EMC and SNIA Advance Storage Technology Training and Certification via Global Collaboration Effort

Partnership Enables IT Professionals to Broaden Storage Knowledge and Experience Through Both EMC Proven Professional and SNIA Certification Programs


Hopkinton, Mass.-Monday, October 2, 2006

EMC Corporation, the world leader in information management and storage, today announced that EMC Education Services and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) have agreed to formally and jointly recognize certification programs offered by each organization in an effort to offer IT professionals greater opportunities globally to pursue industry-best storage technology education and certification programs.

“It’s no longer just about storage provisioning,” said Tom Clancy, Vice President, EMC Education Services. “Storage and data management strategies and technologies are constantly evolving. IT professionals must continually strive to expand their storage, security and information management knowledge and expertise to manage their storage infrastructures to meet business objectives. Jointly recognized SNIA and EMC certifications and educational offerings will enable IT professionals to achieve higher and broader levels of skills and certifications in less time.”

The terms of the agreement call for mutual collaboration across the EMC Proven™ Professional and the SNIA Certified Professional programs. Effective immediately:

* All specialist-level EMC Proven Professional certifications will be recognized as fulfilling the vendor requirement needed to earn SNIA Certified Storage Networking Expert (SCSN-E) status, the SNIA’s highest level of certification
* The EMC Proven Professional – Associate (EMCPA-ST) and SNIA Certified Professional (SCP) designations will be considered equivalent in meeting prerequisites for follow-on certification tracks or levels in both programs

“There is a strong synergy of objectives between the SNIA and EMC Storage Technology Certification,” said Wayne M. Adams, SNIA Chairman. “The inclusion of the EMC Proven Professional Certification program further enhances the available options for a long-standing requirement of the storage industry, and, with its suitability for SNIA certification, it allows the SNIA to extend its global effort to educate and certify a greater number of storage professionals.”

EMC Proven Professional is a robust learning framework enabling role-specific structured learning and assessment in core segments of storage technology, including business continuity, storage area networks, network attached storage, content addressed storage, storage management, backup and recovery and select product-specific certification tracks.

“To date, more than 14,000 individuals have attained EMC Proven Professional credentials, the largest number of storage certifications in the industry,” said Alok Shrivastava, Director of EMC Education Services and thought leader for EMC’s Proven Professional Program. “There is an acute need in the industry to narrow the skills gap that exists in many IT organizations responsible for maintaining business-critical information and storage. EMC is thrilled to collaborate with the SNIA so that together, we can help increase the number of qualified storage professionals worldwide.”

EMC Proven Professional training is offered directly through EMC Education Services and through EMC’s global education partners including Learning Tree International and Global Knowledge™. Additionally, EMC currently offers the EMC Academy Program through more than 50 colleges and universities worldwide. Through a joint collaboration with leading academic institutions such as Penn State University and Ball State University, the EMC Academy Program is designed to help train tomorrow’s IT professionals today by introducing information management and storage education into their IT curricula. Students learn valuable, real-world skills from a range of courses focused on applied technologies. The number of academic institutions participating in the EMC Academy Program is expected to grow significantly as more computer science educators adopt the curriculum that is provided free of charge to qualified institutions.

For more information on EMC’s storage training and EMC Proven Professional certification offerings, please visit http://education.emc.com/.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world leader in products, services and solutions for information management and storage that help organizations extract the maximum value from their information, at the lowest total cost, across every point in the information lifecycle. Information about EMC’s products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.
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