APC sets up data centre training facility

Mumbai: APC by Schneider Electric has set up a training facility which will train people on the various aspects in setting up, scaling and managing a data center. This institute would be opened officially by September, 2009 and would be based in Mumbai. It is reportedly spread across 5,000 square feet. The company had a training center in Mumbai, but it was not big enough to accommodate several students learning a comprehensive curriculum.

“We needed a bigger place where classrooms are just one part of the learning environment. This center would have a library, professional instructors, Internet resources and candidates would have access to video conferencing facility where depending on the kind of training to be given we would bring connectivity with experts around the world. So it will be a virtual best practices delivery centre for training on all aspects of a data center,” said Shrinivas Chebbi, CGM & President-India & SAARC, American Power Corporation.

The institute will initially train APC's internal engineers as well as those of its customers and partners' engineers. Over time, the company hopes to make it open to the general public as well, to encourage more people to get trained on data center techniques. The urgent need is to train the people who are already working with and at data centers. This is because data centers used to be huge structures and today they are so scalable that they are available in boxes. Going forward we will have to scale up people who will support the users,” Chebbi added. This training center is part of APC's initiative to empower its channel network and scale up their technical prowess in data centers. This aside, APC is also going to roll out a channel program for its sales partners.

Not too long, ago it had unveiled the Partner Enablement Program for its Authorized Service Partners (ASP) offering differentiated program levels to them based on their core competency and areas of expertise. This program was structured for the service franchisee delivery partners who post sales support. The soon-to-be announced channel program would be rolled out for the sales partners across 35 cities in the country, to help them offer the entire solution stack not only of APC, which includes UPS, racks, cooling units, etc; but also of Schneider Electric which has energy management solutions including lighting.

Under this program, APC's sales partners would be clubbed under a common program. Later they will be segmented across different tiers depending on their positioning and APC will customize the program to suit the different tiers.