CompTIA Storage+ Product Retirement

c0mptia

[FONT=&quot]For the past 5 years the CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA certification has been at the forefront of independent and foundational storage education. Faced with the rapid development of storage technology into solid state, cloud and open architectures both CompTIA and SNIA recognize that a different approach is required.

On January 15, 2016 the 5-year long partnership between CompTIA and SNIA to deliver the CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA certification will end with the retirement of the SGO-001 exam. This exam will not be replaced and the certification will no longer be available after its retirement.

As part of the certification retirement, the continuing education requirement for Storage+ Powered by SNIA will be removed. CompTIA will automatically convert your Storage+ certification to [FONT=&quot]Good for Life[/FONT] status and a new certificate with your expiration date removed will be available for download.

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greg9891

Wow Sorry to Hear that. Always Thought about taking this Cert.!!!!!!!

DoubleNNs

I was thinking about taking this to renew my Security+ before it expires in November. I don't know if it's still wise to do so anymore..

someperson49

Is there any benefit to get this before it expires?

DoubleNNs

Life long certification? Give your A+ an additional 3 years? Show an employer you know a little bit about Storage networking technology?
I'm thinking it probably wouldn't help too much w/ a job tho =/

rolando3321

Wow, thanks for the heads up. I was preparing to start working on my Storage+ cert to renew my Security+. Does anyone know if this will be a valid option, as long as it is completed before the day that this certification is retiring?

ssnyderu2

I found info on the Storage+ retirement on SNIA's site: CompTIA and SNIA announce that the CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA Certification will be retired on January 15, 2016 | Storage Networking Industry Association However I dont see jack about it on CompTIA's site. Does anyone know if you pass this before Jan 15, will it still renew your A+, Network+ and Security+ certs?

rolando3321

I just got off the phone with CompTIA and they said that if you pass the Storage+ before the expiration date, than it will renew your current certifications. (A+, net+ sec+)

ssnyderu2

Awesome!! Thanks for getting verification.

[Deleted User]

Makes me glad I am pursuing my CEH instead of Storage+ since I can't do any CEU maintenance until July 2016. By the time that would come around, the Storage+ will be retired and gone forever. Gives me more time to prep and hopefully knock out the CEH the first time. I even called CompTIA customer support and the rep I talked to didn't know a whole lot about this change just that she heard about it. I am willing to bet that CompTIA is going to narrow down their certs within the next few years to around 8 certs or so. 3 being the CompTIA trio and a few different ones like CASP, Server+, Linux+ because it costs them to much money to have all these different certs going on when the market is not pushing for certs like Storage+ but they are finding a need for Security+ because it is more well known.

joelsfood

It's definitely not cheap for them. They periodically do week long sessions here in Downers grove where they bring in SMEs to help update their tests, and they're paying 1500/pc, plus meals and travel, for these people to show up and help them with that, plus all of their regular employees. Not sure how much of that was covered by SNIA in the case of Storage+ though, I've only gotten invitations to Server+ sessions

Gess

CASP is still an option for those that wanted to renew Sec+ with Storage+ but might not be able to get it in before it is retired.

I was going to do Storage+ and then CASP to keep that track active for the next few years, but now that I'm sitting for CEH next month and *hopefully* CISSP in February I plan to just let Sec+ lapse and say good-bye to CompTIA.

GeeLo

Thanks for the info, my organization just bought me the book from Wiley & Sons publishing. It's a great book for reference and knowledge.. and I was thinking about getting the certification, developing some content and then teaching to others in 2016.. guess not... but at least I now know

OctalDump

FWIW, I did this shortly before the retirement announcement. I was doing Vmware VCP-DCV at about the same time. I wanted to get some more solid storage and data networking (SAN) skills to complement the virtualisation. I was recently involved in a project to virtualise some OS X servers under VSphere, and had to set up a storage backend. I realise it was an area of weakness, so I decided to invest some time in expanding my knowledge.

My advice, if you are interested in SAN or virtualisation (Hyper-V, VMware, Xen, KVM etc), then it's not a bad certification to get, or even just read some of the books etc. SNIA offer some higher level storage certs that build on this as well.

It seems SNIA will still have an entry level certification, they just won't be doing with CompTIA.

DoubleNNs

Would the Storage+ be worthwhile for Cloud Engineers?

I wanted something to renew my Security+, but I'm most likely moving my career towards Cloud/Automation [DevOps]

bjpeter

DoubleNNs wrote: »

Would the Storage+ be worthwhile for Cloud Engineers?

I wanted something to renew my Security+, but I'm most likely moving my career towards Cloud/Automation [DevOps]

I can't say for sure whether it will be worth it because I'm not a cloud engineer, but I learned quite a bit about storage tech that I think you can use when implementing your own cloud solution such as fibre channels.

tmurphy3100

DoubleNNs wrote: »

Life long certification? Give your A+ an additional 3 years? Show an employer you know a little bit about Storage networking technology?
I'm thinking it probably wouldn't help too much w/ a job tho =/

So since this is retiring, will it be lifetime and not require any recertification means ? Not part of the CE program?

bjpeter

tmurphy3100 wrote: »

So since this is retiring, will it be lifetime and not require any recertification means ? Not part of the CE program?

For now, your certificate will read, "Storage+ Powered by SNIA ce", but once the certification is discontinued in January, you will receive a new certificate that will be GFL (good for life), i.e. your certification will never expire or need any renewals.

I got my certification a couple of weeks ago because I figured, why not, it will be good for life, and I also wanted to learn more about hard drives, flash memory, etc. The Sybex book has good information on storage technology. I recommend it.

tmurphy3100

bjpeter wrote: »

For now, your certificate will read, "Storage+ Powered by SNIA ce", but once the certification is discontinued in January, you will receive a new certificate that will be GFL (good for life), i.e. your certification will never expire or need any renewals.

I got my certification a couple of weeks ago because I figured, why not, it will be good for life, and I also wanted to learn more about hard drives, flash memory, etc. The Sybex book has good information on storage technology. I recommend it.

By Nigel Poulton?

And thanks for the info!

bjpeter

tmurphy3100 wrote: »

By Nigel Poulton?

And thanks for the info!

That's correct. Data Storage Networking by Nigel Poulton.

Sybex: Data Storage Networking: Real World Skills for the CompTIA Storage+ Certification and Beyond - Nigel Poulton

someperson49

bjpeter wrote: »

For now, your certificate will read, "Storage+ Powered by SNIA ce", but once the certification is discontinued in January, you will receive a new certificate that will be GFL (good for life), i.e. your certification will never expire or need any renewals.

I got my certification a couple of weeks ago because I figured, why not, it will be good for life, and I also wanted to learn more about hard drives, flash memory, etc. The Sybex book has good information on storage technology. I recommend it.

Just passed the Storage+, did not get ce version and it did not renew my A+ and Network+. This was not a problem for me because I had done them recently, but for others looking to renew their certification this could be an issue.

TacoRocket

someperson49 wrote: »

Just passed the Storage+, did not get ce version and it did not renew my A+ and Network+. This was not a problem for me because I had done them recently, but for others looking to renew their certification this could be an issue.

You passed today? Did you contact CompTIA?

someperson49

On the 28th, It has already appeared on my certifications.

I haven't contacted CompTIA, because my N+ is still valid until 2018, it was just a warning to others who may be taking this exam.

vintendo

someperson49 wrote: »

On the 28th, It has already appeared on my certifications.

I haven't contacted CompTIA, because my N+ is still valid until 2018, it was just a warning to others who may be taking this exam.

Just to make sure I understand this right, if you have a cert that is still valid, it doesn't get updated to reflect the expiration date of the higher level cert? Or were you just stating that you haven't looked into because you have more than 2 years left on your N+ cert?

someperson49

The Storage+ is expiring on Jan 15th, this previously updated your certs. My ones were not updated, it is not on the renewal page anymore either

https://certification.comptia.org/continuing-education/how-to-renew/renewing-multiple-certifications