ARMONK, New York and OMAHA, Nebraska, September 2 /PRNewswire/ --

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, US$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 US$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,
+1-919-418-6169, jennic@us.ibm.com