In the Face of Yawning Skills Gap, IBM Fights Back

This week, IBM released its 2012 Tech Trends Report Survey, along with the alarming finding that only 1 in 10 organizations currently possess the skills needed to effectively apply advanced technologies, including business analytics, mobile computing, cloud computing and social business, all of which are experiencing high demand growth and are poised to propel more intelligent business models. And there's also an emerging demand for an information security workforce, expected to double by 2015. According to those surveyed, security is one of the top two barriers to adopting such business critical technologies.

In response to the growing technical skill gap, and to help professionals and students learn more about cyber security best practices,  IBM rolled out out the largest expansion of its Academic Initiative to date earlier this week.

For the first time, IBM will offer access to pre-packaged curriculum and training resources on IT security, helping students understand enterprise challenges, do in-depth analysis of trends uncovered in the IBM X-Force report, and gain market-ready cyber security skills. This includes no-charge access to security software, enabling students o test applications for bugs and servers for vulnerabilities on the latest software – all from the classroom. And now professors and students can prepare for real-world computing challenges in enterprise IT via remote access to the newest, highly secure zEnterprise mainframe. The ability to bring the latest enterprise technology such as these directly into the classroom is critical in helping to shrink the skills gap.

Daniel Hauenstein, a global lead on IBM's skills programs, will discuss how these new initiatives in cyber security and other advanced technologies will help to solve this global skills epidemic.

Report:  http://ibm.co/Sfa5EZ

Partner Program: http://ow.ly/fYQG1