Portugal Telecom (PT) is opening its Covilhã data center to Beira Interior University (UBI) as part of a joint initiative to create a more skilled national workforce.

PT's €90 million Tier III data center can house 50,000 servers connected to its speed fibre optic network. It is organised into 4 main blocks plus a support building and has a total area of 75,500m² with 24 12,000m² IT rooms.

The four blocks will be allocated to a specialization, with the partnership creating one laboratory each for the disciplines of Cloud Computing, Health, Professional Certification and Software Testing.

The Cloud Laboratory will develop research in areas such as energy efficiency, operational management of cloud services, skills management, cloud security and use of open standards. The Health Lab will help students specialize in Health Care, Medical Solutions and Life Sciences.

The Software Testing Laboratory will offer training in managed testing services with respect to software’s function, performance, security and usability. It will also offer research into new systems for automated testing.

Professional Certification will focus on cloud services, IT and data centers, with the brief to raise the number of skilled professionals in these areas.

Investing in the creation of intellectual capital is an important responsibility for the technology sector, especially in the fast-moving world of data centers and cloud computing, according to Portugal Telecom’s CEO of Cloud Unit, Miguel Moreira.

“The partnership agreement reinforces the strong relationship between PT and UBI and brings the scientific world and the business world closer together,” said Moreira, “it will contribute to the economic development of the region, attract new businesses and create new skilled jobs.”

PT claims its Covilhã data centre – competed in September 2013 - is one of the largest, most efficient and ecological data centres in the world, with a power usage effectiveness rating of 1.25 and use of free cooling for 90% of the year.