StormWind Studios uses proprietary technologies to provide live, interactive IT training courses online in technologies such as Cisco, VMware, Microsoft, CompTIA, ITIL, AWS, cybersecurity, project management, and more. Our blog aims to share the goings-on at StormWind Studios, as well as industry news, blog posts, and some fun stuff, too.
Nathaniel Miller
The Cisco certification path has three main levels: CCNA (associate, one $300 exam), CCNP (professional, a $400 core exam plus a $300 concentration exam) and CCIE (expert, the same $400 core exam plus a $1,600 eight-hour lab). Every level is valid for three years. No level is a formal prerequisite for the next, but almost […] Read More: Cisco Certification Path 2026: CCNA, CCNP, CCIE & Costs
Nathaniel Miller
The CWNA certification is CWNP’s base credential for enterprise Wi-Fi. The current exam is CWNA-110, released September 29, 2026. CWNP lists it at $274.99 USD, 90 minutes, and 60 multiple-choice or multiple-answer questions. A score of 70% or higher passes. Instructors must score 80% or higher. The credential is valid for three years. CWNA-109, the […] Read More: CWNA Certification: Cost, Exam Domains, and Whether It Is Worth It
Nathaniel Miller
AZ-802 is now the exam for Microsoft’s Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate. AZ-800 and AZ-801 retired on September 30, 2026. If you are starting today, you sit one exam, Administering Windows Server, not the old two-exam split. Microsoft lists the exam at 120 minutes, with a passing score of 700 or higher. It is an […] Read More: AZ-802 Certification Guide: The Windows Server Exam That Replaced AZ-800 and AZ-801
Nathaniel Miller
If leadership is being asked to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot and nobody can say when Copilot Studio fits and when Foundry fits, start with AB-731. Microsoft’s AI Transformation Leader exam checks whether a business leader can spot a real generative AI use case, pick the Microsoft tool that matches it, and plan adoption. You […] Read More: AB-731 AI Transformation Leader: What the Exam Covers and Who Should Take It
Nathaniel Miller
The skills that got you promoted are not the skills the job now requires. New managers are measured on what their team delivers, not on what they personally produce, and that shift catches most people out in the first quarter. This is a practical 90-day framework: what to focus on in each phase, the five […] Read More: Management Skills for New Managers: The First 90 Days
Nathaniel Miller
Microsoft’s Azure certification path is organized into three levels (Fundamentals, Associate, Expert) plus specialty and hybrid credentials. Exams cost about $99 at Fundamentals and about $165 for everything above it. The right starting point depends on whether you are new to cloud or already administering it. Unlike the older Microsoft program, the current path is […] Read More: Azure Certification Path 2026: Levels, Costs, and Order
Nathaniel Miller
Waterfall suits projects where the requirements are fixed and the cost of change is high. Agile suits projects where the requirements will move and the cost of being wrong for six months is higher. Most real delivery organizations run both. The useful skill is knowing which one a given project needs. Plenty of articles will […] Read More: Agile vs Waterfall: How to Actually Choose (Decision Table)
Nathaniel Miller
PMI membership cost is $149 per year plus a $10 one-time application fee. Renewal is $129 a year. For anyone sitting the PMP, membership pays for itself immediately: the member exam discount is larger than the fee to join. That is the part most people miss. Project Management Institute membership looks optional until you put […] Read More: PMI Membership Cost in 2026: Fees, Renewal, and Worth It?
Nathaniel Miller
Cloud managed access points move the management plane to a vendor-hosted platform. They do not send your users’ traffic through that vendor’s data center. A laptop talking to a file server on your LAN still goes from the AP to your switch to the server. That is why a brief internet outage is usually a […] Read More: Cloud-Managed Access Points: How They Work and When to Use Them
Nathaniel Miller
Cisco Firepower is Cisco’s next-generation firewall (NGFW) platform. The naming is the confusing part: Firepower, FTD, FMC, FDM, ASA with FirePOWER Services, and Secure Firewall overlap in ways that make inherited deployments hard to read. If you have walked into a Cisco security estate and could not tell what you were looking at, that confusion […] Read More: Cisco Firepower Explained: NGFW, FTD, and How Teams Use It