I think having a certification helps but it depends which one. If it is from a respected body then for sure, it is a good thing

With no other experience, a bit of paper isn't going to get you into the top job at any IT organisation. But if it's between you and another candidate, qualifications from a decent source are going to be a differentiator. Probably the tough thing is (as commented previously) how to define what the standard is in certification. Storage is pretty broad and you may be more interested in someone with experience in your installed base than with quals in something else.

If you're solely looking at Storage solutions you need to analyse which ONES (yes plural) may be better.

One cert is not enough and certainly a UNI cert wouldn't be classed any better. If i needed engineers I would go for the ones with vendor certs over uni certs..

Have a look at the curently play with stoage and map out a plan, who are the most common vendors - what's common between them that you could combine, who are the storage back up / archive vendors etc etc.. Look to focus on it as a solution cert versus specific ie:

Hardware: EMC, EqualLogics, HP, IBM
Software: VMware, Symantec, Commvault
Virtual requirements etc..

Hope that helps