EMC Perspective

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EMC Perspective

Managing Storage:Trends, Challenges, and Options (20072008)

How are IT and storage managers coping with the

organizational challenges posed by the overwhelming

explosion of data, increasing criticality of digitized

information, and rapid introduction of new storage

technologies?

This updated paper contains the findings of a study

based on input from over 1,200 storage professionals

worldwide.

This research will assist IT and storage managers

in comparing and correlating their environments and

plans with the overall trends in the industry.


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Table of Contents

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

2. Challenges Faced by IT and Storage Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

3. Complex Storage Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

3.1 Storage Technology Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

4. Formalized Storage Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

4.1 Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

4.2 Storage Group Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

4.3 Storage Group Skills and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

4.4 Sources for Hiring and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

4.5 Storage Group Skills Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

5. Recommendations and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

6. EMCs Response and Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

3Managing Storage: Trends, Challenges, and Options (20072008)


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Executive Summary

The explosion of data, its criticality, and increasing dependency of business on digital

information are leading to larger and more complex storage environments that are increas-

ingly challenging to manage.

Poorly designed or managed storage infrastructures put the entire business at risk in the

event of a catastrophic failure. A robust storage infrastructure requires highly reliable equip-

ment as well as a strong team of experts to manage it efficiently.

This paper focuses on storage infrastructure and presents findings from a global survey

of more than 1,200 IT professionals. This study will help IT managers benchmark their

plans to the overall trends in the industry. The first such study was published in 2006 and

a large number of IT and storage managers used the information to refine their planning

and decision-making.

Key ChallengesIT and storage managers and storage professionals across companies of all sizes face the

following mission-critical challenges:

Managing storage growth

Designing, deploying, and managing backup/recovery

Designing, deploying, and managing disaster recovery

Making informed strategic/big-picture decisions

Designing, deploying, and managing multi-site, multi-vendor environments

Designing and deploying emerging storage technologies

Shortage of skilled storage professionals

Managing data availability/data retention compliance

Explosive growth in storage requirements and a widening storage technology knowledge gap

acrossthe industry are making allof the above mission-critical taskseven more challenging.

Complex Storage Environments

Despite the differences in industry segments and the sizes of data centers, there is a strong

consistency across all companies in terms of the technology deployed, storage manage-

ment practices, and challenges.

Nearly all critical data is now stored on external disk storage subsystems. The average

usable capacity is approximately 222 TB which is typically spread across multiple sites.

Growth in storage requirements, larger capacity disks and subsystems, and affordable

pricing have all led to large storage configurations. Over 45 percent of responding compa-

nies now have more than 100 TB of usable storage to manage.

Storage subsystems, SANs, and backup/recovery technologies are most commonly imple-

mented, followed by replication, NAS, and DAS technologies. IP SAN and CAS technologies

have started to emerge in these companies.

Each of these storage technology segments is unique, offering its own specific business and

operational value. Each requires a different set of skills for effective design and manage-ment. Lackof knowledge and expertise in a specific segment can lead to under-deployment

of one or more of these technologies.



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Criticality of Storage and the Need for FormalizedStorage Groups

Storage infrastructure is mission-critical. Losing storage in a catastrophic situation can

severely damage a business. When a disaster does occur, information on storage sub-systems can be lost permanently unless a well-designed recovery mechanism has been

planned and implemented.

In addition to reliable equipment, a well-structured storage group of highly skilled pro-

fessionals is critical to build and maintain a high-performance, high availability storage

infrastructure.

Storage groups are responsible for overall planning, design, implementation, monitoring,

administering, managing, and operations. While the structure of the group, titles, and roles

may not be standardized, responsibilities and tasks are common across companies.

A strong correlation was found between the installed storage capacity and the size of the

storage group. The ratio is high at lower capacities, and it reduces as the installed capacity

grows. One storage professional is deployed to manage every 20 TB (1:20) of usable storage

for installations having up to 100 TB of usable storage. At 500 TB, the ratio reduces to 1:40.

Based on IT and storage manager feedback, approximately one-half of existing storage

teams can manage SANs, backup and recovery, and storage subsystems. However, only

1025 percent of the existing storage teams are adequately prepared to manage IP-SAN,

CAS, local replication, and NAS. Overall, the managersassess that approx35 percent of their

teams are very capable while the other approximately two-thirds of their teams require fur-

ther development.

Storage Technology Knowledge GapParticipants in this study and their companies have very aggressive plans to hire storage

professionals in the next 12 months. Their forecasts indicate two to three times growth of

their existing staff.

Managers prefer to hire experienced or certified storage professionals. However, a severe

shortage of such skills in the marketplace is causing managers to resort frequently to inter-

nal recruitment.

The shortage of experienced storage professionals and the lack of storage technology edu-

cation in the marketplace and in academics have restricted the growth of information storage

and management functions. EMC has taken the lead and has initiated storage technology

education by collaborating with several leading universities and IT training companies.

Recommendations and Conclusions

Based on the findings of this study, IT managers and storage managers must ensure that:

Formalized storage groups are built and adequately staffed

Skills assessments and development of storage professionals are top priorities

Storage teams include specialists for each of the deployed storage technology

segments

Application, systems, database, and network administration groups learn storage

technology and work closely with the storage group



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The serious shortage of skilled storage professionals also creates attractive opportunities

for the next generation of IT professionals and for those looking for a different career in a

challenging, high-growth, and dynamic industry.

EMCs Response and InitiativesEMC recognizes the need for more highly-skilled professionals in its customer base and

across the entire IT industry. EMC conducted this study to identify deficiencies in the stor-

age industry and to identify how we can contribute to addressing these challenges.

The following key initiatives offer options for storage managers and professionals to acquire

or improve their skills to benefit their organizations:

Education Solutions

Open Storage Technology Curriculum

Unique offering in the industry; leads with concepts and principles

Covers all segments of information storage and management technology

EMC Technology-Specific Learning Paths

Help leverage extensive capabilities of EMC technology and solutions

Comprehensive coverage for all segments of EMC technology

EMC Proven Professional Certification Program

Formal validation and recognition

Option of Open and/or more than 10 EMC technology specialties

Exclusive Knowledge Maintenance feature

All of the above education solutions are available globally via EMC Education Services to

EMC customers, partners, and employees.

In an attempt to help address the widening knowledge gap in the industry, the following

exclusive programs were introduced to enable non-EMC users, as well as university stu-

dents, to take advantage of the open storage technology curriculum to build a successful

career in this high-growth industry:

EMC Academic Alliance Program

Open storage technology curriculum for students in colleges and universities, targeted to

help build a highly skilled pool of future storage managers and professionals.

EMC Learning Partner Program

Open storage technology curriculum, offered by leading, independent IT training compa-

nies, designed to build or improve storage technology skills leading to better design and

management of efficient storage infrastructures.



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1. Introduction

In a recent study commissioned by EMC, the industry analyst firm IDC estimates that the

total volume of digital information created in 2010 will surge six-fold to an astonishing

988 exabytes988 billion gigabytescompared to 2006. And while most of this informa-

tion will be created by individuals, 85 percent of it will be managed by organizations.

This unprecedented explosion of data, its increasing criticality, and business dependency

on digitized information are leading to larger and more complex storage environments that

are increasingly challenging to manage. From the perspective of data availability and pro-

tection, information storage infrastructure is the most critical component of an overall

IT infrastructure. It plays a critical role in making applications work efficiently, both locally

and across multiple sites. With the increasing complexity and criticality of storage, highly

skilled and focused storage groupsare as mission-critical as the technology being deployed.

This paper summarizes a global research study that was conducted to learn how companies

are meeting these challenging requirements. These findings will assist IT and storage man-

agers to compare and correlate their plans with the overall trends in the industry. Eventhough each company has unique requirements, this information will be helpful in building

stronger and more-efficient storage management teams. Stronger storage management

teams will, in turn, lead to more-robust storage infrastructures.

The first such study was carried out by EMC in 20052006 and was found to be very useful

by IT and storage managers globally. The updates and revisions include:

Most current information via global survey of over 1,200 managers (15 percent)

and storage professionals (85 percent)

Information on data centers and processing centers instead of entire enterprise

Focus on usable storage capacities instead of installed raw capacities

Further details related to storage groups such as job titles, tasks and responsibilities,

and hiring plans

Global trends are identified in areas related to:

Technical environments

Management challenges

Practices for building storage management groups

Options for acquiring more or better storage skills

The study was carried out between December 2006 and February 2007. We used compre-

hensive surveys and reached out to thousands of storage professionals to assemble and

compile this information.

The study included:

All major geographies and major industry segments

EMC users as well as those using storage solutions from other vendors

Large, medium, and small enterprises



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Figure 1Geographic distribution Figure 2Annual revenue of companiesof participants represented

2. Challenges Faced by IT and Storage ManagersIT and storage managers and storage professionals identified the following activities and

constraints as their key challenges. These challenges are common to both large enterprises

as well as SME (small and medium enterprises) sectors of the industry.

Table 1Most important activities/constraints identified as challenges by managers and professionals

Each of these activities is ongoing at various levels in each of the companies. Activities

such as backup/recovery have been in practice for decades; still the professionals believe

that they are not doing enough or not performing them well. The following table summa-

rizes the input from managers and professionals. There is a strong synergy between themanagers and individual contributors as they have identified exactly the same challenges

in similar priority order.

Challenges Identified by IT and Storage Managers and Professionals

Managing storage growth

Designing, deploying, and managing backup and recovery

Designing, deploying, and managing disaster recovery solutions

Making informed strategic/big-picture decisions

Designing and deploying multi-site environments

Designing and deploying emerging storage technologies(such as storage virtualization, IP SAN, GRID, etc.)

Lack of skilled storage professionals

Managing data availability/data retention compliance

$100m$500m

14%

NotKnown28%

Up to $100m17%

$500m$1B10%

Over $1B31%

Europe &

MiddleEast

28%

Americas

58%

Asia-Pacific

Japan

14%



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Table 2What keeps them awake; pain points in order of priorityidentified by managers and individual contributors

Explosive growth in storage requirements and the storage professionals knowledge and

skill gaps are the primary reasons for not executing many of these activities to the desired

levels. These gaps are not necessarily due to lackof competence, but to the fact that a com-

prehensive storage technology education has not been available. For example, colleges

and universities have not, until now, included storage technology in their courses. On the

other hand, vendor training typically focuses on their products covering deployment and

usage rather than building skills and competency to architect, design, integrate, and man-

age entire infrastructure and end-to-end information lifecycle.

We will learn the methodology by which most storage professionals acquire knowledge and

build skills to carry out their assignments in section 4 of this paper.

3. Complex Storage Environments

This study sought to determine the similarities and differences among storage infrastruc-

tures. The responses reveal that data centers across the Americas, Europe, and Asia have

deployed very similar storage solutions, including hardware and software. The sizes vary

based upon business requirements, or in some cases, a particular vendor may have a

stronger presence in a given environment, but on the whole, the deployed technology and

challenges are very similar.

Nearly 80 percent of the companies have multi-site data processing environments.

Nearly 80 percent of the companies are at various stages of storage consolidation.

Nearly 45 percent of the companies have 100 TB or more usable storage to manage.

Average installed usable capacity is approximately 222 TB.

IT and Storage Managers

80% Managing storage growth

61% Designing, deploying, and managing backup and recovery

58% Designing, deploying, and managing disaster recovery solutions

48% Making informed strategic/big-picture decisions

40% Designing and deploying multi-site environments

36% Designing and deploying emerging storage technologies(such as storage virtualization, IP SAN, GRID, etc.)

30% Lack of skilled storage professionals

27% Compliance regulations

Storage Professionals

73% Managing storage growth

62% Designing, deploying, and managing backup and recovery

61% Designing, deploying, and managing disaster recovery solutions

42% Making informed strategic/big-picture decisions

42% Designing and deploying multi-site environments

36% Designing and deploying emerging storage technologies(such as storage virtualization, IP SAN, GRID, etc.)

31% Lack of skilled storage professionals

23% Compliance regulations



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Figure 3Distribution of multi-site data processing Figure 4Distribution of storage capacityenvironments (Numberof data center/processing across represented companies

facilities across represented companies)

3.1 Storage Technology SegmentsStorage technology deployment and its importance to the data center aligned with general

market trends for each of the storage technology segments.

Storage subsystems, by default, are the most important segment as they provide the

backbone infrastructure, storage capacity, reliability, availability, performance, and

connectivity.

Two segments, storage areas networks (SANs) and backup/recovery (BR), were rated

important by more than 75 percent of the storage professionals.

Remote replication was considered important by 5075 percent of storage professionals

NAS and local replication are considered important by 2550 percent of the

professionals.

CAS, IP-SAN, and emerging technologies are considered important by 1025 percent of

the professionals.

Each of the technology segments is unique, bringing its own specificbusiness or operational

values. For example, SAN and NAS provide connectivity options with unique functionality,

while BR and replication technologies provide options for information protection against

planned and unplanned outages.

Figure 5Storage technology segments and their relative importance

SAN Backup/Recovery

RemoteRepl.

NAS LocalRepl.

CAS IP-SAN0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

%

Respondents

Over 1PB15%

100500 TB20%

Upto 100TB55%

500TB1PB10%

One

21%

Two26%

More thanthree42%

Three11%



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Figure 6Most common storage technology segments implemented

These technology segments (Figures5 and 6) are at various stages of evolution and maturity.

Each is considered sophisticated and complex, and each requires unique skills to assess,plan, design, deploy, and manage them effectively. Deploying specialized experts within

the teams, dedicated to their specialty segments, is the most effective way to manage such

diverse technology.

4. Formalized Storage Groups

Storage infrastructure is mission-critical and nearly 40 percent of infrastructure budgets is

allocated to storage-related products and services. A well-structured storage group of highly

skilled professionals is critical to building and maintaining high-performance, highly avail-

able storage infrastructures.

Job titles and descriptions of dedicated storage professionals are evolving. The followingare the most common job functions being deployed by the studied organizations:

Storage Manager Manager of the formalized storage team or

used interchangeably for Storage Administrator

Storage Administrator Responsible for day-to-day administration,

provisioning, configuration management,

monitoring, availability management, etc.

Backup and Recovery Administrator Responsible for day-to-day backup and

recovery-related operations

Storage Architect Responsible for capacity planning, technology

planning/design, and process management

Disaster Recovery Administrator or Responsible for disaster recovery, backup

Business Continuity Administrator and recovery, planning, implementation,

and management

SAN Backup/Recovery

NAS Repli-cation

DAS IP-SAN CAS0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

%

Respond

ents



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Figure 7Distribution of storage-related functions across 660 respondents

4.1 Responsibilities

Storage groupsare responsible for the overall planning, design, implementation, monitoring,

managing, testing, and operating all components of the infrastructure. Interactions with

IT and storage managers and professionals resulted in the list of activities/tasks for which

they are responsible (Table 3).

The list includes various job functions, including storage administration, architects, DR

admin., BR admin., etc. Percent time captured for each of the activities highlights the effort

involved and possible importance of the tasks. This list could be used as a tool to define

responsibilities of the storage group and individuals.

Table 3Typical tasks and responsibilities of storage teamsand percent of time spent over past 12 months

Storage GroupTasks & Responsibilities % Time Spent

Design and/or participate in design of storage infrastructure 12.3% Troubleshooting 11.3%

Managing the implementation of storage infrastructure 10.7%

Backup and recovery of information/data 9.9%

Integration of the storage infrastructure, databases, 9.9%and applications

Provisioning of storage infrastructure 8.6%

Monitoring of storage infrastructure 7.2%

Storage capacity planning 5.4%

Evaluating storage technologies from different vendors 4.8%

Other storage-related activities 3.9%

Monitoring of local and/or remote replication data 3.0%

Storage infrastructure reporting 2.7%

Educating non-storage functions (DBAs, Network Admins., etc.) 2.7%on storage technology

Participating in IT disaster recovery exercise or drill 2.4%

Developing and maintaining storage service-level agreements 2.2%

Designing and managing storage and information security 1.7%

Defining and implementing archival requirements 1.4%

0 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Storage Managers

Storage Administrators

Storage Architects

BC Adminstrators

BR Administrators

Others



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Another equally important dimension of these responsibilities is their alignment to different

storage technology segments. Skills and processes are required to manage these tasks

against expected expertise in one or more assigned specialty or storage technology seg-

ments. Figure 8 illustrates the percent of time spent in the last 12 months by key technology

segments implemented.

Figure 8Percent of time spent by storage professionalsby storage technology segment (last 12 months)

4.2 Storage Group Size

The storage group consists of multiple roles that include storage architects, managers, and

administrators. We continue to find a strong correlation between the number of profes-

sionals engaged in storage-related activities and installed storage capacity.

The ratio of installed capacity to the number of professionals in the storage team is high atlower capacities and it reduces as the capacity increases. If we count 100 percent dedicated

storage professionals (if two individuals are spending 50 percent of their time on storage-

related activities, they are counted as one professional in this exercise), the current ratio at

100 TB is1:20 (one professional for every 20 TB installed). In other words, five fulltime, ded-

icated professionals are managing a storage pool of 100 TB and its associated applications.

The ratio reached 1:40 at 500 TB, where approx. 1213 professionals are managing 500 TB.

In larger storage infrastructures, the ratio continues to reduce. Typically, 17 professionals

are managing 1 PB of storage (ratio nearly 1:60).

Figure 9Number of storage professionals vs. storage capacity they manage

1600

1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

02 3 4 5 12 17 25

# Professionals dedicated to managing storage infrastructure

Installed

UsableStorage

Capacity(T

B)

SAN Backup/

Recovery

Remote

Repli.

IP-SANCAS0%

20%

40%

Storage

Sub-systems

NAS Local

Repli.

%

Timeinvestedinlast12months



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4.3 Storage Group Skills and Performance

Analysis of IT and storage managers assessment of skill levels leads to the conclusion that

about 35 percent of their teams are properly skilled to carry out their responsibilities,

whereasthe remaining nearly two-thirds of their teams require additional skills, knowledge,

and development.

This is a key challenge for storage managers because it underscores the very real skills gap

in their teams. Sub-optimal skillsyield sub-optimal storage deployment. On the other hand,

a well-skilled team will lead to higher productivity, better deployment and management of

technology, and optimization of the number of professionals required.

Figure 10 below illustrates the overall rating of the storage teams against the identified

tasks and responsibilities (Table 3). Strong, moderate, and weak bars indicate the level of

expertise within the overall storage team in the represented companies.

Figure 10Ability to execute tasksskill levels of storage professionalsto carry out their tasks and activities

Figure 11Competence by storage technology segments

Figure 11 maps skill sets of the storage teams against the important technology segments.

Skill levels of the teams in SAN, backup/recovery, and storage subsystems are rated high,

while skills in NAS, remote replication, local replication, etc. are rated low. A correlation

between ability to execute tasks (as shown in Figure 10) and competence in relevant tech-

nology segment (from Figure 11) will paint a clear picture of the effective competence of thestorage group. Detailed assessment of each individual within the group is required to

ascertain strengths and weaknesses for each task and related technology segment.

SAN

B/R

Subsystems

NAS

Remote Repl.

Local Repl.

CAS

IPSAN

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Strong Moderate Weak

Design Storage Infrastructure

Backup/RecoveryManage Implementations

Integration with ApplicationsProvisioning

MonitoringCapacity Planning

Vendor AssessmentsReplication

ReportingDR

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Strong Moderate Weak

Maintain SLAs

Security

Archival



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4.4 Sources for Hiring and Development

The most significant challenge faced by IT and storage managers is the shortage of skilled

storage professionals in the marketplace. In fact, lack of skilled storage professionals is the

most serious industry challenge.

Considering the aggressive hiring requirements and plans, the lack of skilled resources

becomes a serious bottleneck. Figure 12 highlights the level of hiring requirements across

the industry. The hiring plans indicate a growth of two to three times the number of exist-

ing staff are required to be hired, trained, and deployed.

Figure 12Hiring requirements for next 12 months

Figure 13 shows the preferred hiring options. The majority of managers prefer to hire expe-

rienced professionals to reduce the learning period and reduce risks associated with hiring

new employees. The next best alternative is to hire well-trained and certified individuals.

Figure 13Managers preference for hiring or acquiring storage skills

With the shortage of skilled manpower in the industrycapable, experienced, skilled indi-

viduals are usually not available for hiring. Major factors for this skills shortage include lack

of storage technology education in the marketplace and in academia. EMC has taken the lead

and successfully introduced storage technology curriculum (and certification) in several

universities as well as in the open market via public classes. A lot more needs to be done

to convert this industry-wide bottleneck into lucrative employment opportunities for aspir-

ing professionals.

% of Managers

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Hire Experienced

Hire Certified

Internal Appointment

Engage Consultants

Hire College Graduate

Current To Hire

203%

153%

88%

103%

126%

415%

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Storage Managers

Storage Administrators

Storage Architects

BC Adminstrators

BR Administrators

Others

Number of People

% Growth in

Staffing Requirements



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Given that there are very limited numbers of certified or well-skilled storage professionals in

the market, managers frequently resort to internal recruitment. Often the internal recruitment

involves moving an existing valuable employee who has a different expertise (such as oper-

ating systems, databases, etc.), but has very limited knowledge about storage technology.

Figure 14Most-trusted training sources for development of storage skills

On-the-job-training, technology vendor training, and self-development by reading manuals

are preferred sources of storage training and development, followed by training for certifi-

cations and training provided by independent IT training companies.

On-the-job training, technology vendor training, and self-development by reading manuals

typically cover usage and management of products and technology that is either already

implemented or is in the process of being implemented. In addition, there isa need for wider

and deeper training focusing on underlying technology concepts, planning, designing and

managing. This will enable the storage professionals to independently and more-efficiently

design and deploy storage infrastructures fully leveraging the capabilities of all applicablestorage technology segments.

4.5 Storage Group Skills Model

Another important aspect to consider is breadth and depth of knowledge and skills required

to perform the storage-related functions effectively. There is a need for a well-defined skills

model which can be applied to both development and deployment of expertise in the group.

At the very least, three distinct requirements can be identified (represented as Skills Pyramid

in Figure 15).

Foundations: Required for all members of the team. Strong understanding of underlyingtechnical concepts across all storage technology segments is a must to be able to:

1. Fully understand products and technology in each segment;

2. Design and manage end-to-end lifecycle of information/data from creation to

archiving; and

3. Make accurate technology decisions while designing information infrastructure for

critical processing environments.

% of Managers0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

On-the-job Training

Vendor Training

Certification Training

IT Training Companies

In-house Training

Self Development



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Figure 15Storage Group Skills Pyramid

Specialization: Advancements in technology and the rapid introduction of highly sophisti-

cated solutions have made it nearly impossible for everyone in the team to be expert at

everything. The number of individuals and their specialties can be assigned based upon

the assignment requirements (such as storage administration and management or plan-

ning and designing) and technology deployed in the infrastructure (storage subsystems,

SAN, NAS, CAS, replication, backup/recovery, etc.).

Formal specialization assignments also will help address the development needs for nearly

two-thirds of the existing workforce.

Expertise Development: Depending upon deployed technology and application environments,

a number of experts may be required in the storage group. Two distinct focus areas can be

identified for expertise development:

Deeper knowledge of deployed products and technology will help maximize

performance and availability.

Ability to integrate technology with applications (databases, e-mail systems, etc.)

will help deploy well-integrated solutions.

5. Recommendations and Conclusions

From the perspective of data availability and protection, information storage infrastructure

is the most-critical component of an overall IT infrastructure. It plays a critical role in mak-

ing applications work efficiently, both locally and across multiple sites. With the increasing

complexity and criticality of storage, highly skilled and focused storage groups are as

mission-critical as the technology being deployed.

This study underscores a widening knowledge and skill gap in this mission-critical industry.

A very aggressive hiring requirement is possibly the most important challenge faced by the

managers today, which becomes even more challenging considering the shortage of expe-

rienced or certified professionals.

Nearly two-thirds of the storage professionals employed today require additional knowl-

edge and skills to perform their responsibilities efficiently. This is an important revelation.

- Application integratedstorage infrastructure

- Expert levelknowledge to maximizeperformance and availability

- Align to assignmentsand responsibilities

- In-depth skills in selectedtechnology segment(s)

- Technology concepts& principles

- All storage technologysegments

Advanced orcross technology/

applicationexpertise

Specialization based on deployedtechnology and assignments

Build strong foundationacrossall storage technology segments



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Due to the lack of comprehensive storage technology education in the industry, most of the

currently deployed professionals have relied on on-the-job training, vendor product training

and self-development. Though probably adequate for day-to-day administration, however,

the ability to make informed strategic decisions and to proactively plan, design, and man-

age storage infrastructure is hampered by a lack of broad and deep knowledge.

Well-constructed, comprehensive, and strategic plans must be efficiently implemented to

meet the challenges of managing multi-site, multi-vendor environments.

Companies without formal and focused storage management groups must evaluate this

mission-critical requirement.

Companies with dedicated storage teams must carefully analyze skills requirements

and current skill levels in their teams.

Companies must develop specialized experts in each of the storage technology

segments they have deployed.

Storage technology vendors should develop knowledge and skills in the industry when

they introduce new technologies.

Leading universities, colleges, and training providers must include storage technology

courses in their curricula to offer their graduates career opportunities in this high

growth industry. The next generation of IT professionals, or anyone looking for a

different career path, has a great opportunity to learn the skills and meet the demands

in this high-growth, dynamic environment.

6. EMCs Response and Initiatives

EMC Education Services conducted this study to identify and address challenges faced by

managers in the storage industry.

The following key initiatives offer options for storage managers and professionals to

acquire or improve their skills to benefit their organizations:

Education Solutions

Open Storage Technology Curriculum

Unique offering in the industry; leads with concepts and principles

Covers all segments of information storage and management technology

Adapted by several universities

Public classes by independent training providers for non-EMC users

EMC Technology-Specific Learning Paths

Help leverage extensive capabilities of EMC technology and solutions Comprehensive coverage for all segments of EMC technology

Prepare for EMC Proven Professional Certification

EMC Proven Professional Certification Program

Formal validation and recognition

Option of Open and/or more than 10 EMC technology specialties

Exclusive Knowledge Maintenance feature

All of the above education solutions are available globally via EMC Education Services to

EMC customers, partners, and employees.

In an attempt to help address the widening knowledge gap in the industry, the following

exclusive programs have been introduced which enable non-EMC users as well as univer-

sity students to take advantage of open storage technology curriculum and to build a suc-

cessful career in this high-growth industry.



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EMC Academic Alliance Program

Open Storage Technology Curriculum for students in colleges and universities,

targeted to help build a highly skilled pool of future storage managers and

professionals.

Introduced in mid-2006, the program has helped establish alliances with a large

number of universities in several countries.

EMC Learning Partner Program

Open Storage Technology Curriculum, offered by leading, independent IT training compa-

nies, designed to build or improve storage technology skills leading to better design and

management of efficient storage infrastructures.

For more information on the programs, offerings, alliances, and partnerships, visit

www.EMC.com/training.

Alok Shrivastava

Senior Director, Education Services

EMC Global Services

EMC Corporation

[email protected]

About the Author

Alok Shrivastava is responsible for technology education, certification, and programs within

EMC Education Services. Key areas of his responsibility include technical training and field

readiness, EMC Proven Professional Certification, internal communications and program

management, new product readiness, Storage Technologist Open Training and Certification,

EMC Learning Partner program, and the EMC Academic Alliance program. Prior to joiningthe EMC Education Services team in 2003, Mr. Shrivastava wasresponsible for building and

leading a strong sales engineering team for the EMC Asia-Pacific/Japan region. In his nearly

25-year professional career, he has been an application developer, storage manager, sys-

tems manager, pre- and post-sales consultant, sales engineering manager, and director of

the sales engineering function at the regional level.



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EMCCorporation

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Massachusetts

01748-9103

1-508-435-1000

In North America 1-866-464-7381

EMC believes the information in thispublication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. EMC CORPORATION MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS

PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

EMC2, EMC, and where information lives are registered trademarks and EMCProven is a trademark of EMC Corporation.

All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

Copyright 2007 EMC Corporation.

All rights reserved. Published in the USA. 05/07

EMC Perspective

H2159.2

Contact Us

Online:www.EMC.com/traininghttp://education.EMC.com

E-mail:[email protected]

Phone:888-EMC-TRNG (888-362-8764)

International:

[email protected]+44 208 758 6080 (UK)

+49 6196 4728 666 (Germany)

[email protected]+61 2 9922 7888 (ANZ)+65 6333 6200 (South Asia)

[email protected]+81 3 3345 5900 (Japan)

[email protected]+82 22125 7503 (Korea)

EMC Perspective

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