I.T. Alliance to cloud-enable HP’s LIFE skills endeavour

1 May 2013

Philip Maguire, CEO, I.T. Alliance

Technology giant HP has selected an Irish company, I.T. Alliance, to bring its US$20m HP LIFE programme, which has trained 2m students worldwide, into the cloud.

I.T. Alliance Group has been appointed to provide project management and support services to assist HP with the expansion of its sustainability and social innovation initiative, HP LIFE.

HP LIFE is a training programme for students, entrepreneurs and small business owners to develop essential IT and business skills to create jobs and grow new companies in many parts of the world. 

About 2m students worldwide have benefited from HP LIFE’s face-to-face initiative through training, access to IT and online activities.

HP has invested more than US$20m in the programme, which helped to establish or expand more than 25,000 businesses, and helped create 57,000 jobs worldwide since 2007.

Hybrid cloud

I.T. Alliance Group is assisting HP for the expansion of the programme online into a HP hybrid converged cloud infrastructure.

The online training programme for students, aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners has grown since its beta launch in June 2012, with more than 40,000 registered users in more than 200 countries. 

“With the help of partners like I.T. Alliance, we have successfully moved the HP LIFE programme to the cloud, where it can benefit even more people,” said Daniela Opp, manager, Global Entrepreneurship Education, Sustainability & Social Innovation, HP.

I.T. Alliance Group began work on the programme in July 2011, helping HP hit a number of aggressive milestones against a tight timeframe.

Since the successful launch of the beta, I.T. Alliance Group has been working as part of the virtual team across nine countries, including Germany, the UK and the US, on the roll out and next-generation release of HP LIFE.

“It is a great honour as an Irish firm to be selected to assist HP in this fantastic endeavour,” said Philip Maguire, chief executive of I.T. Alliance Group. 

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com