Data storage specialist vs senior system administrator

The differences between data storage specialists and senior system administrators 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 senior system administrator. Additionally, a senior system administrator has an average salary of $98,146, 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 senior system administrator are linux, windows server, and troubleshoot.

Data storage specialist vs senior system administrator overview

	Data Storage Specialist	Senior System Administrator
Yearly salary	$64,094	$98,146
Hourly rate	$30.81	$47.19
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	70,296	100,873
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

Data storage specialist vs senior system administrator salary

Data storage specialists and senior system administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Data Storage Specialist	Senior System Administrator
Average salary	$64,094	$98,146
Salary range	Between $32,000 And $125,000	Between $75,000 And $126,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	Cambridge Associates
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between data storage specialist and senior system administrator education

There are a few differences between a data storage specialist and a senior system administrator in terms of educational background:

	Data Storage Specialist	Senior System Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Business	Computer Science
Most common college	-	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Data storage specialist vs senior system administrator demographics

Here are the differences between data storage specialists' and senior system administrators' demographics:

	Data Storage Specialist	Senior System Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 79.6% Female, 20.4%	Male, 89.0% Female, 11.0%
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, 11.8% White, 61.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between data storage specialist and senior system administrator 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.

Senior system administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and optimize the design and delivery of project associate with AIX arena.
Manage all installs and setup of new servers, and server upgrades to server 2008 R2.
Implement IIS servers for both the internal and external web servers and managing security on all web servers.
Design, implement, and manage a network and domain extension in a remote location via a secure VPN link.
Manage Cisco network equipment including firewalls and switches.
Administer and manage daily backups via Symantec NetBackup.

Data storage specialist vs senior system administrator skills

Common data storage specialist skills

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

Common senior system administrator skills

Linux, 7%
Windows Server, 6%
Troubleshoot, 5%
System Administration, 4%
PowerShell, 4%
SAN, 4%

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Data Storage Specialist vs Senior System Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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