EMC Announces Data Hero Awards 2011

HOPKINTON, Mass - March 21, 2011 -

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced the Data Hero Awards 2011, sponsored by EMC, a far-reaching program to honor those individuals and organizations exploring innovative uses of Big Data technologies and techniques. These often-unsung Data Heroes are at the forefront of pioneering solutions that have a profound impact on the way individuals, organizations, entire industries and societies live and work. Initiatives like these are driving a new economy for jobs in a variety of industries, including the emerging field of data science.

Complete details and entry form can be found at www.dataheroawards.com

Data Hero 2011 honorees, comprising the Data Hero Visionary Award and six Data Hero Awards for Technology Excellence across a range of industry sectors, will be announced at EMC World 2011 in Las Vegas, May 9-12. Nominations will be reviewed by a prestigious panel of independent judges, representing a cross section of the foremost Big Data thinkers and practitioners across business, academia and the media, including:

• Tom Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology & Management, Babson College and Co-founder of the International Institute for Analytics
• Kevin Davies, Editor-in-Chief of Bio-IT World and the author of "The $1000 Genome: The Revolution in DNA Sequencing and the New Era of Personalized Medicine"
• Susan Feldman, Research Vice President, Search and Discovery Technologies, IDC
• Dr. Michael Freed, Program Director, AI Center, SRI

"The Big Data era has arrived. Through the convergence of massive scale-out storage and next-generation analytics, businesses are seeing Big Data as a big opportunity," said Jeremy Burton, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, EMC Corporation. "The EMC Data Hero Awards recognize business and IT leaders who have leveraged Big Data for competitive advantage."

According to the EMC-sponsored IDC Digital Universe Study, between 2009 and 2020, the amount of information created annually will grow 44 times as a result of data-driven Web 2.0 and mobile applications, databases and records produced by government, healthcare and retail organizations, as well as individuals. This proliferation is pushing managers to re-architect IT infrastructures to store, manage and secure vast amounts of this data. It also has spawned a revolution called Big Data. Big Data opens new windows of opportunity to create and apply technology to analyze quickly these massive volumes of information to find insights that are driving business and societal change. Today, for example, organizations are leveraging the power of Big Data to discover new drugs, isolate and prevent diseases, spot business trends, combat crime, improve oil refining and speed supply chain processes.

The Data Hero Awards 2011 categories are:

• Data Hero Visionary Award
• Data Hero Awards for Technology Excellence
  • Web, Internet, New Media
  • High Tech, Clean Tech/Green Tech
  • Consumer Products
  • Life Sciences, Health Care
  • Government, Social Services, Education
  • Energy, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing

Data Hero Awards 2011 submissions are due by April 22, 2011. Award recipients will be chosen based on the following criteria:

• Impact – Does the solution create new business value, change industry dynamics or significantly improve lives?
• Innovation – Does the solution move outside conventional processes and exceed marginal improvements in existing products?
• Value – Can the ROI and business value be easily justified? What is the business and societal impact?
• Wow Factor – Do people experience a sense of "that's really cool" when using the solution?