A Dutch vocational college in Amsterdam has launched a new demonstration data center in partnership with Digital Realty to teach students data center skills.
ICT students from the Cloud & Infrastructure Technician course this week opened the demo data center at MBO College Zuidoost, part of ROC van Amsterdam (ROVCA).
ROCVA teacher, Jolanda Harskamp, said: “With the data center at MBO College Zuidoost, we bring our ICT students closer to practice, we improve the quality of our education and we stimulate students with the physical presence of technology.”
The data center is assembled and managed by students. The fully functioning data center can teach students basic skills and help them practice installing servers and cables. It includes a neighboring sustainability room to show the connection between power consumption of the data center and the impact on the environment.
“The importance of investing in young talent and the digital future is great. We see and experience this on a daily basis. That is why Digital Realty is happy to provide a complete mini data center to give students from the ROC of Amsterdam a realistic picture of a possible career in the data center industry,” said Melissa Scholten, senior communications manager at Digital Realty.
“We are therefore very proud that with this demo data center, students can now gain practical experience in their own familiar classroom. We also offer several internships every year in our Digital Realty data centers where students can further develop themselves under the guidance of professional data center engineers.”
MBO College Zuidoost offers secondary vocational education (MBO) courses; vocational courses that can last up to four years.
Navid Madani, chairman of MBO College Zuidoost, added: “We are extremely pleased with this involvement from Digital Realty. It is a wonderful example of how business and education can strengthen each other. The demo data center at the college is not only extremely stimulating for the students. It also contributes to the quality of education and the employment prospects of these future employees.
"I am pleased that the sustainability classroom also pays attention to the impact of data centers on the environment. That awareness gives our students an advantage.”
Emerce notes as part of the partnership, four students have been doing an internship at Digital Realty since September to gain practical experience at more than ten colocation data centers in the Amsterdam region.
