NetApp certification offers an extensive array of training and certifications for any personnel in data storage management systems and who has technical networking as part of their job responsibilities. Considering the number of certifications offered by NetApp and the intricate certification path, it can be quite daunting at first glance to understand the hierarchy of the certification program.
Hence this blog post should help you in understanding the structure and act as a guide in choosing the right training and certification for yourself.
Introduction to NetApp Certification Program:
NetApp operates an active and densely populated certification program. At a glance, it might look daunting but once you understand the structure it’s easy to understand. It offers a total of 14 credentials broken into 4 levels i.e Associate, Specialist, Professional, & Expert, 3 categories i.e data track, Hybrid Track, Converged Infrastructure Track, and across 5 job roles.
The easiest way to understand the path and to pursue certifications is to aim for the job role and then to pursue the certification path accordingly. Let’s break the program apart in detail.
Associate Level – NetApp Certified Technology Associate
NetApp Certification Program starts off with the category agnostic, associate-level program “NetApp Certified Technology Associate”, which is designed to help the candidates to understand the fundamentals of NetApp storage and management along with hybrid cloud technology, thus helping the candidates to scale up their skill set as they progress along. Even though this is not a mandatory certification but it’s recommended that candidates attain this before venturing onto the more complex certifications and training.
Data Track:
The first category of the certification path is the Data Track which is intended for the audience with either current or aspiring job roles such as Storage administrator, installation engineer, support engineer, implementation engineer.
Data Track starts with professional level certifications NetApp Certified Data Administrator, ONTAP which is the pre-requisite for two of the other specialist level certifications, NetApp Certified Storage Installation Engineer, ONTAP which is a stand-alone certification, and the last certification is NetApp Certified Support engineer which is a pre-requisite for the specialist level certification.
The next level would be the specialist level certifications which are NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer SAN Specialist, ONTAP, NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer Data Protection Specialist both of which have a prerequisite certification, and NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer SAN Specialist, E-Series which is a stand-alone and doesn’t require any prerequisites and NetApp Certified Support Engineer ONTAP Specialist which has a prerequisite certification.
Hybrid Track:
Hybrid Track is the second track in the NetApp Certification Program which has a total of 3 certifications across two levels and 2 job roles.
The hybrid track starts off with Specialist level certifications i.e NetApp Certified Hybrid Cloud Administrator and NetApp Certified Hybrid Cloud Implementation Engineer and the final level of expert-level containing NetApp Certified Hybrid Cloud Architect.
Converged Infrastructure Track:
The third and final category would be the Converged Infrastructure which deals with cross-platform integration between NetApp & Cisco and is meant for Job Roles Design Specialist & Administrator Specialist. This track has a total of 2 certifications Cisco and NetApp FlexPod Design Specialist and Cisco and NetApp FlexPod Implementation and Administration Specialist primarily intended for audiences who operate in both the ecosystems.
Trainocate is an authorized training partner for NetApp across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan & the US. To pursue the training and to attain the certificate feel free to reach out to us for more information.
