There have been many articles in the press lately about the "graying" of the data center design and management workforce. The industry may be moving toward cloud computing, where many captive data centers give way to relatively few huge, specialized server farms where generic machines share enormous, virtualized workloads. But, if this future pans out, the need for trained data center spec.ialists (*) will become more critical.
The following education and professional certification programs are available to those who are interested in increasing their skill sets in the areas of data center infrastructure (space, power, cooling, cabling), networking and operations.
FIT-IT Program for data center infrastructure education and certification. Affiliated with the Data Center Journal and Georgia Tech.
- Data Center Infrastructure Awareness (DCIA) Certificate (1-week course $2,225 in Atlanta plus $200 testing fee)
- Data Center Infrastructure Spec.ialist (DCIS) Certificate (not yet available as of 8/1/08)
- Data Center Infrastructure Engineer Level 1 and 2 (DCIE 1 & 2) Certificates (not yet available as of 8/1/08)
Data Center University. Affiliated with
APC and Global Knowledge. Much of the material is available in copious whitepapers on the APC site. Offers "vendor neutral" training and education for the following:
- DCU Associate Certification (free and fee-based online materials; $295 testing fee by Thomson Prometric).
Institute for Data Center Professionals. An undergraduate program at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, affiliated with
AFCOM.
- Certified Data Center Professional (two-year program with six associate certifications)
Ken
(*) Apologies for the forum software's simplistic content filters. Wish you could opt out? Me, too.
Data Center Prof. Certifications
