They say that change is the only constant in life, and we at Certification Magazine are not immune to change. Surveys, as our longtime audience well knows, are a big part of what we do here. We conduct an annual Salary Survey that addresses the entire body of information technology certifications once a year in autumn. Don't worry, we're not changing that. In fact, it's coming up soon.

For the past handful of years, however, we've also done three Salary Survey PLUS surveys each year. These smaller surveys have typically covered a lot of the same ground that we go over in our annual Salary Survey, while being limited in scope to all of the IT certifications in a particular category such as Linux certifications, cloud computing certifications, or (most recently) Big Data certifications.

For a variety of reasons, we are changing our approach to these smaller, more targeted surveys. We will still continue to address specific areas of IT certification, but we're removing the salary element from the smaller surveys. Going forward we'll save that exclusively for the annual Salary Survey, which (again) is coming up soon.

The new surveys will focus more on certification, as well as on specific issues of interest to certified professionals in each of the IT disciplines addressed. We want to continue to provide valuable information about the IT industry in each edition of Certification Magazine that directly reflects the thinking and experience of certified professionals.

For our first trip down this new road, we're picking the brains of information security professionals. We want to get inside the information security certification world and get a snapshot of what the men and women on the inside see there each day. We're still in a bit of an experimental transition, and we hope to get better at going in this new direction.

As we always do, we've added a dash of incentive to participate. If you take the survey all the way to the end, we'll thank you with either (or both!) of two rewards. You can get a free digital copy of the next issue of Certification Magazine. Or get a one-year print subscription at 40 percent off the normal cost. (Hate making decisions? Get 'em both! We don't mind.)

BIG THANKS to everyone who participated in our Security Certification Survey! Watch for the results to appear the forthcoming 2017 Autumn Edition of Certification Magazine.