We are living through one of the most significant technological shifts in history and the demand for skilled IT professionals has never been higher. Every business on the planet, regardless of size or industry, depends on technology to operate. Banks, hospitals, schools, retailers, logistics companies, government departments. None of them function without IT infrastructure behind them and all of them need skilled people to build, manage and maintain it. Here is what makes 2026 particularly exciting to be learning IT. 1 - AI is creating more demand for sysadmins, not less. As businesses adopt AI tools and automation at scale, the infrastructure required to support those workloads is growing rapidly. Someone has to manage the servers, the networks, the cloud environments and the security that makes all of it possible. That someone is a sysadmin. 2 - Cloud adoption is accelerating. More businesses are moving workloads to Azure, AWS and Google Cloud every single day. The engineers who understand both on premises infrastructure and cloud platforms are in enormous demand right now and that demand is only going one way. 3 - Cybersecurity has never been more critical. Every organisation is a potential target and the skills to protect infrastructure, respond to incidents and harden systems are some of the most valued in the entire industry. 4 - The skills shortage is real. There are more open IT roles right now than there are qualified people to fill them. If you are building your skills consistently and getting hands on experience in a lab environment, you are moving toward a career with genuine job security, strong salaries and a clear path for progression. The best time to start building your IT skills was five years ago. The second best time is today. What is driving you to learn IT right now? Drop it in the comments — Dan

Most people learning IT pick a side. Windows or Linux. And I get it, there is a lot to learn on either platform and it is tempting to just focus on one. But here is what I have seen in my years working in IT. The sysadmins who stand out, the ones who get the interesting projects, the promotions and the best job offers, are almost always the ones who are comfortable on both. Here is why it matters so much. The real world does not run on just one platform. Walk into any medium to large business and you will find Windows Server running Active Directory, DNS and file services alongside Linux servers handling web hosting, databases, automation and cloud workloads. If you can only manage one of them you are only useful for half the environment. If you can manage both you become the person the whole team relies on. It makes you significantly more employable. Job postings for senior sysadmin and infrastructure roles almost always list both Windows and Linux as requirements. Candidates who can genuinely demonstrate hands on experience with both are in a much smaller pool than those who only know one, and a smaller pool means less competition and stronger negotiating power when it comes to salary. It makes you a better troubleshooter. Working across both platforms gives you a broader understanding of how operating systems work at a fundamental level. Concepts like permissions, networking, storage and services translate across both, and the more deeply you understand them on one platform the faster you pick them up on the other. It future proofs your career. Cloud platforms like Azure and AWS run enormous amounts of Linux infrastructure. DevOps and automation tools are heavily Linux orientated. Cybersecurity work spans both platforms. Whatever direction your IT career takes you, having solid skills in both Windows Server and Linux means you are ready for it. Both platforms are covered in depth inside this community with hands on lab content built around real world scenarios. If you are only working on one right now, today is a great day to start on the other.

Did you know Ubuntu Server powers a huge proportion of the world's cloud infrastructure? If you are learning Linux, you are learning the OS that runs the internet. The Ubuntu Server course is live in the classroom right now.

One of the biggest things that stops people from pursuing a career in IT is the feeling that there is too much to learn before they are ready. Too many technologies. Too many certifications. Too many things they do not know yet. Here is the truth. Every sysadmin, every network engineer, every IT professional you have ever looked up to started exactly where you are right now. Knowing nothing. Googling everything. Figuring it out as they went. Nobody walks into their first IT role knowing it all. You learn on the job. You learn in the lab. You learn by breaking things and fixing them. You learn by asking questions in communities like this one. That is how it has always worked and that is how it always will. The only difference between the person who makes it in IT and the person who does not is that one of them started. So if you have been putting it off, waiting until you feel ready, waiting until you know enough, waiting for the right moment, this is your sign. Open the lab. Start the course. Ask the question you have been afraid to ask. The best time to start was yesterday. The second best time is right now. What is the one thing you are going to do today to move your IT journey forward? Drop it in the comments 👇 — Dan

When you first started learning Linux, which distro did you begin with? Would love to know what people started on and whether you stuck with it or moved on to something else.