Information Playground

Private, Public, or Hybrid Job Security

Consider an IT expert currently performing server, network, or storage administration (or some combination thereof). The growing emphasis on "cloud-based IT" can appear as a job threat to these administrators. If a company increasingly outsources IT functions, there is less of a need to employ IT generalists and experts.

Fortunately many IT departments are moving to private cloud deployments, where cloud architectures are built in-house.  They are also investigating hybrid cloud deployments (mixture of in-house and out-sourced IT).

The complete outsourcing of IT will begin to dominate at some point in the future.

How can current IT administrators best position themselves for the short-term future (private/hybrid), while also positioning themselves for consulting, planning, and building the public clouds of the future?

Certification is a logical choice. The new courses announced by EMC Education Services today can result in a "cloud certification" resume-enhancer, effectively adding new skills that are relevant for the design and deployment of private, public, or hybrid clouds.

Two Possible Tracks

There are two choices to make when considering certification: Cloud Architect (EMCCA) and Data Center Architect (EMCDCA). Which certification track would be most appropriate for today's IT administrator?

It depends (getting certified in both is an option as well!).

The Cloud Architect track makes sense for the person who wishes to enter into the field of high-level cloud architecture and design. This type of individual would be well aware of the important concepts, principles, and best practices for building cloud infrastructures (regardless of vendor choice).

The Data Center Architect track is for the person who wishes to work with a Cloud Architect on the specific deployment. This type of training includes storage network, information availability, security, and service management. It's a level of education that's closer to the deployment side of a cloud.

The chart below gives a great view of these two tracks. On the right are the existing tracks and curriculum. Cloud Architect is shown in blue, and Data Center architect is shown in green.

 

These courses will be rolling out and generally available in early 2011. Certification is a great option for any IT administrator currently worried about job security in the cloud.

I'm considering taking the Virtualized Infrastructure training (trying to keep up with Gina!).

Steve

Information Playground

Twitter: @SteveTodd

EMC Intrapreneur

Proved It

On tax day I started my morning by driving to a nearby testing center and taking the EMC Proven Professional exam. I took exam E20-001 in order to qualify for Associate Level Certification.

The good news is that I passed the test! This greatly improved my morning, having recently sent in a large donation to the US Treasury!

There were a lot of good reasons to take the exam, but the main reason I signed up was to find out what it was all about, especially in the context of recommending certification to the dozens of new hires that have joined my organization recently.

I also knew that I could blog about the experience. For those that may be interested in the process, here is what I went through.

• First of all, @gminks will hunt you down if she hears that you're interested in certification. That's how I got involved. I'm glad she asked.
• I had to decide which track  I wanted to follow. I chose the Storage Technologist "Open" track. This is the track I would likely recommend to a new hire that wants to increase their knowledge of different industry technologies.
• I found that in order to pass the test I had to study four different areas: (1) storage systems, (2) storage networking and virtualization, (3) Business Continuity, and (4) Storage Security and management.
• I found out about practice exams. I decided to take a practice exam to understand where I stood. I flunked, which was good (forced me to take studying seriously).
• I decided to find a local testing site and sign up as a way of giving myself a study deadline. I found out about vouchers .
• I signed up for the online, internet-delivered training for all of the areas listed above. I took the sample exams at the end, and made note of the areas I was weak in.
• I read the Information Storage and Management book front to back and took note of the areas that I was weak in.
• I became a fan of the EMC Proven Professional community on Facebook.
• I re-took the sample exam and did much better, which led to a decent performance on the actual day of the test.

At the testing center I immediately found out how I scored in each of the four areas. I found out that I did well on the first three but for Storage Security I did not. I'm not sure what I got wrong but it could be that CHAP, in the context of storage security,  is not a "sturdy pair of pants".

Overall there was no downside to the process. After many years of experience in the storage industry there were many topics that I already knew cold, but there were quite a few gaps in my knowledge when it came to areas such as business continuance and security. The experience definitely left me much more conversant in more technologies. I'm considering additional certification as a regular part of my career growth.

There are many ways to get started, but perhaps the wisest choice is to join the ECN community, perhaps by first reading the FAQ.

Steve

http://stevetodd.typepad.com

Twitter: @SteveTodd

EMC Intrapreneur

Are You Intelligent?

"Are You Intelligent?" is a bit of an awkward question to ask a college student interviewing for a job.

"Are You Intelligent?" would be a valid question to ask a storage system.

"Are You Intelligent about Intelligent Storage Systems?" would be an excellent question to ask a college student looking for a job in the storage industry. If the answer is "Yes", there is a natural follow-up:

Prove it.

All You Young Students

I didn't get a "storage" education when I was in college. I had to learn on the job.

At work I learned about spindles, cylinders, tracks, seek times, head bumps, rotational latency, and transfer rates. These things represented critical knowledge to help me do my job as a software engineer building storage products.

What's the critical knowledge that you need to help do your job in 2008?  What topics should you be learning about at your university?

You gotta start with the fundamentals.

Looking for a Job?

One of my first interviews while in college was for a job building storage products. I clearly remember hearing a few acronyms that I didn't know.

During the interview there was one word that people kept saying over and over again. I didn't know what it meant. The more they used it, the more I thought to myself: "I need to find out what this word means".

What was the word?

Megabyte.