Infinity I/O Asia-Pacific, a network storage training and certification centre, believes there's a clear demand for independently-certified storage professionals throughout the world.
In the last 14 days, job site Monster has advertised more the 200 storage-related positions in the US alone. A random check for opportunities in Australia revealed a smaller number but very competitive packages -- a business development manager for storage services in Melbourne can fetch $120,000 per annum while a storage solutions architect in Sydney could earn $150,000.
Russ Winter, senior SAN instructor at Infinity I/O, says effective marketing of certification programs will be key to increasing the number of qualified storage professionals in Australia and New Zealand.
"There's definitely a lot of room for improvement where awareness is concerned and next year you'll see us more active in marketing our storage certification programs," said Winter.
Infinity I/O, a member of the newly-launched Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Australia/New Zealand chapter, is spearheading educational efforts for the organisation by offering the vendor-neutral and globally-recognised Fibre Channel SAN (FC-SAN) certification program which includes:
SNIA is a San Francisco-headquartered, non-profit trade organisation comprising the who's who of the storage world. Its ANZ members include Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Acer, Markom Marketing, Iomega, Sun Microsystems, Network Appliance, Hitachi Data Systems, Computer Associates, Imation, EMC, Veritas Software, Quantum SSG, Hewlett-Packard, Infinity I/O, IBM and Brocade Communications.
According to SNIA ANZ Chairman Mark Heers, the body hopes to recruit more individual members as well as resellers and system integrators. On the educational front, it's looking at assisting tertiary institutions to develop storage networking curriculum and has begun talks with Macquarie University.
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