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Busan Metropolitan City and Microsoft Open “Data Center Academy Lab,” Accelerating Practical Talent Development

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will hold the opening ceremony of the “Microsoft Data Center Academy (MS DCA) Lab,” promoted in cooperation with global IT company Microsoft, at 4:00 p.m. today (the 6th) on the 13th floor of the Centum Campus of Kyungnam College of Information & Technology in Haeundae-gu.

The ceremony will be attended by approximately 30 participants, including Kim Dong-hyun, Director General of the Future Technology Strategy Bureau of Busan Metropolitan City; Kim Sung-min, Representative Director of Microsoft Korea; Song Ji-young, Chairman of the Korea Quality Foundation; Kim Tae-yeol, President of the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency; and selected interns from the first cohort of the Microsoft Data Center Academy.

This opening ceremony has been arranged to establish a hands-on, practice-oriented professional workforce training system that goes beyond education, based on the successful operation outcomes of the first training course of the “Microsoft Data Center Academy,” which has been operated since September last year.

The “Microsoft Data Center Academy” provides a total of 450 hours of practical training, including both theory and hands-on practice in server, network, and cloud fields, and produced 28 graduates from its first cohort in December last year.

Among them, six individuals were selected for on-site internships at the Busan Microsoft Data Center and have been gaining practical experience for three months since February 2026.

The lab is a training space that simulates the operational environment of data center infrastructure, enabling participants to carry out real-world, field-oriented projects such as server operations, network configuration, and cloud management.

Through this, trainees will systematically strengthen their practical competencies across overall data center operations, going beyond theory-centered education.

In particular, a step-by-step, integrated talent development model linking “education → project execution → internship → employment” will be fully implemented.

The opening ceremony will proceed in the following order: ▲introduction of participants and opening ▲welcome remarks ▲progress report on MS DCA operations ▲opening ceremony and commemorative photo ▲facility tour ▲internship participants’ discussion session.

During the discussion session, participants will share the on-site experiences of youth involved in internships and discuss measures to expand the training of data center professionals and strategies for creating jobs for local youth.

Tianji Dickens, Director of Data Center Community Affairs for Microsoft Asia Pacific, stated, “As part of Microsoft’s data center community pledge, we are focusing on technology and talent development through cooperation with local governments, educational institutions, and community organizations, and we are proud to collaborate with Busan Metropolitan City, the Korea Quality Foundation, and the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency through the Microsoft Data Center Academy.”

He added, “With the opening of this lab, we will actively support young people in Busan so that they can gain hands-on, practical experience and grow into globally competitive data center technology experts.”

Mayor Park Heong-joon said, “Busan’s digital competitiveness begins with talent,” adding, “Taking this lab opening as an opportunity, we will further expand cooperation with Microsoft to nurture local talent in the fields of data centers, cloud, and artificial intelligence (AI), and to create high-quality jobs."