Alongside marketplace demand, salary is a key factor in deciding which IT certifications to pursue. These ten credentials will maximize your earning potential through 2014.

In addition to keeping the “lights” on, organizations want an IT workforce that will help cut costs, manage risk and influence smarter business decisions. IT professionals with skills in virtualization, information security, business intelligence, software development and project management are best poised to achieve these goals, so it’s no surprise that credentials in these hot and emerging domains will dominate the top paying IT certifications in 2014.

This post will break down the tech certifications with the highest earning potential, according to the industry-respected 2013 IT Skills & Salary Report by Global Knowledge and Windows IT Pro. To eliminate statistical anomalies, this ranking only includes certificates with 100 or more responses.

Here are the top paying IT certifications for 2014:

Cloud computing is often talked about as a technology that will make IT departments obsolete as companies seek to outsource computing needs. This analysis misses the complexity of what's actually happening in IT departments.

The actuality is that cloud technologies are running in conjunction with on-site systems, and many companies are choosing to operate and maintain their own servers - even if they have a few Cloud applications up and running. This adds a layer of complexity to effectively managing the IT needs of an organization. Rather than eliminating the role of in-house IT professionals, the cloud is merely changing the skill set and job functions of the IT department.

In my experience, here are the top 5 skills IT professionals will need to learn to work in cloud computing:

A survey of accomplished IT professionals indicates the passions and motivations that make for a successful career in the IT field.

As the CEO and founder of an IT training company, it’s my job to try and understand what makes IT professionals love their jobs enough to keep coming back for more. A question I am constantly asking people is, why IT?

My company recently surveyed over 2,000 IT professionals nationwide in an attempt to answer this very question. When asked why they stay in their careers, almost a majority (47 percent) said the most important factor was their love of technology. Interestingly, career advancement and ease of finding new opportunities in the field were at the bottom of the barrel, with 65 percent of respondents saying these ranked lowest in their book.

Rank why you continue to work in IT