SAN Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Storage Area Network (SAN)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring SAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 352 262 253
Rank change year-on-year -90 -9 -44
Contract jobs citing SAN 132 123 118
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.46% 0.77% 0.68%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.48% 5.79% 4.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 85 97 71
10th Percentile £140 £329 £298
25th Percentile £358 £413 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £545 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.26% +9.00% +17.65%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £586
90th Percentile £608 £615 £608
UK median daily rate £500 £548 £500
% change year-on-year -8.68% +9.50% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 17
10th Percentile - £29.09 £11.75
25th Percentile - £33.73 £12.00
Median hourly rate £15.00 £41.45 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -63.81% +38.17% -49.15%
75th Percentile - £54.35 £48.75
90th Percentile - £62.09 £51.50
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £34.00 £23.80
% change year-on-year +54.41% +42.86% -40.50%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

SAN falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 2,949 2,125 2,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.35% 13.32% 14.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,627 1,373 1,388
10th Percentile £213 £191 £200
25th Percentile £350 £300 £340
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £480
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -6.25% +3.23%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £585
90th Percentile £650 £640 £653
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 362 133 148
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £16.14
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.50 £26.13
Median hourly rate £26.00 £41.50 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year -37.35% -22.79% -6.38%
75th Percentile £65.17 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.08 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £34.00 £48.56
% change year-on-year -4.41% -29.98% -14.04%

SAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SAN relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

SAN job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

SAN
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing SAN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing SAN

SAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SAN in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 15 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SAN in the UK excluding London

SAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing SAN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing SAN

SAN
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SAN within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 15 October 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England -41 51 £522 -4.22% 2
Yorkshire -21 25 £519 +16.11% 1
North West -39 25 £550 +0.46% 1
East of England -35 22 £550 - 4
Midlands -38 16 £425 -2.75%
South West -25 15 £123 -74.21% 5
South East -111 13 £415 -17.00% 10
West Midlands -35 11 £425 -19.05%
Scotland - 11 £127 - 8
East Midlands -10 5 £425 +235.44%
Wales - 4 £525 -
North East - 1 £200 -
SAN
UK

SAN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 9 (6.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (4.55%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.27%) Apache
4 2 (1.52%) CloudStack
4 2 (1.52%) IIS
4 2 (1.52%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.76%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.76%) nginx
5 1 (0.76%) SAS
5 1 (0.76%) Tomcat
Applications
1 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.76%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 34 (25.76%) Azure
2 17 (12.88%) AWS
2 17 (12.88%) Microsoft 365
3 13 (9.85%) OpenShift
4 9 (6.82%) Entra ID
5 7 (5.30%) GCP
6 3 (2.27%) Cohesity
6 3 (2.27%) IaaS
7 2 (1.52%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.76%) Azure Stack
8 1 (0.76%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.76%) Cloudflare
8 1 (0.76%) Datadog
8 1 (0.76%) GitHub
8 1 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.76%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.76%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 43 (32.58%) NAS
2 39 (29.55%) Firewall
3 36 (27.27%) DNS
4 31 (23.48%) VLAN
5 25 (18.94%) DHCP
6 14 (10.61%) Fibre Channel
7 13 (9.85%) Structured Cabling
8 11 (8.33%) Wireless
9 10 (7.58%) Cisco IOS
9 10 (7.58%) NX-OS
10 8 (6.06%) iSCSI
10 8 (6.06%) TCP/IP
11 7 (5.30%) Ethernet
11 7 (5.30%) VPN
12 4 (3.03%) LAN
12 4 (3.03%) VoIP
13 3 (2.27%) WAN
14 2 (1.52%) Network Security
14 2 (1.52%) Skype
14 2 (1.52%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (6.82%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.76%) Db2
2 1 (0.76%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 15 (11.36%) JIRA
2 2 (1.52%) Git
3 1 (0.76%) Jenkins
General
1 43 (32.58%) Social Skills
2 23 (17.42%) Documentation Skills
3 21 (15.91%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (7.58%) Finance
5 4 (3.03%) Games
6 3 (2.27%) Public Sector
7 2 (1.52%) Back Office
7 2 (1.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.52%) Military
8 1 (0.76%) Banking
8 1 (0.76%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.76%) Legal
8 1 (0.76%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.76%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 41 (31.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 20 (15.15%) Data Centre Engineer
3 18 (13.64%) IT Engineer
3 18 (13.64%) Senior
4 16 (12.12%) Storage Engineer
5 15 (11.36%) Architect
6 13 (9.85%) Field Engineer
6 13 (9.85%) Field Service Engineer
7 10 (7.58%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 7 (5.30%) Backup Engineer
8 7 (5.30%) Data Centre Infrastructure Engineer
8 7 (5.30%) Storage and Backup Engineer
9 6 (4.55%) Administrator
9 6 (4.55%) NetApp Engineer
9 6 (4.55%) Storage Architect
10 5 (3.79%) Consultant
10 5 (3.79%) NetApp Specialist
10 5 (3.79%) Senior Unix Technical Specialist
10 5 (3.79%) Technical Architect
10 5 (3.79%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (6.82%) Terraform
2 5 (3.79%) REST
3 4 (3.03%) Celery
3 4 (3.03%) Kafka
3 4 (3.03%) RabbitMQ
3 4 (3.03%) Redfish
4 3 (2.27%) Elastic Stack
5 1 (0.76%) JSON
5 1 (0.76%) LAMP
5 1 (0.76%) LDAP
5 1 (0.76%) LEMP Stack
5 1 (0.76%) POSIX
5 1 (0.76%) RESTful
5 1 (0.76%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 68 (51.52%) Data Centre
2 33 (25.00%) Enterprise Storage
3 18 (13.64%) Replication
4 13 (9.85%) Analytical Mindset
5 8 (6.06%) Clustering
6 7 (5.30%) CMDB
7 6 (4.55%) PKI
8 5 (3.79%) Fat Client
8 5 (3.79%) Thin Client
9 4 (3.03%) Animation
9 4 (3.03%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (3.03%) Public Cloud
10 3 (2.27%) Driving Licence
10 3 (2.27%) Smartcard
11 2 (1.52%) EMC VMAX
11 2 (1.52%) EMC VNX
11 2 (1.52%) Greenfield Project
11 2 (1.52%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (1.52%) NVMe
12 1 (0.76%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 64 (48.48%) Windows
2 51 (38.64%) Windows Server
3 43 (32.58%) Linux
4 23 (17.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (11.36%) CentOS
6 12 (9.09%) Rocky
7 11 (8.33%) Unix
8 8 (6.06%) AIX
9 7 (5.30%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (4.55%) Ubuntu
11 4 (3.03%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (2.27%) macOS
12 3 (2.27%) Solaris
13 2 (1.52%) HPUX
13 2 (1.52%) Windows Server 2003
13 2 (1.52%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (1.52%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.76%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (42.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 31 (23.48%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (21.21%) Disaster Recovery
4 22 (16.67%) ITIL
5 19 (14.39%) Capacity Planning
6 16 (12.12%) Validation
7 15 (11.36%) Change Management
7 15 (11.36%) Data Centre Operations
8 14 (10.61%) High Availability
8 14 (10.61%) ITSM
9 13 (9.85%) Asset Management
9 13 (9.85%) Break/Fix
9 13 (9.85%) Customer Service
9 13 (9.85%) Server Management
10 12 (9.09%) Migration
10 12 (9.09%) Patch Management
10 12 (9.09%) Storage Management
11 11 (8.33%) Infrastructure as Code
11 11 (8.33%) Problem Management
12 10 (7.58%) Change Control
Programming Languages
1 28 (21.21%) PowerShell
2 19 (14.39%) Python
3 9 (6.82%) Perl
4 8 (6.06%) SQL
5 7 (5.30%) Bash
6 3 (2.27%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.76%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 55 (41.67%) Security Cleared
2 38 (28.79%) SC Cleared
3 25 (18.94%) Cisco Certification
4 22 (16.67%) CCNA
4 22 (16.67%) Network+ Certification
5 16 (12.12%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (11.36%) MCSE
7 13 (9.85%) A+ Certification
8 12 (9.09%) CCNP
8 12 (9.09%) DV Cleared
9 9 (6.82%) Server+ Certification
10 4 (3.03%) Azure Certification
10 4 (3.03%) Degree
10 4 (3.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (2.27%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (1.52%) AWS Certification
12 2 (1.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (1.52%) NCDA
12 2 (1.52%) NCIE
13 1 (0.76%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.27%) SLA
2 2 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 2 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.76%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.76%) QA
System Software
1 48 (36.36%) VMware Infrastructure
2 29 (21.97%) Active Directory
3 20 (15.15%) Hyper-V
4 15 (11.36%) Firmware
4 15 (11.36%) VMware ESXi
5 11 (8.33%) vSphere
6 10 (7.58%) NFS
7 6 (4.55%) Docker
8 3 (2.27%) GPFS
8 3 (2.27%) PowerHA
8 3 (2.27%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (1.52%) EMC RecoverPoint
9 2 (1.52%) SRDF
9 2 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (1.52%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.76%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.76%) Postfix
10 1 (0.76%) Veritas Cluster Server
10 1 (0.76%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 1 (0.76%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 22 (16.67%) Ansible
2 18 (13.64%) NetBackup
3 15 (11.36%) Kubernetes
4 11 (8.33%) Dell DRAC
5 10 (7.58%) vCenter Server
6 7 (5.30%) Microsoft Intune
6 7 (5.30%) WSUS
7 6 (4.55%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 5 (3.79%) Failover Clustering
8 5 (3.79%) SCCM
9 4 (3.03%) Grafana
9 4 (3.03%) Prometheus
9 4 (3.03%) vMotion
10 3 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (2.27%) SnapMirror
10 3 (2.27%) SnapVault
11 2 (1.52%) EMC VPLEX
11 2 (1.52%) FortiGate
11 2 (1.52%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (1.52%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 57 (43.18%) VMware
2 32 (24.24%) Cisco
3 30 (22.73%) Dell
3 30 (22.73%) Microsoft
4 28 (21.21%) NetApp
5 24 (18.18%) Veeam
6 13 (9.85%) Juniper
7 11 (8.33%) Red Hat
7 11 (8.33%) ServiceNow
8 10 (7.58%) IBM
9 8 (6.06%) Veritas
10 7 (5.30%) Brocade
11 5 (3.79%) Commvault
11 5 (3.79%) EMC
11 5 (3.79%) Fortinet
11 5 (3.79%) HP
12 4 (3.03%) Perforce
12 4 (3.03%) Pure Storage
13 3 (2.27%) Google
13 3 (2.27%) McAfee