Mexico’s Tec de Monterrey Joins IBM Worldwide Program To Help Students Gain Critical Mainframe Skills

IBM Academic Initiative for System z; program reaches students in more than 60 countries

MEXICO CITY, April 3, 2011 – IBM announced today that it has opened a learning center at Tec de Monterrey Campus Estado de Mexico as part of the company’s global program to help colleges, universities, and high schools build students’ mainframe computer skills.

“The new center is the sign of the continued vitality of the mainframe server, and comes as ermerging economies such as Mexico recognize the platform’s strength for mission-critical work,” said Hugo Santana Londoño, President and CEO of IBM Mexico and Central America.

The IBM Academic Initiative provides educational resources to nourish the mainframe skills base and help students develop knowledge and practical skills that enable them to find good jobs.  Since the program’s inception in 2004 with 24 colleges from the United States, the System z Academic Initiative now reaches students in more than 60 countries.

At the Tec de Monterrey Campus Estado de Mexico, IBM and the university will establish a center for training students and teachers in mainframe skills such as application development.

The opening of a new center in Mexico reflects System z’s growth in the world’s emerging markets, as demonstrated by recent wins in Africa (the governments of Cameroon and Senegal) and across Asia and Eastern Europe.  IBM mainframe servers process 180 million transactions a day in Mexico’s banks.

System z is the gold standard for ultra-reliable, secure management of high volumes of computer transactions. IBM recently announced IBM zEnterprise 196, the world's most powerful and energy efficient server, including support for more than 3,150 Linux applications. Mainframe skills are in demand from banks, government agencies, airlines, retailers and others in an interconnected world.

IBM is celebrating its Centennial and 84 years in Mexico.