DE-CIX to launch Global Interconnection Academy: collaboration with the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona signed

Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Barcelona (Catalonia/Spain), 19 October 2021. The world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operator and home to the largest neutral interconnection ecosystem globally, DE-CIX, and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona have signed an agreement to launch as joined forces a Global Interconnection Academy. The training program will commence in 2022 and is aimed at both professionals and students. The creation of the Interconnection Academy seeks to provide a global standard certificate of excellence for interconnection experts. It will prepare high potentials – well recognized and highly knowledgeable interconnection professionals – for the market, by combining advanced technical, operational, and business-related knowledge. The UPF will provide their academic knowledge through their Department of Information and Communication Technologies, while DE-CIX will offer superior operational knowledge via the acknowledged company experts in its Research & Development, Technical, and further operational divisions. The program is aimed to be hybrid from the start.

“We are delighted to be working with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra on developing our global training program to support the creation of talents worldwide with advanced interconnection business and engineering skills and knowledge. Developing talent for the interconnection industry is of major importance for the coming decades, as increasing numbers of newcomers from the enterprise sector recognize the advantages of taking their interconnection needs into their own hands. As our first partner in this educational endeavour, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra will support us in creating a structured and relevant curriculum for the DE-CIX Interconnection Academy and will remain our long-term partner for training within Europe, as we roll out the training program globally,” states Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX International, on the signing of the collaboration agreement. With a footprint of close to 30 Internet Exchanges on four continents, the company aims to open further “DE-CIX Interconnection Academy Hubs” around the globe in due course.

“The knowledge we generate at the university impacts positively on societal wellbeing. UPF is a good university in terms of teaching and research, but we need to intensify our transfer of knowledge activity. To intensify our collaboration with strategic stakeholders, such as DE-CIX, will be a priority for the coming years. Today’s agreement joins two leading actors in their respective areas of work. The pandemic has shown us how important a functioning, secure, and reliable digital infrastructure is for all areas of life. There is no need to emphasize how much we can achieve by working together on this strategic area,” states Oriol Amat, rector of the Pompeu Fabra University.

With more than 25 years in business, DE-CIX runs close to 30 Internet Exchanges globally and is home to the largest neutral interconnection ecosystem worldwide. DE-CIX has been a part of the global Internet community ever since its establishment and sees itself as an independent trailblazer for digitalization.

Since the very beginning, DE-CIX has had a decisive influence on the shaping of the Internet – in a range of leading global bodies, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) – by co-defining framework conditions for the Internet of the present and the future, and also heavily investing in its own Research & Development approaches for the future of the Internet and data traffic.

Ivo Ivanov closes: “As interconnection is one of the key enablers of digital transformation, interconnection experts need to be developed to satisfy the increasing demand of enterprises and organizations. Every enterprise and public institution needs to extend the knowledge of their in-house staff to design and implement their digital transformation strategies. The creation of the Interconnection Academy aims at providing a global standard certificate of excellence for interconnection experts, helping to shape the global interconnection landscape into the future through the transfer of business and technical knowledge.”