How To Become A Data Center Administrator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a data center administrator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Maryam Farahani

A data center is a location where a business stores all of its data. This busy room full of servers, routers, controllers and more contains all of a business's important files behind its unassuming hardware. If something happened to the equipment in the data center, it would be disastrous. Luckily, most businesses have a data center administrator on hand to manage data.

A data center administrator needs to know a lot about data and technology. They maintain the technological systems that store data, from hardware to software, and perform any installations or repairs that are necessary. They also manage the storage of data, for example on cloud software, and make sure that it is safe from physical and online threats.

The work of a data center administrator comes with great responsibility, so people must prepare extensively in order to take on this role. Many data center administrators have bachelor's degrees in computer science or a related field. They also have practical experience working with networks and data.

What general advice would you give to a data center administrator?

Maryam Farahani

Engineering Instructor, Bakersfield College

Thinking about the fields they want to experience or try. And to be intentional about their job search. The best advice is learning as much as they can about what company offers. Visualizing themselves in the next 5 years as a starting point. Do they want to travel a lot, or be in management positions? Do they want to be subject matter expert, or a hands-on engineer or technologist? Their goal may change as they progress in their career but having one makes a big difference in their career choices and keeping them on track.

ScoreData Center AdministratorUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $49,854

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 12.95%

Black or African American 8.45%

Hispanic or Latino 12.15%

Unknown 5.05%

White 61.08%

Gender

female 17.40%

male 82.60%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a data center administrator

Explore data center administrator education requirements

Most common data center administrator degrees

Bachelor's

49.4 %

Associate

29.8 %

Master's

8.1 %

Start to develop specific data center administrator skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	7.27%
Linux	6.50%
VMware	5.22%
Vmware Esxi	4.96%
Windows Server	4.68%

Complete relevant data center administrator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New data center administrators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a data center administrator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real data center administrator resumes.

Research data center administrator duties and responsibilities

Manage Cisco UCS systems that host the organization's VMware environment running critical clinical applications.
Work with USAMITC to manage DNS and with DISA tiger team to manage mail.mil email system.
Manage integrated network connectivity, reporting, and troubleshooting including switch, router, and firewall connectivity to increase system stability.
Work with SQL database developer to create the VMware view database and importing require tables.

Prepare your data center administrator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your data center administrator resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a data center administrator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable data center administrator resume templates

Build a professional data center administrator resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your data center administrator resume.

Apply for data center administrator jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a data center administrator job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do data center administrators rate their job?

-/5

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Data center administrator reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2019

Pros

Nothing much but skill and work. Knowledge can take you places.

Cons

Site emissons. Whenever you think about it. I think that's just a fear or problem. Generally speaking. I think the salary should be more than precise as, to it.

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019