Our Blog

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.

2 September 2026

CAPM Certification in 2026: Requirements, Cost, and Is It Worth It?

Nathaniel Miller

PMI removed the 1,500-hour experience option from the CAPM in August 2024. The CAPM certification now requires a secondary degree and 23 contact hours of project management education. No project hours. That is the whole eligibility bar, and a lot of older guides still list the old path. The CAPM is PMI’s entry-level project management […] Read More: CAPM Certification in 2026: Requirements, Cost, and Is It Worth It?

1 September 2026

Enterprise MCP Security: What IT Teams Should Know Before Connecting AI

Nathaniel Miller

A developer stands up an MCP server over a customer database on Friday afternoon. By Monday, an AI assistant can query live records from a chat window. The demo impresses leadership. Security finds out on Tuesday. That pattern is how enterprise MCP security becomes urgent: not because MCP is inherently unsafe, but because it makes […] Read More: Enterprise MCP Security: What IT Teams Should Know Before Connecting AI

31 August 2026

How Long to Study for the PMP: A Realistic 12-Week Plan

Nathaniel Miller

A realistic PMP study plan for most candidates is 100 to 150 hours, or about 12 weeks at 10 to 12 hours a week around a full-time job. Experienced project managers with formal methodology behind them can come in lower. People who have led work without a shared vocabulary should plan higher. The PMP is […] Read More: How Long to Study for the PMP: A Realistic 12-Week Plan

28 August 2026

PMP Salary in 2026: What the Certification Is Actually Worth

Nathaniel Miller

PMI’s own salary research puts certified project managers roughly 30% ahead of their uncertified peers in the United States. That is the PMP salary headline. It is directionally useful, and it is not a promise that your offer letter moves 30% the week you pass. For an individual, “is the PMP worth it?” is about […] Read More: PMP Salary in 2026: What the Certification Is Actually Worth

26 August 2026

PMP Requirements in 2026: Do You Actually Qualify?

Nathaniel Miller

PMP requirements in 2026 are three hard gates: education, documented project leadership experience, and 35 contact hours of formal training. Miss any one of them and PMI will not let you sit the exam, no matter how long you have been “the person who runs the project.” Most people who fail to get the PMP […] Read More: PMP Requirements in 2026: Do You Actually Qualify?

25 August 2026

What Is MCP (Model Context Protocol) and Why It Matters

Nathaniel Miller

Your team already uses AI assistants for drafts, summaries, and quick research. The bottleneck shows up when someone asks the model to pull live data from SharePoint, query a SQL database, or trigger an action in a line-of-business app. Copy-paste works once. It does not scale across departments, vendors, or security reviews. That gap is […] Read More: What Is MCP (Model Context Protocol) and Why It Matters

24 August 2026

PMP Certification Cost in 2026: Every Fee, Broken Down

Nathaniel Miller

PMI raised PMP exam fees on August 6, 2026. Members now pay $445. Non-members pay $675. Search for PMP certification cost and you usually get that one number. It is real, and it is incomplete. Membership, the required 35 contact hours of project management education, study materials, and the three-year renewal cycle typically push the […] Read More: PMP Certification Cost in 2026: Every Fee, Broken Down

21 August 2026

What Is Microsoft SCVMM? A Beginner’s Guide

Nathaniel Miller

If you manage a virtualized Microsoft datacenter, you eventually outgrow managing hosts one at a time. SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager) is Microsoft’s answer: a centralized management platform for your virtualization infrastructure, from Hyper-V hosts to VMs, networking, and storage, all from a single console. This guide explains what SCVMM is, what it does, […] Read More: What Is Microsoft SCVMM? A Beginner’s Guide

20 August 2026

When AI Is Useful, Risky, or Off-Limits for Project Managers

Nathaniel Miller

A project manager uploads a vendor contract draft into a public chatbot and asks it to “flag risky clauses.” The model returns confident language about liability caps. Two clauses are wrong. The PM sends the summary to procurement anyway. That is how AI project management risks show up in real work: not as headline breaches, […] Read More: When AI Is Useful, Risky, or Off-Limits for Project Managers

19 August 2026

Waterfall Project Management Explained: Phases, Pros, and Cons

Nathaniel Miller

Before Agile became the default in software, one methodology ran nearly every large project: waterfall. It is a linear, sequential approach where each phase finishes before the next begins, like water flowing down a series of steps. Decades later, waterfall is far from obsolete. For projects with fixed requirements, strict compliance, or heavy documentation needs, […] Read More: Waterfall Project Management Explained: Phases, Pros, and Cons