Career path of systems engineer

Question

I would not know better place, where could I ask this question. I am systems administrator/engineer in small telco company. What I do not like about my job is that, there are no further possibilities how to grow with my experience - no new technology planning etc.

What I'm planning is to become a Solution architect (in 3,4 years), for example in HP or so, but the problem is, I do not know what steps in my career I have to proceed in order to become one. Some of my questions are:

1) I was responsible for server consolidation based on vmware in our company, that is why I decided to do this year some vmware certification. Is it useful somehow?
2) I would like to renew my CCNA as well, and maybe I will go for CCNP too. Is it useful for this area?
3) If I want to take on some cloud technologies (opennebula for example), would it be useful to self-study ? Could you please mention some business cloud technology except for vmware ? What cloud technology is used the most among the big customers?

Thanks for any advises.

Answer 1

Experience is key. If you have the opportunity to get involved in some implementation projects where you are, then great. If not, then move on. Certifications are also important, but they take a lot of time, effort and money. It's great to be cross trained and have a high level understanding of a broad range of technologies and how they work together, but if they are not relevant to the kinds of solutions you want to work with, then don't waste your energy.

That said, professional services companies need to be competitive, and part of that is being a gold/platinum/top level partner of the technology companies whose wares they sell, and that requires certifications.

Professionalism is also extremely important. Make sure you develop your communications skills, and ideally, find a mentor who has the skills or works in the area you want, and see if they're prepared to share that with you. Your technical skills can be second to none, but if you can't understand how a business operates and how that technology can make them more efficient and, ultimately, contribute to the bottom line, you will not find the transition from systems administrator to solutions architect very easy.