FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.
and ARMONK, N.Y. - IBM and the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University
of Arkansas announced a new collaboration to promote academic curricula on the
latest technologies and hardware systems to prepare students for 21st
century jobs.
Through its
Academic Initiative, IBM is providing the Walton College access to its IBM
System z900 mainframe and related software. The technology upgrades the
college’s current mainframe curricula to help students gain important
marketplace skills that can be learned on the System z, including open source
environments such as Linux. Access to this platform will give students
experience in real-world business computing environments. This technology also
offers students new opportunities to collaborate on virtual projects and lab
assignments - at the University of Arkansas and with other Academic Initiative
universities, which are expected to participate in the University of Arkansas
System z hub.
The IBM System z
delivery was announced today during a meeting of business, IT and education
leaders held at an event hosted by the University of Arkansas. The new
mainframe resources will also help students better understand how data
warehousing, e-commerce, and business intelligence technologies work together.
IBM mainframes
support large companies world-wide and form the computing backbone of most
Fortune 500 companies. On a daily basis, these computers handle more than 80
billion transactions and $4 trillion (US) worth of credit card purchases. It
is estimated that about half of the world’s structured data is housed on the
mainframe platform.
“Our standing
commitment is to advance and evolve our curriculum to give students a
competitive edge when they graduate and join the workforce,” said David
Douglas, Walton College University Professor in Information Systems. “Working
with IBM, we offer students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience
with the technologies, tools and trends that drive businesses today. The new
System z-based courseware is designed to help students qualify for higher
skilled jobs.”
The Walton College’s
focus on providing the latest IT curriculum has led to a significant increase
in job placements from companies such as Dillard’s Inc., Data-Tronics Corp. and
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. over the past years. University of Arkansas alumni have
gained top jobs in enterprise system management, software development, and
systems development.
“We feel like we
need to get people trained coming out of school and the enterprise curriculum
at the University of Arkansas is very important to us. We are looking forward
to a lot of success from it," said Bill Holder, vice president and CIO at
Dillard’s. “Students get very excited about their future and what they are
going to be doing. The enterprise curriculum provides great opportunities for
them."
“By increasing
its focus on information technology, the Walton College is building a strong
reputation for being a source of strong technical talent attracting a growing
number of corporate recruiters to its campus every year,” said Paul Cronan,
Walton College professor and director of Enterprise Computing. “Access to the
System z adds significantly to our enterprise resources; the major winners are
students and industry,”
“As businesses increase their reliance on technology, there is a greater
demand for skilled employees to manage these complex processes and functions,”
said Gina Poole, vice president, Innovation and University Relations. “Our work
with the Walton College showcases how business can help academia deliver the
skills that their graduates will need to be competitive in the marketplace.”
IBM and the Walton
College plan to extend the teaching and learning benefits of the System z
server with universities world-wide. The College plans to share its technology
resources with other schools by serving as an IBM z Series “hub.” As a result,
universities globally will be granted access to a wide range of course
material, modern software development tools and enterprise hardware resources.
In May 2006, the Walton College, through an academic network, began allowing
university information systems and computer science departments around the
world access to massive databases housed on the IBM System and NCR Teradata
Server.
The primary
objective of this enterprise system hub is to enable the use of
industry-leading IT tools and technologies to reinvigorate curricula and help
educators build a critical mass of future technology professionals. According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs requiring science, engineering and
technical training will increase 51 percent through 2008. This increase could
lead to six million job openings for openings in the technology arena.