IDC surveys have found that, compared with a having a staff that has no formal training, having a staff that holds certifications should increase an organization's ability to resolve networking failures by 20 percent to 40 percent and reduce the number of unexpected outages by 10 percent, Anderson said.

Also, "people see [the offering of certification classes by employers] as a benefit and are more loyal," he noted.

Anderson did note that the certification process can be time-consuming and costly.

Classroom training programs can take 10 to 12 days at a cost of US$500 to $1,000 per day and are often funded by the student's employer, he said. Online and self-directed study through books and videos are less-expensive alternatives.

Cody recalled that each of his four certifications required passing four or five exams. He kept the total cost of each certification to about $125 by using self-study methods and online training programs. Cody estimated that classroom training for each exam would have cost about $3,000 in metropolitan New York.