Tech firms grab high rankings in list of most innovative companies

Is the company where you hang your IT shingle "innovative?" It probably sounds like a wholly subjective designation, but there's a method to the madness of the rankings released by top business publication Forbes at the end of August. Companies were assigned an innovation score based on a relatively simple mathematical formula (developed by two researchers at Brigham Young University) that compares market capitalization and net present value of cash flows. To be considered for the rankings, firms have to have seven years of public financial records and have a market capitalization (the total value of all issued shares of stock of a publicly-traded company) of at least $10 billion.

 

Innovation head

A handful of IT companies made the list, which may give IT pros some direction the next time that they're looking for a new certification path to set their sights on. At the top of the list, ranked No. 1 in the world, is Salesforce.com, a leading contender in the cloud computing charge. Salesforce offers a variety of certifications, with different levels that include administrator, implementation expert, developer and architect. Of note for employers, Salesforce also offers one click verification of its credentials.

 

Amazon.com checks in at No. 6 on the list, and is also making rapid advances in the booming cloud industry (along with maintaining its more familiar products and services). Amazon Web Services offers three associate certs and one professional cert, which train IT pros to develop and deploy Amazon's cloud products.

 

The next company to register is virtualization giant VMware, ranked No. 9 by Forbes. VMware also has a significant presence in the cloud technologies sector, in case you're looking for a unifying theme. The VMware certification program is significantly larger than what's offered by Salesforce.com and Amazon.com, so if you have a diverse skill set and you enjoy having lots of options, then this could be a good place to look for your next cert.

 

Red Hat, at No. 12, rounds out the fairly exclusive club of IT firms to make the grade. Like VMware, Red Hat has a deep and robust certification program that reflects it core emphasis on Linux-based, open-source operating system software. The Forbes list goes all the way down to 100, but the four IT firms, like cream in a milk bucket, appear to have risen to the top.

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About the Author

GoCertify's mission is to help both students and working professionals get IT certifications. GoCertify was founded in 1998 by Anne Martinez.