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From traditional colleges and universities to vendor-specific training courses from EMC and NetApp, there are many avenues available for those seeking to improve their data center IQ. This article from ServerWatch details 10 opportunities for elevating your data center knowledge and cashing in as a successful IT professional.
“Cisco offers more than routers, load balancers and switches; it also has an extensive education program covering its famous Cisco operating system (IOS) and data center technologies. Its bent is toward the networking side of the house, but, once earned, you can proudly display your Cisco certifications next to your college diploma. Especially intriguing is the Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist track that requires a VMware certification as a prerequisite.
“HP is a long-time training vendor, and it has expanded its portfolio to include all facets of data center operations, data center management, applications, technology infrastructure and facilities. A few months spent in an HP data center technology training program will likely have you earning more than any of your college fraternity brothers. Prepare for full immersion in HP technology, but your education will easily transfer to other product lines.
“Data Center University comes to you from the people who bring you uninterruptible power from the desktop to the data center, American Power Conversion (APC). It delivers an extreme list of courses pulled directly from the daily operations manual, if one exists, of real data centers. The power distribution and power requirements courses are of particular interest in these days of ever-shrinking resources.
“In EMC’s courses you learn about storage, virtualization and architecture all based on EMC’s technologies. No surprise there. It might surprise you to know, however, that every data center in the world uses EMC’s products. They might use VMware, a SAN, EMC’s other software and hardware solutions or a combination but as an EMC Proven Professional, you’ll walk into any data center with the right knowledge to manage those systems from day one. EMC offers certifications for all levels from System Administrator to Architect.
“NetApp University provides certification courses on its specific products and solutions. The value of any vendor certification depends on the popularity of its product. Where haven’t you seen NetApp products? You see them in small businesses up to the largest enterprises. NetApp solutions are here to stay, and the certifications are worth their weight in real paychecks.”
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