The information technology infrastructure is composed of six main components—three software and three hardware. The three software components are applications, database management systems, and operating systems. The three hardware components are servers, networks, and storage. A few years ago (and still most likely today), if you were to ask a college class of computer science majors to list the six components in the order in which they had an interest (such as the area in which they hoped to get a job), storage would probably have rated sixth on most students' lists.

This is the Rodney Dangerfield problem that storage has unfairly faced for years. Although numerous exciting things are happening in the other five IT infrastructure components (such as server virtualization and web development), I would argue that over the last five years, storage-related innovation has outstripped them all. That innovation may not be as well-recognized as it should be. But the real challenge for storage vendors and advocates is understanding the requirements for education and how to exploit these issues to take full advantage of recent and current storage innovation.

Understanding storage management trends, challenges, and options

Since 2006, EMC has published an annual study to help understand how IT and storage managers are coping with organizational challenges related to information storage. Among the challenges highlighted by the most recent study are how to deal with the explosion of data, the increased criticality of digitized information, and the rapid introduction of new storage technologies.

The current study was based upon a global survey of more than 1,450 IT professionals (20 percent managers and 80 percent storage professionals). The study included participants in all major geographies and major industry segments, both EMC and non-EMC storage solution users, and large, medium, and small companies.

The size of the study is both commendable and necessary to be able to derive overall results and discern any distinguishable differences when analyzed across two or more sample slices. The sample size also had to be statistically reliable, and that is possible only with an overall large survey population.

EMC has made a whitepaper available that goes into the new survey's findings in some detail so we will focus on two key issues.

Skill set deficiencies on existing storage teams

One finding is that for current storage teams where capabilities were measured as strong, moderate, or weak, only 30 percent of storage professionals were rated "strong." Assuming that strong skills are necessary (i.e., moderate skills are not enough), roughly two-thirds of storage professionals require additional skills, knowledge, and professional development. EMC believes that correcting the skills gap can lead to higher productivity, better technology deployment and management, and more efficient use of current staff.

The hiring shortage and ways organizations can meet their hiring goals

But having a skills gap on existing storage teams is not the only issue. Too few strongly skilled storage pros are even available for hire. A large margin of survey participants said that the lack of skilled storage professionals is the most serious industry challenge. The implication is that the storage users are unable to deploy storage technologies as completely and efficiently as would be possible if storage teams were fully staffed with fully proficient storage professionals.

Solutions from within and without

That shortage is going to be exacerbated. The survey showed, despite the current economic climate, hiring plans anticipate growth of more than 17 percent over a 12-month period. The preferred method is to hire experienced storage professionals from the outside. That approach reduces the learning period and risks associated with hiring new employees. The law of supply and demand would seem to indicate that outside hires could command a higher salary, but, considering budget constraints and salary equity issues with existing employees, paying new hires a higher salary may not be an option. That, in turn, increases the challenge to hire experienced outside storage professionals.

One alternative is to make an internal appointment of someone who has some other IT expertise, such as an operating system background. Bringing the new person up to speed in storage may require on-the-job training, technology vendor training, and self-development. In addition, storage certification may be required. Although this whole process takes time (as well as maybe requiring backfilling of the vacated position), doing so allows organizations to demonstrate their commitment to promotion and self-development, which helps reduce the risk of employee turnover.

However, internal appointments may not be possible or sufficient to meet all the hiring requirements. A couple of other external options are available. One is to hire a certified storage professional who has little or no real-world storage experience. The upside is that the person who received certification has an interest in storage and the dedication to spend time receiving certification. A possible downside is whether that person's abstract skills and knowledge can be successfully applied to a particular company's situation.

Another, similar alternative is to hire a recently graduated college or university student. These individuals typically have the raw talent and training, but the learning curve (time and money) could be high if they lack some formal education in storage. Formal education, in the form of specific storage-related course work, can help ameliorate the learning curve.

A final alternative is to engage "pair of hands" consultants, in the sense that the consultant is doing only what an employee could or should be doing. The cost is likely to be higher than an employee (consulting is most cost-effective when it is project-oriented), and there is unlikely to be knowledge transfer. Pair of hands consulting should be used to fill temporary gaps in internal skills and knowledge. And that leads to the requirement that both internal and external education augment hiring and developmental efforts.

EMC's education-focused activities

The insight that EMC's survey brings to storage education issues is part of a broader IT education landscape. IT vendors have long recognized that they have a key role to play in helping to educate their customer/user community; on the job training and ongoing public and private training and education programs alone are not enough.

The focus of EMC's own Education Services is to help customers bridge the skills gap between information storage and storage management. The overall goal is to enable IT organizations to build a stronger storage management team to help address growth challenges. EMC has a number of initiatives and programs that are targeted to one or more audiences that can include customers, students, partners, or employees.

1. EMC offers an Information Storage and Management "open" curriculum, which, by definition, is not EMC-specific. This curriculum covers the concepts and principles for all the key segments of information storage. It is aligned to EMC Proven Professional Certification at the Associate level and paves the way for further specialization.
2. Public classes by independent trainers are part of EMC's Academic Alliance program, where EMC partners with more than 300 institutes of higher learning worldwide. That includes more than 13,000 students in 18 countries, providing customers, partners, and EMC itself with a hiring source of storage-educated graduates.
3. Of course, EMC does not neglect specific training in its own technologies. That can lead to certification via EMC's Proven Professional Certification Program, from which EMC customers, partners, and employees can benefit.
4. In addition, the company offers numerous other programs, including in-house sales accreditation as well as sales and system engineer accreditation for EMC professional partners.
5. Finally, EMC has published a book called Information Storage and Management (2009, Wiley Press) from a non-EMC-centric perspective that focuses on concepts and principles rather than on specific products. In addition to being used in formal training, storage professionals should be able to use this book to fill gaps in their knowledge, especially in rapidly changing areas where they need to come up to speed.

Mesabi musings

On the surface, some key findings of EMC's most recent annual survey are shocking: 1) roughly two-thirds of all storage professionals require further training, education, and development and 2) hiring the planned number of storage professionals is going to be difficult in the face of already existing shortages. However, on further reflection, the conclusions are perfectly understandable.

Storage growth continues more or less unchecked (roughly doubling every 18 months, as shown by a separate EMC study). That alone would put tremendous stress on existing staff and processes such as backup and recovery and disaster recovery.

On top of that, storage environments are changing rapidly, in areas including design, deployment, managing storage in virtualized server environments, and the increased need for carrying out a storage consolidation. Thus, existing storage management teams have not been able to keep pace augmenting their skills.

At the same time, IT organizations have been and continue to be under budget pressures that do not allow hiring commensurate with their needs. Coupled with the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome, IT professionals and graduates tend to gravitate to areas where companies are currently hiring.

Overall, EMC Educational Services is working hard to eliminate the Rodney Dangerfield effect and give storage education the respect that it deserves. EMC's education strategy fulfills its own logical business purposes (having more educated storage professionals requires taking better and greater advantage of new storage technologies). However, the rising education boat benefits other sellers of storage as well. But most importantly, it benefits professional storage team members.