Light Reading & Cisco Team Up to Launch 'Upskill U' Online University

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Apr 12, 2016) - In a major effort to upskill and reskill the communications industry's thought leaders and decision-makers on key technology changes and business challenges, Light Reading has teamed with Cisco to debut Upskill U, an online educational forum that focuses on the overall business transformation occurring in the telecommunications industry.

Upskill U is a unique online community where service provider and enterprise decision-makers can crowdsource the mission-critical intelligence they need to formulate business technology strategies -- via expert lecturers and their student peers -- and gain the know-how in business technology required to architect and monetize next-generation, all-IP networks.

Upskill U will feature expert lecturers from across the service provider landscape, including AT&T, Verizon and more. Courses slice through the acronyms to focus on the business outcomes of implementing SDN and NFV and addressing the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, cyber security, MANO, 5G, analytics and other important developments -- rather than fixating on how those technologies work.

Upskill U's curriculum is built around some of the hottest topics in the industry. The first eight courses cover virtualization and IoT, and feature expert lecturers, including Nick Feamster, Acting Director, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University; Josh Goodell, Vice President, Network on Demand & SVC Integration, AT&T; Jim Hodges, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading; Jim Kilmer, Vice President, Vertical Sales, Verizon Enterprise Solutions; Carl Moberg, Technology Director, CVG, Cisco; Jason Porter, Vice President, Security Solutions, AT&T; and Roz Roseboro, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading.

Each course is a 45-minute session where students can ask questions, interact with other students with similar business and technological challenges (and expertise) and download a wealth of additional learning materials. Courses are archived, and online educational discussions take place 24 hours a day.

"Upskill University is an online educational resource that delivers must-have education on themes that relate to the overall business transformation taking place in the communications industry," said Stephen Saunders, Founder and CEO, Light Reading. "Upskill U includes a faculty of expert lecturers tackling the industry's thorniest issues to explain new ways to address common problems and devise new techniques for getting closer to ROI."

"This is a time of huge opportunity for those tasked with building communications networks capable of enabling a new class of exciting digital experiences," said Doug Webster, Vice President, Service Provider Marketing, Cisco. "The industry is at an inflection point, where the Internet has evolved from connectivity, to immersive experiences, to digitization. New skills will be required to leverage technology and formulate business plans that make sense of, and money from, this next wave of innovation in 5G, cloud, IoT and more."

Upskill U has an exciting two weeks in store:

• "Virtualization 101," Wednesday, April 20, 1:00 p.m. ET: Roz Roseboro, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading, covers all the important aspects of virtualization, including what it is, why it's important, how it's impacting the industry, the challenges and benefits and more.
  
  
• "Virtualization: Webifying the Network," Friday, April 22, 1:00 p.m. ET: Josh Goodell, Vice President, Network on Demand & SVC Integration, AT&T, focuses on the many facets of transformation, including provisioning and deploying services, cultural changes, DevOps and Agile methodology and new developments like IoT.
  
  
• "Virtualization: Network Design & Infrastructure," Monday, April 25, 12:45 p.m. ET: Nick Feamster, Acting Director, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University, discusses the different approaches to building a virtualized, all-IP network, key goals and challenges.
  
  
• "Virtualization: Automation," Friday, April 29, 1:00 p.m. ET: Carl Moberg, Technology Director, Cisco, covers how service providers can benefit from automation for security, provision, cost-savings and more, and what a good automation strategy looks like.

But it doesn't stop there. Weekly Upskill U courses will continue to highlight some of the biggest names in the industry. So don't get left in the dark when it comes to NFV, SDN, IoT and more. Let Upskill U be your guiding light. Register for our current courses and upskill yourself today.

For the complete Upskill U schedule, visit our website: www.lightreading.com/upskillu

About Light Reading

Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) combines its research-led online communities and targeted events portfolio to help those in the global communications industry make informed decisions. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for telecom analysis for more than 400,000 subscribers each month, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content and reputation. Light Reading produces targeted communications events and focused one-day conferences each year for cable, mobile and wireline executives across five continents.