Proven Professional Spotlight: Ravichandra Athaluri Raja

Name        Ravichandra Athaluri Raja

Title          IT Infrastructure Solutions Architect at HCL

Certifications   

• • EMC Certifications
    • EMCCAe ITaaS Expert
    • EMCTAe Symmetrix Solutions Expert
  • Other Certifications
    • RedHat Certified Engineer
    • Hitachi Data Systems Enterprise Architect & Sales Expert
    • TOGAF 9.1 Certified
    • NetApp Accredited Storage Architect Professional, NCDA, NCIE-SAN, NCIE-BRS
    • ITIL v3 Certified
    • AWS accredited certified

---

Online Profile  LinkedIn

How long have you been working in the industry?

Around 8 years.

Describe your current role

My current role involves end to end data center activities, from sales to delivery handover. This encompasses pre-sales, requirement gathering, analysis, solution architecture, technical project planning, implementation, migrations, and builds. I also build technical teams and create documentation. My position requires regular interactions with customers, including significant travel, and I also work with a number of internal commercial teams, as well as managing vendor relationships.

Why did you choose to pursue Cloud Architect certification?

I work in an industry where everyone is talking about big data and cloud. It is important to keep my knowledge up to date, especially in cases where I need to correlate customer requirements with what vendors currently offer in order to implement sophisticated business requirements.

Cloud Architect certification is absolutely helping me understand current needs in cloud computing and map them to vendor offerings that meet specific customer requirements.

How has the certification transformed your skills?

Certifications form a magic triangle in building strong relationships between the customer, service provider, and vendor. It ensures we as a company are up to the mark In helping our customers. My Proven Professional certification provides me a way to leverage knowledge that will help customers meet their demanding business needs through technology transformation.

Has your certification helped you in your role?

We work in a dynamic environment where customer workshops typically involve white boarding sessions to convey how we will help them in their IT transformation.

Certification has helped me in several areas; Requirement gathering, gap analysis, integrated solution design, solution defense, vendor portfolio analysis, solution implementation, transformation, and transition are just a few in my solution architecture role for the data center. The knowledge gained through training, studying, and researching industry white papers has helped me stay on top of the requirements in front of my customers. This gives me a lot of professional satisfaction.

What do you think of the Proven Professional Program overall?

The EMC Proven Professional program provides world-class training. EMC’s certification framework gives me the option to choose the track that will meet our professional needs.

What would you say to someone who was thinking about getting certified?

I’d say go for it! You’re in the right place, thinking about the future of your career.

It is very important to be educated in this domain, specifically in the IT arena where products and solutions change day to day. We can demonstrate our understanding of this reality in customer environments for transformation and optimization only if we are educated. Training and certification form the platform to achieve this. Also, it’s important to keep upgrading your skills to remain up to date. Doing so will help establish your credentials as an IT professional and enhance your position as a thought leader in your area of IT expertise.

Read other EMC Proven Professional Spotlight articles in theProven Professional Spotlight Archive.