1. Introduction to Information Storage

• Digital data and its types
• Information storage
• Key characteristics of data center
• Evolution of computing platforms

2. Third Platform Technologies

• Cloud computing and its essential characteristics
• Cloud services and cloud deployment models
• Big data analytics
• Social networking and mobile computing
• Characteristics of third platform infrastructure
• Imperatives for third platform transformation

3. Data Center Environment

• Building blocks of a data center
• Compute systems and compute virtualization
• Software-defined data center

4. Intelligent Storage Systems

• Components of an intelligent storage system
• Components, addressing, and performance of hard disk drives and solid state drives
• RAID
• Types of intelligent storage systems
• Scale-up and scale-out storage architecture

5. Block-Based Storage System

• Components of block-based storage system
• Storage provisioning and storage tiering

6. File-Based Storage System

• Components and architecture of NAS
• NAS file sharing methods
• File-level virtualization and tiering

7. Object-Based and Unified Storage

• Components of object-based storage device (OSD)
• Key features of OSD
• Storage and retrieval process in OSD system
• Unified storage architecture

8. Software-Defined Storage

• Attributes of software-defined storage
• Architecture of software-defined storage
• Functions of the control plane
• Software-defined storage extensibility

9. Fibre Channel SAN

• Software-defined networking
• FC SAN components and architecture
• FC SAN topologies, link aggregation, and zoning
• Virtualization in FC SAN environment

10. Internet Protocol SAN

• iSCSI protocol, network components, and connectivity
• Link aggregation, switch aggregation, and VLAN
• FCIP protocol, connectivity, and configuration

11. Fibre Channel over Ethernet SAN

• Components of FCoE SAN
• FCoE SAN connectivity
• Converged Enhanced Ethernet
• FCoE architecture

12. Introduction to Business Continuity

• Impact of information unavailability
• Business continuity planning lifecycle
• Eliminating single points of failure
• Application resiliency

13. Backup and Archive

• Backup architecture
• Backup targets and methods
• Data deduplication
• Cloud-based and mobile device backup
• Data archive

14. Replication

• Uses of replication and its characteristics
• Compute-based, storage-based, and network-based replication
• Data migration
• Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

15. Securing the Storage Infrastructure

• Information security goals
• Storage security domains
• Threats to a storage infrastructure
• Security controls to protect a storage infrastructure
• Governance, risk, and compliance

16. Managing the Storage Infrastructure

• Storage infrastructure management functions
• Storage infrastructure management processes