UTAR joins Cloudera Academic Partnership

UTAR Vice-President for Internationalisation and Academic Development Prof Ir Dr Ewe Hong Tat (far left) at the launch of Cloudera’s BASE (Big Analytics Skills Enablement) Initiative

UTAR is the first university in Malaysia to join the Cloudera Academic Partnership which will empower students with Big Data Analytics (BDA) skillsets. Students can also access the latest Apache Hadoop curriculum and gain employment opportunities through Cloudera partnerships.

Cloudera, the global provider of the fastest, easiest, and most secure data management and analytics platform built on Apache Hadoop and the latest open source technologies, announced that UTAR has joined the Cloudera Academic Partnership (CAP) programme. The partnership will allow UTAR students access to a curriculum, software, and skills training for the Hadoop platform.

Globally, industries are facing a talent crunch for data professionals. In Malaysia, the number of IT graduates produced each year, which numbers about 30,000, is not enough to cater to the growth of the industry, according to the country’s National ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Association (PIKOM). The association also believes that the current workforce requires upgrading and upscaling.

Cloudera’s Senior Director of marketing for APAC, Daniel Ng said, “A rapidly evolving data landscape is giving rise to a strong demand for skilled professionals that are able to deploy and manage big data initiatives on the Apache Hadoop data platform. CAP is one of the ways that Cloudera is leading the way in putting more data-skilled talents into the workforce.”

“The CAP programme not only equips students with valuable skillsets, but it also benefits public and private sector organisations as they can harness these data talents to drive innovation and gain competitive advantage. We are currently also working with partners across industries to form an ecosystem to groom more data professionals. More will be announced regarding this initiative in the coming weeks,” added Daniel.

Ir Dr Karl Ng, Director of Innovation Capital at Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) said, “Data professionals are very much in demand right now and they are in short supply. Malaysia is poised to become one of Southeast Asia’s leading BDA hubs and with Cloudera’s CAP programme, we hope to close the talent gap as well as spread the awareness on the need for more data professionals, including data scientists.”

He added, “MDeC is set to embark on a major regional big data platform where the agency brings together innovative talent development models and showcases the latest BDA technologies. MDeC believes that talents from the CAP programme will be able to fill the demand for skilful data scientists when the platform is launched.”

UTAR is the first university in Malaysia to officially join the CAP programme, which already counts over 100 academic institutions across the globe as members.

UTAR President Ir Prof Academician Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik commented, “As a global university of educational excellence, we are committed to promoting the use of ICT and IT-intensive learning through innovative courses and learning support systems. Cloudera’s CAP programme allows us to put together a strong curriculum that encourages the intellectual and personal development of students. The programme also allows our students to gain valuable skills that are in demand across sectors in the industry.”

How does Cloudera CAP work?

Through the CAP programme, Cloudera provides partner institutions with a complete, free, industry-standard Hadoop curriculum that can be incorporated into computer science and business analytics courses. Teaching staff and students affiliated with CAP programme institutions can freely download a wide selection of Cloudera supplementary training material and receive discounts on all Cloudera Certification examinations. Teaching staff also qualify for deep discounts on Cloudera University professional training delivered by Cloudera's team of expert Hadoop instructors, and benefit from up-to-date classroom tools, instructor forums, dedicated program support, and the world's largest Hadoop knowledge base.

Cloudera Education Software License Programme

Accredited, non-profit academic institutions can also take advantage of the more robust features of Cloudera's software suite through a special University License. CAP members have free access to Cloudera Enterprise: Data Hub Edition for 12 months to support data-intensive testing, development, and research. In conjunction with Cloudera's industry-leading open-source platform, the University License provides CAP participants with the tools needed to achieve major breakthroughs in big data.

Foundation for CAP Programme Curriculum: Cloudera University

The CAP programme curriculum was developed from the industry-leading training courses and technical certifications offered by Cloudera University, which focuses on Apache Hadoop, its ecosystem and data science. Cloudera University offers the world's most complete and comprehensive Hadoop education programmes for data professionals.

To date, Cloudera has trained more than 40,000 participants and certified more than 10,000 Hadoop professionals. Over 65 percent of the Fortune 100 and all 20 of the top 20 global technology firms have leveraged Cloudera's expertise to train employees in Apache Hadoop on university.cloudera.com.