Washington D.C., November 25th, 2024: International Data Center Authority (IDCA) today announced that it has signed Gulf Data Center Association (GDCA) as a training provider of IDCA data center training and certification programs in GCC. As of this date,GDCA will be the authorized provider of IDCA portfolio of education and certification services across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and enables GDCA to sign up data center professionals on its platform. The training services and certification will be directly provided by IDCA while GDCA will be the regional arm providing the necessary support pre, during and post training.

“This partnership marks a milestone in our mission to drive excellence in the data center industry across the GCC,” said Henry Sutton, Founder of the GDCA. “By joining forces with the IDCA, we are equipping our local talent with globally recognized skills and expertise, paving the way for greater innovation and growth,”

This appointment is aimed to tackle the significant human capital and workforce enablement gap within the Middle East, and comes after months of evaluation in forming a strategic alliance to better serve the GCC region.

On the occasion of this new announcement, Lizabeth Hood, Global Head of Education and Membership at IDCA, stated, “As we all know, Middle East is a lucrative region and on fast track in terms of data center growth, which also requires immense number of highly skilled manpower to design, build and operate these data centers.”

Hood, continued “There is a vivid gap today in the region and an absolute shortage of an effective program that can put talented professionals on the delivery end of this industry. GDCA is a reputable organization that has been bringing the industry around the table in the Middle East. We believe that by allowing GDCA to offer IDCA’s best-in-class data center training and certification programs, we become an enabler to the digital economies and the digital infrastructure stakeholders in GCC.”

GDCA will also represent IDCA, as the Platinum Sponsor, at the Touchdown Middle East 2024, one of the region’s premier conferences for data center professionals, happening on 26-27 November, in Bahrain.

IDCA’s data center education and certification will be available in the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain on regular public and private calendar dates in 2025.

For more information on IDCA training visit: https://www.idc-a.org/data-center-training