Apply for a CCA account

The Cooperative Computing Alliance gives students, educators, and IT pros supervised access to real enterprise infrastructure for hands-on learning. Most applications take about 10 minutes. A real person reviews each one — typically within 3 business days.

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Before you start

The application takes about 10 minutes. You can stop at any point — we save your progress in this browser for 24 hours. Once you submit, a real CCA reviewer reads through everything before we create your account.

What you'll need

  • An email address you can check right now — we'll send a 6-digit code to confirm it works.
  • Your full legal name, written the way it should appear on your account.
  • A phone number we can reach you at if something needs a quick clarification. This is optional but helpful.

Already use single sign-on (SSO)? If you want to sign in with an account you already have through a provider like Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, or Google Workspace, you'll also need the SAML metadata URL for that provider and proof you control the domain you want to sign in with. Not sure what any of that means? You don't need it — just pick "Create a new CCA account" when you start.

What happens next

  1. You finish the application and confirm your email.
  2. A CCA reviewer reads through it. We'll email you if we need anything else.
  3. If we approve it, we create your account and email you sign-in instructions.
  4. If we can't approve it, we'll tell you why and how to appeal.

We usually get back to you within 3 business days.

Your privacy matters. We only collect what we need to confirm who you are and contact you about your application. To see exactly what we do with the information you give us, read how CCA uses participant data or the short privacy notice.

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