THERE is a need to retool information technology (IT) professionals as the computing landscape continues to change brought by the developments in technology, according to EMC Philippines Inc.
In a recent news briefing, Managing Director Ronnie Latinazo said many organizations are experiencing manpower challenges because a big number of them don’t have sufficient skills in cloud and Big Data.
“Transformation in IT has been dramatic from the first platform to the third platform,” Latinazo said during his interaction with the members of the media.
The first platform involving the mainframes and mini computers was the simplest that involved only millions of users and thousands of apps. The second platform belonged to the local area network (LAN) and client/server. It had hundreds of millions of users and tens of thousands of apps. The third stage, which includes mobile, Big Data and social media, has billions of users and millions of apps.
“While much of the Internet of Things [Iot] will be self-service and self-supported, someone still needs to architect the data stores, answer helpdesk calls and maintain the data farms,” Latinazo said.
“More important, IT skills and expertise need to be upgraded to handle new data sources and formats, and the new technologies today,” Latinazo added.
In its forecast for 2015, market intelligence firm International Data Corp. said the world will need 7 million cloud-ready workers, while the booming Asian region will also be looking for 2.3 million workers. Meanwhile, Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner Inc. reported 4.4 million workers will be needed for Big Data in the world while Asia will have openings for 960,000 jobs in Big Data.
Latinazo said the Philippines has a window of opportunity in filling the void for skilled IT workers in the Asian and global markets.
“The Philippines is one of the largest suppliers of IT talent in the region. The IT skills shortage both locally and globally, coupled with the growing adoption of cloud computing in the market presents many opportunities for skilled Filipino students to advance in the field,” Latinazo said.
“Through the EMC Academic Alliance Program [EAA], we aim to help reengineering graduates develop the required skill sets in leading areas of IT to make them industry ready. This is an important landmark for EMC and we look to a mutually beneficial partnership addressing the skills gap in the Philippines,” Latinazo added.
By producing a substantial number of IT workers, he said the country can move up in the value chain which can bring huge benefits such as higher employment and bigger earnings.
Under the two-year course, curriculum includes information storage and management, cloud infrastructure and services, data science and big data analytics and backup recovery systems and architecture.
The objectives of the EAA are the following:
- Partnering with leading institutions of higher education worldwide to offer unique “open” information infrastructure curriculum;
- Providing faculty readiness training, course materials, labs and online tests at no costs to the alliance members;
- Helping faculties to prepare students for roles in an evolving IT industry where mobile, social, cloud and big data are transforming IT roles and management of information infrastructures; and
- Preparing faculties with latest materials from EMC
Saint Paul University recently became the 100th partner of EAA. Established in the Philippines in 2008 with De La Salle University as its first academic partner, it has currently more than 1,100 students, more than 100 faculty members trained in cloud and data science.