The Technology industry is a huge employer in India and every wave of technology evolution has brought new opportunities for people to make careers. The latest phenomenon which is riding every other trend in the IT sector, is managing the huge amount of information being generated through technology's pervasiveness. As life goes digital in every way - huge amounts of information is generated by us in the digital format in our every-day life and businesses are putting all their information in the digital format. Even areas like government and healthcare are turning out to be huge generators of digital information. Keeping in mind the sensitivity and security of the data being generated, it is inevitable that the focus is now shifting to storage of the information. The entire space of storing, managing and protecting information is one of the fastest growing and hugely exciting sectors in the technology space. Even in an emerging market like India, the storage sector is already providing solutions worth $ 400 million, which is expected to grow to $ 1 billion by 2011. This does not include all the investments made in R&D operations of various global majors in India and the international focused services firms doing storage work out of India. The type of data growth is also a contributing cost factor; mission critical data is growing in the enterprise environment. This means companies are buying more expensive energy hungry equipment to provide needed fast access and redundancy at both the server and storage level. Various innovative processes are being developed to cater to the evolving market needs. Concept like green storage is also being developed. Besides there is also an imperative need to standardise storage processes in order to meet global standards.

The need for storage
All the above mentioned trends point to the fact that India needs skilled manpower to address the requirements of the global market, as it is the service hub of the world, as well as to cater to the growing needs of the domestic sector. Awareness regarding IT storage solutions has increased greatly in the recent times. Corporations understand the importance of data management and have been increasing their IT investments in implementing storage solutions. This inevitably leads to wide opportunity for aspiring IT professionals to explore storage as a career option. An independent study done indicates that we are already short of 100,000 skilled people for the storage industry.
This is surely an opportunity for people to build new careers, while most of the other industries are coping with the global slowdown. Up- skilling in the storage sector can be done easily by professionals through certification courses offered by Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). The industry body offers a course (SA-101) in Storage Fundamentals at a fraction of a cost at which they are offered in the more developed markets and gives people an opportunity to become a part of a fast growing industry. SNIA India was set up formally in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune and now holds membership strength of over 87 members.
SNIA has been actively involved in building the work already started by the association to reach beyond the traditional storage market and into the broader technology and IT industry. Education services to empower organisations in the management of information has been a key focus area for SNIA and it has been constantly involved in introducing courses to train IT professionals to cater to the evolving industry.

Courses Offered
Today, SNIA India offers the Storage Foundations course that gets the candidate ready for the SCP (SNIA Certified Professional) exam. The course incorporates fundamentals of Basic Storage Technology, Disk Technology, SCSI, FC-SAN, IP-Storage Networking, Network Attached Storage, Virtualization, Storage Management, Data Management and Continuity Management. In keeping up with the growing market demand and industry trends, SNIA is already in the process of working with its partners to also introduce advanced courses in Storage Administration and Storage Architecture, Assessment, Planning and Design. These advanced courses would give them a chance to appear for other certification exams such as the SCSE (SNIA Certified Storage Networking Experts) after the basic foundation course.
Currently, the foundation course is available in Delhi, Bombay and Bangalore. SNIA India is currently exploring tie-ups with institutes of repute to run these courses in other cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad, Calcutta and Pune. The Franchisee is expected to have experience in the field of education and some level of storage consulting background.The primary objective of these courses is to develop the fundamental technical knowledge and skills required to understand current and emerging data storage capabilities and infrastructures. The course also provides a set of practical approaches required to help new storage administrators and managers to make smarter storage decisions.
These courses would prove to be extremely valuable for everyone responsible for storage service delivery and support for new and existing storage products and services; this typically includes new and experienced development, administration, implementation, delivery, and support and management staff. All those aspiring to complete the internationally recognized SNIA S10-101 Storage Network Foundations examination will find this course essential. All the student feedback received by SNIA India has been very positive and it has helped them make the right choices in their career.
In addition, these courses are vendor neutral to allow students to understand the technology AS IS without any vendor bias. Already, about a 800 in India have been certified by these courses as highlighted earlier and the opportunity exists for many more to benefit with better career prospects in this sector. Basic Criterion. Bachelors degree is the basic requirement to take these certification courses along with some basic level of IT literacy and/or storage industry. The course and certification is also targeted towards people who are in the storage domain such as administrators, SAN managers, architects, database managers who would like to get a refresh on the fundamentals. It can also add value to the careers of sales engineers, managers, fresh recruits and other individuals in organizations that liaison with storage companies on a regular basis. Not only will the course beneficial for storage professionals but also open a new avenue for aspiring professionals. Professionals who successfully completed these courses are much better equipped to cater to the demands of this evolving sector.