Cloud-Building

When it comes to careers in the IT industry, jobs tend to specialize into five different categories:

• • Applications
• • Servers
• • Network
• • Storage
• • Security

There are very few individuals who can claim expertise in all five categories. There is simply too much to learn.

A new type of IT career is emerging that is directly related to the phenomena of cloud computing: the virtual data center (VDC) architect. A VDC architect has the skills to design data centers that support virtualized applications, placing them into cloud-like infrastructures.

Designing a virtualized data center is dramatically different from designing a physical data center. It is a skill, however, that can be learned. It does not require deep and in-depth knowledge of all five categories. It does require, however, strong inter-personal and collaboration skills with the experts in those areas.

Many IT organizations do not have a VDC architect. These organizations can choose to either (a) promote one of their own, or (b) hire a new employee or consultant.

EMC has created a training course and certification process for VDC architects that can serve homegrown IT specialists or hired consultants. The course instructs the trainee on fundamental VDC attributes (including an overview of all of the five categories mentioned above). In addition, the course lays the foundation for advancing to a higher level of certification (cloud architect).

More information on the VDC architecture certification can be found here. I attended one of the earliest versions of the course, and for your reference I’ve attached a video below that gives a high-level overview of the course.

IT specialists should consider VDC certification as a solid career strategy that takes advantage of the cloud computing trend.

Steve
http://stevetodd.typepad.com
Twitter: @SteveTodd
EMC Intrapreneur