New Network Appliance Certifications, and Why You Should Consider NetApp Credentials

This May, NetApp revamps its certification program. The Silicon Valley based company offers 2 overhauled credentials this spring:
NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer – Data Protection ( NS0-511) and NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer – SAN, Clustered Data ONTAP (NS0-506). So if you’ve been planning to get certified with NetApp, now is the time to start preparing for these newly introduced exams. And for those of you have no idea what NetApp certification program is about, here’s a great blog post on why you should consider getting certified with NetApp.

What’s So Great About NetApp?

NetApp, the name which stands for Network Appliances, is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Yes, this is another technology superstar from the Silicon Valley. Founded in 1992, NetApp is a reputable computer storage and data management company.

Here’s a bit of NetApp product history lesson. When the company was just developing, its flagship product was the line of NetApp filers. A filer is a type of disk storage device which owns and controls a filesystem, and presents files and directories to hosts over the network. This scheme is sometimes called file storage, as opposed to the block storage frequently provided by other vendors, like EMC.

NetApp’s filers initially used NFS and CIFS protocols based on standard local area networks (LANs), whereas block storage consolidation required storage area networks (SANs) implemented with the Fibre Channel (FC) protocol. In 2002, in an attempt to increase market share, NetApp added block storage access as well. Today, NetApp systems support it via FC protocol, the iSCSI protocol, and the emerging Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol.

The filers use NetApp’s proprietary operating system called Data ONTAP which includes code from Berkeley Net/2 BSD Unix, Spinnaker Networks technology, and other operating systems. Data ONTAP originally only supported NFS, but CIFS, iSCSI and Fibre Channel (including Fibre Channel over Ethernet) were later added. Today, NetApp provides two variants of Data ONTAP. Data ONTAP 7G and a nearly complete rewrite called Data ONTAP GX, based upon grid technology acquired from Spinnaker Networks. In 2010, these software product lines were merged into one OS – Data ONTAP 8, which folded Data ONTAP 7G onto the Data ONTAP GX cluster platform. Data ONTAP 8 has two distinct operating modes – 7-Mode and Cluster-Mode. Learn more about NetApp products here.

As the popularity and demand for NetApp products required qualified professionals to deal with the increasing sophistication of NetApp solutions, the company followed other vendors in launching its own certification program. NetApp certification program was developed to distinguish professionals who are highly skilled in managing and deploying NetApp technologies. Now, let’s take a closer look at the new NetApp credentials released this month.

NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer – Data Protection (NS0-511)

NetApp Certified Backup and Recovery Implementation Engineer credential validates that its holders have proven skills in positioning NetApp disaster recovery solutions, assessing customer storage requirements, and implementing backup and recovery solutions.

NCIE-B&R Requirements
In order to achieve NCIE certification, you must first complete the requirements for the NetApp Certified Data Administrator (NCDA), which requires that you pass any of the following:

• NetApp Certified 7-Mode Data Administrator (NS0-155) exam
• NetApp Certified Clustered Data ONTAP Administrator (NS0-156) exam
• NetApp Certified Data Administrator, Clustered Data ONTAP (NS0-157) exam (replaces NS0-156 in May 2015)

If you have already passed the NCIE exam, you must still also pass the NCDA before being granted the NCIE credential.
The new NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer – Data Protection exam (NS0-511) will be available in May 2015, and will replace the current NS0-510 exam.

Exam Objectives: NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer – Data Protection (available May 2015 – will replace NS0-510)

• Data ONTAP Data Protection Administration (ILT)
• Technical Overview of SnapVault on Clustered Data ONTAP (WBT)
• Planning and Installing the SnapProtect Solution (WBT)
• NetApp Snap Creator Framework Integration and Administration (WBT)
• Technical Overview of OnCommand Workflow Automation (WBT)
• Technical Overview of OnCommand Management Solutions (WBT)

NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer – SAN, Clustered Data ONTAP (NS0-506)

What’s this credential about? NetApp Certified SAN Implementation Engineers have proven skills in understanding customer storage requirements, implementing Fibre Channel and iSCSI SAN solutions, and integrating different operating systems and applications such as Microsoft® Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server™, DB2®, and Oracle®.

NCIE-SAN Requirements

In order to achieve your NCIE certification, you must first complete the requirements for the NetApp Certified Data Administrator (NCDA), which includes the new exam. NS0-506 exam.

NS0-506 Exam Objectives: NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer – SAN, Clustered Data ONTAP (available May 2015 – will replace NS0-504)

• SAN Fundamentals on Data ONTAP (WBT)
• SAN Design (WBT)
• SAN Implementation – Switch Configuration (WBT)
• NetApp Unified Connect Technical Overview and Implementation (WBT)
• SAN Implementation (ILT)
• Architecting SAN on NetApp Storage (ILT)

Summing up, Network Appliance may not be the vendor name you hear often when it comes to IT certifications, however, it delivers some of the highly reputable professional credentials, which hiring managers love to see on a resume. If you think that NetApp might be the certification choice for you, visit Examcollection to see which NetApp exam dumps we have available in our free and Premium VCE sections. Comment to share your feedback!

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