CA Offers SAN Certification

Infinity I/O, a Half Moon Bay, Calif.-based provider of storage networking education and certification services, plans to offer the discounted training and testing based on SAN standards set by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), said Ron Collier, area manager for CA's Field Support Group.

The training for the certification is provided by Infinity I/O, while the actual testing is handled by Prometric, a testing provider, said Deborah Johnson, CEO of Infinity I/O. The three-day training classes normally cost about $1,875 per person if trainees sign up for publicly offered classes or about $1,400

per person if a company privately sponsors the classes on its own site, she said.

Under the new program, CA's solution providers can invest in Storage Networking Certified Professional Level 2 certification for their employees or offer the certification to customers, Collier said.

CA has worked with Infinity I/O to create cumulative discounts of up to 25 percent off the cost of the certification, he said. In addition, if certification exam vouchers are purchased at the same time as the training, solution providers can get discounts of up to 35 percent on the vouchers, Collier said.

Aside from working with Infinity I/O, CA will also host the delivery of the SAN training at its own facilities and outside facilities, he said.

Doug Marlin, managing partner at the Independent Technology Group, a La Canada, Calif.-based storage specialist solution provider, said CA's effort could be a boost to the vendor's business. "It also gives customers an expectation of working with an established [solution provider]," he said.

The first 75 percent of the SAN sales cycle today is still spent evangelizing customer prospects about SANs, Marlin said. "Storage is not easy. . . . Certification will make the users more comfortable," he said. "We can turn certification into a differentiator."

Marlin added that while CA has great storage management software, it needs to step up its marketing to end users. "They are too soft vs. the competition, but they have very good solutions that work in a number of applications," he said. "I just want them to ring the bell and get better known out there."