions across complex environments. CompTIA expects to release another expert-level certification program, CompTIA CloudNetX, in the coming months. Read the full story here.

    December 2024

    CompTIA unveils starter courses for network, security certs

    The new CompTIA a+ Network and CompTIA a+ Cyber courses aim to provide newcomers with the knowledge they need to start a tech career in networking and security. The skills gained will help people to train for higher-level certifications, according to CompTIA. CompTIA a+ Network includes 31 hours of instruction and teaches individuals to set up and support networks, troubleshoot issues, and manage Linux and Windows systems. CompTIA a+ Cyber covers the skills to secure devices and home networks. The price for each course is $499. Read the full story here.

    A third new certification from CompTIA aims to teach newcomers tech foundations. CompTIA Tech+ is designed to provide a “spectrum of tech knowledge and hands-on skills” to students looking to ultimately work in tech-based roles, according to the provider. The Tech+ certification covers basic concepts from security and software development as well as information on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing. Specific details on the exam for the CompTIA Tech+ certification are not yet available. Read the full story here.

    December 2024

    AI helps drive IT job growth

    Artificial intelligence is driving growth for the IT workforce at some enterprises. Nearly half (48%) of organizations polled for the Motion Recruitment 2025 Tech Salary Guide said they plan to add workers due to an increase in AI investments, compared to 19% that said they would downsize in relation to the technology. AI is also credited with transforming existing roles, with 23% of organizations shifting existing staff positions into roles that directly address AI, according to Motion Recruitment.

    Also of note: The number of fully remote tech positions is decreasing as the average time spent in office has grown from 1.1 days per week to 3.4 days per week. Read the full story here.

    December 2024

    New OpenTelemetry certification

    A new certification program aims to validate the skills needed to use OpenTelemetry, which helps IT teams gain visibility across distributed systems of cloud-native and microservices-based applications. Created by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Linux Foundation, the OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA) certification is designed for application engineers, DevOps engineers, system reliability engineers, platform engineers, or IT professionals looking to increase their abilities to leverage telemetry data across distributed systems.

    Telemetry data is critical to observability technologies because it provides raw, detailed information about system behavior to provide insights beyond basic monitoring metrics. Telemetry data can also be used to enable proactive problem detection and resolution in distributed systems.

    OTCA includes 12 months to schedule and take the exam and two exam attempts, and the exam is priced at $250. Read the full story here.

    November 2024

    AI, cybersecurity top skill shortages for 2025

    IT leaders are planning investments for 2025, and they expect to be putting budget dollars toward technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), cybersecurity, cloud, and more. Yet while investing in innovative technologies is part of future planning, IT decision-makers also expect to struggle to staff certain roles due to an ongoing tech skills shortage.

    According to a global Skillsoft survey of 5,100 global IT decision-makers, the most difficult technology areas to hire for included cybersecurity/information security (38%), cloud computing (22%), and AI/ML (20%), among several others. As new technologies emerge, IT leaders must take inventory of the skills they have in-house and this survey found that 19% of respondents believe there is a “high risk of organizational objectives not being met due to skills gaps.” Read the full story here.

    November 2024

    Tech employment remains flat in October

    Tech employment experienced little to no change in October, indicating that by year-end there will not be enough roles available for the number of unemployed technology professionals. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly jobs report shows that the unemployment rate remained mostly unchanged, and separate analysis of the findings reveals that unemployment for technology professionals also remained flat.

    “The job market for IT Pros had a major shift losing an average of 4,983 jobs per month over the past 12 months,” said M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, in a statement. “According to the latest BLS data analyzed, there are now approximately 4.18 million jobs for IT Professionals in the US. Layoffs at big tech companies continued to hurt overall IT hiring. Large high-tech firms continue to lay off to have better bottom lines. Included in that group of companies that have recently announced new layoffs are Intel, Microsoft, and Google.”

    According to CompTIA’s analysis of the BLS data, technology roles increased by 70,000 in October to about 6.5 million workers, and CompTIA pointed to job posting data that showed broad-based hiring across software, cybersecurity, support, data, and infrastructure. Still, CompTIA reports that tech industry employment declined by more than 4,000 jobs in October.

    “Despite the higher than usual noise in this month’s labor market data, there are a number of positives to point to on the tech employment front. The data indicates employers continue a balanced approach to hiring across core tech job roles and innovation enabling roles,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, in a statement.

    November 2024

    Cloud certifications bring in big dollars

    Skillsoft’s most recent ranking of the highest-paid IT certifications shows that IT professionals with certs in AWS, Google, and Nutanix earn more on average in the U.S.—some more than $200,000. According to Skillsoft’s tally, the top five highest-paying certifications are:

    • CCNP Security: $168,159
    • AWS Certified Security – Specialty: $203,597
    • Google Cloud – Professional Cloud Architect: $190,204
    • Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI) v6.5: $175,409
    • CCSP – Certified Cloud Security Professional: $171,524

    “Overall, the IT job market is characterized by a significant imbalance between supply and demand, which continues to drive salaries higher. Our data suggests that tech professionals skilled in cloud computing, security, data privacy, and risk management, as well as able to handle complex, multi-faceted IT environments, will be well-positioned for success,” says Greg Fuller, vice president of Codecademy Enterprise. “This year’s list shows that cloud computing skills remain in high demand and can be quite lucrative for tech professionals.” Read the full story here.

    October 2024

    Cybersecurity skills shortage persists

    There are not enough cybersecurity workers to fill the current number of open roles in the U.S. or globally as an ever-increasing threat landscape demands more security professionals. Recent data from CyberSeek shows that 265,000 more cybersecurity workers would be needed to solve current staffing needs. In addition, ISC2 Research reports that 90% of organizations report having skill gaps within their security teams in areas that include AI/ML (34%), cloud computing security (30%), and zero trust implementation (27%). Read the full story here.  

    October 2024

    Women in IT report gender bias in the workplace

    A recent survey revealed that 71% of 327 full-time female IT respondents said they work longer hours in hopes of more quickly advancing their careers. In addition, 70% of respondents said men in IT were likely to advance their careers or receive promotions more quickly than women. Some 31% of those surveyed said they believe that men are promoted faster. And almost two-thirds said their workplaces are not doing enough to promote or achieve gender equality, according to Acronis.

    To help foster more gender diversity, survey respondents said they could benefit from training and other courses, including: master classes, learning courses, and workshops (63%); networking events (58%); and memberships in professional organizations (44%). On the employer side, respondents said they believe organizations can help foster more gender equality in the workplace by offering mentorship opportunities (51%), actively hiring more diverse candidates (49%), and ensuring pay equity (49%). Read the full story here.

    October 2024

    Tech unemployment decreases in September

    Technology occupation employment increased by 118,000 new positions in September, according to CompTIA’s analysis of recent data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The job growth pushed the tech unemployment rate down to 2.5% and included 8,583 net new positions for the month.

    The CompTIA Tech Jobs Report shows that job postings for future tech hiring grew to more than 516,000 active postings, including 225,000 new listings added in September. The jobs that saw the largest growth in percentage points in September are tech support specialists and database administrators. New hiring was driven by cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting, and tech services and customer software development sector, CompTIA concluded from the BLS data.

    “It was never really a question of if, but when employers were going to resume hiring,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA, said in a statement. “A broad mix of companies viewed recent economic developments as the green light to move forward in addressing their tech talent needs.”

    October 2024

    CompTIA bolsters Cloud+ certification

    CompTIA has updated its Cloud+ professional certification to include DevOps, combining software development know-how with network operations experience, and other areas of expertise such as troubleshooting common cloud management issues.

    The updated certification course will cover cloud architecture, design, and deployment; security; provisioning and configuring cloud resources; managing operations throughout the cloud environment life cycle; automation and virtualization; backup and recovery; high-availability; fundamental DevOps concepts; and cloud management. The program will also include expertise on technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, according to CompTIA.

    “Businesses need to ensure that their teams have the skills to manage cloud and hybrid environments,” said Teresa Sears, senior vice president of product management at CompTIA, said in a statement. “CompTIA Cloud+ gives team members the ability to manage complex migrations, oversee multi-cloud environments, secure data, and troubleshoot while maintaining cost-effective operations.”

    Technology professionals with CompTIA Cloud+ or CompTIA Network+ certifications can further their skills and validate their knowledge with the CompTIA CloudNetX certification, which is scheduled to be released early next year and is part of the CompTIA Xpert Series, CompTIA says.

    October 2024

    Pearson debuts genAI certification

    There’s a new genAI certification from Certiport, a Pearson VUE business. This week the provider unveiled its Generative AI Foundations certification, which is designed to equip professionals and students with the skills needed to work with genAI technologies. The certification will validate an individual’s knowledge in areas such as:

    • Understanding generative AI methods and models
    • Mastering the basics of prompt engineering and prompt refinement
    • Grasping the societal impact of AI, including recognizing bias and understanding privacy concerns

    The Generative AI Foundations certification is available now through Mindhub and Certiport as well as Pearson VUE’s online testing platform, OnVUE, and in test centers within the Certiport network.

    October 2024

    Mixed bag for network, system admin jobs

    Recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that while there will be growth for many IT positions between now and 2033, some network and computer systems administrator roles are expected to decline. The number of computer network architects will climb 13.4%, and computer network support specialists will see a 7.3% gain in jobs. Network and computer systems administrators will see a decline of 2.6%, however.

    Overall, the market segment that BLS calls “computer and mathematical occupations” is projected to grow 12.9% between 2023 and 2033, increasing by 699,000 jobs. That makes it the second fastest growing occupational group, behind healthcare support occupations (15.2%).

    Read the full story here: 10-year forecast shows growth in network architect jobs while sysadmin roles shrink

    September 2024

    IT employment ticks down in August

    IT employment ticked down .05% in August, resulting in the loss of 2,400 jobs, month-over-month, according to an analysis of the high-tech employment market by TechServe Alliance. On a yearly basis, the IT job market shrunk by .33% with a loss of 17,500 positions. On a more positive note, the staffing company noted that engineering positions saw a more than 1% increase in a year-over-year comparison, adding 29,800 jobs in the same period.

    “As the overall job market softened in August, IT employment continued to struggle to gain momentum,” said Mark Roberts, TechServe’s CEO, in a statement. “Throughout 2024, job growth in IT has been effectively flat after 23 consecutive months of job losses. I continue to see IT employment moving sideways until the fog of uncertainty lifts over the economy, the national election, and ongoing geopolitical turbulence.”

    September 2024

    Employee education holding back AI success

    Employee education and training around AI will become more and more critical as research reveals that a majority of employees do not know how to apply the technology to their jobs.

    According to Slingshot’s 2024 Digital Work Trends Report, 77% of employees reported that don’t feel they are completely trained or have adequate training on the AI tools offered to them by managers. And for the most part, managers agree with just 27% saying that they feel employees are completely trained on the AI tools provided to employees.

    The research, conducted in Q2 2024 by Dynata and based on 253 respondents, also noted that AI skills and quality data are significant barriers to AI success. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of all respondents noted that their organization doesn’t have AI experts on their team, which is preventing their employers from offering AI tools. Another 45% pointed to the quality of data within the organization as a top reason AI tools aren’t offered at work. A third reason that AI isn’t prevalent in some workplaces is that organizations don’t have the tech infrastructure in place to implement AI tools.

    “Data is top of mind for employees too when it comes to AI: 33% of employers say their company would be ready to support AI if their company’s data was combed through for accuracy, and 32% say they need more training around data and AI before their company is ready,” the report reads.

    September 2024

    U.S. labor market continues downward slide

    The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) this week released its most recent employment data that shows the ratio of job openings per unemployed worker continues to steadily decline, indicating unemployment rates will continue to rise.

    According to BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) data, the number of job openings hit 7.7 million on the last day of July, while the hires stood at 5.5 million and “separations” increased to 5.4 million. Separations (3.3 million) include quits, layoffs, and discharges (1.8 million) for the same timeframe. The most recent numbers hint at more bad news for unemployment in the country, according to industry watchers.

    “The labor market is no longer cooling down to its pre-pandemic temperature it’s dropped below,” an Indeed Hiring Lab report on the BLS data stated. “The labor market is past moderation and trending toward deterioration.”

    For IT professionals, the BLS data shows that jobs in high tech might grow slightly by 5,000 jobs in 2024, but that will not be enough growth to offset the number of unemployed IT workers—which Janco Associates estimates is about 145,000.

    “According to the latest BLS data analyzed, there are now approximately 4.18 million jobs for IT professionals in the US. Layoffs at big tech companies continued to hurt overall IT hiring. Large high-tech firms continue to lay off to have better bottom lines. Included in that group of companies that have recently announced new layoffs are Intel, Microsoft, and Google,” said M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco, in a statement. “At the same time, BLS data shows that around 81,000 IT pros were hired but that 147,000 were looking for work in June. Our analysis predicts the same will be the case for July and August.”

    September 2024

    CompTIA unveils data science certification program

    Technology pros seeking to validate their data science competencies can now prove their knowledge with CompTIA’s DataX certification program.

    Part of CompTIA’s recently launched Xpert Series, the DataX program is based on input from data scientists working in private and public sectors and focuses on the skills critical to a data scientist’s success, such as: mathematics and statistics; modeling, analysis, and outcomes; operations and processes; machine learning; and specialized applications of data science. The program is designed for data scientists with five or more years of experience, and it identifies knowledge gaps as well as provides learning content to get candidates current on expert-level topics.

    “Earning a CompTIA DataX certification is a reliable indicator of a professional’s commitment to excellence in the field of data science,” said Teresa Sears, senior vice president of product management, CompTIA, in a statement. “This program validates the advanced analytics skills that help organizations enhance efficiency, mitigate risks, and maximize the value of their data assets.”

    August 2024

    CompTIA partners to provide IT training and certifications across Africa

    CompTIA is partnering with Gebeya Inc. to provide access to CompTIA’s library of IT, networking, cybersecurity and cloud computing courses. The collaboration will allow Africans interested in technology to access IT training and certification classes via CompTIA.

    Gebeya, a Pan-African talent cloud technology provider, says its mission “is to close the digital skills gap and drive digital transformation across Africa.” Partnering with CompTIA will enable aspiring technology workers in Africa to bolster their skills. “Our strategic partnership with CompTIA allows us to integrate a comprehensive skilling module within the Gebeya Talent Cloud, enabling our customers and partners to offer unmatched access to world-class IT training and certifications to their talent communities,” said Amadou Daffe, Gebeya CEO, in a statement.

    CompTIA offers vendor-neutral IT certifications that cover the fundamentals of several IT functions. The organization says its library of courses can help individuals stay current with today’s in-demand technology skills as well as enhance technical competency worldwide.

    “We have a shared mission to close the digital skills gap in Africa,” said Benjamin Ndambuki, CompTIA’s territory development representative for Africa, in a statement. “With Gebeya’s extensive reach and local expertise and CompTIA’s globally recognized certifications, we are confident we can empower a new generation of African tech professionals to thrive in the digital economy.”

    August 2024

    U.S. job growth weaker than forecast, unemployment rate creeping upward  

    New data released from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows earlier estimates of job growth were miscalculated. The agency reported this week that there were 818,000 fewer jobs added in the 12 months ending in March 2024 than previously reported. This information coupled with reports from Indeed that the unemployment rate continues to slowly increase is raising recession fears.

    According to Indeed’s Hiring Lab, “on a three-month average basis, the unemployment rate has risen .55 percentage points since its low of 3.5% in January 2023.” The adjusted BLS numbers suggest weak hiring and a cooler market than previously projected, but Indeed says there are reasons for “cautious optimism” about the U.S. labor market. For instance, the amount of available job postings and growth in wages could continue to attract more workers to the labor force.

    “In addition to a relative abundance of job opportunities, another factor that may be drawing workers back to the labor force in greater numbers is persistently strong wage growth, which has slowed from recent highs but remains on par with pre-pandemic levels,” Indeed reported.

    August 2024

    Talent gap threatens US semiconductor industry

    The semiconductor industry could be facing a major labor shortage as industry growth has outpaced the availability of skilled workers in the US. A recent report by McKinsey & Company found that public and private investment in the semiconductor industry in the US will expand to more than $250 billion by 2032 and will bring more than 160,000 new job openings in engineering and technical support to the industry. This coupled with the steep decline of the US domestic semiconductor manufacturing workforce – which has dropped 43% from its peak employment levels in 2000 – means the industry will struggle to fill those jobs. At the current rate, the shortage of engineers and technicians could reach as high as 146,000 workers by 2029, according to the report.

    August 2024

    CompTIA wants to help build high-tech careers

    New career resources from CompTIA are designed to teach people about specific tech-related roles and empower them to tailor a career path that best aligns with their skills and experiences.

    “Too many people don’t know what it means to work in tech, so they’re scared, or they think the jobs are boring or are too hard,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA, in a statement. “We want to educate people about the dynamic employment opportunities available in tech; encourage them to know they can thrive in these jobs; and empower them with the knowledge and skills to succeed.”

    Among the new resources is CompTIA Career Explorer, which the nonprofit organization says will help professionals tailor a career path that aligns with their workstyles and lifestyles. With the tool, jobseekers can test drive “a day in the life of specific job roles and challenge themselves with real-time, true-to-life problem solving” related to the jobs.

    CompTIA Career+ will provide users with an immersive, interactive video experience that “showcases a day in the life of in-demand job roles,” according to CompTIA. This resource will feature up to 30 job roles, representing about 90% of all tech occupations.

    The organization announced the new resources at its CompTIA ChannelCon and Partner Summit conference. “We want people to associate CompTIA with the competencies and skills to work in technology,” Thibodeaux said.

    August 2024

    Where STEM jobs pay the most

    A new study conducted by Germany-based biotechnology provider Cytena shows that California provides the highest average salaries in the U.S. for those working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professions.

    Cytena analyzed salary data for more than 75 STEM jobs listed on company review website Glassdoor to determine which states in the U.S. paid the most for technology talent. California ranks first with an average salary of $124,937 across all the jobs in the study, which included positions ranging from medical professionals to mathematicians and data scientists to network and software engineers. Washington state placed a close second with the average annual salary falling just below $124,000, and New York landed in third place with an average annual salary of $114,437. Following the top three, Nevada, Maryland, Massachusetts, Idaho, Hawaii, Colorado, and Connecticut rounded out the top ten states in the U.S. that pay the highest salaries for STEM-related positions.

    July 2024

    SysAdmin Day 2024: Celebrate your systems administrators

    Friday, July 26 marks the 25th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. Always celebrated on the last Friday in July, SysAdmin Day recognizes IT professionals who spend their days ensuring organizations and the infrastructure supporting them run smoothly. Some may say it is a thankless job, which is why Ted Kekatos created the day to honor the men and women working to install and configure hardware and software, manage networks and technology tools, help end users, and monitor the performance of the entire environment.

    Network and systems admins field complaint calls and solve incidents for end users, often without hearing how much they helped their colleagues. The unsung heroes of IT, sysadmins deserve this day of recognition — they might even deserve a gesture or gift to acknowledge all the long hours they work and how much they do behind the scenes.

    July 2024

    NetBrain launches network automation certification program

    NetBrain Technologies debuted its Network Automation Certification Program, which will recognize engineers with advanced network automation skills. The program will enable network engineers to validate their skills and communicate the skillsets to others, according to NetBrain. Initial exams for the program will be offered October 3 following the NetBrain Live Conference in Boston.

    NetBrain currently lists three network automation certifications on its website:

    • NetBrain Certified Automation Associate (NCAA): This certification demonstrates a mastery of the essentials of NetBrain Automation. Engineers with this certification can design, build, and implement automation that can be scaled networkwide to achieve an organization’s automation goals.
    • NetBrain Certified Automation Professional (NCAP): This certification validates network engineers as experts with proficiencies in network automation to enhance critical troubleshooting and diagnostic workflows across network operations, security, and IT infrastructures.
    • NetBrain Certified Automation Architect (NCAE): This certification distinguishes network engineers as network automation visionaries capable of shaping a corporate NetDevOps strategy from initial concept design and rollout through operation and enablement.

    July 2024

    Skillsoft develops genAI skills program with Microsoft

    Skillsoft announced it collaborated with Microsoft to develop its AI Skill Accelerator program, which will help organizations upskill their workforce to effectively use Microsoft AI technologies such as Copilot and Azure Open AI as well as generative AI technologies more broadly. The goal is to drive improved business productivity and innovation using genAI applications more effectively.

    “This collaboration with Microsoft is the first of many AI learning experiences we will deliver to help our customers and their talent—from everyday end users to business leaders to AI developers—acquire the skills and tools they need to succeed in the age of AI,” said Ron Hovsepian, executive chair at Skillsoft, in a statement. According to Skillsoft’s annual IT Skills and Salary report that surveyed 5,700 tech professionals worldwide, 43% of respondents say their team’s skills in AI need improvement.

    Skillsoft’s AI Skill Accelerator offers a blended learning experience, including on-demand courses, one-on-one and group coaching, live instructor-led training, and hands-on practice labs. According to Skillsoft, the program will enable customers to:

    • Assess the current state of AI-related technology and leadership skills across the workforce
    • Index skills to make>in a statement. “This learning experience is designed to empower individuals and organizations to harness the full capabilities of generative AI, Microsoft Copilot, and Microsoft’s AI apps and services.”

      July 2024

      Tech industry adds jobs, IT unemployment increases

      Data from IT employment trackers shows that the technology industry added more than 7,500 new workers in June, while at the same time the overall unemployment rate for IT pros increased.

      According to CompTIA, the tech industry added some 7,540 new workers in June, which marks the biggest monthly increase so far this year. CompTIA’s analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data also shows that the positive growth was offset by a loss of 22,000 tech occupations throughout the U.S. economy. “Despite pockets of growth, the recent data indicates a degree of downward pressure on tech employment,“ said Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA, in a statement. “A combination of factors, including AI FOMO, likely contributes to segments of employers taking a wait and see approach with tech hiring.”

      Separately, Janco Associates reported that the overall unemployment rate for IT pros in June grew to 5.9%, which is higher than the 4.1% U.S. national unemployment rate. Janco Associates also estimated that 7,700 jobs were added to the IT job market in May 2024. “The number of unemployed IT Pros rose from 129,000 to 147,000.  There still is a skills mismatch as positions continue to go unfilled as the available IT Pros do not have the requisite training and experience required. The BLS data shows that around 78,000 IT pros were hired but that 147,000 are looking for work,” Janco Associates reported.

      July 2024

      CompTIA Network+ cert gets an update

      CompTIA updated its Network+ certification to include more extensive coverage of modern network environments, factors related to physical network installations, and know-how to better secure and harden networks.

      Software-defined networking (SDN) and SD-WAN are covered in the updated Network+ exam, or N10-009. According to CompTIA, “the program introduces infrastructure as code (IaC), which is considered a transformative approach that leverages code for improved provisioning and support for computing infrastructure.”

      The updated Network+ certification program also now integrates zero-trust architecture and other forms of network fortification. Read more in the full story: CompTIA updates Network+ certification

      June 2024

      AWS adds two AI-focused certifications

      Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched two new certifications in artificial intelligence for IT professionals looking to boost their skills and land AI-related jobs. The additional know-how will help practitioners secure jobs that require emerging AI skills, which could offer a 47% higher salary in IT, according to an AWS study.

      AWS Certified AI Practitioner is a foundational program that validates knowledge of AI, machine learning (ML), and generative AI concepts and use cases, according to AWS. Candidates who are familiar with using AI/ML technologies on AWS and who complete a 120-minute, 85-question course will be able to sharpen their skills with fundamental concepts as well as use cases for AI, ML, and genAI. The exam will cover topics such as prompt engineering, responsible AI, security and compliance for AI systems, and more.

      AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer—Associate is a 170-minute exam with 85 questions that validates technical ability to implement ML workloads in production and to operationalize them. Individuals with at least one year of experience using Amazon SageMaker and other ML engineering AWS services would be good candidates for this certification. The exam will cover topics such as data preparation for ML models, feature engineering, model training, security, and more.

      Registration for both new AWS certifications opens August 13.

      June 2024

      Cisco unveils AI-focused certification

      Cisco’s new AI certification aims to help prepare IT pros to design, provision and optimize networks and systems needed for demanding AI/ML workloads. Unveiled at its Cisco Live conference in Las Vegas, the Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE)-AI Infrastructure certification is a vendor-agnostic, expert-level certification. With it, tech professionals will be able to design network architectures optimized for AI workloads, and “they’ll be able to do this while incorporating the unique business requirements of AI, such as trade-offs for cost optimization and power, and the matching of computing power and cloud needs to measured carbon use,” wrote Par Merat, vice president of Cisco Learning and Certifications, in a blog post about the new cert.

      According to Cisco, the new CCDE-AI Infrastructure certification addresses topics including designing for GPU optimization as well as building high-performance generative AI network fabrics. Those seeking this certification will also learn about sustainability and compliance of networks that support AI. The skills will be needed across organizations, according to the Cisco AI Readiness Index, which found that 90% of organizations are investing to try to overcome AI skills gaps. Read more here: Cisco debuts CCDE-AI Infrastructure certification

      June 2024

      U.S. cybersecurity talent demand outpaces supply

      As businesses continue to seek cybersecurity talent, the current supply of skilled workers will not meet the demand in 2024, according to recent data from CyberSeek, a data analysis and aggregation tool powered by a collaboration among Lightcast, NICE, and CompTIA.

      There are only enough available workers to fill 85% of the current cybersecurity jobs throughout the U.S. economy, according to CyberSeek data, and more than 225,000 workers are needed to close the cybersecurity skills gap. The data also shows that job postings for all tech occupations declined by 37% between May 2023 and April 2024.

      “Although demand for cybersecurity jobs is beginning to normalize to pre-pandemic levels, the longstanding cyber talent gap persists,” said Will Markow, vice president of applied research at Lightcast, in a statement. “At the same time, new threats and technologies are causing cybersecurity skill requirements to evolve at a breakneck pace, forcing employers, educators, and individuals to proactively anticipate and prepare for an ever-changing cyber landscape.”

      Positions in the highest demand include network engineers, systems administrators, cybersecurity engineers, cybersecurity analysts, security engineers, systems engineers, information systems security officers, network administrators, information security analysts, and software engineers, according to the CyberSeek data.

      “Building a robust cybersecurity presence often requires changes in talent acquisition strategies and tactics,” said Hannah Johnson, senior vice president, tech talent programs, CompTIA, in a statement. “That can include upskilling less experienced cybersecurity professionals for more advanced roles, or hiring people who demonstrate subject matter expertise via professional certifications or other credentials.”

      June 2024

      Average salary for IT pros surpasses $100k

      Recent employment data shows that the median salary for IT professionals is now $100,399, with total compensation (including bonuses and fringe benefits) reaching $103,692. Management consulting firm Janco Associates, Inc. reported that IT salaries have risen by 3.28% in the past 12 months, even while the unemployment rate for IT workers hits 5%. Executives continue to see the biggest paychecks with total compensation packages increasing by 7.48% and median compensation reaching $184,354.

      “Salary compression” is another trend Janco Associates noted. This occurs when new hires are offered salaries at the higher end of the pay range for existing positions, often getting paid more than current employees in the same roles.

      Midsized enterprise companies are seeing more attrition than their large enterprise counterparts, while salaries in midsized companies are also rising faster than they are in large enterprises. Salary levels in midsized enterprises increased 5.46% versus 2.56% in larger enterprises, according to Janco Associates.

      May 2024

      AI, IT operations among the most in-demand IT skills

      New research and survey results from IDC show that a growing lack of in-demand IT skills could be negatively impacting businesses’ bottom lines.

      The IDC report, Enterprise Resilience: IT Skilling Strategies, 2024, reveals the most in-demand skills at enterprise organizations right now. Among the 811 respondents, artificial intelligence tops the list, cited by 45% of respondents, followed closely by IT operations (44%) and cloud solutions-architecture (36%). Other skills in demand right now include: API integration (33%), generative AI (32%), cloud solutions-data management/storage (32%), data analysis (30%), cybersecurity/data security (28%), IoT software development (28%), and IT service management (27%).

      Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the IT leaders at North American organizations said the lack of these skills has delayed digital transformation initiatives, most by an average of three to 10 months. Survey respondents detailed the negative impacts of lacking skills in their IT organizations:

      • Missed revenue goals: 62%
      • Product delays: 61%
      • Quality problems: 59%
      • Declining customer satisfaction: 59%
      • Lost revenue: 57%

      Considering these survey results, IDC predicts that by 2026, 90% of organizations worldwide will feel the pain of the IT skills crisis, potentially costing up to $5.5 trillion in delays, quality issues, and revenue loss. “Getting the right people with the right skills into the right roles has never been so difficult,” says Gina Smith, PhD, research director for IDC’s IT Skills for Digital Business practice, said in a statement. “As IT skills shortages widen and the arrival of new technology accelerates, enterprises must find creative ways to hire, train, upskill, and reskill their employees. A culture of learning is the single best way to get there.”

      May 2024

      Organizations abandon IT projects due to skills gap

      A lack of specific technology skills worries IT executives, who report they will not be able to adopt new technologies, maintain legacy systems, keep business opportunities, and retain clients if the skills gap persists.

      In a recent survey by online professional training provider Pluralsight, 96% of technologists said their workload has increased due to the skills gap, and 78% also reported that they abandoned projects partway through because they didn’t have employees with the necessary IT skills to successfully finish. While most organizations (78%) said their skills gap has improved since last year, survey respondents reported that cybersecurity, cloud, and software development are the top three areas in which a skills gap exists. IT executives surveyed said they worry the skills gap in their organizations will make it difficult to:

      • Adopt new technology: 57%
      • Maintain legacy systems: 53%
      • Keep business opportunities: 44%
      • Retain clients: 33%

      Pluralsight surveyed 1,400 executives and IT professionals across the U.S., U.K., and India to learn more about the technical skills gap and how organizations are addressing a lack of expertise in specific technology areas.

      May 2024

      Lack of skills stymies network automation efforts