SNIA Launches FC-SAN Specialist Exam

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and Infinity I/O, it’s appointed certification program developer, today announced the launch of the Specialist examination (Level 3) of the vendor independent SNIA Fibre Channel-SAN Certification Program.

“Standards for measuring the storage networking expertise of IT professionals are a key factor in the growth of our industry,” said Sheila Childs, chair of SNIA’s Board of Directors. “This is what our enterprise customers worldwide are asking for, and we’re pleased that our collaboration with Infinity I/O has taken FC-SAN certification to the next level.”

Infinity I/O began developing the exam in late 2001 in conjunction with test development experts Galton Technologies and with the participation of leading storage vendors and solution providers.

“The FC-SAN Specialist Certification exam is a significant step in formalizing standards that are speeding the adoption of Fibre Channel SAN,” says Deborah Johnson, president and CEO of Infinity I/O, which developed the SNIA FC-SAN Certification exams. “Through this certification program, candidates establish a solid foundation in storage networking upon which they can build expertise in specific products and technologies.”

The Specialist certification exam is targeted at IT professionals with advanced technical knowledge in systems architectures and product design. It is designed to test the knowledge and skills of a candidate who can design and configure a FC SAN, and understand issues relating to performance and interoperability. Topics covered in the exam address seven main themes:

• Fibre Channel operation. `How it works’
• Implementation of FC SANs
• Identification and implementation of FC SAN Software
• Performance measurement through analysis and/or monitoring
  tools
• The use of management tools
• Troubleshooting
• Evaluation of a FC SAN

The Specialist Certification follows two previous levels of certification that were launched in Fall 2001: Professional Certification (Level 1) is a non-technical exam which confirms knowledge of basic principles and terminology for sales and marketing professionals, and Practitioner Certification (Level 2) which tests for fundamental technical knowledge of features, functions and technologies underlying Fibre Channel SANs. Storage networking professionals can take the Specialist examination for $365 starting Oct. 25 at Prometric test centers world wide.

“Certification helps to make job candidates stand out from the crowd. It enables employers to have a yardstick by which to measure employees and their baseline knowledge in storage networking,” said Jamie Matlin, co-founder of jobstor.com, an online job board that focuses exclusively on the data storage industry.