IBM is a truly global company, with operations on six continents. The majority of our revenue actually comes from outside the United States.
With the formation of the IBM Academic Initiative in July 2004, we want to partner with those institutions that support open standards and seek to use open source and IBM technologies for teaching purposes, to better educate millions of students for a more competitive information technology (IT) workforce. The IBM Academic Initiative was created to respond to the industry’s demand for IT skills, and to promote open standards worldwide. It provides a broad range of offerings such as software, hardware and remote access, courseware, training and other resources.
The benefits to universities and students are many: Easy access to open standards-based technologies and supporting resources Ongoing faculty development Increase in student placement Ensure that they have the most current, relevant curricula that map to the kinds of jobs that are expected, so schools can be attractive for enrollment, funding and growth