1,000 Colleges and Universities Joined EMC Academic Alliance

EMC Corporation announced that more than 1,000 academic institutions have joined the EMC Academic
Alliance (EAA) program, which provides universities worldwide with technology
curricula to educate and transform the next generation of IT and data science
professionals, and help meet the industry’s growing demand for advanced
technology skills.

With more than 85,000 EMC proven professional certifications worldwide, EMC
is providing current IT professionals with the skills to adapt for the future,
and the capabilities needed to implement transformational
technologies in their organizations. Now more than 1,000 colleges and
universities have adopted EMC’s ‘open’ curriculum, allowing students
to develop the skills to become the next generation of IT
and data science professionals. The program provides faculty with
free training and resources to teach information infrastructure technologies.

EMC was one of the first companies to offer open, vendor-agnostic
cloud and data science training and certifications, based on industry
standards, to address the lack of skilled professionals that is hampering
widespread adoption of transformational technologies.

According to the study Managing Storage: Trends Challenges and Options 2012-2013, the lack
of professionals with the necessary technology skills was cited as a key
impediment in the adoption of cloud technologies, with nearly 65% of
respondents stating that reskilling of their staff was necessary and only 18%
stating their staff had the necessary skills in cloud technology. To date, EMC
training and certifications in cloud architecture, data science and big data
analytics, information storage and management, and backup and recovery have
been adopted by hundreds of thousands of individuals wolrdwide, across
both corporate and educational institutions, to help meet this need.

Through the EMC Academic Alliance program, more than 150,000
students in 60+ countries have completed courseware that prepares them to
contribute to, and make informed decisions about, projects that range from
storage networking, to cloud migration, to big data analytics. The combination
of adoption across business and academia is helping to close the technology
skills gap by growing the industry’s current and future base of professionals
equipped to understand, implement and maximize new technologies in the evolving
IT landscape. EMC’s education curriculum is offered in a
number of modes for classroom or self-paced learning. As another means of
educating the marketplace, EMC’s Information Storage and Management textbook,
referred to by publisher John Wiley and Sons, Inc. as an ‘bestseller,’ was recently revised and issued in a new second edition.

The technology skills gap is highlighted in the new EMC-sponsored
IDC Digital Universe study, which reports that the digital universe is growing
more quickly than expected and will hit 40ZB – or 40 trillion GB – by 2020.
Within that same timeframe, the number of servers will grow 10x and information
managed by enterprise data centers will grow 14x, yet the number of IT
professionals will grow by a factor of less than 1.5. Even today, only 3% of
potentially useful data is tagged, and even less is analyzed, causing the
industry to face a divide that will continue to grow if left unaddressed.

Mark Bowker, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, said: "In a November, 2012 survey of participants
of cloud training/certification programs, conducted by ESG on behalf of EMC, 63%
of all survey respondents said the most important technical skill for their
personal career path over the next five years was cloud computing. Yet, there
is a well-demonstrated need for more professionals to develop this needed and
desired competency. Training and certification programs are an important path
to building these skills, and in our research, 92% of all respondents stated
that vendor-agnostic training is ‘critical,’ ‘very
important or ‘important’ to this effort, and 90% said that it
was ‘very important’ or ‘important’ to have course material
based on industry standards. EMC’s vendor-neutral, industry-standard-based
cloud education and certification programs meet these important criteria and
provide a valuable means for IT professionals to expand their skill set and
help organizations realize the benefits of cloud computing. EMC has taken an
aggressive leadership position in providing education and certifications
programs that help accelerate the adoption of leading-edge technologies."

Lance Cleghorn, graduate student in Information and Computer
Technology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, said: "I was involved with the EMC Academic
Alliance since my sophomore year, and its courses definitely affected my career
path and I think really gave me an edge. I did an internship with the US
Department of Defense and the knowledge that I got from the coursework really
made me stand out with my superiors and my peers there. After graduation I’ll
be returning to Ft. Meade, Maryland, where I’ll work with the US Department of
Defense in Information Assurance. The EMC Academic Alliance has been a
wonderful opportunity and I can’t say how thankful I am that it is out there
helping to give students like me an opportunity to exceed expectations and
really stand out in the job market."

Video of Lance Cleghorn discussing his experiences with the
EMC Academic Alliance
 

Paul Delvy, adjunct professor, dept. of management science and information
systems, University of Massachusetts, Boston, said:  "There
is no question that there is a shortage of skilled professionals to manage
large amounts of data, and it is critical that universities and corporations
partner together to address and fill this need, as neither can fill this gap
alone. For the past three years, University of Massachusetts, Boston has
participated in EMC’s Academic Alliance program to teach students critical
skills they will need to support business and industries as well as advance
their own careers. The EMC-developed curriculum presents generic solutions to
information storage and management needs and exposes meaningful examples
showing state-of-the-art equipment, an approach that helps close the knowledge
gap between theoretical and practical applications. The coursework has proven
popular and offers a significant level of insight to our students."

Video of Paul Delvy discussing his experiences participating
in the EMC Academic Alliance

Dr. M. Ponnavaiko, vice chancellor, SRM University, Chennai, India,
said: "For more than four years, SRM
University has offered the EMC Academic Alliance curriculum to our students.
This has allowed them to learn and acquire the most important new technology
skills, including cloud computing. It is important for universities to ensure
their students develop the next-generation skills demanded by employers, and
the EMC Academic Alliance curriculum has played a very important role in
helping SRM University do this successfully. The EAA Program makes sure our
students are ready with the necessary education to help fill the
Industry-Academia skills gap."

Howard Elias, president and COO, EMC information infrastructure and cloud
services, said: "The careers of
tomorrow, in areas like cloud architecture and data science, require that we
invest in developing people with the skills required to fill those roles. That
means working with our customers, our industry, and within academia to help
close the skills gap and maximize the potential of technologies such as cloud
computing and big data analytics. EMC believes deeply that our success, and
that of our customers, is dependent upon innovation and our growing network of
Academic Alliance schools, as well as our professional certification programs,
are leading the way with their innovative curricula."