2/7/2002 -- Sun Microsystems' new line of storage certifications are up and running, with the last few exams going live this week.

Last week, Sun officially announced the program, although information on the certifications has been available on the company's Web site for several months.

As we originally reported here last fall, Sun's storage certification consists of three tracks:

• Sun Certified Data Management Engineer
• Sun Certified Backup and Recovery Engineer
• Sun Certified Storage Architect

Each title consists of one exam. For the Data Management and the Backup and Recovery tracks, candidates can choose between a Sun-focused exam or a Veritas-focused exam (Veritas has partnered with Sun on providing certification for these two tracks).

The storage line is in addition to Sun's Java, Solaris and iPlanet certification offerings.

Why storage? "The amount of storage that an e-business needs is growing exponentially," Rick Bunzel, Sun's worldwide director of Professional Certification Programs, told us in a recent interview. "Many companies are moving off of big mainframes..[and onto other] Linux/Unix solutions."

"We want to give mid-size and enterprise customers a learning path for Sun storage solutions," he continued. "This will give employers a way to know that they can trust their employees to handle these important functions."

On Tuesday, Sun also announced a Sun Storage Centers program. These centers are designed to allow storage professionals to architect, test and develop support for specific storage configurations and SAN solutions without disrupting customer operations, the company said. The centers are located in Denver, Colo., Singapore and the U.K.

For more information on Sun's certification program, click here. -B.N