A good initial certification for Storage?

Paycheck

I have my CCNA R&S and was considering going to CCNA Data Center.

I got started watching a video training series from Pluralsight on the Comptia Storage+, and it was good but pretty basic information, until I read that the Storage+ was retired a few years ago. So I can't even go take it now, I guess.

So what's a good initial certification to take for Storage technologies now? I think Cisco used to have Storage certs, was that rolled into the Data Center line or something else?

slinuxuzer

Cisco had SAN certifications, not storage, I'm no aware of many if any vendor neutral storage certifications, you should decide if you want to be on the SAN side or the device side or both, there is a big difference there, I assume since you are a network guy, you mean SAN, in that case, take a look at either brocade certs or CCNA data center.

Also keep in mind, most places are very conservative about who they let touch their storage devices, its generally not an entry level role. You can really hurt a company bad with a bad storage change.

EANx

Are you looking for an intro cert or the knowledge to go along with what you currently do? As was mentioned, most places are pretty careful of who they let touch the actual storage. My team has several people who can do the virtual side but only two who touch the actual arrays. For an overview, even though it's no longer offered as a cert, Storage+ info is still pretty good. Beyond that, you choose whether you want to be virtual or physical. For virtual, look into the various VMware offerings for ESXi and vSAN while for physical, the vendors (like NetApp) typically have their own offerings. You can even combine it with knowledge as an on-prem cloud (Azure Stack, etc) engineer for those organizations that want "cloud" that they control.

Paycheck

I was looking for some sort of intro level cert, I thought the Storage+ would be nice except for I apparently can't take it anymore. Mainly to show prospective employers that I am making the effort to learn a variety of IT subjects. I think VMware certs are the way to go for virtualization.

I understand what sliuxuzer is saying about entry level people not touching the storage gear. I just finished up working on a data center migration project, and I met the 2 storage guys when they came in to hook up hundreds of fiber lines to their SAN directors. They seemed like a couple of real humorless, broomstick-up-their-ass types. In their 50's, probably divorced, never see their kids, live alone with their dog types.

trojin

2 best starting certs for storage are:
SNIA SCSP (vendor neutral)
EMC Information Storage and Management

SteveLavoie

Storage+ has been discontinued.

UnixGuy

I've done SNIA SCSP but I think it's too basic and not worth it

If you get send to a vendor training, I found those to be more useful than a cert at this point


Cisco Data Centre track you're aiming for is definitely good. I'd be wary in specializing in Storage these day, with the cloud dominating the market, things have changed quickly

tstrip007

Storage is getting to be so easy now I don't even see the use in a certification or a need for a "storage guy". I recently upgraded from HP Lefthand to Nimble and the Nimble is real easy to manage.

Node Man

I get the impression that storage cert/experience is very valuable, if you are talking to a cloud provider.