SNIA broadens education and certification choices

Regardless of your role in the storage industry, the abundance of information, choices and even technologies can be overwhelming.  Add to that all of the spare time you don’t have to stay on top of each innovation, announcement, trend or latest storage network architecture and the challenge can be overwhelming.

Help is on the way.  This week the Storage Networking Industry Association announced the SNIA Education Continuum, which includes an educational institute offering a comprehensive set of educational programs for Fibre Channel and iSCSI, and a newly-structured set of certifications.

SNIA’s new umbrella of educational offerings is aimed at reaching every level and role of storage industry participant, from the most seasoned professional to storage newcomers.  It covers all aspects of training and education, including publications, conferences, seminars and certifications. 

The SNIA Technology Center Institute brings together a SNIA-created set of curricula, a group of experienced SNIA member as training providers, and SNIA experts as guest speakers.  The plan is to take advantage of the extensive hardware and software at the association’s Technology Center to provide an in-depth, hands-on training experience. 

The SNIA Storage Network Certification Program also has some nice perks for industry participants. The association has created a Storage Networking Foundations Certification that provides a primary certification for the industry.  Building from the foundations certification, formerly known as the SNIA Certified Professional, the association also offers the following designations: SNIA Certified Systems Engineer, SNIA Certified Systems Engineer – Master, SNIA Certified Architect and SNIA Certified Storage Networking Expert.

Why is this important when vendors have their own training and certifications, and most storage professionals are already tapped for time? 

One answer is that SNIA’s courses will provide storage professionals with information about a wide range of storage networking technologies and products before they make their purchasing decisions, giving IT buyers an opportunity to “learn first, buy later,” a significantly different model than the one most of you have access to currently.

Also, SNIA hosts many of these training courses at its Technology Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., so students will have hands-on access to more than $15 million worth of storage gear from almost every vendor in the industry.

The broader storage certification will be of interest to storage newbies who came from other disciplines – colleagues from the network, security or systems side of the house, for instance, who have suddenly been handed the task of managing or deploying a storage-area network can acquire knowledge quickly in a formal, structured training environment. From a manager’s point of view, the certifications will likely prove useful as a calibration device when they must hire quickly due to unexpected staff turnover.

Pricing for the Technology Center Institute courses ranges from $1,200 to $3,600 depending on the length and hands-on component of the class.  Also, the SNIA has promotional pricing available during the program launch:  check out https://www.snia.org/education for more information.