NIU’s Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) chapter will host Clay Kohl from Abbott Labs in a speaking event on the benefits of virtualization.

“Virtualization is a process of consolidating multiple servers into one server in order to save space, energy and resources,” said R.J. Kunde, senior operations management and information systems (OMIS) major and events coordinator for AITP.

The AITP is an organization primarily for OMIS majors within the College of Business that look toward networking and learning more about the career fields related to the OMIS, said Chris Bayer, senior OMIS major and Vice President of AITP.

“What we seek to do is to close the gap between the real world and the classroom,” Bayer said.

Kohl’s presentation is AITP’s first public event of the semester and hopes to attract interested OMIS students who would like to learn more about the growing importance of virtualization technology.

AITP members felt that virtualization is beginning to take off in many big companies, and Abbott is one company moving forward with the idea, Bayer said. That is why he and Kunde felt it was very important and beneficial for Kohl to lecture on the subject.

Kohl’s presentation on virtualization technology will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Barsema Hall room 200. The event is free and open to the public.

“We seek to fill the entire room with students and anyone else interested in the subject,” Bayer said. “The purpose of the speaking event is to inform people on the future of technology in the business and IT professional world.”

Ryan McCullough, junior OMIS major, isn’t a member of AITP, but said he feels that the event and the organization can be very beneficial.

“I had no idea he was coming, but it sounds really interesting because I know they hire a lot of NIU graduates,” McCullough said.

Kunde had to go through what he called “a two month process” in order to get Kohl to speak at NIU. An NIU OMIS graduate recommended Kunde to invite Kohl for the presentation.

Kohl works as an infrastructure engineer at the Abbott Labs U.S Headquarters in Abbott Park, IL. He is the backbone to Abbott’s IT department and helps them stay current with business IT, Bayer said. In his opinion, Kohl is the go-to-guy for IT and is highly qualified to discuss the subject.

“We chose Abbott Labs for the presentation because they have a strong relationship with the university and it’s a big Fortune 500 company,” Kunde said. “We want to expose students to the opportunities presented by Abbott.”