NetApp Launches Academic Alliances Program

CIOs today face the challenge of determining how to efficiently and effectively manage and store data that is growing at explosive rates. They must adopt new approaches and solutions, and they must also hire employees who understand today’s storage requirements and the role they play in virtual shared infrastructures. To help prepare college graduates for this fast-changing IT landscape, NetApp, Inc. launched the NetApp Academic Alliances Program.

Under this program, NetApp will collaborate with some of the nation’s leading colleges and universities to provide a library of teaching materials and resources that faculty can use to help students develop highly marketable storage-related IT skills.

NetApp is in a position to provide tools and insight to faculty and students about how leading businesses around the world are deploying flexible and innovative approaches to storage management. Students can use this knowledge to strengthen their learning opportunities and employment prospects.

NetApp will make available to schools teaching tools, lectures, demos, and other resources that are built on the fundamentals of flexible and efficient IT – two keys to enabling shared virtual infrastructures.

With today’s fast-changing IT landscape, much of the computer science and information systems curriculum available to students needs to be refreshed. Working with NetApp will help make that happen.

The Academic Alliance Program will provide colleges and universities with teaching resources that they otherwise would not be able to afford nor have easy access to, helping to open up new doors for students.

Academic programs that will benefit from this partnership with NetApp through an infusion of industry insights and teaching materials include computer science, information technology, enterprise systems and architectures, and management information systems.

Regina Kunkle, senior director for NetApp State and Local Government and Higher Education, said:" The growth in storage and data management is undeniable and expected to only get larger, providing new and exciting career opportunities for graduates. Through the NetApp Academic Alliance Program, we are thrilled to be working with our higher education customers to enrich their faculty and program development efforts and to expand student learning opportunitites. NetApp has established itself as the leading storage vendor to the higher education community, and we look forward to sharing our expertise and insight to help students grow."

Xiao Su, associate professor, Department of Computer Engineering, San Jose State University, said:" Today’s IT landscape is undergoing a major shift as cloud computing and virtualization are becoming the norm. As a result, data management and storage strategies are changing. It’s our job as educators to make sure our students have a knowledge base and understanding of these technologies so that when they graduate, they are prepared to hit the ground running. NetApp has proven to be an innovator and industry leader in enabling shared infrastructures, and working with them really helps me open up new doors for my students and get them ready for the real world."