Mould Your Career With The Top 5 Storage Certifications

For some years, storage-related certifications have loomed massive and spectacular in a wide range of employer and job market surveys. There isn't any doubt that abilities and information associated with varied networked types of storage resembling Storage Space Networks Speciality (SANs), Network-Attached Storage (NAS), virtualized storage, and even Storage as a Service (STaaS) are in excessive demand. Moreover, IT professionals keen on information heart or community backbone-related positions are prone to want robust storage chops.

Like different IT certifications, vendor-neutral credentials acknowledge broad competency in design, implementation, and administration, whereas vendor-specific applications are inclined to match up with applied sciences lively IT professionals work together with within the office (or what they'd wish to collaborate with for future or potential employers).

Reputation with employers is one other consideration when deciding on a certification. In our casual survey, we searched some on-line job websites on a given day for special storage certifications. Observe that the Cisco CCNP swamps the different certifications as a result of its protection goes nicely past storage. (The CCNP Knowledge Middle specialization does contain storage to a point. However, it doesn't focus particularly or solely on storage.)

Brocade Professional IP Administrator (BPIPA) 

Brocade has been operating a top-notch storage certification program for greater than a decade. The Brocade Professional IP Administrator 2017 (BPIPA) is an intermediate-level Brocade credential that enjoys broad recognition within the industry. The certification acknowledges people who perceive the best way to administer Brocade hardware, and who preserve Ethernet Layer 2 switching and IP routing networks utilizing Brocade administration instruments and consoles.

Candidates should take the Brocade professional IP Administrator 2017 (BPIPA 200) course earlier than making an attempt the BPIPA examination. Brocade recommends that candidates take the Community Protocols and Requirements Pre-Evaluation, which requires applicants first to register with the Brocade website. Attaining an 85% or higher on the pre-assessment demonstrates mastery of industry-standard protocols and readiness to take the BPIPA course and examination.

The BPIPA 200 is a four-day course accessible by way of Brocade licensed coaching companions. It prices $3,200 (for instructor-led or digital classroom programs, or $2,000 for the web-based course) and commensurate quantities in native currencies elsewhere, the place out there.

Cisco Certified Network Professional Network Center (CCNP Data Center)

The new CCNP Data Center certification program qualifies you for contemporary professional-level job roles in data center technologies. One of the industry’s most respected certifications, CCNP validates the core knowledge you require while providing the flexibility to choose a focus area.

Obtaining CCNP Data Center certification confirms your skills with data center solutions. To obtain CCNP Data Center certification, you pass two exams: one that includes core data center technologies and one data center concentration exam of your choice, so you can tailor your certification to your technical area of focus.

NetApp Certified Data Administrator (NCDA)

NetApp has been within the storage enterprise since 1992 and presents a broad line of merchandise and techniques for backup and restoration, conventional and virtualized storage and cloud-based information facilities. Though NetApp has some stiff competitors — EMC, HP, and Hitachi, to call some — the corporate understands the worth of flexibility and integration with different third-party merchandise. For instance, NetApp labored with Cisco to develop FlexPod, which helps clients handle Cisco, Citrix, Cloudera, Microsoft, NetApp, Oracle, Pink Hat, SAP and different functions and environments, and NetApp's hybrid cloud storage integrates with Amazon Net Companies and Microsoft Azure, amongst others.

The NetApp Certification Program (NCP) options some certifications inside 5 predominant tracks: Implementation Engineer, Storage Administrator, Help Engineer, Set up Engineer and Converged Infrastructure. All NetApp certifications concentrate on some side of storage hardware or the software program that powers these merchandise. The Storage Administrator monitor contains the NetApp Certified Storage Associate (NCSA).

The NCDA acknowledges working data of storage space community (SAN) administration, FCP and iSCSI parts and configuration, CIFS and NFS management, knowledge aggregation and deduplication, excessive availability, information clustering, protocol administration, storage efficiency, and safety. Candidates should be capable of configuring controllers working the NetApp Knowledge ONTAP working system in NFS and Home Windows (CIFS) environments, and perceive NetApp SnapMirror, SnapRestore and SnapVault applied sciences.

EMC Storage Administrator Track (EMCSA)

EMC, acquired by Dell in 2016, has one of many longest-standing and best-recognized certification applications for storage, in line with its continued presence and excellent recognition as a number one supplier of storage options of every kind.

The EMC certification program gives credentials for information scientists, cloud architects and directors, storage managers, cloud and implementation engineers, and a complete lot extra. We selected to give attention to the EMC Storage Administrator, which incorporates 16 specialties or platforms on the Specialist and Knowledgeable ranges, as proven on the EMCSA home page.

For a lot of EMCSA candidates, their work begins with the Info Storage Associate (EMCISA) certification. From there, a person pursuing a Specialist certification should go another examination in a selected monitor. Lastly, a Professional credential requires successful completion of an review, available just for the CLARiiON, Symmetrix, and VMAX3 methods.

SNIA Certified Storage Professional (SCSP)

The Storage Networking Industry Affiliation(SNIA) is a nonprofit group integrated in 1997 and comprised of greater than 400 member corporations. The affiliation develops and promotes storage answer specs and requirements, and presents schooling and certification for storage and data administration professionals.

The SNIA Certified Professional (SCSP) is a vendor-neutral credential designed to offer a foundation of knowledge for any storage networking professional seeking to gain expertise in the storage networking area. This credential provides validation for storage networking concepts that can be applied to more challenging SNIA credentials or vendor credentialing programs.

More Storage Certifications

There are many different certification applications that may assist to additional the careers and professional growth of IT professionals who work within the networked storage environment. Specifically, check out the credentials which are accessible from HP, Purple Hat, Hitachi Information Programs and IBM:

HPE gives storage-related certifications in its HPE Certification and Learning certification program, together with:

• HPE Master ASE - Storage Solutions Architect V3

• HPE Product Certified- OneView

• HPE ASE - Storage Solutions Integrator V2