MATC IT Networking in the News | MATC IT Networking Specialist Program

MATC IT Networking in the News

“The first time we presented it to the students in the VMware class, they all pulled up their chairs and it was an amazing sight. This was no longer theory. It was sitting in front of them.”

– Brian Kirsch, MATC IT networking instructor

The Growing Field of Virtualization

Brian Kirsch brings VMware to MATC

Let’s talk about IT trends and how Milwaukee Area Technical College has designed its curriculum around those trends, specifically virtual servers and data storage and the huge need companies have in filling positions with IT types who have software certification called VMware.

MATC is aligning its IT curriculum with a number of highly sought-after skills, but VMware is “the 800-pound gorilla in the middle of the room,” said Brian Kirsch, an IT networking instructor at MATC.

“VMware has revolutionized everything and it’s not going to go away any time soon,” Kirsch said. “I only see it continuing to grow.”

Read more at http://www.bizjournals.com/ — “MATC instructor sees more demand for VMware training”

Computers Rule the World

Ike Ozurumba at Cisco Live

Drive, humor, intelligence and enthusiasm shine through Ike Ozurumba’s blog and YouTube videos. The MATC information technology (IT) network specialist associate degree student believes that the passion and humor captured in his social media accounts helped earn him a spot as one of only 10 students selected from the United States and Canada to serve on the Cisco Live Dream Team.

Chosen by the Cisco Networking Academy, Dream Team members provided technical support for exhibitors at the Cisco Live national convention and trade fair in Orlando, Fla., in late June. The convention drew about 20,000 people and covered four floors of the Rosen Centre. The students helped troubleshoot network connectivity issues for exhibitors.

“Computers rule the world – literally,” Ike said. “I like being part of how everything is connected and maintained. IT networking is one profession that won’t ever go away. People will always be needed to maintain the internet.”

Synology Success Story

Bringing Storage Hardware into the Classroom

Since 1912, the Milwaukee Area Technical College has been offering technical training to help their students find not just work, but careers. From the beginning it has offered classes taught by industry professionals and using the same equipment used in the field.

MATC curriculum requires a course on VMware vSphere 5 installation, configuration and management as part of its IT networking program. The program covers numerous aspects of virtualization, including several days dedicated to storage and storage concepts.

“Now during this course we cover many concepts of virtualization including dedicating two classes to storage and storage concepts as the storage piece is so critical to VMware and how it works,” said Brian Kirsch, an instructor at MATC. “What we found were students had very little knowledge and concepts of storage and this presented a great challenge because the only Storage Area Network (SAN) we had was a virtual appliance and we were forced to whiteboard many of the storage concepts since we did not have the hardware to physically show them.”