Data Center Manager: Job Description

The Data Center Manager job is to manage an infrastructure that houses a huge amount of data and applications for various customers who seek security and availability in this type of center.

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Data Center Manager: the Job

Depending on the type of organization, the data center manager is assigned the function of technical and/or business manager of the data center. The Data Center Manager can either work for companies whose main activity is hosting or for a company that has its own data centers.

Technical and operational management of the data center

Firstly, the Data Center Manager is responsible for the administration of the data center. They ensure the correct technical administration of the servers. Therefore, it is important that the IT infrastructure that supports the data (disk space, network) is flawless.

The data center manager must therefore have solid technical skills in systems, networks, and programming languages. They ensure proper security levels are maintained to protect the structure and customer data.

Supervision and leadership

The Data Center Manager is also a supervisor. In fact they are responsible for developing schedules, anticipating hosting capacity extensions to avoid saturation or contention issues, monitoring service providers, and talking with vendors to match needs with existing technical solutions. Serves as the leader of the technical team and the team responsible for the operation of the data center in terms of staff management.

User support and assistance

As a support officer, the Data Center Manager is responsible for communicating with customers whose computing resources are hosted on data center servers. Also manages all documentation related to hosting and operations (technical manuals, user resource site…). And ensures continuous dialogue and regularly interacts with users to understand their requests.

Required skills of the Data Center Manager

General Knowledge

The Data Center Manage has a solid understanding of hardware and software. They must also be comfortable with the various hardware elements that compose the entire system: network, fiber, firewall, etc. In addition, this professional is familiar with machine architectures, systems with various multiprocessors, and networks (TCP/IP). Finally, they must be proficient with scripting languages such as Bash/Python/Perl.

Interpersonal skills

Being a Data Center manager requires maintaining a dialogue with vendors, service providers, and users to best meet the expectations of each of them and those of the data center. Therefore, to be able to manage teams, it is crucial to be good at dealing with people.

Availability and responsiveness

These are the watchwords of a good Data Center Manager. He or she must be able to respond quickly to technical and service problems, which can arise at any time. Being as organized as possible is therefore necessary to prioritize your tasks and be as responsive as possible.

Context

The data center manager usually begins a career as a technician or engineer. After being distinguished for the ability to manage a team, it is possible to advance to the position of Data Center Manager.

Salary

The position of Data Center Manager varies depending on many factors such as the size of the data center, the size of the customer base and the size of the team. It usually requires two years of experience in technical support to access this position.

The average salary is between 450e and 600e. After a few years, he/she may be offered a responsibility in a larger structure. The career of a Data Center Manager can also be oriented towards the pre-sales of hosting services.

Education and Training

In conclusion, for this position, it is necessary to have at least an operations technician or Bac+2 engineer degree. With lower-level experience, you can qualify for the Data Center Manager position.

You can also read : Top 30 data center manager interview questions and answers