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The differences between data center technicians and technical support technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a data center technician and a technical support technician. Additionally, a data center technician has an average salary of $46,560, which is higher than the $40,210 average annual salary of a technical support technician.
The top three skills for a data center technician include patients, customer service and CLIA. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Data Center Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $46,560 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $22.38 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 139,177 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | 4.5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 41% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A data center technician is an information technology (IT) professional who ensures the optimal performance of data servers and network of a data center. Datacenter technicians are required to protect company data by preventing the overheating of data center components and replace failing parts promptly. They need to collaborate with software and network engineers to work on the organization's cybersecurity and network efficiency. Datacenter technicians must keep track of developing trends in data center technologies and provide advice about the procurement of new data center equipment.
Technical support technicians are skilled professionals who resolve computer or information technology-related concerns. They may do installations, repairs, or maintenance activities of various applications or computer hardware. They are sometimes assigned specific issues or concerns to resolve so that they will not be bombarded with various issues. This means that they can now specialize in a specific family of concerns. Technical support technicians may provide on-site support, going directly to the person who needs help and doing what needs to be done or troubleshoot the problem in person. They may also be offsite and would usually be manning helpdesk hotlines. Offsite technical support technicians walk the caller through the steps they should do to fix the issues. As such, when a technical support technician is offsite, they are expected to be good communicators and will be able to provide clear instructions.
Data center technicians and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Data Center Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $46,560 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $74,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | Piscataway, NJ | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Energy | Finance |
There are a few differences between a data center technician and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Data Center Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 41% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between data center technicians' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Data Center Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 73.1% Female, 26.9% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.0% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 8.7% White, 64.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.9% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 11% |