Rosini says people do certifications for different reasons depending on their level of industry experience, career goals and work environments.
"We take in IT professionals who have worked in the industry for 20 years and those fresh out of university," he said. "[Participants] pick out the certifications they want based on what systems or applications they are working with because most of these certifications are designed by vendors for their own products."
This can range from becoming MCPs (Microsoft Certified Professionals) by completing any Microsoft exam, to becoming a CCIE (Cisco Certified Inter Network Expert), qualifications that are globally recognized.
With many years industry experience and seven Microsoft certifications under his belt, Readify senior consultant Chris Hewitt is a certification champion.
Along with an astonishingly lengthy list of completed exams, Hewitt is a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer, Technology Specialist, Solutions Developer, Application Developer, Trainer, Application Developer and a Certified Professional.
"Along with the career incentives, I wanted to prove to myself, my employer and customers that I knew what I was doing; the certifications have externally verified that," Hewitt says. "The beauty of a certification is that it forces you to learn all aspects of your specialization which is the entire reason why most people do them.
"They qualify a level of professionalism for Web, OS and Enterprise."
He said the qualifications are equally beneficial to IT newcomers and veterans.
"[While] some will help familiarize those entering the industry with basic OSes and generic applications, [people] who have worked in IT for years will be forced to learn aspects of their [specialization] they normally wouldn't come across," Hewitt said.
"Basically it will help them forge new ideas, to be more creative and to think laterally." Microsoft technology adviser Michael Kleef, a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and university student with 15 years industry experience agrees.
"There is so much value in doing a good certification - [for example] without the qualification you might approach a project you are stuck on with the same cyclic thinking, but [with the certification] you are armed with an arsenal of new ideas and concepts," Kleef said.
"It gives you the same value as doing [post-graduate] university work by stimulating thought, while learning different ideas from teachers who are also working professionals."
Excom's Rosini said the courses not only help to create new ideas, but bury bad habits.
"The reason someone with 20 years of experience would do a certification is to break their bad habits and to forge new ideas, tricks and troubleshooting [skills]," he said. "Certifications give IT professionals a polish and help resolve what I call the 'Swiss Cheese' effect [in that] they help IT professionals to fill up their holes of bad habits."
HP IT consulting project manager Mark Millen, an ITSM Student of the Year finalist who has 11 years industry experience and most recently completed an IT Master's certification, said adding more difficult course content will add more value.
"While the certifications serve to increase your knowledge of the [environment] you work with, the harder courses will be better recognized and will naturally grant more knowledge," Millen said.
HP software consultant Geoff Kingsmill, who has completed the Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA), which is Linux's highest certification, said content difficulty is a good gauge in determining value.
"I didn't set out to do a certification - I set out to learn something," Kingsmill said. "Exam-based courses mean you need to know everything about the content [so] you can't just passively listen but you need to synthesize to truly learn.
"Pick the certifications with harder exams because although you will kick, curse and scream, you will come out a lot more educated."
Kingsmill believes Linux-based courses offer more technical training than competing certifications.
"You may know what you work on day-to-day very well, so for instance you might work on Web pages and be familiar with Apache, but not know anything about clustering, so in this way Red Hat gives you an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of Linux."
Ice Systems technical director and Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) Neil Smith agreed says Red Hat stands out among the HP, Citrix, Juniper, Brocade, Checkpoint and Microsoft qualifications.
"Some [certifications] are more for show because you do the course and are run through the questions and answers so every player gets a prize, but employers know this and therefore their value is a lot less," Smith said
"A lot of other certifications such as old Microsoft [courses] have been tarnished by brain-dumps (pre-designed recycled questions) because they are essentially multiple choice exams.
"For some you buy the answers on the Internet so their value diminishes - this is where Red Hat stands out because you are in a lab for a whole day going through gruelling scenarios where you are tested very comprehensively - not everyone survives because the casualty rate could be almost as high as the pass mark!"
Smith said there are both individual and business incentives for becoming certified.
"I have always done certifications based on the needs of the business I am working for and with the needs of the changing IT landscape," he said.
"Certifications for an employee are great because they are industry recognized and therefore they make you a lot more attractive as an employee, while for the business they can boast about having highly experienced staff.
"The knowledge you have becomes a lot scarcer the higher certified you are, and business pays and charges a lot more for that."
Kleef, who is about halfway through a Master's of Information Security at Charles Sturt University said although most people become certified for knowledge and job security, there are definite pay incentives.
"There absolutely are pay-packet incentives from [completing certifications] - I became a MCSE to get a [pay] increase of several thousand dollars," he said.
"The course was gruelling but I believe I met the bar [and] have been rewarded for it." Hewitt said the benefits swing both ways for business and employees.
"Those companies where there is a direct correlation between getting an increased pay packet and acquiring a certification can turn around and say [to the market] they employ 'X-amount' of [certified] professionals," he said.
"Readify pays for employees to sit relevant certifications once [so] if they reattempt the employee pays [which] basically this stops people trying over and over."
Robin Habgood, sales director for Oracle partner Attain IT recognized the correlation between higher pay for better qualified employees, but said having certifications company-funded is also an incentive.
"Most employees would see more value in extending their knowledge in their area of expertise at no cost, [which] gives job security and employability, rather than getting a fat paycheque," Habgood said.
"[Certification] offers opportunity for IT professionals to become more marketable and better skilled which makes their job more enjoyable while improving management internally for the business and for [its] clients."
According to Rosini, the bigger certifications are recognized by businesses across the globe making them a portable licence.
"No matter what camp you are in, certifications are recognized by all [IT] business," he said. "If they have a certified professional, they know they have the skills and capability to handle problems in their own organization and with their clients so down-time is minimized."
Habgood said business benefits of having certified staff include membership of partner networks which improves marketability.
"We have qualified to be an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner [and] a Red Hat partner because we have a number of certified technicians, meaning our customers can have confidence in our [services]," he said.
While there is more focus on becoming certified, Rosini said it has not always been this way.
"Years ago when IT was small, people either knew what they were talking about or they didn't; but now, with more options like correspondence learning, university and TAFE qualifications, [certification] can differentiate between one person and the next," he said. "Certification on its own without any industry experience is nice but it won't give an employer confidence [in the employee] and the same is true for the reverse.
"Experience coupled with certification is absolutely paramount; they go hand-in-hand."
He said before becoming certified, people should choose a certification based on career relevance and industry-related content.
"[Avoid] those that are [too theoretical] because the textbook will always tell you how things should work in a perfect world - but IT is not like that so effective [training] requires experienced teaching," he said.
By heeding similar advice, Kleef reduced the length of his Master's degree by half because his MCSE certification is widely acknowledged to be industry-related.
"I was able to tie my Master's degree and the MCSE together because content overlapped as they are both industry-based," he said.
Red Hat veteran Kingsmill said while people are discouraged by courses which are not challenging or lack industry relevance, he was impressed by the Linux certifications.
"Often you do courses and you find yourself saying 'the instructor didn't know much', or 'I could do this at home' or 'that's great but how am I going to use it at work?'", he said. "Red Hat is a knockout on all these fronts [because] when I started with a RHCE, I found myself saying 'oh great I can use this tomorrow!'."
Managing director for IT support firm TLC IT Alan Chapman agreed with Kingsmill noting the quality and relevance of the MCSE and Red Hat certifications is widely recognized.
"We recognize as an employer those certifications that really test student knowledge such as Red Hat and the MCSE courses which are industry [relevant] and have very hard exams," Chapman said.