Bangkok--Jan 6--LEWIS PR
BROCADE ACHIEVES MILESTONES WITH INNOVATIVE ONLINE COMMUNITY AND INDUSTRY-LEADING PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION
Brocade Connect Online Community Surpasses 20,000 Users;
Magazine Ranks Brocade Certified Professionals among Top Paid in the Industry
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade?) (Nasdaq: BRCD) announced two milestones in its end-user support and education programs, as its Brocade Connect online community surpassed 20,000 registered users and an IT industry third-party survey ranked Brocade Certification credentials as top contributors to IT professional compensation.
The Brocade Connect online community and top-rated Brocade certification program are part of a wide range of programs and resources Brocade provides to help its end users enhance the design, administration, and management of their networked storage and IT infrastructures. The growing membership and high usage of Brocade Connect reflects the increased interest and participation in Brocade education, certification, SAN Health, and professional services offerings.
Launched in 2003, Brocade Connect is a technical Web portal containing extensive resources for the exclusive use of IT professionals working with Brocade products. Today, Brocade Connect is a virtual community of more than 20,000 professionals who can access free message boards, technical guides and manuals, product resource pages, and product evaluations in addition to scripts and utilities created by the community to help maximize the value of SAN investments. Brocade end-user customers can register for complimentary access at http://www.brocade.com/jointheclub.
“The Brocade Connect Web site provides easy access to technical documentation on Brocade products,” said Pavel Luzan, Senior Engineer, IT Architecture Department, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Russian Federation. “Additionally, I visit regularly to see what new free scripts and utilities are available to help me manage our SANs easier and to learn best practices from other users on the message boards. I also found that Brocade Connect was very helpful for me in preparing for my Brocade Certified SAN Manager exam, as it gave me knowledge on Brocade products we at MTS hadn’t yet experienced.”
Brocade Certified SAN Manager (BCSM) is one of three certifications that Brocade currently awards. According to research published in the December 2005 issue of Certification Magazine, IT professionals that were Brocade Certified SAN Designers (BCSDs) ranked in the top three salary positions. Certification Magazine editors surveyed 35,167 IT professionals in 170 countries around the globe to obtain their results. With 95.4 percent of those professionals holding technical certifications, the survey showed which programs and specialty areas draw the biggest salaries. Holders of the Brocade Certified Fabric Professional (BCFP) credentials also ranked among the top ten positions for average salaries in the industry. For more information on the survey visit: http://www.certmag.com/images/CM1205_salSurveyfig1.gif and http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/cmag_feature.asp?articleid=1524&zoneid=1
“In our annual Salary Survey of more than 35,000 IT professionals, Brocade was the only company to have two certifications that ranked in the top ten for average salaries,” said Tim Sosbe, Editorial Director, Certification Magazine. “However, the lure of higher salaries is only one of the driving forces behind certification. The survey also showed that certified IT professionals believe certification makes them more confident, more productive, and more promotable.”
“Achieving Brocade Certifications helps me to rapidly enhance vital SAN design, deployment, and management skill sets,” said Hemantha Garapati, Systems Administrator for the Information Technology Department at the City of Burbank in California. “In addition to my SAN experience, Brocade Virtual Classes contributed significantly to my achieving certification. The Brocade Virtual Classroom helped me fill in technical gaps in SAN DDM at just the right time by enabling me to learn at my own pace and on my own schedule, without having to travel.”
To help IT professionals prepare for Brocade certification, or to simply enhance their professional skills, Brocade offers an extensive catalog of courses, which are available online and at facilities throughout the world. Brocade Education Services include a robust portfolio of 22 Web-based classes, which take students through the features and functionalities of Brocade solutions, describe best practices for SAN optimization, and offer online knowledge assessment tests for Brocade certification exams. For further information, visit http://www.brocade.com/education_services/index.jsp.
Contact:
Ailan Tan, Tel: +65-6317-2195, [email protected]
James Brasher, LEWIS PR, Tel: +65-6557-2440, [email protected]
Eunice Choy, LEWIS PR, Tel: +65-6557-2440, [email protected] End.