Data storage specialist vs network technician

The differences between data storage specialists and network 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 storage specialist and a network technician. Additionally, a network technician has an average salary of $68,938, which is higher than the $64,094 average annual salary of a data storage specialist.

The top three skills for a data storage specialist include data storage, architecture and performance issues. The most important skills for a network technician are customer service, switches, and troubleshoot.

Data storage specialist vs network technician overview

	Data Storage Specialist	Network Technician
Yearly salary	$64,094	$68,938
Hourly rate	$30.81	$33.14
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	70,296	79,712
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 50%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

Data storage specialist vs network technician salary

Data storage specialists and network technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Data Storage Specialist	Network Technician
Average salary	$64,094	$68,938
Salary range	Between $32,000 And $125,000	Between $51,000 And $92,000
Highest paying City	-	Urban Honolulu, HI
Highest paying state	-	Hawaii
Best paying company	-	Apple
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between data storage specialist and network technician education

There are a few differences between a data storage specialist and a network technician in terms of educational background:

	Data Storage Specialist	Network Technician
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 50%
Most common major	Business	Computer Science
Most common college	-	University of Pennsylvania

Data storage specialist vs network technician demographics

Here are the differences between data storage specialists' and network technicians' demographics:

	Data Storage Specialist	Network Technician
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 79.6% Female, 20.4%	Male, 87.3% Female, 12.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.6% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.3% Asian, 11.1% White, 62.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 9.4% White, 63.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between data storage specialist and network technician duties and responsibilities

Data storage specialist example responsibilities.

Deploy and manage EMC CLARiiON storage system.
Engage in managing SnapMirror performance management, fine-tuning.
Live host migrations (HP-UX / AIX / Linux) across arrays and switches.
Work with storage provisioning on VMAX, DMX-3, DMX-4 using SYMCLI, SMC, CLARiiON CX4-960 storage arrays using Unisphere.
Configure and allocate storage on EMC VMAX, DMX-4 / DMX-3, using SYMCLI, Unisphere.
Verify iscsi group and check the authentication.

Network technician example responsibilities.

Install and manage DHCP servers including setting up DHCP scopes, enabling DHCP clients, viewing and managing active leases.
Manage city wide IIS deployment.
Manage Virtualization system, using ESX server/client.
Install, configure and manage Symantec Antivirus on all network computers
Use Symantec BackupExec to manage and maintain all server backups and file restorations.
Manage company Cisco series routers, switches, and ASA firewall integrate into MPLS network.

Data storage specialist vs network technician skills

Common data storage specialist skills

Data Storage, 16%
Architecture, 10%
Performance Issues, 9%
EMC, 9%
Capacity Planning, 8%
Provisioning, 7%

Common network technician skills

Customer Service, 9%
Switches, 6%
Troubleshoot, 6%
Routers, 4%
Lan Wan, 3%
Lan, 3%

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Data Storage Specialist vs Network Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

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