Linux gets a S$5.45 million training boost in Singapore

By Network World Asia Staff | Mar 20, 2009

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IT students and professionals looking for training on Linux will be getting a boost with the announcement from Republic Polytechnic (RP), Red Hat and IBM to offer Linux training for RP students and industry professionals. The first-ever educational institution in ASEAN to embrace the Red Hat Academy and IBM System z Academic Initiative program jointly, RP said that they expect to train up to 150 students and 75 industry professionals over the next three years. The program was made possible through a combined investment, over three years, of S5.45m to cover hardware, software licenses, services and maintenance support.

An IBM System z890 mainframe that will be used for training RP students up to the level of Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) or Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).  According to IBM’s Mainframe Charter, IBM aims to produce 20,000 mainframe-skilled professionals globally by 2010.

Mervin Beng, Director of School of Information and Communications Technology, Republic Polytechnic said that such industry tie-ups, students are allowed exposure and training on Windows Server and Linux (including Red Hat and Ubunti), and those choosing mobile computing options will use phones with a range of operating systems. Beng added that the eventual certification depended on the options chosen. "In the curriculum we will offer modules on mainframe computing, open source systems, and open source (ie. RHEL) on the mainframe. The courses are part of the Diploma in Infocomm Technology, but may be selected as options by students in other IT diplomas. The certification programs are in addition to the diploma modules," he said.

Beng said that RP also works with industry partners on other IT training programmes. "For example, with BMC on the remedy practice laboratory for Diploma in IT Service Management, Oracle on the use of Oracle's database module, PeopleSoft' HR Information Systems module, SAP on the various modules that are applicable for industry vertical use and Avid Technology on video editing," Beng added.

According to Lee Lit Voon, Director, Systems & Technology Group, IBM ASEAN, while IBM has other ties ups with all the other institutes of higher learning in Singapore, the collaboration with RP began in 2006 with the establishment of the RP Enterprise Computing Learning Centre which enabled RP to equip 50 graduates per year with knowledge and training in mainframe technology. Lee further added that the company had been in partnership with partnership with Red Hat to expand on the use of enterprise solutions on Linux 10 years ago.

When queried on the choice of platform given the growing popularity of x86 based servers, Lee responded by saying that while the mainframe market may have declined in 2008 over 2007, this decline was seen across most other server segments and was due largely to the global economic crisis across the world. "Despite this, we do see growth in Linux workload consolidation from other platforms onto the mainframe. This is driven by clients' desire to leverage the unsurpassed reliability, availability and security, as well as the overall lower total cost of ownership (TCO) of the mainframe. This is also consistent with the growth in the Linux market segment in '08 across Asean . IBM aims for market leadership in the Linux server market and the mainframe is one of the key platforms in our portfolio that we are depending on to propel us there. Meanwhile, we do have Academic MOUs with other learning institutions on collaboration with other IBM technologies including our range of Servers," Lee concluded.