The AI boom is creating demand for a new infrastructure elite

For the past two years everyone has been talking about AI developers, prompt engineers and new digital professions. But this revolution has one thing in common: all of it runs on very real physical infrastructure that someone has to design, service and keep running 24/7.

Kazakhstan is building a digital hub

The country has set a course toward becoming a regional digital hub. New data centers are being built, cloud infrastructure is expanding, compute capacity is growing. Among them is Akashi — the largest data center in Central Asia. And very soon we will need engineers to operate and maintain this infrastructure.

The good news is that entering this profession today is far easier than it seems. The industry’s largest companies train future specialists themselves, for free. If data center engineering interests you, here are a few resources to start with.

Where to start — free resources

• Schneider Electric University — hundreds of free courses on data center engineering infrastructure, power, cooling, energy efficiency and operations.
• Nomad Futurist Academy — a free education platform with courses, webinars and materials for anyone who wants to start a career in the data center industry.
• Cisco Learning Network (Data Center) — free materials on data center network infrastructure, hands-on labs and preparation for Cisco Data Center certification.
• Vertiv Academy — training on power, cooling and the operation of critical infrastructure.
• Uptime Institute Education — free articles, webinars and educational materials on data center reliability and operations from the organization that sets industry standards worldwide.

A profession for years to come

If you are choosing a profession for years ahead, this is a direction well worth a closer look. AI infrastructure is not only about algorithms and models — it is also about the people who build it and keep it running.

“And if, after training, you want to put that knowledge into practice — we’d be glad to see you at Akashi,” says Vladislav Minkevich, CEO of Akashi Data Center.