Digital Realty Expands Talent Development Opportunities for Operations Workforce Through Partnership with DCD Academy

New Hire Accelerate Pathways offer ongoing career progression and bring new career opportunities to local communities

AUSTIN, Texas, May 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the world’s largest cloud- and carrier-neutral data center platform, today announced a strategic partnership with DCD Academy to enhance talent development opportunities for its global operations workforce. New Hire Accelerate Pathways, Digital Realty’s standardized onboarding program is designed to equip engineers, including those without engineering degrees, with the skills, training and career growth needed to support data center operations worldwide.

As demand for data center development continues to grow, Digital Realty recognized the need to address the industry-wide skills gap while expanding valuable career opportunities in local communities. To achieve this, Digital Realty partnered with DCD Academy to deliver the Operations Workforce Development Program, which combines Digital Realty’s own onboarding with DCD Academy's industry-leading education platform.

Through its new global program, Digital Realty hopes to lower the industry’s barrier to entry and demonstrates commitment to bringing career opportunities to the communities that support their facilities. The program requires no prior technical experience and provides aspiring data center professionals with the foundational skills they need for operating with technical confidence and situational awareness.

“Our partnership with DCD Academy ensures that our operations team has endless opportunities to learn and grow professionally, and demonstrates our belief that people are the core pillar of our growth strategy,” said Cindy Fiedelman, Chief Human Resources Officer at Digital Realty. “This program will allow us to continue serving our customers at scale as the industry evolves and reinforces our operational resiliency and reliability worldwide.”

Darren McGrath, Managing Director of DCD Academy, shared, “Increasing industry accessibility and reducing the skills shortage is a core part of DCD Academy’s mission, and Digital Realty has shared this vision with us from the start. Their commitment and investment in their people is truly unmatched, and we are honored to be working alongside Digital Realty to bring a new wave of data center professionals into the workforce.”

By completing the program, each participant will achieve the Data Center Technician (DCT) certification issued by DCD Academy. DCT is an industry-recognized credential that validates an individual’s ability to work confidently and safely within mission-critical environments. In addition, this partnership also provides Digital Realty’s operations teams the opportunity to enrol in seven additional courses from DCD Academy and achieve advanced certifications, including the Data Center Practitioner certification and Data Center Specialist certification.

These ongoing learning pathways give members of their global operations workforce the tools they need to grow continuously in their roles, reinforcing a culture of development and resilience across the organization.

About Digital Realty
Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation, from cloud and digital transformation to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 55+ metros across 30+ countries on six continents. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

For Additional Information

Media Contacts
Helen Bleasdale
Digital Realty
+1 737 267 6822
hcbleasdale@digitalrealty.com

Investor Relations
Jordan Sadler / Jim Huseby
Digital Realty
+1 (214) 231-1350
InvestorRelations@digitalrealty.com

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to its partnership with DCD Academy and expected benefits, timing or scope of implementation, business strategy, workforce needs and customer demand. For a list and description of risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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