The first year of the program enables you to develop your expertise in three key themes that are at the heart of any business: leadership, sustainability and financial management. The program starts with an introduction to leadership in the data center sector, exploring different approaches to leading in a complex and dynamic business. You will then go on to look at issues of sustainability and design, from the business management perspective. Leaders also need a sound understanding of money issues, so financial management is also included coupled with how financial considerations influence you as a leader.

Data Center Leadership

• Evolution of leadership
• Complexity theory, dynamic organizational environments, strategic alignment in organizations, systems theory
• Emergent leadership theory in dynamic environments
• Internal business environment analysis and organizational dynamics
• Models of strategic analysis
• The role of leaders in fostering cultures of innovation, creativity and change capability in dynamic environments
• Change management

Sustainable Design for High Capacity Data Centers

• Modular data center design for reliability, scalability, efficiency, and sustainability.
• Management of “utility” operations like electricity, heating and cooling from a usage, efficiency and cost savings perspectives
• Environmental monitoring technologies
• Maximizing system utilization for best efficiency
• Continuous commissioning
• Use of cloud technology to minimize the impact of data centers on the environment

Finance for Decision Making

• Overview of the financial system
• Decision making and problem solving in theory and practice
• Financial objectives and strategies linked to general strategies and environmental circumstances
• Corporate governance issues
• Efficient/inefficient markets and behavioral finance
• Financial risk - types and coping mechanisms
• Relationship between financial risk and expected return
• Cost of capital: WACC and CAPM; Gearing
• Treasury management and control of working capital
• Investment appraisal

The second year takes your expertise to the next level. You will start off by exploring key data center issues of infrastructure management, security and disaster recovery, in particular looking from the perspective of the business. To be successful, a data center business is dependent upon its people, so you will explore human resource management, organisational behaviour and strategies for maximising performance in teams. You will also develop your understanding of decision making, which is particularly important in critical services

Data Center Infrastructure Management, Security and Disaster Recovery

• Asset tracking (“Cradle to Grave”)
• Change management
• Analysis of virtual/logical systems and how they interact with physical hardware
• Management & resilience high capacity storage in complex data centers (especially related to disaster recovery scenarios)
• Consolidation of resources/locations
• Optimising physical infrastructure (including space management) to enable higher capacity
• Multi-layered monitoring
• Future strategic planning via modelling scenarios
• Physical security & data security
• Virtual digital security (especially in co-location environments)
• Identification of data center infrastructure risks and vulnerabilities, mitigation techniques and recovery policies
• Governance relating to data protection, safe harbour and other compliance regimes.
• Evaluation metrics

HRM and Organisational Capability Development

• Managing human resources for optimal performance
• Organisational behaviour
• Developing and managing structures for continued capability growth
• Managing contractor arrangements and a contingent workforce
• Knowledge management

Decision Making in Critical Services

• Risk identification and mitigation
• Sense-making and management behaviour during critical incidents
• Response to critical incidents and first response management
• Managing consequence
• Managing human responses during times of crisis
• Managing and evaluating service level agreements (or similar)
• Critical infrastructure asset management

The final year expands your horizons even further, giving you the chance to develop your thought leadership and address specific business issues. First, in the “Contemporary Issues in Leadership and Management” module, you will explore themes in the data center sector and gain an in depth understanding of issues that are important to you. Next, you will develop your research skills, giving you the expertise to frame, plan and deliver research - this will provide a platform for your academic studies and will also enable you to develop new, credible and robust knowledge in your business. Finally, you will put all of your learning into practice by developing and delivering a major project (“dissertation” or “thesis”). You can look at this as a piece of work which could address a live issue in your workplace, or be based on a theme in the data center sector as a whole. Your major project will be one of the defining moments of your Masters Degree program and could open the door to further study or career development.

Contemporary Issues in Leadership and Management

• Leadership and CSR
• Technology advancements and implications
• Sustainability and environmental issues
• Globalisation and offshoring
• Standards and quality management
• Other topics as identified by industry partners

Research Methods & Post Graduate Major Project

• Intellectual and practical skills to frame, plan and deliver research
• Analysis and interpretation of data generated
• Bringing this into action through a major research project, based on your own interests and providing a culmination of your work on the Masters program.

This Masters Degree is suited to leaders and senior managers working at a data center facility or those in a position of strategic level influence, wishing to join the elite group of worldwide data center professionals.

This program has been designed for people in leadership and management positions within data center facilities. CNet Training will consider all applications individually, taking into account each applicant’s experience and qualifications. We encourage you to apply if you:

• Work in a data center facility
• Have at least two years at middle or senior management level in a data center context

It would be advantageous if you have a first or second class degree from a UK university, or equivalent from an overseas university.

Those applicants for whom English is not a first language will be expected to demonstrate a certificated level of proficiency of at least IELTS 6.5 or equivalent.

As a distance learner, you will also need a suitable computer with internet connection, together with sufficient IT competence to make effective use of word processing, internet and email.

The aim of this Degree is to unite the existing knowledge and skills of data center professionals with essential new learning centered around leadership and management within a data center environment and award a top level degree qualification.

You will also gain the following:

• Masters Degree in Data Center Leadership & Management (MA) – a Level 7 qualification.
• Use of MA post nominal letters after your name e.g. Martin Smith MA
• Use of the official Masters Degree in Data Center Leadership (MA) Digital Badge
• Graduates of the Masters in Data Center Leadership and Management will be invited to a Degree graduation ceremony in Cambridge, UK

• Masters Degree in Data Center Leadership & Management (MA) – a Level 7 qualification
• Use of the official Masters Degree in Data Center Leadership and Management (MA) Digital Badge
• Graduates will be invited to a graduation ceremony and can utilise a post nominal title, using the initials MA after their name

Anglia Ruskin University is an officially recognized University see – https://www.gov.uk/check-a-university-is-officially-recognised/recognised-bodies.

All their courses are accredited to meet the standards expected of Bachelors and Masters degrees in the UK and Internationally. Plus, the Masters Degree in Data Center Leadership and Management was approved by an expert panel including specialists from the industry and UK universities.