MaSSSoftech

IBM and Metropolitan Community College of Omaha Collaborate on First Green
Data Center Degree

ARMONK, N.Y. and OMAHA, Neb., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today announced a collaboration with Metropolitan Community College (MCC)
in Omaha, Nebraska, to develop a first-of-its-kind green data center
management degree using IBM hardware, software and online skills training
resources. The two-year associates degree includes courses to help students
gain technical and business skills to prepare them for careers in the design
and management of energy efficient data centers.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

The new degree comes at a time when U.S. colleges and universities are
expected to lead the way in preparing the future workforce with innovative new
skills to help boost the economy. For example, in July, President Obama
launched the American Graduation Initiative, a 10-year, $12 billion plan to
provide community colleges nationwide with funding for new scholarships and
online classes for students, and to modernize aging facilities and
infrastructures.

As part of the new MCC degree, students have the opportunity to learn
virtualization and server consolidation, energy efficiency, business
resiliency, and security and compliance skills through a new, real-world
enterprise data center on campus. The center is built upon IBM Power Systems
servers running AIX, IBM i and Linux environments.

IBM technologies used in this program allow MCC to extend the degree to other
colleges through a virtual learning program. As a result, all courses in the
green data center management track will be offered online where remote
students can gain the same skills as those on campus including virtual access
to the physical data center itself.

MCC developed the curriculum with the help of the IBM Academic Initiative, an
innovative program that now provides nearly 4,000 colleges and universities
worldwide with no-charge access to online skills resources including tutorials
and courseware.

"IBM's Academic Initiative will further help ensure that MCC students are
developing technology skills that bring together computer science, engineering
and sustainability," said Tom Pensabene, Dean of Information Technology of
Metropolitan Community College. "We're seeing a dramatic increase in demand
here in Nebraska for specialists who understand how to help companies reduce
the costs associated with running an energy-intensive data center. Now, our
students are getting exposure to leading edge IBM technologies, increasing
their chances of being hired for jobs in this growing area."

Until now there has been no comprehensive, real-world learning environment for
students to get green data center skills at the undergraduate level.
Beginning December 2009, students can enroll in the new "Associate Degree in
Information Technology - Data Center Management" degree and take 36 credit
hours of courses including:

-- Hardware, Disaster Recovery, & Troubleshooting - Designed to teach
students how to identify and follow best practices when working with
hardware components and systems found in an enterprise environment.
Focus is on the hardware and software used to create a fault-tolerant,
redundant configuration that meets the requirements of a company's
Disaster Recovery (DRP) or Business Continuity Plan (BCP).


-- Introduction to Data Center Management - The student learns about data
center design, support, management, and maintenance while working in a
server environment. Topics also include daily operations of a data
center, such as monitoring power requirements and safety regulations.


-- Virtualization, Remote Access, & Monitoring - Introduces students to
both hardware and software methods used to implement virtualization
and
the server specifications required to implement it. Multiple vendor
solutions are explored.


-- Data Center Racks & Cabling - Introduces students to the basics of
rack and cabling infrastructure in a data center. Topics include
cabling
installation practices, management strategies, maintenance practices,
and certification.


-- Building a Secure Environment - Students explore methods to mitigate
vulnerabilities of Internet/Intranet applications while maintaining
web
servers and workstations based on installation. Discussion centers on
best practices and a variety of methods to build, test, and defend all
computers in the enterprise environment.


-- Applied Data Center Management - Students define project requirements,
researches issues, and designs a data center project that meets the
goals. Projects include all aspects of the Data Center such as
facilities, infrastructure, servers and security.


-- Networking Security - Provides students with the knowledge of network
security and the skills necessary to install, configure, manage,
monitor, and troubleshoot security services/servers on multiple
platforms in an enterprise environment. Security areas include DNS,
Web
servers, Encryption, IPSec, PKS, VPNs, and Network Address Translation
(NAT).


-- Data Center Internship - Provides students with the opportunity to
apply
his/her knowledge, learn new techniques, and get hands-on experience
managing a data center. Students work in the Information Technology
Data
Center on campus and access the data center remotely.



For the past 12 years, MCC has often ranked in the top 20 community colleges
nationwide for number of IT graduates, and the college's computer classes are
the mainstay of its offerings. One reason for their success is that Omaha is
one of only a few U.S. cities that sits at the intersection of both east-west
and north-south fiber optic networks -- attracting a large number of
communications and information services companies and putting IT-savvy
employees in high demand for data center jobs.

"IBM is proud to be a key partner in helping Metropolitan Community College of
Omaha develop the first program of its kind based on the transformational work
IBM is undertaking with clients and cities world-wide," said Jim Corgel,
General Manager of ISV and Developer Relations at IBM. "As companies look to
improve service, reduce cost and manage risk, students educated through MCC's
new program will be well-positioned for IT careers that help businesses
address these challenges."

MCC's data center is funded through a three year $1.8 million grant that MCC
received from the U.S. Department of Labor with the goal of increasing the
number of students in IT education.

For more information on the MCC data center management degree, visit:
http://staffshare.mccneb.edu/mccadc/.

For more information on IBM's Academic Initiative, visit:
http://www.ibm.com/academicinitiative.

Contact: Jennifer Clemente, IBM Software Group Media Relations, 919 418 6169,
jennic@us.ibm.com



SOURCE IBM