Extreme Networks to establish regional training center for students and professionals, providing networking equipment and cyber curriculum to develop the next generation of networking talent.
Gannon University announced a new partnership with Extreme Networks, a leading provider of wired and wireless networking hardware, cloud services and applications for enterprises, data centers and service providers around the globe, in a news conference today. This partnership – the first relationship of its kind for both Extreme and Gannon – will elevate the delivery of the University’s cyber programs, bring new professional training opportunities to the region, and will equip Gannon’s Institute for Health and Cyber Knowledge with state-of-the-art networking technology.
Extreme Networks has committed to be the first company that will be housed within Gannon’s I-HACK facility in Knight Tower. The collaborative partnership with Extreme Networks will provide a value of approximately $12 million over a 10-year agreement to create the Extreme Academy, train and educate students and employees through the Extreme Network Certification, and provide networking equipment, software and long-term support.
The University is collaborating with Extreme to embed its technical certification and training curriculum into the academic curriculum of Gannon’s undergraduate and graduate engineering and computing programs, including cybersecurity, cyber engineering and cybersecurity essentials.
These certification training modules, part of the Extreme Academy, will allow students to receive industry certification as they complete their coursework. The Extreme Academy is specifically created to support the development of tomorrow’s technologies. The training, and ultimately the certification, is valued at thousands of dollars per person and will come at no additional cost to the students while undoubtedly increasing their marketability upon graduation. This enhanced curriculum will be implemented in Fall 2020.
Extreme will support the establishment and outfitting of a regional training center located on the third floor within I-HACK’s Hatchery, a dedicated collaborative commercial space to integrate industry and professional development with academic learning.
The Extreme Academy will be a regional training center for Extreme to offer on-site training to professionals from companies locally, as well as regionally, from Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. It will also be connected to the ExtremeDojoTM online training and certification program, providing video-based, training opportunities that will connect individuals across the globe. Gannon faculty members will become Certified Extreme Instructors and will join other Extreme instructors delivering training to those on-site.
Through the Extreme Academy location, the University will also be able to operate its high- performance computing center that is being created through a $402,500 grant received in July from the Orris C. & Beatrice Dewey Hirtzel Memorial Foundation. It will also house the Geographic Information Systems Center for Education and Engagement that is being created through a $110,000 grant from the George I. Alden Trust that Gannon received in November.
The Extreme Academy will provide these two initiatives with the high-performance networking equipment needed to serve academic, healthcare, criminal justice and environmental students, researchers and businesses across the region with data storage, processing and analysis.
The Extreme Academy is expected to open in Spring 2021.
The University also announced that Extreme will be the sponsor to network the entirety of the I-HACK facilities.
This partnership will provide opportunities to upgrade equipment in the Extreme Academy for 10 years, as well as to outfit other academic buildings with Extreme networking solutions. Extreme will work in collaboration with Networking Technologies, a leading value-added reseller and integration partner in the region, to deploy and maintain the I-HACK network and facilitate any future upgrades to the Gannon University network.
“We are thrilled to partner with Gannon University to develop the next generation of networking talent,” said Dan Dulac, vice president of solutions strategy at Extreme Networks. “The Extreme Academy will provide students and partners with valuable training and certification on the latest innovations in cloud-driven networking and security technology. Our practical curriculum will give students a true, competitive advantage when they are ready to join the workforce and create a talent stream for the local industry. And for our professional partners in the region, we are providing a central, physical location to keep up-to-date.”
“Having the ability to work with Extreme Networks’ level of expertise is a powerful and incredible opportunity,” said Walter Iwanenko, Ph.D., vice president of academic affairs. “We are excited for this new partnership and the valuable experiences it will bring to our students and our community. We look forward to the innovative transformation that will follow this infusion of academics and industry to shape the next generation of leaders.”
