Nexenta Partners with Universities for Higher Education Program

Nexenta, a provider of open source-driven software-defined storage (OpenSDS), has launched a program to partner with higher education institutions on developing technical curricula designed to link theory with practice and prepare students for the workforce.

The company has already partnered with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Denver, and the university will offer its first course through Nexenta's Higher Education Program beginning on Jan. 19, 2016. The course, Computer Storage Systems, will be taught by Doug McCallum, a former storage engineer with Oracle and Sun Microsystems, and will focus on advanced storage technology. The course will be open to "exceptional undergraduate students and graduate students," according to Nexenta.

Gita Alaghband, professor and chair of Computer Science and Engineering at CU Denver, said the partnership will help teach students "how to approach technology based on the needs of today’s enterprises." Technology is changing rapidly and many companies are transitioning to cloud-based virtual technology. "Nexenta’s knowledge of open source and software-defined technology should help our students to gain a higher level of expertise, so, as new storage engineers, they can hit the ground running when they start their first jobs,” said Alaghband in a prepared statement.

Nexenta is currently developing other courses in partnership with San Jose State University and expects to begin offering the courses in the near future.

Faculty or administrative staff at other universities or institutions that are interested in participating in Nexenta's Higher Education Program should contact the company's vice president of Marketing and Strategy, Jill Orhun.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

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