EMC Academic Alliance Program More Than Doubled in 2007

HOPKINTON, Mass. - February 14, 2008 -

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced that the global EMC Academic Alliance program more than doubled in 2007, growing over 150 percent. The program, which now totals over 170 schools, specifically offers technology curriculum that provides students with strong foundations for designing and managing IT infrastructures - helping shape the next generation of IT skills and workers.

Launched in 2006, EMC's Academic Alliance program has enrolled over 170 universities and colleges across nine countries: Brazil, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Mexico, Russia, Scotland and the United States. Currently, more than 4,000 students have taken, are enrolled in, or are registered for the storage technology curriculum. Twenty schools joined during the fourth quarter of 2007 alone; Georgia Southern University is the most recent U.S. school to join the program. Flensburg University of Applied Sciences of Germany is the first university to join the program in 2008. These academic institutions join the many universities and colleges worldwide that are collaborating with EMC to adapt its "open" Storage Technology Foundations curriculum into their technology and computer science programs.

Early adopters of the program understand the growing strategic significance of storage technology in the enterprise and are leading the way to prepare their students to take advantage of the new career opportunities being created for graduates of college and university computer science programs.

With the rate of information exploding, there is an ever-growing need for trained storage and technology professionals. A recent IDC study ( The Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010), projects a six-fold annual information growth from 2006 to 2010, from 161 exabytes in 2006 to more than 988 exabytes in 2010.

EMC's own internal research has shown that 1 million storage professionals will be needed by 2012. According to Forrester Research, 76 million baby boomers are exiting the United States workforce by year 2017, with only 46 million younger employees in line to replace them. This will result in a shortage of employees who enter the workforce with the right background and training to help businesses handle the information deluge and the storage problem it creates.

"This partnership is valuable to Penn State for several reasons, namely the Storage Technology courses add another unique differentiator to our existing Information Sciences and Technology curriculum and more important, the relationship with EMC represents our ability to partner with industry leaders. As with any good partnership both parties benefit and in this case the real winners are the students," said Brian H. Cameron, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Information, Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University.

EMC's Storage Technology course educates students on the concepts and principles of information management and storage technology and offers a fundamental learning of the technologies that make up all information management and storage offerings in the industry.

"The course provides our students with a strong understanding of the underlying technical concepts that span all storage technology segments and vendors," says Dr. Steve Jones, Director of the Center for Information and Communication Sciences at Indiana's Ball State University, one of the first schools to offer the course. "It allows us to incorporate into the learning experience case studies based on real-life examples and actual implementations."

The EMC Academic Alliance program aligns with a related EMC Proven™ Professional certification track, which allows students to demonstrate their proficiency to potential employers or to progress to more advanced storage education courses – all designed to help fill the current shortage of a skilled workforce in the industry.

"As a leader in information infrastructure technology, EMC understands the importance of laying strong foundations for the education of the technology innovators of tomorrow," said Tom Clancy, Vice President, EMC Global Services Education Services and Productivity. "EMC is committed to providing all IT professionals with the skills they need to meet the challenges of storage and information management. This program complements the EMC Proven Professional Certification Program which has the largest number of storage certifications in the industry"

The Storage Technology Foundations curriculum is also offered through EMC Education Services and by leading IT training providers, including Learning Tree International, Global Knowledge, NIIT Limited, Element K, and SkillSoft.

For more information on the program or the schools associated with it (including contact information for recruiters), please visit EMC.com/training.