Is the CISSP certification still relevant?

Some argue that, because more people have earned it, the CISSP certification is becoming less relevant.

The CISSP certification is not less relevant because more people are passing it – more people are passing it because there is a much higher demand for CISSP-certified professionals than at any time in the past. Information and business security are far more relevant than in the past, because more organizations are using information systems in increasingly-complex ways to support critical business processes.

In my opinion the growth of CISSPs is still not keeping up with the demand for such professionals. If anything, the certification is MORE relevant now than at any time before.

I disagree with the statement that it will become less relevant. On the contrary, as the number of people who earn the CISSP certification grows, the MORE relevant it will become! Say, for instance, 20 years from now, that 1/3 of all IT professionals have the certification. That would make CISSP *HIGHLY* relevant!

I think that maybe you are asking a completely different question. Today, having a CISSP gives relevance to the individual person who holds it. When CISSP is rare, having it makes the person more relevant. But if CISSP were to become plentiful, that would make the certification far more relevant.

Take MCSE. Lots of IT pros have it. The certification is *highly* relevant – so much so that it is practically a standard. A person who does *not* have the MCSE is not relevant. In many companies you can’t play in the game if you don’t have it. That sounds like high relevance to me.