Database Certs: IBM Information Management

IBM has a long-standing and well-populated IT certification program: it’s been around for over 30 years, and encompasses over 500 individual credentials. One of the company’s major certification categories is called “Information Management.”

By itself this category includes 39 different credentials that cover platforms such as DB2, Informix, InfoSphere, and Websphere. The range of credentials offered includes Database Associate, Database Administrator, Advanced Database Administrator, Solution Developer, Solutions Expert, and more. It’s a big complex certification space, but one where particular platform allegiances are likely to guide readers straight to the handful of items that are probably relevant to their interests and needs.

With somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of the worldwide database market, IBM is all over the place in this technology niche. The company gains considerable leverage, however, from its status as the marketshare leader in applications infrastructure and middleware, with a marketshare in that arena of over 30 percent (which Gartner lists as “nearly double” its nearest competitor). This makes an investment in IBM certification a pretty safe bet.