WOMEN IN DATA CENTRES
ENSURING A CAREER IN DATA CENTRES HAPPENS BY CHOICE AND NOT BY CHANCE
ABOUT
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Umaima Haider , Lecturer , University of East London
Umaima Haider , Lecturer , University of East London , was a recent participant on our panel discussion where she talked about women in data centres from an academic perspective . Here she highlights the need for the industry to collaborate more closely with the education sector to increase practical understanding and exposure and ultimately encourage more women to take up a career in this field .
With over a decade of experience , Dr Haider is a Lecturer at the School of Architecture , Computing and Engineering , University of East London ( UEL ). Prior to joining this position , she was a Senior Scientist at UEL and Technical Analyst at Uptime Institute .
Dr Haider has delivered various externally funded research and industry projects globally related to energy and environmental sustainability of data centres .
Currently , her main research interest is in the design and implementation of a sustainable ICT infrastructure , especially in a cloud and data centre environment .
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What is the first step towards a career in data centres and how can young women pave a path to success ?
Have confidence in your abilities and the knowledge that you can succeed . Ignore what people say about it being a male-dominated industry – if you have the ability and work hard you will succeed irrespective of it being a maledominated field .
In terms of paving a path to success , you need to focus on both the technical aspects and the non-technical aspects . From a technical perspective , you should have a solid educational foundation . I ' m not saying you need to have a master ' s , or a PhD , but you need a solid foundation and the relevant skills .
You can gain the skills through internships and training programmes – there are online courses available , particularly for data centres and some industries are introducing these courses daily .
8 Women in data centres