9/13/2005 -- In the years that CertCities.com has covered IT certifications, we’ve been relatively remiss in writing about the storage side of certification. To make up for lost time, we’ve come up with this handy guide to give you an overview of what’s out there and how to get certified.

And what better time than now to play catch up: Revenue worldwide in the external disk storage systems market grew 6.7 percent year-over-year to $3.8 billion in the first quarter of this year, making it the eighth consecutive quarter of positive growth, according to a June report from market research group IDC.

Most storage certifications are specific to the vendors offering them, but there is some cross-integration of different programs, as with HP and McData, and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) offers solely vendor-neutral titles that certify knowledge of general storage concepts and technology. As to which certification is best to get -- that's up to you. It all depends on which company’s products you work with, or plan to work with, and how you work with them: implementation, administration or planning and design.

Adaptec
Certifications Available: Adaptec Certified Storage Professional (ACSP)
Prerequisites: None
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $125
Exam Availability: Prometric

Adaptec’s certification program is represented by a lone certification: the one-exam ACSP. But for professionals who work with Adaptec technology, this general cert might be nice to have under your belt. To be an ACSP, you should know about Adaptec’s storage products, which include Fibre Channel storage and its NAS Snap Servers, server I/O technologies, RAID theory and implementation, troubleshooting methods and how to optimize the performance of storage arrays.

For more information, go here.

Brocade
Certifications Available: Brocade Certified Fabric Professional (BCFP), Brocade Certified SAN Designer (BCSD), Brocade Certified SAN Manager (BCSM)
Prerequisites: BCSM requires BCFP
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $150
Exam Availability: Pearson Vue

To complement its range of SAN switches and software solutions, Brocade has a comprehensive certification program to validate knowledge on and ability to design, implement, support and manage SANs using its SilkWorm switches. Candidates must also know about server and storage consolidation, LAN-free and serverless backup, remote data replication and dynamic storage management.

The three certifications in Brocade’s program each cover a different role in the creation and management of a Brocade-based SAN. At the foundation level is the BCFP, which requires basic knowledge on how to install, configure and troubleshoot Brocade products, particularly SilkWorm switches, and the theory and concepts behind Fibre Channel. The BCSD looks at the bigger picture and tests on the candidate’s ability to design a SAN by combining storage components and solutions. The highest-level Brocade title, the BCSM, certifies “advanced understanding of administering Brocade SilkWorm Switches and managing the overall SAN implementation,” according to Brocade’s Web site. The BCSM was recently updated to version 3.0.

All Brocade certifications require one exam.

For more information, go here.

Cisco Systems
Certifications Available: Cisco Storage Networking Design Specialist (CSNDS), Cisco Storage Networking Support Specialist (CSNSS), Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Storage Networking
Prerequisites: CCNA for some titles
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $125 (CSNDS, CSNSS), $300 (CCIE written), $1,250 (CCIE lab)
Exam Availability: Pearson Vue and Prometric, Lab Exam at Select Cisco Locations

Cisco is known for its dominance in networking products, but to IT professionals, it’s also recognized for its highly demanding certification program, which requires candidates pass hands-on lab exams to achieve the pinnacle of Cisco education: the CCIE.

And though it’s been awhile since Cisco started offering its Cisco Qualified Specialist (CQS) certifications in storage networking with the CSNDS and CSNSS, it wasn’t until last October that Cisco added a title recognizing storage skills at its master CCIE level. The CCIE Storage Networking doesn’t have any prerequisites, but Cisco makes the very reasonable suggestion that you have three to five years of work experience before attempting to take on the two-hour written exam and the subsequent eight-hour lab exam. Together, the two exams seek to validate expert knowledge of storage solutions over extended network infrastructure using multiple transport options such as Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FCIP and FICON.

Both CQS titles cover how to deploy and configure Cisco storage products, primarily the Cisco MDS 9000 Series multilayer directors and switches, but each emphasizes a different aspect of the storage networking specialist’s role in either design or support. The Specialist certs require a valid CCNA and one exam.

For more information, go here.

Dell
Certifications Available: Dell Certified Storage Networking Professional (DCSNP)
Prerequisites: None
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $125
Exam Availability: Prometric

Despite being one of the top players in the networked storage industry, Dell currently offers only one certification in storage, the DCSNP. Exam 970-9879 tests "knowledge and skills in the area of Dell storage configuration and management," according to the company’s Web site. Judging from the recommended Dell training courses associated with the certification, you’ll need to know your storage networking basics, from configuring hardware and software to understanding storage architecture, including Fiber Channel, RAID and clustering. And as this is a Dell cert, you’ll need to know about Dell products like the PowerVault tape- and disk-based storage arrays, and also how they can interoperate with EMC software and hardware.

For more information, go here.

EMC
Certifications Available: EMC Proven Professional Storage Administrator, EMC Proven Professional Technology Architect, EMC Proven Professional Customer Engineer, EMC Proven Professional Implementation Engineer
Prerequisites: Varies
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $200
Exam Availability: Prometric

If a company’s market standing were a reason for getting its certification, that honor might go to EMC, as it’s the overall storage market leader, with revenue shares of 29 percent in the total network storage segment and 30 percent in storage software, according to IDC. To validate the skills of the many professionals who work with its products, EMC has a comprehensive certification program.

EMC’s program is structured around four basic roles the company believes storage professionals can play: storage administrator, technology architect, customer engineer and implementation engineer. Within each track are three or five specialties candidates can focus on, which include:

• Storage Management
• Networked Storage - SAN
• Networked Storage - NS Solution
• Clariion Solutions (Networked Storage Systems)
• Business Continuity (Backup, Disaster Recovery, High Availability)

For each of these specializations, there are three levels of expertise: Associate, Specialist and Expert. The two advanced levels require the previous level’s title as a prerequisite (e.g., Expert requires Specialist, Specialist requires Associate).

EMC certifications require one to two exams.

For more information, go here.

HP
Certifications Available: HP Accredited Platform Specialist (APS), HP Accredited Integration Specialist (AIS), HP Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE), HP Master Accredited Systems Engineer (Master ASE)
Prerequisites: Varies
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $100
Exam Availability: Prometric

Just as diverse as its product lineup is HP’s certification program, which provides credentials on most all things HP, from servers to desktops and storage devices. In regards to its storage titles, there are four levels of certification available under HP’s Integration designation. They are:

• Accredited Platform Specialist (APS)
• Accredited Integration Specialist (AIS)
• Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE)
• Master Accredited Systems Engineer (Master ASE)

The APS validates basic skills in troubleshooting and maintaining HP’s storage products like its StorageWorks arrays, tape drives, optical storage units, NAS systems and ProLiant Storage Server. If your role is to plan and support the integration of storage solutions in an organization’s networked environment, you should go for the AIS, provided you meet the prerequisites for the particular cert you desire.

From the ASE on, things get more serious, with the two ASE titles requiring the AIS - HP StorageWorks certification as a prerequisite. You then need to pass three or four exams, depending on which ASE cert you’re preparing for. And as befits its master-level status, the Master ASE has even stricter requirements:

• Master ASE SAN Architect - Backup Solutions:
  • ASE - HP StorageWorks Nearline Storage
  • Veritas Certified Professional Backup Exec Specialist or Legato Certified NetWorker 6.x Specialist
  • Two core exams
• Master ASE SAN Architect - Data Availability Solutions:
  • One of several applicable ASE titles
  • Four core exams

For more information, go here.

IBM
Certifications Available: IBM Certified Specialist, IBM Certified Deployment Professional, IBM Certified Advanced Deployment Professional
Prerequisites: None
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $150
Exam Availability: Pearson Vue and Prometric

In terms of complexity and the number of certifications offered, no program beats IBM. Even more so than HP, IBM seems to have a title for every one of its products -- there should be a certification just for understanding its vast certification program! Fortunately, IBM’s Web site allows visitors to explore its cert offerings by product, and in storage, these fall under two categories: IBM Tivoli Software and IBM TotalStorage.

On the storage software end, IBM has two levels of certification available: IBM Certified Deployment Professional and IBM Certified Advanced Deployment Professional. For the prior, the certs are specialized according to a particular IBM/Tivoli storage software, which include SAN Manager, Storage Manager and TotalStorage Productivity Center, and require one test. For the latter higher-level title, there are just two versions (2004, 2005) of the same: Tivoli Storage Management Solutions. This comprehensive, advanced certification requires two exams.

Unlike the bi-level structure of the Tivoli titles, all of the TotalStorage certifications are at the IBM Certified Specialist level, varying only in the specific hardware type they certify in; these are:

• Open Systems Storage Solutions
• High-End Disk Solutions
• High-End Tape Solutions
• TotalStorage Networking and Virtualization Architecture

These titles require one exam each.

For more information, go here.

McData
Certifications Available: Certified McData SAN Associate (CMSA), Certified McData SAN Professional (CMSP), Certified McData SAN Expert (CMSE) (TBA 2006)
Prerequisites: SNIA Qualified Sales Professional (SQSP) for CMSA
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $75 (CMSA + $100 for SQSP), $150 (CMSP)
Exam Availability: Prometric

With over 20 years of experience in the storage networking industry, McData is one of the top three providers of storage switches, along with Brocade and relative newcomer Cisco. To prove you have the skills to set up and manage a SAN involving McData equipment, grab one, or some, of McData’s SAN certifications.

McData’s program has three tiers: the CMSA, CMSP and the CMSE. The master-level CMSE, however, is still being developed and is expected to be available in 2006.

A candidate of the entry-level CMSA should know the fundamental storage concepts as well as interoperability, storage networking solutions, and, of course, McData hardware and software products well enough to incorporate them in the solutions. The CMSA’s required McData SAN Associate exam and SNIA Sales Qualification exam are given online via Prometric.

The more advanced-level CMSP program offers two tracks: SAN Design or SAN Implementation. For each track, there are three exam set options based on the area of focus: storage network implementation/design, storage network management or IP SAN. It’s recommended that CMSP candidates have at least six months of experience working with SANs.

For more information, go here.

Network Appliance
Certifications Available: NetApp Certified Storage Associate (NACA), NetApp Certified Storage Professional (NACP), NetApp Certified Expert (NACE)
Prerequisites: None
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $150
Exam Availability: Prometric

NetApp’s program prepares IT professionals to be able to administer the company’s tools and solutions, like its storage appliances and Data ONTAP storage software, in NFS and Windows (CIFS) multi-protocol environments. Increasing mastery of the technologies is measured by progression through the NACA, NACP and NACE titles.

The NACA requires one exam; the NACP requires two; and the NACE requires four.

For more information, go here.

Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)
Certifications Available: SNIA Certified Professional (SCP), SNIA Certified Systems Engineer (SCSE), SNIA Certified Architect (SCA), SNIA Certified Storage Networking Expert (SCSN-E)
Prerequisites: Various third-party vendor certifications for SCSN-E
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $200
Exam Availability: Prometric

While the other programs certify a candidate’s mastery of the company’s products, the SNIA offers a vendor-neutral perspective on the storage industry with credentials that “integrate with and complement individual vendor certifications,” the non-profit association states on its Web site.

The program measures four competency levels:

• Professional (SCP): General storage networking concepts and interoperability.
• Systems Engineer (SCSE): Managing and administering a SAN.
• Systems Architect (SCA): Designing a SAN with industry best practices and standards.
• Storage Networking Expert (SCSN-E): Master-level title validating advanced knowledge and skills.

To achieve the highest level in the SNIA program, the SCSN-E, the candidate must not only pass the program’s three exams but also hold one of the following vendor certifications:

• Network Appliance Certified Storage Professional (NACP)
• Medusa Certified SAN Manager
• Certified McData SAN Professional (CMSP)

Other credentials are being considered to fulfill this requirement, according to SNIA’s Web site.

For more information, go here.

Veritas
Certifications Available: Veritas Certified Specialist, Veritas Certified Professional
Prerequisites: None
Training: Optional
Exam Price: $150
Exam Availability: Pearson Vue

As the second-largest maker of storage software, Veritas continues to be a force in the industry with a 21.4 percent market share, according to IDC. So, that’s why, at a time when information security has become a top priority for organizations, Veritas was ripe for the picking, merging with anti-virus provider Symantec in July.

Despite the merger, though, there are no immediate plans to downsize or eliminate Veritas’ certification program; policies prior to the merger regarding exams and recertification remain in effect, as stated in the FAQ on Veritas’ Web site.

The program offers certifications at two skill levels: Specialist and Professional. Most of the available titles certify knowledge of the particular subject in either Unix or Windows.

At the Specialist level, there are four tracks based on the area of expertise the candidate wants to focus on, which are called:

• Designer
• Implementation
• Administrator
• Troubleshooting

The candidate’s certification path is further focused by the software you want to specialize in, primarily either of Veritas’ main solutions: data protection (data backup and recovery) and high availability (volume management and clustering). All Specialist titles require one exam.

The Professional level’s two tracks are limited to data protection or high availability and require two or three exams, depending on the particular path taken.

For more information, go here.

So Many Certs, So Little Time
As with many other certifications, the ones you should get depend on what you need or want. So, if you’re surrounded by so-and-so’s products in your work, your choice is probably fairly easy. However, if you’re just getting into the storage field, you’ll need to decide on the particular role you want to play and research which designations will make the effort to get them the most worthwhile for you.

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