IO Blog
“When an industry is changing, it’s natural for those experienced engineers to be scared of change. The key is explaining that their job isn’t being eliminated or replaced, but their skill-sets must now grow.”
As data centers transition from being time-consuming and construction-focused to a more agile, scalable and sustainable future, it’s critical for companies to examine all aspects of data centers and, most importantly, how the new versions will operate.
Data center managers have started trading in their clipboards and spreadsheets for tablets and smartphones. As a critical component of this change, they need to put a premium on their own re-education and upgrading of skill-sets that will be required to manage the data center of the future.
Ten years from now the data center will be as simple as an API call; but before that transformation can happen the data center must embrace their newest tenant: software. Data center management has shifted from facilities to IT, enabling companies to implement software that empowers them to make proactive decisions. The maintenance and engineering responsibilities will stay as a function of the facilities engineer, but the roles of these engineers will change drastically. For example, think of an airline pilot with a computer in the cockpit, or a mechanic learning how to read a printout of an engine. The expertise and talent of these positions are essential for the job, but additional skill-sets were required to keep up with the software optimization.
IO.Institute
At IO.Institute, our certification training is role-based, which means the content is developed and focused on the daily tasks that a user will perform within their job functions. This training utilizes real-world scenarios and simulations, providing the user with the practice and desired skill-set necessary to keep things running at an optimum level.
We Teach More Than Just New Software
Data center software training has failed in the past, not because companies aren’t providing the correct training on the new tool, but because the training focused merely on the tools themselves, and not on the newly defined roles.
As a crucial element for the future of data centers, the training must transform the thinking from that of a reactive nature to one that is pro-active. Trainers must provide managers and operators hands-on experience that focuses on pre-emptive tasks now available to them thanks to the software optimization. It must also help managers and operators develop new change control procedures that can be integrated into the daily operating procedures within the data center of the future.
