Top 5 Trends in the Storage Hardware Job Market
Fifteen years ago, storage conferences dominated the IT event calendar. Storage Networking World and Storage World were packed with vendors showcasing the latest and greatest storage arrays, solid state hard drives (SSD)and automated tape libraries. However, since storage hardware is no longer the specialty it used to be, these shows are no longer on the schedule.
Not so long ago there were people who were dedicated to deployment storage area networks (SANs)others needed to maintain and operate network attached storage (NAS), and still others specialize in storage switches, host bus adapters, and other hardware items. But in the age of virtualization, cloud computingand software-defined storage (SDS)the golden age of storage hardware is behind us.
Despite this, storage hardware remains at the heart of all on-premises and cloud systems. The equipment is still there, but it’s buried behind layer after layer of abstraction. And it still needs to be serviced by trained professionals.
Let’s review the top trends impacting storage hardware employment and job outlook:
See more: The Job Market for Hardware and Storage Engineers
1. Increase your knowledge of storage hardware with data skills
Rob Gordon, Senior Sales Engineer at Komprisenoted that given With the growth of cloud storage and infrastructure automation, the traditional tasks of storage IT professionals of implementing and maintaining the hardware and mechanical layer have become less complex.
“With storage now distributed across many systems and clouds, the need is to understand and manage the data contained on the systems, not so much the physical storage silos,” Gordon noted.
“Many storage hardware jobs will transition into cloud data architects and data management roles as data takes center stage and storage technology becomes more ephemeral and dynamic.”
2. The scramble to find parts
There is a shortage of servers, storage arrays, switches, chips, cabling, filters, and many other essential storage components.
If the delivery times for items are too long, storage managers must learn to make do with the equipment they have. And they must become adept at seeking out unusual sources of parts and equipment.
One data center, for example, reported a six-month lead time for an order of hundreds of Ethernet switches from a major network manufacturer. Fiber unavailability has also been reported in some areas. And there are shortages of items normally taken for granted, like wiring. Even some of the best servers now have times longer than 45 days.
In response, storage managers should familiarize themselves with the second-hand market. They must also design workarounds and OEM alternatives if necessary to keep their systems running.
3. Increased demand for high availability equipment and skills
One area where storage hardware skills are particularly valued is high availability (HA).
With the increasing complexity of modern infrastructures, concerns over the ability to meet 99.99% Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for business-critical applications are driving enterprises to implement sophisticated, applications, high availability and disaster recovery (DR) solutions.
For example, a major database and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, such as Oracle, SAP S/4HANA and SQL Server, have become so dependent that even brief downtimes for these systems are costly.
They run in increasingly complex environments, prompting more organizations to turn to high availability specialists with deep, application-specific experience in implementing protection. the availability of these important systems.
“Enterprises’ reliance on databases and ERP systems will drive increased demand for specialized high availability expertise,” said Cassius Rhue, vice president of customer experience at SIOS technology.
4. Disaster recovery is heating up
Disaster recovery has been an integral part of the storage management job description for some time, but it could hardly have been described as a dynamic career path. This may change.
Disaster recovery planning no longer accounts for the rare “once-in-a-100-year storm” or “once-in-a-lifetime earthquake”. Businesses need to be able to recover from weather, power surges, ransomware and other threats, all of which are becoming increasingly common.
Simply backing up the data storage is no longer enough. Whether the storage is network file system (NFS), SAN, cloud-native shared storage or local replicated storage, enterprises are increasing the levels of protection for their data storage, both on-premises and in the cloud, to include HA/DR protection. And that means installing and maintaining more storage hardware.
“Climate change and social unrest have moved the need for disaster recovery to the forefront of IT attention,” Rhue said with SIOS technology.
“Enterprises will spend more on DR in 2022 and seek more flexible deployment options for DR protection.”
Learn more: Top 5 trends in the backup and recovery job market
5. Migration of workloads to the cloud
Seasoned storage hardware specialists have seen their influence diminish over the past two decades. While there are some areas where they can still shine in the business, ultimately their sphere of activity is in decline. This trend should continue.
For the next few years, at least, a career opportunity exists in becoming an expert in moving workloads from the data center to the cloud. This means knowing how to decommission equipment, how to safely migrate data, and how to move applications from in-house hardware to the cloud.
But professionals considering this career path shouldn’t just focus on moving workloads from the data center to the cloud. As companies determine what should be in the cloud and what should be moved back to internal systems, large swathes of storage infrastructure could disappear. But also, more storage hardware will need to be put in place to house the repatriated systems.
“Some companies that have moved mission-critical applications to the public cloud are now considering either reverse migration or a hybrid cloud setup for three main reasons: unpredictable cloud charges, data sovereignty requirements for companies subject to regulatory that require them to keep data within the geographic boundaries of their business and the need for internal control over IT infrastructures,” said Cold SIOS technology.
See more: Top 5 Data Storage Companies Hiring
