During the visit, students learned about the impressive technology and security necessary to run one of the largest data centers in Colorado.  The field trip began with a brief overview of the history of the company with lunch provided by Fortrust, along with a question and answer session that allowed the students to discover more about employment opportunities and education requirements needed to work in the industry.  As the technology industry grows in the region, Denver is seeing a lack of trained professionals ready to fill future positions.  KidsTek, along with partners like Fortrust, is preparing students by providing a strong foundation in technology literacy and pipelines to higher education opportunities to help fill the void.  

 

Fortrust built its Denver site in 2001 and has been able to maintain “critical systems uptime,” a measurement of the availability of the facility’s systems, for over 13 years with no system crashes or power outages for their customers. “I was so impressed when Rob McClary (Fortrust’s senior vice president and general manager) explained the Critical Systems Uptime Clock,” said Clara Tran, a senior at High Tech Early College, “the field trip was very interesting and their answers about the technology were so helpful.”

 

One of the major highlights of the tour included seeing the IO.OS center, which tracks many things, including: real-time threats from around the world such as weather patterns, monitoring of the extensive electrical, heating and cooling of the 300,000 square foot facility, and watching the installation of new on-site data modules.

 

Fortrust was recently featured in an article in The Denver Post where McClary explains his dedication to partnering with organizations such as KidsTek:

 

“We see that as a necessity, being a corporation. We need to give back.  We’re hosting a field trip for KidsTek this afternoon. Kids from [two local high schools] are coming in to see what we do. And maybe we’ll see there’s an interest from younger kids in pursuing a technology career.”

 

You can read the full Post article here.

 

Thanks to all of those at Fortrust who helped to make this field trip a great success!

 

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