In a climate of rapid global business, institutional and educational change, information is now the most important asset for a business.

 

To help meet the need for experts to handle the huge volumes of business information now generated, Charles Sturt University (CSU), Australia’s major provider of flexible learning programs, has entered an agreement with EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, to deliver industry relevant courses to CSU information technology (IT) students.

 

Charles Sturt University is the first Australian university to join over 170 schools worldwide in EMC’s Innovative Global Program to drive technology curricula and prepare future technology professionals.

 

CSU Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Ian Goulter, Dean of CSU’s Faculty of Business, Professor John Hicks, Dr Anthony Dean from the University’s School of Computing & Mathematics and EMC executives Tony Simonsen and Chris Pearson gathered recently in North Sydney, NSW, to sign the EMC Academic Alliance agreement.

 

Through the Alliance program, academic institutions, including CSU, can deliver a technology curriculum that provides students with strong foundations for designing and managing IT infrastructures – helping to shape the next generation of IT skills and workers. 

 

David Webster, President of EMC in Australia and New Zealand, says, “Information infrastructure is about building intelligent storage solutions that are secured and protected and add value to the organisation as a whole.  It is essential that organisations all over the world understand the impact of the huge amounts of digital information being generated and stored.

 

“Only a few years ago, a megabyte of data was considered an enormous amount of digital information. Today, a terabyte is commonly talked about, and the exabyte, equal to one quintillion bytes, is already appearing. Businesses are compelled to think about how to manage this information growth and the experts they will need to recruit in order to do so.”

 

“Some estimates suggest that by 2012, the information industry will need nearly one million additional storage technology professionals.”

 

The Storage Technology Foundation curriculum will initially be offered in CSU’s Bachelor of Information Technology course.

 

Professor Ian Goulter says CSU students will be able to understand how to design information infrastructure solutions in the modern business world, ensuring the University’s graduates are ready for their profession. CSU is the only Australian university involved in the EMC program.