"New Opportunities in Storage & Data Management Education & Careers"

Mark Conway
Senior Program Lead, Academic Alliances
NetApp
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Data is exploding. Data management is one of the top issues facing CIOs & IT Departments. Storage systems are the #2 spend in IT, but there is a shortage of IT workers familiar with today's virtualized, shared-service infrastructures and technologies. NetApp has developed some innovative academic programs to collaborate with faculty and colleges to grow the pool of storage-savvy graduates. This session will highlight recent trends and review partnering opportunities and industry best practices.

With the massive growth in volume and types of data that most IT organizations are now dealing with, storage-savvy skills and employees are at a premium. And, as IT infrastructures evolve from dedicated application silos, to more virtualized and shared infrastructure designs, IT staff who understand networks, storage and virtualization are in great demand. To help develop a larger pool of students who understand data management tools and technologies, NetApp is undertaking several initiatives. One is to offer a new, entry-level certification that is specifically designed for college students. This foundational storage certification will provide the students with a basic understanding or storage and data management--and it will provide the students an additional industry credential for when they graduate. This session will highlight the details of the NetApp Certified Storage Associate (NCSA) offering, will discuss the skill set it is geared to develop.

For attendees interested in actually trying one of the web-based courses from the certification, we could set-up one of the labs to deliver an introduction to Storage Fundamentals. This is a 90 minute course but attendees could log-in, try out the course.