Brocade Expands Education Options for Storage Networking Professionals

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. has announced several new education initiatives. Designed to expand education options for storage networking professionals and support the growing demand for SAN expertise, these initiatives help IT professionals accelerate deployment of SAN infrastructure as a strategic part of their IT environments. The new initiatives include: a new Brocade Remote SAN Lab; global availability of SAN education through Global Knowledge, Inc., a worldwide leader in IT education and training solutions; a new series of Brocade Certification for SAN managers; and a new online SAN Info Center.

Partnership with Global Knowledge

Furthering the global reach of the Brocade SAN Education Program, Brocade announced today a worldwide strategic relationship with Global Knowledge that will deliver storage networking expertise to IT professionals worldwide. As part of this agreement, Global Knowledge will provide classroom and on-site training for Brocade products in select European, North American, and Asia-Pacific cities, with planned future expansion into additional strategic markets. The relationship will combine Global Knowledge’s worldwide delivery capabilities with authorized Brocade content and the newly introduced Brocade Remote SAN Lab to offer a complete, end-to-end storage networking training solution. Global Knowledge is also the worldwide provider of the new Brocade certification level: Brocade Certified SAN Manager.

Remote SAN Lab
The Brocade Remote SAN Lab is a SAN industry-first — allowing customers to access a real enterprise-level Brocade SAN environment over the Internet, from anywhere at anytime. Students will be able to participate online in SAN education courses offered through Brocade, including implementing real-time changes to SAN configurations with immediate response.

New Certification: Brocade Certified SAN Manager
As part of the expanded education offering, Brocade also announced Brocade Certified SAN Manager, a new level in its Certification Program, which currently includes Brocade Certified SAN Designer and Certified Fabric Professional. This new Certification level allows IT professionals who manage SANs to become certified experts on industry-leading SAN fabrics technologies and demonstrate expertise in implementing and managing Brocade SANs.

“As SANs become the ubiquitous infrastructure for business-critical storage applications and services and are deployed as an increasing rate, end-customers look to partner with companies that can demonstrate their storage networking expertise. Brocade is committed to making SAN education at all levels, from general to advanced, available to end-customers and partners,” said Jeffrey Brooks, Brocade Chief Marketing Officer. “Through our relationship with Global Knowledge and the other initiatives announced today, we are able to help drive the industry by expanding the reach of knowledge transfer and growing the base of qualified SAN professionals to meet the growing demand for storage area networks.”