Technical Training

Course Benefit Summary

For sales and marketing professionals in the storage networking industry, understanding the unique challenges that a business faces in the global information economy and understanding the variety of solutions available today is essential for solving each customer’s unique business needs.

Course Description

Selling and Marketing Storage Networking Solutions is an interactive examination of the storage networking marketplace. Participants explore the fundamental business needs that drive the storage market. They assess key enabling technologies and applications in the context of specific challenges and markets, and then learn how to articulate the value of these solutions within the context of a consultative, strategic, and best-practices-driven approach.

Course Length: One day

Course Format: Interactive, lecture format

This course is offered at our local office in Ottawa during the evenings and weekends. Marketbridge also offers onsite training anywhere in North America. Contact us to discuss our onsite rates to further reduce your Total Cost of Ownership for these training investments.

To view the current class schedule and locations, or to register for a class, select Class Schedule & Registration. To arrange a private class for your organization, call Marketbridge at 877.595.5504.

Prerequisites

Participants who meet one or more of the following criteria will gain the most from this course:

• Fundamental knowledge of traditional storage technologies
• Experience selling or marketing any type of storage solution
• Experience selling or marketing LAN/WAN solutions

Associated Courses

• Storage Network Foundations

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for storage networking sales and marketing professionals, including OEMs, ISVs, VARs and System Integrators.

The course content and technical level are targeted for professionals working in roles similar to the following:

• Marketing and Marketing Communications
• Account Managers
• Sales Consulting
• Administration and Office Support
• Management and Corporate

Course Objectives

• Identify the business needs and trends that drive growth in the storage market.
• Describe the capabilities, strengths, and limitations of various storage networking technologies.
• Identify and match key storage networking applications to specific business needs.
• Advocate a consultative approach to selling storage networking solutions.
• Articulate the value of storage networking solutions at various levels within the customer’s organization.
• Assess the customer’s fundamental needs and recommend appropriate solutions and vendors.
• Help customers design a storage strategy that enables both short-term and long-term success.
• Introduce students to the SNIA Sales Qualification Exam

• Understanding the Storage Market
• Storage Networking Architectures
• Storage Networking Technologies
• Storage Networking Applications
• Storage Management
• Selling Storage Networking
• Assessment and Design
• Best Practices
• SNIA Sales Qualification Exam

Infinity I/O offers comprehensive, vendor-neutral training and certification programs via standard courses, tailored curriculum, custom development, stand-alone learning products and consulting. The real world, job-based training solutions from Infinity I/O ensure that businesses have the market understanding and technical expertise required to design, develop, and deploy optimal multi-vendor storage networks. Since its founding in 1995 Infinity I/O has trained over 14,000 IT professionals and developed training courseware solutions in Fibre Channel and Storage Area Networking technologies.

Marketbridge is proud to Partner with InfinityIO to provide SNIA curriculums for the Canadian Marketplace.

Course Topic Details

Understanding the Storage Market

• Value of information
• Paradigm shift from “data” to “information”
• Exploring business needs: scalability, availability, performance, and management
• Storage market trends
• Opportunities
• Storage networking value proposition
• Overview of storage networking vendors

Storage Networking Architectures

• Direct-attached storage (DAS)
• Network-attached storage (NAS)
• Storage Area Networks (SAN)
• Strengths and limitations of DAS, NAS, and SAN
• Introduction to SAN topologies
• Storage networking organizations and standards

Storage Networking Technologies

• Overview of SCSI
• Overview of Basic Storage Technology
• Overview of Fibre Channel technology
• Fibre Channel terminology
• IP Storage Solutions
• Overview of iSCSI

Storage Networking Applications

• Server clustering, applications, and markets
• High-availability configurations
• Backup and recovery solutions
• Data replication technologies

• Storage device management
• Storage network management
• Storage resource management
• Storage consolidation and virtualization
• Data sharing technologies
• Enterprise management solutions

• Defining a consultative approach
• Speaking to the bottom line
• ROI, TCO, and time-to-market
• Addressing tactical planning, interoperability, and risks
• Systems management and support

Assessment and Design

• Focusing on information-centric solutions
• Overview of the solution cycle
• Assessment: Asking the right questions
• Choosing storage networking vendors

Best Practices

• Achieving immediate success
• Facilitating communication
• Designing incremental solutions
• Achieving long-term success
• Managing change