EM Mike Ruettgers To Be Inducted Into Industry Hall of Fame

Las Vegas, - November 18, 2002 -

Mike Ruettgers, Executive Chairman of EMC Corporation, will be inducted into the Industry Hall of Fame at the annual COMDEX trade show here today. The Industry Hall of Fame, currently with 50 individual inductees, recognizes technology visionaries whose ideas helped change the world. Ruettgers will be recognized for his vision and leadership in helping to revolutionize the way businesses access, manage, share and protect digital information.

He joins a long list of industry luminaries who have been inducted into the Industry Hall of Fame, including Intel's Gordon Moore and Andy Grove, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Apple's Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and HP founders William Hewlett and David Packard, among others. He is joined in the Class of 2002 by John Chambers, President and CEO of networking leader Cisco Systems; W.J. Sanders III, co-founder of semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Gary Starkweather, the inventor of the laser printer; and computer sales pioneers Michael Krasny of CDW Computer Centers, Inc., and Izzy Schwab of D & H Distributing Co. The Industry Hall of Fame is sponsored by COMDEX, CRN and the Computer History Museum.

Ruettgers, who joined EMC in 1988, and was the company's President and CEO from 1992 until 2001, successfully led EMC's pioneering efforts to transform storage from a computer "peripheral" to an intelligent platform at the center of all business processes. EMC was the first to develop mainframe RAID (redundant array of independent disk) systems that radically changed the way information was accessed and stored, and was first to introduce storage systems capable of simultaneously storing data created by different server platforms. It was EMC's entry into the storage software market that changed the way organizations managed, protected and shared their information and EMC systems and software were the foundation for the e-commerce revolution. Today, EMC is innovating in all of the markets it serves, again reshaping the industry through its focus on Automated Networked Storage solutions, providing customers with a unified way to interact with all of their networking technologies, storage platforms, software and services, resulting in easier connection, protection and management of information.

"We've come from an era when the average customer ten years ago had 180 gigabytes of storage on their IBM mainframe to today's environments with hundreds of terabytes connected to a wide range of computer platforms," said Ruettgers, whose current day-to-day role is focused on EMC's strategic direction and corporate governance. "The amount of information that organizations have to manage is doubling every year. The only way customers are going to be able to manage and control this amount of information is through automation. The key to automation is through software, which is where we are focused. As we have with other transformations, EMC is again leading the way."

The Industry Hall of Fame was founded in 1997 with inductees hand-selected by the CRN editorial staff. Additional information on the IT Industry Hall of Fame can be found at http://www.crn.com/sections/special/hof/industryHOF_Main.asp. Additional information on EMC's leadership in the storage industry, it's pioneering achievements and current technology and Mike Ruettgers can be found at www.emc.com.

About the Computer History Museum

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, preserves and presents the authentic artifacts and stories of the worldwide computing revolution and its impact on our lives. The Museum is home to the world's largest collection of computing-related items—hardware, software, photos, films, videos, documents, and marketing materials—including one-of-a-kind and rare objects such as the Cray-1 supercomputer, the Apple I, the WWII ENIGMA, the PalmPilot prototype, and the 1969 Neiman Marcus (Honeywell) "Kitchen Computer". Bringing computing history to life through lectures, seminars, tours, oral histories, and workshops, the Museum records these events for posterity, thereby capturing information technology innovators as they share their personal insights and stories about the invention that has permanently re-shaped our world. Significant parts of the collection are now on view in a Visible Storage Exhibit Area at Moffett Field, Mountain View, California. The Museum is relocating to a world-class facility in Mountain View; the first phase will open to the public in spring 2003. For more information, please visit www.computerhistory.org.

About CRN

CRN is the nation's leading trade newsweekly that provides timely industry news and analysis for solution providers, integrators and e-businesses building technology solutions. It is the most trusted source of news for 117,500 channel professionals. A media leader in the high-tech industry, CRN provides the most comprehensive suite of online resources: http://www.crn.com, the site where industry news breaks first; CRN Direct, a daily newsletter that brings personalized news to solution providers' desktops; and CRN Broadcast News, a daily news broadcast covering the solution provider channel and the industry.

About EMC

EMC Corporation is the world leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services, providing automated networked storage solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to better and more cost-effectively manage, protect and share their information. More information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.