CompTIA Storage+ Earns ISO Accreditation

CompTIA, Inc., provider of vendor-neutral skills certifications for the world’s IT workforce, and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced that their CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA certification has been accredited by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO).

The ISO/IEC 17024 accreditation for CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA is a benchmark for personnel certification programs.
The designation validates that the two organizations operate in a
consistent, comparable and reliable manner worldwide, thereby allowing
individuals to have skills that translate across international
boundaries.

Five CompTIA certifications are ISO accredited: CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, Storage+ and Advanced Security Practitioner.

"Accreditation by an independent body that conducts an impartial
review creates an extremely valuable distinction for a personnel
certification program," said Terry Erdle, executive VP, certification, CompTIA. "This
value extends through the service network ˆ from certification body, to
certificate holder, to employer, to the public they serve. This status
further affirms that CompTIA certifications are the recognized industry
benchmark for a broad range of foundation-level IT skills."

Data storage and backup ranked as the number one or number two priority
for organizations of all sizes – micro, small, medium and large –
surveyed for CompTIA’s State of the IT Skills Gap study,
published in February 2012. The study also found that 92% of
organizations felt storage and data backup skills are important or very
important to their IT needs.

"Enrolling in a SNIA or CompTIA recognized industry instructor-led
training course before taking the ISO accredited CompTIA Storage+ 
Powered by SNIA exam can update and expand one‚s storage administration
knowledge through work experience and vendor product training," said Wayne M. Adams, SNIA chairman of the board. "Required
skills and knowledge continue to evolve with the changing landscape of
enterprise storage, storage networks, cloud storage and big data."

CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA combines the thought and technical
leadership of the SNIA with the certification development and management
capabilities of CompTIA. The result is a credential recognized globally
as the standard for validating IT professionals who manage data
storage, including storage networking managers, system integrators,
product developers, networking systems engineers and technical marketing
personnel.

"The exam did a good job covering past, present and future emerging technologies," said David Lundgren, a senior solutions architect with Iron Bow Technologies, who became CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA certified in 2011. "It definitely challenged my knowledge of data center fabric, storage and backup and recovery."

The certification is also a differentiator for Lundgren’s employer, a
technology solutions provider and value-added reseller serving both
government and commercial customers.

"Whenever you‚re bidding on projects in the federal sector certifications mean a lot," Lundgren said. "The
Department of Defense already recognizes CompTIA, so when you say in a
bid, ‘We have our CompTIA Storage+ under our belts’‚ we are looked on a
little more favorably than our competitors who don’t."

The CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA certification exam covers the
knowledge and skills required to configure basic networks to include
archive, backup and restoration technologies. Additionally, the
candidate will be able to understand the fundamentals of BC, application
workload, system integration and storage/system administration, while
performing basic troubleshooting on connectivity issues.

Complete exam objectives, sample questions, information on training
materials, how to purchase exam vouchers and other information about
CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA are available on the CompTIA
Certification website.