Sims Lifecycle Services Collaborates with Microsoft, Facilitates Material Donations for Datacenter Academies

Microsoft Datacenter Academy assists education partners in delivering training and certification to enable jobs in cloud computing and IT sectors

March 16, 2021

West Chicago, Illin. – Sims Lifecycle Services (SLS), a global leader in datacenter hardware circularity, IT asset disposition (ITAD), and electronics recycling, is proud to support Microsoft in its development of the Microsoft Datacenter Academy. As a Microsoft preferred supplier, SLS services Microsoft datacenters around the world by collecting equipment to be refurbished, reused, and recycled, as well as facilitates donations to the program.

The collaboration is part of the Microsoft Datacenter Academy program, a workforce development program sponsored by the Microsoft Datacenter Community Development team. The program assists education partners in Microsoft datacenter communities with delivering the training and certification necessary to enable employment in the growing cloud computing and information technology sectors. It helps build digital skills and provides career pathways in the growing information technology sector for residents of the communities where Microsoft operates datacenters.

“We are proud to use our datacenter expertise to support Microsoft’s initiative to contribute to a better society while embracing technology as a means to improving people’s lives. This is our second year supporting datacenter donations for Microsoft, and we appreciate the support of DB Schenker with the logistics,” stated Sean Magann, chief commercial officer for SLS. “As the program grows, we are pleased to see the donations expand to other Microsoft business units.”

“My team is very grateful for the work and contributions from Sims Lifecycle Services. It’s wonderful to connect with organizations who share similar commitments around education and giving back to communities,” said Bob Reitinger, Workforce Development Manager at Microsoft. “Microsoft is

committed to education and skills development, and we must ensure that economic opportunity is inclusive for every resident and organization in our datacenter communities.”

Microsoft provides scholarships, curriculum, equipment donations, and mentoring to colleges and education providers who host Datacenter Academies. The typical Datacenter Academy lab contains three rack cabinets with a mix of servers, storage devices, and networking equipment. Students use this equipment to receive hands-on experience with industry-standard hyper cloud hardware.

Visit the Sims Lifecycle Services website for more information on data center decommissioning and disposition services.